Can you only get Microsoft Office by paying monthly?

[sphexx]

nice, open and free - what not to like unless you are stuck with some very specialist module or macro code.

It is free but you can donate if you wish. I don’t use it currently except to open other peoples documents but in the past I have donated and when you do you get the benefit of slightly earlier updates.

 

[myotis]

Guys I’ve just finished two years of study and just realised my Microsoft Office package has been removed from my laptop. What’s the best/cheapest way to get this as a non student?

Not the bargain it once was, but Softmaker Office is a very good alternative to MS Office, and worth including in any consideration. In my own comparisons it gave slightly better overall conversion of MS Docs, than Libre Office, and overall a bit more refined. And, of only limited interest to most people, comes in Windows, Mac and Linux versions, but so does LibreOffice of course.

It doesn't do very well with add-ins that presumably need VBA to run, none of my Excel add-ins work, but they don't work with LibreOffice either.

For various reasons I have been using MS Docs in MSOffice (Windows and Mac), Libre Office (and Open Office), Softmaker Office, Pages, Mellel and Nisus Writer Pro, for many years now. None have been 100% compatible with Word documents (even switching between the Windows and Mac Version of Word sometimes gave issues), and the incompatibilities are different for each alternative ! However, for simpler documents LibreOffice and Softmaker office are both pretty good, and I would give LibreOffice a go before spending money on anything. Unless there is something specific about MSOffice you already know you are going to need.

Many of my students used LibreOffice throughout their degree instead of MSOffice.

 

[neil_g]

FWIW I am using Office 2007 SBE

As far I recall there are still the odd security updates coming through......though not too sure when I last saw one???

2010 is oldest still in support, running until 2020..

Office 2007 reached its end of support on October 10, 2017, and Microsoft no longer provides the following:

Technical support for issues

Bug fixes for issues that are discovered

Security fixes for vulnerabilities that are discovered

 

[Box Brownie]

2010 is oldest still in support, running until 2020..

Office 2007 reached its end of support on October 10, 2017, and Microsoft no longer provides the following:

Technical support for issues

Bug fixes for issues that are discovered

Security fixes for vulnerabilities that are discovered

Hmmm! nothing gets opened unless it scans clear with the AV, Malware Bytes & Superanti Spyware though looks I/we need to update.........to ?

 

[LongLensPhotography]

Obviously I will mention that apple has their own suite that pretty much gets bundled with the osx, but my preference is still for the libreoffice for the open source nature. Either way DOCX is a ISO standard format in XML code so I wouldn't expect much future problems except with maybe cloud storage platforms when they disappear.

 

[landwomble]

Office 365 is either a monthly or annual subscription, either way, it's a subscription.

But you can buy an office 2019 (which just came out) as a one off purchase and then its valid for as long as you have it, its more expensive for the same software (the difference in software between Office 365 and 2019 is your ownership and cloud functionality, but thats it otherwise) but that makes sense, as its less of a serviceable return for Microsoft.

I have access to discount for Microsoft software (which makes sense, I work for them) - however I cannot resell it. Thats the only thing I can't do with the keys. But I do know keys are floating around on eBay which people resell. Thats probably the absolute cheapest way and would likely be fine for years. If I were in your shoes, thats where I would go.

Hello, fellow MSFT here!
You can, if you wish, grant up to 10 people (and you can change those 10 regularly) access to the MS e-company store so they can purchase their own discount copies.
Note that the cheap keys on eBay are NOT usually legal even though they often work. Please don't recommend them. They're usually a dodgy company reselling volume keys and they can/may be bulk-disabled by MS at some point in the future.