Windows 7 to 8 should I go Excel or Office 365

Windows 7 to 8 should I go Excel or Office 365

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I've been a happy user of Windows 7 and Excel 2010.

Just bought a new laptop with Windows 8, not sure which way to go on some issues so I'd like suggestions / experiences / warnings please.

I only ever use Word and Excel from the Office Suite.

Excel : I have a choice to download Excel or use Office 365.  Which is better?  I do pretty much everything in Excel but I don't use VT for AP (I use PTP)

Word  :  Are the app word processor offerings good enough for me to do without Word?   I don't actually use Word very much nowadays as I tend to use email.

Any other input about moving from 7 to 8 or from Excel 2010 to 2013 would be really appreciated.

Many thanks in anticipation..

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By paulwakefield1
26th May 2015 15:06

Options

Cheapest: If your licence allows it and you are no longer using your old machine, transfer Excel 2010 to your new machine. Excel 2013 is better than 2010 but, unless you are driving Excel fairly hard, you will probably not miss the extra features and (IMO) Excel 2010 still looks a lot better.

Other cheapest option is to use a non-office product such as LibreOffice but beware compatibility and capability issues (not likely to be a problem unless you use sophisticated features of spreadsheets, are exchanging files a lot with other users or your "back catalogue" uses some of the more esoteric MS functions and features).

Excel 2013/Word 2013: If you have just one machine, consider buying a standalone copy.

Office 365: the online apps are useful but pretty limited in capability. Virtually every Office365 subscription comes with the full desktop suite as well as online access. Many allow installation on up to 5 machines. If you have multiple machines or upgrade when new versions come out or use Excel extensively then consider an Office 365 sub - it can work out much cheaper. Especially as you then have access to the other Office programs such as Word.

If your usage of Word is as minimal as you imply, I would suspect that the online apps or one of the free Office suite lookalikes would be more than adequate.

So much depends on your needs and usage as to which is the best option.

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By merlyn
26th May 2015 15:48

Office 365 for £7.80 a month (for premium business) would be my choice as you get the full desktop versions of word, excel etc. which are exactly the same as you get when you buy Office 2013 but if they release a new version you automatically get it.

You also get 25gig of email storage, 1 Tbyte of One Drive storage and now Skype for business.

Yes you could look at free office suites and cheaper options but remember your time has a value and if you loose more than 12 hours learning a new product or looking into alternatives then it's paid for the first year itself already, based on a minimum wage.

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By paulwakefield1
28th May 2015 11:19

Just as a technical footnote

for the sake of completeness. If, by any chance, you use the MS Power functionality, Inquire audit facility and some of the other more powerful features of Excel then you will need either the standalone version or Office ProPlus. (I am ignoring the higher level Enterprise versions which also offer this).

 

MS has a strange definition of "Full version" which varies between versions!! However the lack of the above facilities will be quite academic for most users. Even though I think Power Query has the potential to be very nearly the next best thing to sliced bread.  :-)

 

Late edit: I suddenly have a nasty feeling that I may have subconsciously pinched the Power Query/sliced bread analogy from Simon Hurst. I apologise for any plagiarism.

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