Solved Microsoft 365

I'm after some clarification please. At present I have a Microsoft 365 Personal version of Office on my Windows 11 laptop. I'm only using Excel, I use it to keep a record of my household accounts, what comes in and goes out each month and check it against the bank plus a page to keep a check on my heating oil account.

I'm the only one using it now and the way the cost of living is rising I feel I can't justify the cost of paying for the program and only use the Excel part of it. If I cancel my subscription and uninstall Office will I be able to use the web version of Excel for free. I know I'll be losing a chunk of OneDrive storage but I don't need that much anyway.

I'm used to Excel and know how to use it for my simple needs so if any of you who are more knowledgeable than me can give me the help I need I would be very grateful.

Yes. You will.

Try Libre Office. It is free but donations are encouraged. The Calc program is their equivalent Excel. Give it a try & see how it does in reading your Excel files. I dumped MSOffice for it long ago & have not looked back.

What is Libre Office?

^What they both said. I agree.

Thank you boys, just the information I needed. I thought I should be ok and I did try the web version but of course I still have my sub to Microsoft 365 so wasn't sure it was just latching onto that and if I completely uninstalled Office would it still work.

I think I have Libre Office downloaded but just haven't got around to trying it out as I've been using Excel for several years and I'm very comfortable with it.

I'll come back here and let you all know what I decide to do.

LibreOffice will probably be the more powerful option, because it is local, meaning you can do the file editing even without an Internet connection, but the online version of Excel is leaps and bounds much better now than when it was first introduced, and you should be able to readily do most things that you can do in the Excel program.

Of course, since both are free, there is absolutely nothing preventing you from using both, whichever happens to be more convenient at the time.

Oh, and mea culpa, Glad to see you, Joan, it's been a while. Hope all is well with you and yours.

Thanks John, I've had a look but it turns out I don't have Libre Office downloaded and will probably just carry on using the web version of Excel when my subscription to 365 runs out, which isn't till September. I don't need anything powerful just the basic spreadsheet and features that I have with Excel which allows me to keep track of my income and expenses each month.

I could be better, this growing old is no joke, I'm on my own now since my hubby died just over a year ago and I'm quite isolated. I struggle on there are people worse off than me so I can't complain and in some ways I'm enjoying living on my own and not having to be beholding to others. :)

Joan Archer said:

Thanks John, I've had a look but it turns out I don't have Libre Office downloaded and will probably just carry on using the web version of Excel when my subscription to 365 runs out, which isn't till September. I don't need anything powerful just the basic spreadsheet and features that I have with Excel which allows me to keep track of my income and expenses each month.

I could be better, this growing old is no joke, I'm on my own now since my hubby died just over a year ago and I'm quite isolated. I struggle on there are people worse off than me so I can't complain and in some ways I'm enjoying living on my own and not having to be beholding to others. :)

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Yeah, that was the reason I offered a mea culpa, it occurred to me after the fact about your situation. Glad to hear that you're carrying on.

As for Excel, indeed, the online version should *more* than suffice. Of course, since your subscription doesn't expire until September, sometime soon it might be a good idea to use it exclusively for a week or couple of weeks to ascertain that all the functionality that you need is actually there.

Stay strong!

Joan Archer said:

I'm after some clarification please.

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As others have said, the free web-based Excel will work for you

You may be interested in free bookkeeping software that can do much more than what you need, but like Excel, you can use only the basics. The advantage is that bookkeeping software is tailored to your specific needs, much more so than the general purpose Excel. For example, bookkeeping software can also help you with saving on your taxes if you so desire

Haydon said:

As others have said, the free web-based Excel will work for you

You may be interested in free bookkeeping software that can do much more than what you need, but like Excel, you can use only the basics. The advantage is that bookkeeping software is tailored to your specific needs, much more so than the general purpose Excel. For example, bookkeeping software can also help you with saving on your taxes if you so desire

8 Top Free Accounting & Bookkeeping Software Apps for 2022

Looking for help with your SMB finances? Check out this list of free accounting software.

blog.hubspot.com

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Thank you, I don't need added functions just the basics I have with Excel, I don't need to think about taxes as I don't pay any, I'm a pensioner and have been retired nearly 20 years.

Thank you for the suggestion though but it's not something I need. :)

johnlgalt said:

Yeah, that was the reason I offered a mea culpa, it occurred to me after the fact about your situation. Glad to hear that you're carrying on.

As for Excel, indeed, the online version should *more* than suffice. Of course, since your subscription doesn't expire until September, sometime soon it might be a good idea to use it exclusively for a week or couple of weeks to ascertain that all the functionality that you need is actually there.

Stay strong!

Click to expand...

Thank you John, great minds think alike, although I wouldn't call mine great, but I'd thought about doing that. I've used it a few times but today I wanted to list some entries to bring it up to date so thought I'd use the web version from now on and see how it worked out before the paid version ran out.
I'll leave this thread as it is for now then when I've used the web version of Excel for a while and hopefully it works for me I'll mark it as solved.

Good idea - it will be enlightening for us and future readers, too.

And don't sell yourself short, your mind is definitely great - you're here, hanging out at the various DMG forums, right?

OK I've been using the web version of Excel and as I don't need anything fancy I'm quite happy using the web version so I'll stop the recurring payments options in my account with Microsoft 365 and mark this thread as solved.

Thank you boys for the help you gave me.