Question Is MS Office Subscribtion only now?

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

I'm basically looking to use MS Office for printing up Word documents. Literally once a year or less. Possibly some Excel too, however I don't think a subscription is ever in my future for something like Office. Is Office subscription only now? If not what's the best in my use-case scenario?

 

[Tech Junky]

No but, just open them in Google docs for free to print / edit.

 

[mpo]

Office Home & Business 2021 is the perpetual (one time purchase) license for a single copy of Office.

Buy Microsoft Office 2021 | Microsoft 365

Get the latest version of Microsoft Office products for your home or business with Office 2021 and Microsoft 365. See what’s new in Microsoft Office 2021.

www.microsoft.com

 

[quikah]

Office Home & Business 2021 is the perpetual (one time purchase) license for a single copy of Office.

Buy Microsoft Office 2021 | Microsoft 365

Get the latest version of Microsoft Office products for your home or business with Office 2021 and Microsoft 365. See what’s new in Microsoft Office 2021.

www.microsoft.com

There is Office Professional also if you need Access and Publisher

Buy Microsoft Office Professional 2021 - Download Key & Pricing

Buy Office Professional 2021 for Windows or Mac. A one-time purchase gets you Word, Excel, and PowerPoint for lifetime use. Licensed for home or commercial use. Digital download from Microsoft Store.

www.microsoft.com

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

Is the latest MS Office compatible with 2013 Office documents?

 

[Tech Junky]

Is the latest MS Office compatible with 2013 Office documents?

Newest versions don't have a problem with backwards compatibility. Now, older versions have issues opening newer extensions and would require saving in the older extension format.

For instance any version of Word can open a xxxx.doc file but have issues opening a xxxx.docX using older versions of the software.

 

[Shmee]

There are free office versions that would work. I wouldn't waste your money if you are not using a word processor very often.

 

[Tech Junky]

There are free office versions that would work. I wouldn't waste your money if you are not using a word processor very often.

If you're not required then just use Google Docs or LibreOffice instead. Free / low resource needs compared to Office.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

A couple issues.

Walked into Micro Center this evening and the salesman said 1. it's only downloadable, 2. has to have a MS Office account, 3. and is only good for a single motherboard. Talking about Office 2021 Pro.. 4. It's either key card, or download. Mind blown. in 2000 I was able to use my college Office XP disc.

I just want a local install with no need for a MS Office Account; be able to install it on a new machine when I upgrade; no perpetual fee; .. i guess 2000 Office circa methods. If this can't be done then basically I need to open a 2013 word.doc & excel.(excel extension). Only need to print Word.doc

 

[Tech Junky]

Do you really need to waste the money on something you can do for free?

There are local versions that don't need all of that BS to deal with. All you need to do is search a torrent site to see what the options are to match them up to what you want.

Office Torrent Magnet Download (8,526 Results)

Download: Office, Found: 8526 Results, Updated: 06-Apr-2024

www.magnetdl.com

If you can DL it, then there's no need for all of the hoops to jump through and it's not like MSFT is hurting for licensing fees. There's also sites where you can grab a lifetime license for ~$40 or less.

https://www.amazon.com/OfficeSuite-Business-Lifetime-Compatible-PowerPoint®/dp/B08L3GC72Y - $100
https://www.marketwatch.com/picks/d...soft-office-2021-for-less-than-50-01649086445 - $60 through stacksocial.com

Microsoft Office Professional 2021 for Windows: Lifetime License | StackSocial

Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, OneNote, Publisher, & Access! Get All These Essential Microsoft Apps for Your Windows PC with This One-Time Purchase

stacksocial.com

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

Yeah I'm going to search for something. Something that's ez-pz lemon squeezy

 

[mxnerd]

Besides LibreOffice, there are

FreeOffice: Comparison to SoftMaker Office

SoftMaker FreeOffice is the free version of SoftMaker Office. A comparison of the most important differences can be found here.

www.freeoffice.com

WPS Office Pro | Free Trial Features | Subscriptions

Buy WPS office personal premium license online, free trial and discount price for students to work at home. Best alternative to Microsoft Office 365, Google Docs, Adobe PDF, Libreoffice and Open Office. Free download to use pdf to word, image and data recovery master for PC/Android, Mac...

www.wps.com

Don't understand why you want to spend the money when you only edit/print a doc only once a year? Too rich?

 

[OlyAR15]

A couple issues.

Walked into Micro Center this evening and the salesman said 1. it's only downloadable, 2. has to have a MS Office account, 3. and is only good for a single motherboard. Talking about Office 2021 Pro.. 4. It's either key card, or download. Mind blown. in 2000 I was able to use my college Office XP disc.

AFAIK, you can install the software on a new machine as long as you don't use it on more than one machine. It's been this way for a while. Since the app is linked to your MS Account, just like the OS, it's easy to activate it on a new computer. That is one of the advantages of having an MS account.

 

[Shmee]

If you're not required then just use Google Docs or LibreOffice instead. Free / low resource needs compared to Office.

This is what I was getting at. You don't need a MS product. Something like LibreOffice or Google docs or OpenOffice work fine.

 

[quikah]

If you just need to print word / excel, use the free online office (oh no you need to make a MS account ). It will be more compatible than 3rd party office products. You will most likely encounter a document which won't render properly with LibreOffice at some point.

 

[Muadib]

If you just need to print word / excel, use the free online office (oh no you need to make a MS account ). It will be more compatible than 3rd party office products. You will most likely encounter a document which won't render properly with LibreOffice at some point.

This was my experience. There's a reason LibreOffice is free, IMO. And the paranoia here, SHEECH!

 

[McLovin]

Yeah I'm going to search for something. Something that's ez-pz lemon squeezy

Did you end up finding something? If not, PM me and I'll help you out.

 

[mikeymikec]

A couple issues.

Walked into Micro Center this evening and the salesman said 1. it's only downloadable, 2. has to have a MS Office account, 3. and is only good for a single motherboard. Talking about Office 2021 Pro.. 4. It's either key card, or download. Mind blown. in 2000 I was able to use my college Office XP disc.

I just want a local install with no need for a MS Office Account; be able to install it on a new machine when I upgrade; no perpetual fee; .. i guess 2000 Office circa methods. If this can't be done then basically I need to open a 2013 word.doc & excel.(excel extension). Only need to print Word.doc

The motherboard bit is wrong. If you buy a copy of Office (=>2013), you can transfer it from one PC to its successor as much as you like.

His information is outdated. Back in the days when OEM copies of Office were sometimes sold (by a big-name PC manufacturer for example), his advice applied but the boxed products (retail copies) typically available in shops were transferable licences. These days however it's all retail rules basically regardless or renting or buying.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

What's with this having an Office Account thing? Can I use it without one? I don't have a Windows Account even thought I keep getting the pesky prompts occasionally at boot-up.

 

[mikeymikec]

Assuming you're going down the completely legitimate MSO route, I am not aware of any way to own MS Office =>2013 without a Microsoft account.

I too avoid the Microsoft account requirement in Windows, which you can still do while successfully activating MSO. If you buy a boxed MSO product or an electronic-only transaction, you'll end up with a product key in either case. You then create a Microsoft account (I'd advise attaching it to your e-mail address), go to www.office.com/setup, follow the steps such as signing in, put in your product key, then that licence will be attached to that MS account. That URL will take you through the rest of setup on that occasion, then in future if you need to re-download it, go to www.office.com, sign in, go to either payments/order history (make sure you set the filter to show all transactions for all time) or active subscriptions (in my experience MS likes to take some steps to actively hide a standalone copy of MSO because they really want you to rent it), then it should list your copy of MSO to download. Beyond the first time, the product key should be superfluous (though I would keep hold of it).

When the installation program runs, it'll then want to activate with MS and your MS account. I believe then is the point to look out for the option of just signing into 'Microsoft apps only' which will ensure that you continue to sign into Windows with a local account.

I whole-heartedly recommend LibreOffice. Less hassle, less annoying integration, and in my experience works fine in terms of document compatibility. Where it comes unstuck in my experience is when someone uses say Word in an incompetent fashion (e.g. implementing 'centre align' by using the tab key repeatedly). LO can be set to save to modern MSO formats without you having to change the file type option every time, that's what I do on customers' computers.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

@mikeymikec thank you for that very detailed informative reply! really helpful! It's going to be very influential in my decision.