O/T Computer Software Advice

Guys, the wife is looking for a cheap windows laptop which is fine ( probably get her an Acer or something like that for about £300 ), the only problem is that I'm not sure about Office Software - the last time I bought MS Office it was on a dvd disc and from ebay :hide:

PC World seem to offer Office 365 for about £70 a year, but on the microsoft site you can buy a one-off version for about £120 but thats Excel , Powerpoint and Word.

Those three are probably all she needs but it's then says that Outlook & One Drive are not included - but I thought One Drive was free anyway up to a certain MB and I thought outlook was free as well.

Am I missing something? I'd prefer to pay one-off not monthly

First off is MS Office vital? If not why not download Open Office for free?

she's doing a course and its MS Office

i was in the same ball park so I just went out and bought the latest office software as a 1 off from PC world

No One drive or outlook but it does the job

If she's doing a course you have to say for what and why? If it's for potential work reasons then she will require Microsoft Office Professional. If for home the cheaper MS Office Home will do. Also if she's doing a course she is likely to be able to get the Student version at a lower price. These can be obtained from PC World or probably cheaper for around £30 on ebay.

Many employers have a contract with Microsoft which enables their staff to get MS Office for free. might be worth checking before you spend any cash.

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Originally Posted by Philo2

Many employers have a contract with Microsoft which enables their staff to get MS Office for free. might be worth checking before you spend any cash.

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When I used it was very cheap rather than free (about £15) but they seem to have moved the goalposts with 365 and now offer a 30% subscription saving if you work for an eligible company.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/home-use-program

The course is just gereral office software - she won't be using it for work as such just re-learning.

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Originally Posted by Toadstool

The course is just gereral office software - she won't be using it for work as such just re-learning.

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The Home Use Programme doesn't care what you use it for, just whether you or your wife work for a company that is in the programme. When I used it they send a Product Key to your office address which you can then transfer to your home PC.

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Originally Posted by cyril evans awaydays

When I used it was very cheap rather than free (about £15) but they seem to have moved the goalposts with 365 and now offer a 30% subscription saving if you work for an eligible company.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/home-use-program

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Through my work Office365 I can install the full desktop version of MS Office Pro on up to 5 personal machines. Lots of my colleagues don't realise until I point it out. If someone in your household has a similar agreement through work it could save you a bit of cash.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by cyril evans awaydays

When I used it was very cheap rather than free (about £15) but they seem to have moved the goalposts with 365 and now offer a 30% subscription saving if you work for an eligible company.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/home-use-program

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This.

It used to cost about £10 to get a legit license through my employer.

Unfortunately we recently moved over to using google: email, spreadsheets, presentations, word processor etc. It is an absolute farce - buggy, shit software that should be free because it is crap. I can't tablulate my emails, but I can put an octopus emoji in my emails. Anyway, this means proper professional Microsoft software is no longer available. But as most employers don't do stupid things like switching to crap free online software, you may well know someone who can still pick up a copy (which can still come on a DVD if you want!) for £10-£20.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Philo2

Through my work Office365 I can install the full desktop version of MS Office Pro on up to 5 personal machines. Lots of my colleagues don't realise until I point it out. If someone in your household has a similar agreement through work it could save you a bit of cash.

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This sounds like something I might be able to do - I have office 365 from work ( my wife doesn't currently work )

I presume I have to login using my works id, then I can download - does that mean though that my works id is linked to the installed applications, so I can't change that?

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Originally Posted by Toadstool

This sounds like something I might be able to do - I have office 365 from work ( my wife doesn't currently work )

I presume I have to login using my works id, then I can download - does that mean though that my works id is linked to the installed applications, so I can't change that?

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The applications are linked to your work ID but I haven't found any limitations, my kids and wife have used it with no real problems at all, my wife did have a couple of issues with Outlook syncing to her mailbox but I think that was PC related.

When you get into office365 there should be an install option in the top right, if you click on "other install options" you can do things like select the 64 bit version but also you can view all the PC's its currently linked to.

thanks guys