[PCWorld]

Post your comments for Microsoft Office 2013 is here: Hands-on impressions and buying advice here

[binary512]

I purchased Office 2010 University last October, which qualified for the upgrade to Office 2013 University (4 year subscription). When I went to upgrade, it gave me only 1 year on the subscription!
WHAT A RIPOFF!!!!

[agrippa]

Google Drive is free. Libre Office is free.
Your old version of Office has been paid for. (most of us) so it's again free.
I can think of better ways to spend $140-$400. If your company is going to pay for it, why the hell not. Would you pay for that? Only if you absolutely have to have it or have spare money to burn, right?
Ask yourself do you absolutely have to have it?
If so congratulations. If not there you go!

[Puspanathan]

I have been using Office Pro 2003 all this while. Late last year I came across Office Pro 2013. What an improvement. What I like the most is the conversion tool for converting PDF files to office documents. I make multiple copies in my computer and skydrive.
About MS's pricing strategies. I find it absurd they only have the academic licenses for mostly First world countries. In third world countries like Malaysia, where I am from we teachers have to make do with they one provided by the ministry of education (which why I am using 2003) or we can only afford to buy home and student version for like USD 80. The Pro version is exorbitantly expensive at abt USD 400. The MOE expects us to run programs that require MS Access at home to process data for student achievement and tracking. The computers we are provided are ancient but our personal machine , we cant afford MS office pro. This is a handicap. MS should help teachers in third world countries by allowing us to purchase Academic licenses.

[treehau5]

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Google Drive is free. Libre Office is free. Your old version of Office has been paid for. (most of us) so it's again free. I can think of better ways to spend $140-$400. If your company is going to pay for it, why the hell not. Would you pay for that? Only if you absolutely have to have it or have spare money to burn, right? Ask yourself do you absolutely have to have it? If so congratulations. If not there you go!

People will always think paying for something makes it somehow more credible. In the case of Apple fans they think paying 1000 -2000 dollars more makes their intel i7 faster than yours. And for the record, Libre is terrible.

[varunpriolkar]

WHat a truckload of crap. Makes me even happier that I made the switch to Linux.

[varunpriolkar]

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Google Drive is free. Libre Office is free. Your old version of Office has been paid for. (most of us) so it's again free. I can think of better ways to spend $140-$400. If your company is going to pay for it, why the hell not. Would you pay for that? Only if you absolutely have to have it or have spare money to burn, right? Ask yourself do you absolutely have to have it? If so congratulations. If not there you go! People will always think paying for something makes it somehow more credible. In the case of Apple fans they think paying 1000 -2000 dollars more makes their intel i7 faster than yours. And for the record, Libre is terrible.

What makes you say so? I have used Libre office and Microsoft's alternative over wine and have to say that Libreoffice is better and more easier to use.

[berock212]

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Libre is terrible. What makes you say so? I have used Libre office and Microsoft's alternative over wine and have to say that Libreoffice is better and more easier to use.

Just no. Maybe libre office is better than Word on wine but if you compare office to libre office on windows computer it is better in every way, shape and form. Libre office has less features, but that doesn't mean it is simplier. I find libre office more complicated and less robust than office. When you use libre office you pay for what you get.

[berock212]

MS office 2013 looks pretty awesome and expensive. The only thing I don't like is that it isn't a huge improvement over the previous office, but MS doesn't usually change office much. Im just glad they didn't screw it up.

[Genghis7777]

"But if you need even the least-expensive edition on more than two or three computers in your household, you might wind up paying more than you would under the $100-a-year Office 365 Home Premium subscription plan"

I understand that Office 365 can't be used offline, so I'm happy to pay a premium for the ability to use it whenever I don't have access to the Internet: while travelling in a plane or car, or at in a park. Often hotels profiteer from Internet access. I just need to stay in a hotel 4-5 times and I've more than made up the extra cost anyway.

Hopefully telco data charges will continue to fall and eventually Internet access via cellular modems will become ubiquitous. Maybe then MSO 365 will come into its own.

MS Office is still the only Suite that natively reads and writes docx files. Before upgrading to MSO 2007, I looked at the open source offerings and they don't have this capability.

Six years later, I see that they still don't. Professionals need to appear to be up with the play whether they like it or not. People buy with their eyes. And its a mark against the writer to have the compatibility mode marker in the title bar while a client is reading his/her document.

It positions the writer as either a luddite or somehow not successful because they can't "afford" to keep up.

Fortunately MSO 2013 doesn't introduce another file format so an upgrade isn't an imperative for me. Hell, I'm still occasionally fishing around the ribbon for stuff I used to do in MSO 2000.

[dmarek1]

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"But if you need even the least-expensive edition on more than two or three computers in your household, you might wind up paying more than you would under the $100-a-year Office 365 Home Premium subscription plan" I understand that Office 365 can't be used offline, so I'm happy to pay a premium for the ability to use it whenever I don't have access to the Internet: while travelling in a plane or car, or at in a park. Often hotels profiteer from Internet access. I just need to stay in a hotel 4-5 times and I've more than made up the extra cost anyway. Hopefully telco data charges will continue to fall and eventually Internet access via cellular modems will become ubiquitous. Maybe then MSO 365 will come into its own. MS Office is still the only Suite that natively reads and writes docx files. Before upgrading to MSO 2007, I looked at the open source offerings and they don't have this capability. Six years later, I see that they still don't. Professionals need to appear to be up with the play whether they like it or not. People buy with their eyes. And its a mark against the writer to have the compatibility mode marker in the title bar while a client is reading his/her document. It positions the writer as either a luddite or somehow not successful because they can't "afford" to keep up. Fortunately MSO 2013 doesn't introduce another file format so an upgrade isn't an imperative for me. Hell, I'm still occasionally fishing around the ribbon for stuff I used to do in MSO 2000.

Get your facts straight. Office 365 can be used offline and I verified after I installed yesterday. Plus if you compare the features office 365 comes with more that Student/Home version of disc. Access and Outlook to name a few. For me the 4 PC's and 5 users I have at home make the subscription worthwhile. So far it has worked as expected.

[BOctober25]

I think even the most hardcore Office users can always get by for years without upgrading to the most recent versions. These new versions of Office, every couple of years, just don't add much in the way of anything ground breaking. I have worked in many businesses that pump thousands into the Office software and the employees are not even using 1/4 of the functions. But, everyone uses Office for their daily work and that alone makes you need it.