Office 365 Versus Office Professional

So I figured I'd bring this up as I do see threads on here regarding writing programs. Figured it might be a help to budding writers and their editing.

I started out doing my writing on a tablet with a Bluetooth keyboard. Using the Office program that came with the tablet I was really unimpressed with it.

I upgraded to a laptop cause the tablet was such a pain to write on. It included Office 365. Way better! I still caught little things but running my work through it it caught a ton of stuff the tablet version didn't.

Through work, I got a deal where I could by Office Professional for $10. I figured, what the hell, give it a try, it's ten bucks...

The difference isn't even close. Professional tears 365 to pieces. It catches things I didn't even realize... stuff that I wouldn't have caught even with a second read through.

I know it's pricey, but it may be something to consider.

And office 365 is a pay by the month item...once the free period runs out.

LukasGrey said:

...
Through work, I got a deal where I could by Office Professional for $10. I figured, what the hell, give it a try, it's ten bucks...
...
I know it's pricey, but it may be something to consider.

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Office professional for $10 is unbelievably cheap!

And for all its faults (and God knows, there are many!) it's still the best system out there by miles.

Haulover said:

Office professional for $10 is unbelievably cheap!

And for all its faults (and God knows, there are many!) it's still the best system out there by miles.

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Under its Home Use Program, Microsoft have deals with a lot of major user organisations which allow employees of those organisations to buy Office at amazingly cheap rates. You get Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Outlook, OneNote, Access, Publisher, InfoPath and Lync. I paid a bit extra and also got Visio and Project. The rationale for Microsoft is presumably that they don't want business users being forced to use software such as OpenOffice or LibreOffice at home and coming into work and suggesting that the organisation could save a fortune by ditching Microsoft.

If you work for a large organisation that uses Microsoft Office, it's worth checking whether it's in the Home Use Program.

Green_Knight said:

Under its Home Use Program, Microsoft have deals with a lot of major user organisations which allow employees of those organisations to buy Office at amazingly cheap rates. You get Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Outlook, OneNote, Access, Publisher, InfoPath and Lync. I paid a bit extra and also got Visio and Project. The rationale for Microsoft is presumably that they don't want business users being forced to use software such as OpenOffice or LibreOffice at home and coming into work and suggesting that the organisation could save a fortune by ditching Microsoft.

If you work for a large organisation that uses Microsoft Office, it's worth checking whether it's in the Home Use Program.

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Yeah, my partner got it for $12 thru the company he used to work for back a while ago. Those company buy programs are really good. We have it installed on everything - my old clunker and he has about 5. It's an older version but it runs just fine.

I use 365.

Everything is cloud based these days, to stop bootleg copies, and the cloud is down as much as its up. I get denied service occasionally.

LukasGrey said:

...The difference isn't even close. Professional tears 365 to pieces. It catches things I didn't even realize... stuff that I wouldn't have caught even with a second read through...

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It may be default grammar and spelling settings, I didn't think office 365 functionality was that different.

Not that I'm defending the subscription model. In two years roughly, you've paid more for office 365 than for really buying the real deal. Totally not worth it, other than ongoing updates. (I'm calling the "spy on everything you do" a tie)

jsmiam said:

It may be default grammar and spelling settings, I didn't think office 365 functionality was that different.

Not that I'm defending the subscription model. In two years roughly, you've paid more for office 365 than for really buying the real deal. Totally not worth it, other than ongoing updates. (I'm calling the "spy on everything you do" a tie)

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That may be right. Maybe it is just a default setting, but I've taken a bit of time to run some old writing that passed muster under 365 back through Professional and Pro is catching a lot that 365 missed.

LukasGrey said:

That may be right. Maybe it is just a default setting, but I've taken a bit of time to run some old writing that passed muster under 365 back through Professional and Pro is catching a lot that 365 missed.

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I have a feeling that it has a lot to do with what you are used to. I started out on WordStar. And that was fine. Then I switched to WordPerfect - and that took a bit of getting used to.

For the past 25 or so years I have been using the Professional versions of various MS Office packages - and every one has taken a bit of time to get used to.

As several others have mentioned, I avoid The Cloud. <fingers crossed>

MICROSOFT has a reputation for perfecting the box before it gets the box contents right. Its true. Bill Gates gets the box right, then the marketing right, and devotes the rest of your life to updates to help the software work..

NOIRTRASH said:

MICROSOFT has a reputation for perfecting the box before it gets the box contents right. Its true. Bill Gates gets the box right, then the marketing right, and devotes the rest of your life to updates to help the software work..

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There's a lot of truth in that. I was around and peripherally involved in the 1980s when PC and Mac software was in its infancy and I watched the competition between US and European companies to get into the market.

The approach adopted by Microsoft and many other US companies was to get something into the market fast, no matter how crap it was, as long as the box and the marketing was right. European companies tended not to release products until they worked properly, by when the crap products had grabbed the market.

I saw a lot of really first-rate, highly-functional software products disappear because of this.