[TomAndersonkmh8]

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I already own a 3 machine license of Office 2010. Why do I need to upgrade to Office 2013 at all? How is the new version different or better than 2010? I have not seen this addressed at all. If I decide 2013 is not worth $99 per year, can I just continue to use the version 2010 that I own?

The new version of Office 2013 has support for Skype. Now you know it's got to be great because Skype is terrific!

[smax013]

ShopperGeorge, on 04 February 2013 - 01:11 PM, said:

I already own a 3 machine license of Office 2010. Why do I need to upgrade to Office 2013 at all?

That is really a personal decision. Basically, if there is something among the new features that you need, then you may "need" to upgrade. OTOH, there is a very good chance that there is not any new features that you really "need" and thus could likely be fine with Office 2010.

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How is the new version different or better than 2010?

I will mainly let others comment on this, but I believe at least one benefit is the ability to edit PDF files.

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I have not seen this addressed at all. If I decide 2013 is not worth $99 per year, can I just continue to use the version 2010 that I own?

Yes, you can continue to use Office 2010 if you drop the Office 365 subscription (heck, you can still use it even if you keep the Office 365 subscription going).

[smax013]

tonybradley, on 01 February 2013 - 03:40 PM, said:

This is the new Office 365. You don't use it from the cloud. It has a cloud element, but it's really just a different pricing model for the traditional suite. It's not a cloud vs. local argument at all. It's a choice between paying $400 for one computer, or $100 a year for five computers plus the assurance that you always have the latest version of the software--plus additional Office 365 perks.

Yes, it is basically a new pricing scheme for the tradition suite that they used as a cover to effectively jack up the prices.

If you look at it from a "home users" perspective, then most people basically a screwed with the new pricing scheme. You used to be able to get a 3 license Home & Student edition for about $100. Considering that most people in a "home use" situation DO NOT use Access or Publisher or even really PowerPoint for that matter...and even many people don't use Excel or Outlook (i.e. many people use a web browser for getting their email), a Home & Student edition was fine for most people. And the days of one computer families are dying, the reality is that a large percentage of people are fine with only installing Office on 3 computers.

So, for those people (which is a LARGE percentage of home users), they could have paid about $100 in the past. Now they either have to buy three licenses of Office 2013 Home & Student at $140 a pop (i.e. a total about $400) or pay $100 per year for Office 365. If you assume that one would upgrade to a new version of Office in 3 years (and pricing stayed the same), then under the old system people were paying about $33 a year. Now, they are paying $100 per year if using Office 365 or about $133 per year if using the new pricing model for the "stand alone" applications only. So, basically Microsoft just raised prices for an awful lot of people by 300%.

Now, yes, you get some "extra stuff" with that $100 a year Office 365 plan compared to the effect $33 per year price of the old pricing & license model for Home & Student, but I doubt there is what many people would consider $66 worth of "extra stuff" that they would use.

Basically, it seems that Microsoft has adopted the Cable TV model...make you pay more for a lot of stuff that you may not really need. If Microsoft wasn't so interest in vacuuming money out of people's wallets, then maybe they would offer a plan where you pay less than $100 per year and get a version of Office 365 that get you Word, Excel, maybe Powerpoint and maybe Outlook.

Personally, I think this is a stupid move by Microsoft. While the Google Apps are woefully limited compared to Office and the various free Office suites (Open Office, LibreOffice, etc) have they own share of challenges in certain situations, I see this new pricing scheme pushing a lot of "home users" towards those alternatives.

Disclosure: I am VERY biased against subscription models, so take my views with a grain of salt. I just don't like the idea of dumping a lot of money into something with the potential to have nothing to show for it if I ever stop paying. But that is just me.

[LiveBrianD]

smax013, on 19 February 2013 - 08:20 AM, said:

tonybradley, on 01 February 2013 - 03:40 PM, said:

This is the new Office 365. You don't use it from the cloud. It has a cloud element, but it's really just a different pricing model for the traditional suite. It's not a cloud vs. local argument at all. It's a choice between paying $400 for one computer, or $100 a year for five computers plus the assurance that you always have the latest version of the software--plus additional Office 365 perks.

Yes, it is basically a new pricing scheme for the tradition suite that they used as a cover to effectively jack up the prices.

If you look at it from a "home users" perspective, then most people basically a screwed with the new pricing scheme. You used to be able to get a 3 license Home & Student edition for about $100. Considering that most people in a "home use" situation DO NOT use Access or Publisher or even really PowerPoint for that matter...and even many people don't use Excel or Outlook (i.e. many people use a web browser for getting their email), a Home & Student edition was fine for most people. And the days of one computer families are dying, the reality is that a large percentage of people are fine with only installing Office on 3 computers.

So, for those people (which is a LARGE percentage of home users), they could have paid about $100 in the past. Now they either have to buy three licenses of Office 2013 Home & Student at $140 a pop (i.e. a total about $400) or pay $100 per year for Office 365. If you assume that one would upgrade to a new version of Office in 3 years (and pricing stayed the same), then under the old system people were paying about $33 a year. Now, they are paying $100 per year if using Office 365 or about $133 per year if using the new pricing model for the "stand alone" applications only. So, basically Microsoft just raised prices for an awful lot of people by 300%.

Now, yes, you get some "extra stuff" with that $100 a year Office 365 plan compared to the effect $33 per year price of the old pricing & license model for Home & Student, but I doubt there is what many people would consider $66 worth of "extra stuff" that they would use.

Basically, it seems that Microsoft has adopted the Cable TV model...make you pay more for a lot of stuff that you may not really need. If Microsoft wasn't so interest in vacuuming money out of people's wallets, then maybe they would offer a plan where you pay less than $100 per year and get a version of Office 365 that get you Word, Excel, maybe Powerpoint and maybe Outlook.

Personally, I think this is a stupid move by Microsoft. While the Google Apps are woefully limited compared to Office and the various free Office suites (Open Office, LibreOffice, etc) have they own share of challenges in certain situations, I see this new pricing scheme pushing a lot of "home users" towards those alternatives.

Disclosure: I am VERY biased against subscription models, so take my views with a grain of salt. I just don't like the idea of dumping a lot of money into something with the potential to have nothing to show for it if I ever stop paying. But that is just me.

Hey, cable TV's pricing has already led to plenty of people cutting the cable. I'd be one of those. (Comcast's customer service and still-broken automatic billing system didn't help with that.) I guess they forgot that, as some have put it, home users have the least tolerance for high prices, and the lowest barrier to switching. (which, if they aren't careful, could set an industry trend against them) Great people to screw with, eh?

[gcbFL]

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First: I would like to comment on Office 365 home premium not worth the money either prescription version or box version. To think that these troglodytes at Microsoft under the direction of Ballmer have the audacity of producing a product called publisher which if I understand correctly is to build a webpage preview it and publish it. I went to Google and found this “The ability to create new Web publications has been removed in Microsoft Publisher 2010”. http://office.micros...101877287.aspx. If anyone can direct me on how accomplish this I would be very thankful.

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Publisher was originally for making these things called "flyers" and "leaflets" that were "printed" on an organic material called "Paper." It always made for a lousy Web page creator. I'm not surprised MS canned that set of features, chances are only a handful were using them.

To the original poster...Publisher works great for most publications. I agree with the other poster about Publisher not being ideal for creating webpages. But it does produce a decent enough static *.html that can be uploaded to the Internet. Spacing of items can be quirky when viewed through an Internet browser, even when viewing with Internet Explorer (which Publisher is more in tune with than non-Microsoft browsers).

Not sure why that web address makes the statement that Publisher 2010 does not have the Web publishing ability. It does. I use it to create a fairly simple, multi-page website. My Publisher 2010 is a part of the Office 2010 Professional Plus suite. If your Office 2010 suite has Publisher, it should also have the Publish HTML option.

To find it, left click the File tab, Save & Send, Publish HTML. The right preview pane will show Publish HTML as a header with a drop down for two options: Web Page (HTML) and Single File Web Page (MHTML). I use the Web Page (HTML) option and it works fine.

[BlackKz]

I think we all forget about one detail. Office365 permits install desktop version on up to 5 computers. You free to choose these computers. One at your home. Second to work from parent's PC. Fifth on computer at cafe where you get morning cap of coffee (who will check it?). Other users can't use it due licence violations. :-) In office 2013 you can stream it on, for example, 15 computers. Including animal clinic where you check health of your cat once a year. Nobody can use it, because they need your login- password on Microsoft online. This is the difference. You need buy two licences only when you need two office on two computers at the same moment. Is it your case? Let's try to imagine this situation: you need to continue work when Word check the spelling in your last document? So please start all calculations here.

[Billyk24]

I have spent nearly seven hours downloading the "Office 365" files with the progress bar somewhere around the 50% mark! I have a slow DSL line at 768 which typically runs slightly faster than that. I'm curious if one should go to a local hotspot/WIFI location and perform the download at that location. This experience brings back memories of telephone modems of the mid 1990's.

[Wii60owner]

I'm not really sure where you got the idea that Office 365, which you have to continue to pay to use year after year is somehow a better value than Office 2013, where you pay for the software once and can use it forever. It would cost me, by your own estimate, $140 for 2013 Student and Teacher but it would cost me $100/year for 365. Not being one to upgrade software every year it is easy to see that paying the $140 is much better value for me. Even if I wanted to run it on 2 PC's, the 2013 version is still a better value. It would cost me $280 for 2 licenses that I can use forever, but the cloud subscription would exceed that after 3 years. Your justification only works if you are a large scale enterprise with hundreds of PC's, your average home user doesn't upgrade their software unless they absolutely have to and that could take many years. Office 2003 is still doing me fine for most thing but if I had been forced to pay $100 a year for the privilege of having it ($1000!) I would have went open source instead.

[Wii60owner]

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gene720 said
Suppose I try 365 for a year and don't want to keep it, or forget to renew. I still have all my docs saved on my hard drive. If they were created using 2013, do they open and can I use them? Has the Office version I had on my computer BEFORE I downloaded 365 still there, and does it still work, or has it been corrupted? Your documents won't be touched. (if you put them on skydrive, however, and you went over the free space limit - because they give you an extra 20GB with 365 - you simply won't be able to add anything until you delete some things from it)

So how does this advantage me in any way over simply slapping a freshly formatted DVD in my drive?

[john3567890]

Ah, no. At work, we are not allowed access to the Internet whatsoever for security purposes. Office 365 also appears to be on a subscription basis. Because of 'company' policy, we cannot do that. We would have to have 'hard' software, ie, directly installable from hardware (DVD). The 'company' is quite subject to virus attacks; cloud-based software is simply not allowed.
IT is responsible for all computer updates, including Microsoft and Windows updates, and even their access to the web is severely curtailed and very closely monitored.