Still Using Microsoft Office? Stop Now, Here’s Why… - Comments Page 2

I have been recently using OnlyOffice Personal. It is free for personal use and seems to have great features. Any comments?

I have OpenOffice on my older computer, and it works, except using Writer I have to be careful how I save documents that I'm attaching to an e-mail-that is, change from .odt to .doc. The advantage of an Office 365 subscription for me is the integration with cloud storage via OneDrive, which came in handy when I bought a new computer. I don't have a problem paying Bill a reasonable amount considering the work he did creating good products like Microsoft and Office.

I have OpenOffice on my older computer, and it works, except using Writer I have to be careful how I save documents that I'm attaching to an e-mail-that is, change from .odt to .doc. The advantage of an Office 365 subscription for me is the integration with cloud storage via OneDrive, which came in handy when I bought a new computer. I don't have a problem paying Bill a reasonable amount considering the work he did creating good products like Microsoft and Office.

I use Office 2019 9rather than using one of the free versions simply because I like Outlook (not the new version that Microsoft gives us for free). None of the free Word Processing Software gives us an Email client and I haven't found (yet) a decent email client out there except for Outlook. Yes, I've tried several and none have the features I want in a client. My wife has two google accounts, I have google accounts, a Hotmail account, and a GMX account and most free versions don't like all those accounts on the same client. And the new Outlook? Ads ... I do not like them and I'd guess that Microsoft also sells email addresses

I use Office 2019 9rather than using one of the free versions simply because I like Outlook (not the new version that Microsoft gives us for free). None of the free Word Processing Software gives us an Email client and I haven't found (yet) a decent email client out there except for Outlook. Yes, I've tried several and none have the features I want in a client. My wife has two google accounts, I have google accounts, a Hotmail account, and a GMX account and most free versions don't like all those accounts on the same client. And the new Outlook? Ads ... I do not like them and I'd guess that Microsoft also sells email addresses

I use Office 2019 9rather than using one of the free versions simply because I like Outlook (not the new version that Microsoft gives us for free). None of the free Word Processing Software gives us an Email client and I haven't found (yet) a decent email client out there except for Outlook. Yes, I've tried several and none have the features I want in a client. My wife has two google accounts, I have google accounts, a Hotmail account, and a GMX account and most free versions don't like all those accounts on the same client. And the new Outlook? Ads ... I do not like them and I'd guess that Microsoft also sells email addresses

I use Office 2019 9rather than using one of the free versions simply because I like Outlook (not the new version that Microsoft gives us for free). None of the free Word Processing Software gives us an Email client and I haven't found (yet) a decent email client out there except for Outlook. Yes, I've tried several and none have the features I want in a client. My wife has two google accounts, I have google accounts, a Hotmail account, and a GMX account and most free versions don't like all those accounts on the same client. And the new Outlook? Ads ... I do not like them and I'd guess that Microsoft also sells email addresses

I have been using LibreOffice for a long time and am very satisfied and impressed with its capabilities. [At my job, I use the Microsoft Office suite sometimes and Google Docs a lot, and they serve me adequately for my needs.] I do appreciate that it can open up many different file formats. In the past, I used Microsoft's ACCESS database system; however, more recently, I have written Python scripts, which allow me to process data, and that works nicely. I am intrigued by some of the other alternatives that Bob mentions, and the information is very informative. Thank you, Bob, for presenting valuable options!

Had been using MS Office 2016 till a month ago when I switched to LibreOffice after I continually got notices that my version was not going to be supported in a few months. I had toyed with Open Office a few years ago. I don’t do Google. Am getting used to the tools that I normally use being in different locations and it has a little different look but it gets the job done so I’m happy and not putting out the money for something that I use infrequently.

Although I have LibreOffice on my pc, what I use most of the time is Essential Office. It offers the basic tools (word processing, spreadsheet and draw), loads quickly, and has all the common functions (performs them quite well) and it is portable. Being retired my requirements are rather simple and Essential Office meets my needs 95% of the time.

I just consider the $69/yr for Office 365 a cost of doing business. It's negligible for my budget - and MS Office (now Office 365) is the gold standard. So that's what I've been using for years. Always will unless something drastically changes.

I noticed that you didn't say anything about making labels, not the mail merge labels, but individual sheets of the same label. I know for a fact that Libra Office doesn't give the user that opportunity. It is one reason I went back to Office 365. But, whereas Microsoft has from the get-go. Yes, I also started with Word Perfect back in the 1990s along with Lotus 123.
No, I do not use the "cloud" to store my documents, that is one thing that I DON'T Trust. Eric Snowdon proved that by doing so under the watchful eyes of those who have "Cloud" services. But when asked why I do not use "Cloud" services I gave a little bit of feedback and they found that they could not get to my 11.4 TB of USB on a switchable hub for those drives. They are not online all of the time, just when I have a need for their use I'll turn the specific drive on and make my backup or save a specific file. When I've finished using those external drives they are removed and stored in my floor safe. So getting to those files is nearly impossible.
Oh, I've had the military trying to get into my computer, but they gave up after finding out that my military career had been in code security and MI Code Security, I'm a bad boy but I also watch what is being done then do something like using a Cyrillic character in a password, My best password is 37 characters in length. Bitwarden had a tough time with it especially since they were expecting a 16-character password.
For that matter, I could use Hebrew or Greek words in my passwords and really mix things up. Those were the two foreign languages for my Theology degree that I'd gotten back in the mid-1960s. I'm a mixed bag because the Master's degree was in an entirely different direction in Industrial Computers, Robotics, and Electronics Engineering in 1996. The break between degrees was for the military service Navy then the Army, and recalled 6.5 years later back to the Navy. All in all I have 28 years military service. Retired CWO3, in 2003.

I use Ashampoo Office 9 which currently retails for $50.00 USD and is full featured and completely comparable to MS Office. The previous version, Office 8 is $20.00 and there is a full featured (older but very usable) Free version as well. I have purchased several of their products and am pleased with them. No, I do not work for Ashampoo, just a happy customer. https://www.ashampoo.com/en-us

No-one mentions Thunderbird. Have used it for years; far superior to Outlook IMHO.

Not sure about the "scareline", that current users need to *stop* using MS Office. For anyone with a currently licensed copy, I don't see a compelling argument presented that we need to stop using our software.
And, for those of us who use Word's macros, I haven't found a free alternative that allows users to create and use their own (I'd welcome finding out about any).

Okay, here's your choice:

1. Microsoft office $399.99. Remember, this product is blessed by Bill Gates himself with his magic holy water that he personally spritzes on it. (Yeah, he retired from MS and doesn't work there any more but likes to stay involved.)
or
2. LibreOffice which is free and does everything 99% of everyone needs.

I am glad to see that Bob is finally coming around. Now that we got him off Office, maybe Windows will be next.

pshaw, I too use Thunderbird and have for many years, even though I have a Microsoft 365 subscription and before that I owned Office 2003. I think Outlook is a good program—I used it for years at work—but I prefer Thunderbird. Thunderbird also handles Internet newsgroups, which Outlook does not do. At work, we also had some problems with PST files for one user becoming too large and getting corrupted. It was constant juggling—archiving messages into separate PST files as the main file kept getting bigger; it was just a mess. No worries about that with Thunderbird.

MG—same issue with Excel macros—Calc won't handle those either.