"Office" suite ? I use MS Office 2019, but ... ?

Hi !


I want to know if Office 2021 is better than Office 2019 ?
And OpenOffice it's free but what is the difference between microsoft office ? What is the better Office suite for Win 11 ?


Thanks !

I am not sure what you mean by 'better'. There are more features, that's for sure.
But if you don't know which Office version from which vendor you need, you probably don't need any.
MS has the upper hand in the business world, just for compatibility reasons.
MS Office 2021 can be bought for about 20 bucks so nothing to lose, don't go for the recurring 365 yearly one,
I think it's too much for what it is.

Because I use Excel and Word only.

But I guess there is other office suite better than this one...

sypqys said:

Because I use Excel and Word only.

But I guess there is other office suite better than this one...

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This is an opinion call and a matter of preference.
Again, I don't know what you mean by 'better'.

OAT said:

This is an opinion call and a matter of preference.
Again, I don't know what you mean by 'better'.

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whith more options, and more secure, and with more features I think.
but I think I keep this office suite because I think like you're tell, it s more popular for users, and to open .docx or .doc or *.xls(x) etc. format...

sypqys said:

whith more options, and more secure, and with more features I think.
but I think I keep this office suite because I think like you're tell, it s more popular for users, and to open .docx or .doc or *.xls(x) etc. format...

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I think it's wise just for compatibility reasons alone.

Yes

"LyX" seems to be an alternative to MS Office Word I think.

If I was just using Word & Excel, I'd switch to LibreOffice.
LibreOffice's user interface is pretty similar to old versions of MSOffice - see their sample screenshots.
LibreOffice - LibreOffice.Org
LibreOffice Portable - LibreOffice.Org

It can use its own file formats or you can set its options to use MSOffice formats by default [docx etc].

There are lots of others. WPSOffice, for example.
The thing you'd find difficult would be finding an alternative to MSOffice Outlook but that's not relevant to your needs.
Just search online for alternative to MS Office or similar.


Best of luck,
Denis

The only way to find out if you like something is to try it for yourself.

Here is another alternative to MS Office.

FreeOffice is a complete Office suite with a word processor, a spreadsheet application and a presentation program – all seamlessly compatible with their counterparts in Microsoft Office (Word, Excel and PowerPoint).

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OAT said:

MS Office 2021 can be bought for about 20 bucks so nothing to lose, don't go for the recurring 365 yearly one,
I think it's too much for what it is.

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I could not disagree more on office 365. IF you use cloud storage, Office 365 can become a no-brainer. For $99 a year, 6 people can each get 1TB of cloud storage space. I'm not aware of any other vendor that provides 6TB of space for $99 a year. That alone seals the deal for me, and we haven't even considered Office yet.

Now, all 6 of those people can install Office on anything and everything they have. If they have a Mac and a pc, they get licenses for both. With stand alone licenses, you need a separate license for each. And everyone knows those $20 license keys aren't really legit. You take a risk with it working and continuing to work in the future. With Office 365, you have a guaranteed legit licence and always stay current on the latest versions.

Finally, you can share your subscriptions with friends and family. MS is 100% fine with that. If you buy Office 365 and split the cost with 5 friends, it's $16.50 per user and that gets each of them 1TB of cloud space and unlimited Office.

Like I say, if you have zero interest in cloud storage, this probably isn't for you. If however you do have a desire for cloud space, I don't think there is a cheaper option out there.

pparks1 said:

And everyone knows those $20 license keys aren't really legit. You take a risk with it working and continuing to work in the future.

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Whether these license keys are legit or not is for Microsoft to decide. People have been using them for years now with Microsoft making no effort to do anything about the sellers. As long as these keys activate OK with the Microsoft servers people will continue to buy them. The only risk you take is the very small chance that the key not activating again if you have to reinstall Windows. If that happens you just have to buy another cheap key.

MisterEd said:

The only risk you take is the very small chance that the key not activating again if you have to reinstall Windows

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"if you have to reinstall Windows" - if you have to reinstall Office, I assume.
In the first of those ElevenForum threads, one member reported doing precisely that and it not reactivating until he'd phoned MS.

All the best,
Denis

sypqys said:

Hi !


I want to know if Office 2021 is better than Office 2019 ?
And OpenOffice it's free but what is the difference between microsoft office ? What is the better Office suite for Win 11 ?


Thanks !

Click to expand...

"Better" is purely a subjective opinion. Open/Libre vs MS Office has been done to death in multiple forums across the internet and it's always been the argument "my word processor/spreadsheet/presention program is better than your word processor/spreadsheet/presention program" !

As you say, it's free ... so why not just try it (or LibreOffice) ? It's that simple.

I've got both MS Office and LibreOffice(+ProjectLibre) on all my devices.

MisterEd said:

The only risk you take is the very small chance that the key not activating again if you have to reinstall Windows.

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I have actually re-installed many times without problem, the key is linked to my MS account, I just have to go there and ask to download and install. However, I don't know whether there is a limit to those installations.
Earlier, I had bought, from MS, Office 2013, it stopped activating after a few years, probably I could have contacted them over phone to activate, but didn't bother and bought a key off e-bay.
More reliable are the keys from stacksocial, I would think !

cineman195 said:

... and bought a key off e-bay.
More reliable are the keys from stacksocial, I would think !

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Reliable is a subjective judgement. They may work, but are they legal ?

idgat said:

Reliable is a subjective judgement. They may work, but are they legal ?

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The only one that has a right to care about that is Microsoft. Their silence says it all.

idgat said:

"Better" is purely a subjective opinion. Open/Libre vs MS Office has been done to death in multiple forums across the internet and it's always been the argument "my word processor/spreadsheet/presention program is better than your word processor/spreadsheet/presention program" !

As you say, it's free ... so why not just try it (or LibreOffice) ? It's that simple.

I've got both MS Office and LibreOffice(+ProjectLibre) on all my devices.

Click to expand...

Depends on what you want to do with it -- I find that apart from some EXCEL functionality which is easier in office 2021 and collaboration stuff which I don't need or use very little has changed since Offi2020 and that still works perfectly even on the latest indows 11 Insider builds. Some here also use office 2007.

As for Free office suites very little mention is made of what used to be kingsoft Office but now called WPS office -- far better IMO than Libre Office and more compatible too.




Cheers
jimbo

cineman195 said:

I have actually re-installed many times without problem, the key is linked to my MS account, I just have to go there and ask to download and install. However, I don't know whether there is a limit to those installations.
Earlier, I had bought, from MS, Office 2013, it stopped activating after a few years, probably I could have contacted them over phone to activate, but didn't bother and bought a key off e-bay.
More reliable are the keys from stacksocial, I would think !

Click to expand...

I think you gave up too easily trying to activate Office 2013. I just activated two copies of Office 2003 last year. Note that both internet and phone support for old software like Office 2003 has long ago shut down. I used the only option left which was to call Microsoft support directly. Their patiently helped me get them activated. BTW, last year they also helped me activate two copies Windows XP Pro.

I will test LibreOffice portable, but my Office suite is 2019 now. I use it quite every day... Excel with VB codes and macros...
And Word...