Poll

Which Office Suite do you use?

Office 365
0 (0%)
Office 2016
1 (7.7%)
Office 2013
2 (15.4%)
Office 2010 or older
3 (23.1%)
Google Docs
2 (15.4%)
LibreOffice
4 (30.8%)
iWorks
0 (0%)
other
1 (7.7%)

Total Members Voted: 6

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Author Topic: Which Office Suite do you use?  (Read 451 times)

benali72

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Which Office Suite do you use?
« on: January 20, 2018, 09:34:33 am »
I'm wondering which word processor / office suite everyone here uses.  Vote for more than 1 if applicable. Thanks!
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G0ddard B0lt

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Re: Which Office Suite do you use?
« Reply #1 on: January 20, 2018, 09:59:23 am »
I fixed your poll. You had to choose a non-1 count for number of voters per user. It will take up to 5 votes per user now.

I'm finding that for basic word processing and spreadsheets, the application one uses is a commodity. For basic functions Word, Google Docs and Libre/Open Office are indistinguishable functionally.

I lost Office 2003 when my old HDD fried where I created most documents for years. I am now on a Mint desktop full time now. Launching any Office document files launches Libre Office. Libre is OK with word and excel documents, but it generally chokes and exits with an error on most Powerpoint and Publisher files.

For advanced editing - creating help files/online documentation, publications with TOCs and indexes and citations... you really need to use a desktop program.

The main benefit of Google Docs is collaboration. Easier and usually more reliable than sending Word files back and forth.
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JoFrance

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Re: Which Office Suite do you use?
« Reply #2 on: January 20, 2018, 04:19:34 pm »
I still have Office 2010.  It does everything I need and really is overkill for me now.  I'll never upgrade it.  I'll just move to Open Office or Libre Office in the future.  I don't need all the functionality of the MS Office suite as a home user.
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benali72

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Re: Which Office Suite do you use?
« Reply #3 on: January 20, 2018, 04:32:09 pm »
Quote from: The Gorn on January 20, 2018, 09:59:23 am
I fixed your poll. You had to choose a non-1 count for number of voters per user. It will take up to 5 votes per user now.

Oops! Thank you.


I use LibreOffice.

On the rare occasions when I use Windows, then it's Office 2010. Like JoFrance, I don't see much point in getting a newer version of Office. In fact, I think the Office interface has deteriorated by becoming more complex, since MS feels the pressure to "enhance" it all the time to sell new versions. Adding new features most people don't use doesn't help those people.

I stay away from products that force you to store your docs in the cloud, like Office 365 and Google Docs.
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benali72

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Re: Which Office Suite do you use?
« Reply #4 on: January 21, 2018, 09:53:04 am »
From the votes so far, conclusions look like --

1- people are comfortable using older versions of Office, they don't feel compelled to buy the latest version
2-no votes for Office 365. So far in our little poll it doesn't look like people are eagerly buying into MS's strategy of subscription software
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G0ddard B0lt

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Re: Which Office Suite do you use?
« Reply #5 on: January 21, 2018, 10:49:36 am »
IMO Office 365 is for the corporate market (whatever that is)
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pxsant

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Re: Which Office Suite do you use?
« Reply #6 on: January 21, 2018, 12:29:55 pm »
Quote from: The Gorn on January 21, 2018, 10:49:36 am
IMO Office 365 is for the corporate market (whatever that is)

I disagree.  I have never been in any corporation which uses 365.   I think it is for brand new users who just don't know any better.   I would like to see some figures for how many users there are vs the type.   Sounds like a good subject for a Google search.

============

There are plenty of Microsoft propaganda stories out there on how many Fortune 500 organizations use 365.  In my experience, large corporations are extremely sensitive about security.   The idea of having confidential corporate documents in the cloud would be a total security turn off.
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JoFrance

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Re: Which Office Suite do you use?
« Reply #7 on: January 21, 2018, 03:26:44 pm »
I've seen small offices use Office 365 because they don't want to be bothered with the upkeep of a locally installed Office product, but they want to maintain compatibility with their clients.  They could still do that with Open Office or Libre Office, but a lot of small places just go with the easy road that MS offers, they don't have tech help onsite.

No corporations will ever go with Office 365 because it doesn't have the advanced functionality that they need.

Benali72, you can tweak Office 2010 menus so it only shows what you want.  Its a tedious process, but you can take all the crap you don't want to see out of the ribbon.  I used this cheap addin program when I did migrations to Office 2010.  Its a great little program that only costs $30. If you like the old MS drop down menus, its worth the money.  I got it for $8 a user on a network.

http://addintools.com/office2010/professionalplus/index.html
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G0ddard B0lt

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Re: Which Office Suite do you use?
« Reply #8 on: January 22, 2018, 08:23:32 am »
Quote from: pxsant on January 21, 2018, 12:29:55 pm
I disagree.  I have never been in any corporation which uses 365.   I think it is for brand new users who just don't know any better.   

Then their branding works well. :)  They certainly fooled me. The name Office 365 sounds like something I, as a small biz owner, should bandwagon on and use just because it seems to be enterprisey.

I had *always* assumed Office 365 was a corporate market thing. But I haven't worked in corporations for years.

Fooled again.  :P

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G0ddard B0lt

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Re: Which Office Suite do you use?
« Reply #9 on: January 22, 2018, 08:32:09 am »
My opinion is:

Spreadsheets and word processors are absolute commodities today. It doesn't matter what you use.

The breakoff between the open source friendly market and the commercial-only market appears to me to be three main areas:

- Advanced word processing and desktop publication. To you geek aspie guys who say "oh, no, I would NEVER need to use desktop publishing, that is only for fi-fi artsy Mac/Apple heads"... that's a fairly ignorant assessment. May I say that if you want to lay out anything in a page format, and position headings/titles, maybe a logo image and other images - word processors are marginal, at best, and you wind up making something that looks small time and ghetto. Paint and graphics programs also do not work for this function because - again - they aren't designed properly for page layout. The open source market is extremely poor for this need as far as I know.

- Databases. There is nothing like Access in the FOSS market.

- Business and finance applications. Mention Gnu Cash to me and I will flip the full retard bit on you. You need at least file level compatibility here for almost all business applications. Example, I sent my Quickbooks file to my accountant today so that he could start my biz taxes and so he could prepare the SSA filing for end of month. Without being able to import my QB file he would probably charge his time for reviewing my transactions manually and preparing everything.

So, open source Office look alikes have their role but it's limited to very generic apps - word processing, spreadsheets.
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benali72

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Re: Which Office Suite do you use?
« Reply #10 on: January 22, 2018, 08:49:47 pm »
Quote from: JoFrance on January 21, 2018, 03:26:44 pm
Benali72, you can tweak Office 2010 menus so it only shows what you want.  Its a tedious process, but you can take all the crap you don't want to see out of the ribbon.  I used this cheap addin program when I did migrations to Office 2010.  Its a great little program that only costs $30. If you like the old MS drop down menus, its worth the money.  I got it for $8 a user on a network.

http://addintools.com/office2010/professionalplus/index.html

Thanks for the info, JoFrance.  This is very helpful because on the few occasions I use current versions of Word they look so different and complicated. Seems like the first thing you have to do is turn off lots of the fancy but useless interface bling.

I second Gorn's insightful assessment of where FOSS has trouble competing beyond word processing and spreadsheets. Some further info ...

-- DTP.  For DTP my guess is that FOSS Scribus competes successfully with Microsoft Publisher (see www.g2crowd.com/compare/microsoft-publisher-vs-scribus).

But I think agreement is widespread that FOSS DTP like Scribus can not do anything near the leading commercial products like Abobe InDesign.

My personal guess is that this area can be commoditized, and that over time FOSS will catch up.

--- Databases.  According to this excellent article LibreOffice Base is the only one of the several FOSS products that really competes with Access. But it falls short. See--- www.1and1.com/digitalguide/server/tools/microsoft-access-alternatives-at-a-glance/

-- Biz & Finance apps. Everything I read confirms Gorn's statement that FOSS is way behind here.

My personal guess is that commericial dollars drive this market and that FOSS will never catch up in this area.
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G0ddard B0lt

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Re: Which Office Suite do you use?
« Reply #11 on: January 22, 2018, 09:45:47 pm »
Quote from: benali72 on January 22, 2018, 08:49:47 pm
My personal guess is that commercial dollars drive this market and that FOSS will never catch up in this area.

Because it's no fun to code to commercial standards and to document properly. Bookkeeping and accounting software are everything the code geek despises.
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