Buying software

[SpectrumFX]

I get 365 free from work, so I use it.

If it wasn't free I'd be happy with open office or Google docs. They do all the things I need for personal use.

I use excel extensively, and would share the view that it didn't improve for many versions. The ribbon still offends me every day. However the Power Query and Power Pivot stuff that was added a while back is hugely impressive. I'm using it every day. 

 

[spyguy]

I had a mate who worked on MS e change, when it evolved from being a email to a anythingnetworkmoster. He mived to the sgare point team then left.

Hes not keen on either product.

ms products aquire cruft at an amazing rate. error break out all the time. its not a sane ifpdea, making a doeverything monster.

[frozen_out]

53 minutes ago, Habeas Domus said:

+1

For me Microsoft Office peaked in 2003 all the changes added since have made it worse.

Richard Brodie wrote all the good bits and he left years ago:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Brodie_(programmer)

As for SharePoint, back in the 1950's when everything was paper, people couldn't be bothered organising their files so every office would have a secretary (usually a female) to tidy things up and file the paperwork into neat filing cabinets.
Now everything is computerised, people can't be bothered creating folders with any logical structure so they pass things over to some sharepoint administrator (usually a female) who can tidy everything into nice folders and 'publish' it.

plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose

 

Sharepoint? Folders? There are two possibilities here:

1. You're using sharepoint, but you're using it wrong

2. You don't actually use it

Anyways, I would agree that the basic functionality of Office isn't that much improved over time - the biggest improvements are all around the collaboration features. When you're managing a project that has around 50 people working on it on 3 continents and both internal and external to your company O365 is actually pretty useful.

The main benefit is that you don't have to worry about integrating IT systems and you know everyone has access to the same tools/functionality. If you work in a large organisation with huge numbers of 'local' network drives that not everyone can access (and certainly external partners can't access) sharepoint and/or onedrive are a great solution. Add Skype on top of that and you're away.

 

[spyguy]

I finf ms collab/neteorking hellish. 

never had e erything eorking at the same time.

lync is always bust

[frozen_out]

1 minute ago, spyguy said:

I finf ms collab/neteorking hellish. 

never had e erything eorking at the same time.

lync is always bust

That's unfortunate. Ours seems to work all the time.

Having said that it is our second attempt at it. In a classic example of IT purchasers folly, the first time round we went for a local sharepoint installation and some cretin decided that we needed a custom security model. So he spent most of the budget getting the consultants to customise sharepoint to within an inch of its life and no budget for basic configuration or support. He got the boot shortly after it was rolled out with half the basic features not working and spent more time down than up. It was hilarious.

[MrPin]

34 minutes ago, frozen_out said:

That's unfortunate. Ours seems to work all the time.

Having said that it is our second attempt at it. In a classic example of IT purchasers folly, the first time round we went for a local sharepoint installation and some cretin decided that we needed a custom security model. So he spent most of the budget getting the consultants to customise sharepoint to within an inch of its life and no budget for basic configuration or support. He got the boot shortly after it was rolled out with half the basic features not working and spent more time down than up. It was hilarious.

Not for the financial director.

[frozen_out]

2 minutes ago, MrPin said:

Not for the financial director.

Indeed, 23 million quids worth of hilarity is the number I heard.

[spyguy]

5 minutes ago, frozen_out said:

Indeed, 23 million quids worth of hilarity is the number I heard.

For a Wiki/DMS.

Really, theres easier and cheaper ways to distrubute documents.

[frozen_out]

4 minutes ago, spyguy said:

For a Wiki/DMS.

Really, theres easier and cheaper ways to distrubute documents.

No doubt. It was a complete and utter cluster******. Hence the decision to relauch using an absolutely vanilla O365 solution.

What would you do instead?

Edit: Somehow this has turned into me making an impassioned defence of O365. No idea why. I would say only three things - I like it, it works and it does stuff open office doesn't do.

[The Masked Tulip]

I bought Office 365 about 10 months ago because my Office 2007 or whatever did seem dated in terms of files format. I only bought it because I got it for about £50. Got another 12 months for £40. At about a quid per week I can justify it. At £100 plus then MS can feck themselves.

[CunningPlan]

I still happily use lotus 123. Should I think about upgrading?

[sleepwello'nights]

It's the spreadsheet I cut my teeth on. I found it very intuitive to use and more logical to me than Excel.

As MS Office became the de facto standard in Corporate land I had to switch and Lotus virtually disappeared.

[The Masked Tulip]

1 hour ago, CunningPlan said:

I still happily use lotus 123. Should I think about upgrading?

Ami Pro is better

[Longtermrenter]

On 10/02/2017 at 10:28 PM, The Masked Tulip said:

Sainsburys were flogging Office 365 Personal for a tenner about a fortnight ago. There is a bug where you can upgrade personal to business.

It is also avaialble on ebay for OEMs.

You can join some colleges in Eire for about £15 which then allows you to get the student Office for 4 years for about £60.

In the past year I know people who have bought OEM licences for Win 7, 8 and 10 all for under £20 online.

I've had a fully functioning office for £15 from eBay. Downloaded from Microsoft office site after you enter the supplied key.

[Hectors House]

18 hours ago, CunningPlan said:

I still happily use lotus 123. Should I think about upgrading?

I started on Lotus 123, back in the 90's, unfortunately, IBM (typical) withdrew support about 4 years ago. Personally, I think they should have kept going and released new versions! Another alternative is Word Perfect Office X8 (aka Corel Office) £109.99 for the Home & Student version (the professional versions are pricey). http://www.wordperfect.com/en/product/home-student/

I currently use MS Office 2010 mainly because I use PowerPivot in Excel at home and it isn't available in later versions. I am going to get Office 2016 probably later on in the year and have both 2010 and 1016 on the same pc.

Anyway, I'm not after an Office suite but Visio! I have sussed out a way to get a student licence and a copy for £58

[Hectors House]

On 2/11/2017 at 11:18 AM, frozen_out said:

Sharepoint? Folders? There are two possibilities here:

1. You're using sharepoint, but you're using it wrong

2. You don't actually use it

Anyways, I would agree that the basic functionality of Office isn't that much improved over time - the biggest improvements are all around the collaboration features. When you're managing a project that has around 50 people working on it on 3 continents and both internal and external to your company O365 is actually pretty useful.

The main benefit is that you don't have to worry about integrating IT systems and you know everyone has access to the same tools/functionality. If you work in a large organisation with huge numbers of 'local' network drives that not everyone can access (and certainly external partners can't access) sharepoint and/or onedrive are a great solution. Add Skype on top of that and you're away.

 

 

I keep hearing someone going on about using Sharepoint for collaboration but I'm not that convinced, to be honest. I am using Slack, Asana, Evernote and Trello although I wish Asana would increase the number of connections for the free product from 15 to 20.

[sleepwello'nights]

2 hours ago, Hectors House said:

I started on Lotus 123, back in the 90's, unfortunately, IBM (typical) withdrew support about 4 years ago. Personally, I think they should have kept going and released new versions! Another alternative is Word Perfect Office X8 (aka Corel Office) £109.99 for the Home & Student version (the professional versions are pricey). http://www.wordperfect.com/en/product/home-student/

I currently use MS Office 2010 mainly because I use PowerPivot in Excel at home and it isn't available in later versions. I am going to get Office 2016 probably later on in the year and have both 2010 and 1016 on the same pc.

Anyway, I'm not after an Office suite but Visio! I have sussed out a way to get a student licence and a copy for £58

Wow I didn't realise it was in use 50 years before the Norman conquest.

[SpectrumFX]

6 hours ago, Hectors House said:

I started on Lotus 123, back in the 90's, unfortunately, IBM (typical) withdrew support about 4 years ago. Personally, I think they should have kept going and released new versions! Another alternative is Word Perfect Office X8 (aka Corel Office) £109.99 for the Home & Student version (the professional versions are pricey). http://www.wordperfect.com/en/product/home-student/

I currently use MS Office 2010 mainly because I use PowerPivot in Excel at home and it isn't available in later versions. I am going to get Office 2016 probably later on in the year and have both 2010 and 1016 on the same pc.

Anyway, I'm not after an Office suite but Visio! I have sussed out a way to get a student licence and a copy for £58

PowerPivot is in Excel 2013, it's just that the add-in is turned off by default. Go to the add-in's menu and activate it (it's a COM add-in, so look in the COM add-in section)

It's also in Excel 2016. Go to the Data Tools section of the ribbon and click on the little green cube and it should add a Power Pivot section to the ribbon (at least it just did on my laptop)

I think that both versions I have (2013 on my desktop, and 2016 on my laptop) are the professional ones. 

[DrMartinSanchez]

On 10/02/2017 at 7:19 PM, Hectors House said:

The site looks dodgy

 

https://www.pizzuk.com/about-us

[Hectors House]

18 hours ago, SpectrumFX said:

PowerPivot is in Excel 2013, it's just that the add-in is turned off by default. Go to the add-in's menu and activate it (it's a COM add-in, so look in the COM add-in section)

It's also in Excel 2016. Go to the Data Tools section of the ribbon and click on the little green cube and it should add a Power Pivot section to the ribbon (at least it just did on my laptop)

I think that both versions I have (2013 on my desktop, and 2016 on my laptop) are the professional ones. 

 

Yes it's available in the standalone versions of Excel but it isn't in Office 2013 or Office 2016 versions of Excel, it seems to be getting harder to Excel on its own (excluding dodgy sites)

[SNACR]

On 12/02/2017 at 0:55 AM, The Masked Tulip said:

Ami Pro is better

Yeah, I used to like Ami Pro and 123. I think a genuine case of a superior product being muscled out by a better financed inferior one.

Edit to add: It brings back memories of buying software in enormous boxes with loads of floppy disks inside followed by a trip to Waterstones to buy some similarly enormous books telling your all about it.

 

[Hectors House]

Well been totally snafu'd on the software for students site, turns out it will only activate with a 365 account so it looks like I have to pay out £248 for the 2016 Professional version or £107 for 2013 Professional version from  https://www.softelectronics.co.uk

Very nearly went with the 2013 version but then thought better off it!

[Hectors House]

On 2/11/2017 at 11:04 AM, SpectrumFX said:

I get 365 free from work, so I use it.

If it wasn't free I'd be happy with open office or Google docs. They do all the things I need for personal use.

I use excel extensively, and would share the view that it didn't improve for many versions. The ribbon still offends me every day. However the Power Query and Power Pivot stuff that was added a while back is hugely impressive. I'm using it every day. 

 

 

OK if you get if free from work but I'm not sure how long people who have to pay will put up with a subscription at the current price?