2021-2022 How essential is Microsoft Office to you?

[Gep_Etto]

It looks like Office, uses ooxml which in theory would work flawless with Microsoft Office. It's opensource and free for the community but they do have business support.

ooh, that's neat! Thank you. I'll definitely check it out.

 

[tech3475]

I occasionally need MS Office for compatibility, particularly with work.

Ironically we do use Libreoffice on the main computer at work, but it has given us issues on occasion and Office online last I checked lacked certain features.

That said, even if you think ‘just use x instead’, I get Office 365 Family for around £40py on discount. So basically everyone in my family gets MS Office and 1TB Onedrive each. The latter of which makes it worth it alone for (encrypted) cloud backups.

The only time I’ll probably abandon it is if the price goes up dramatically and/or the cloud storage becomes useless.

 

[Alexander1970]

Thank God it is no longer.
At last I needed Word from Time to Time until everything for my Work comes now finally as PDF.

So for 2022 - No longer Essential for me.

 

[SaberLilly]

Libreoffice, I have yet to find any place that "requires" MS office for anything.

 

[ipixeldot]

Honestly... not at all. If I need to type anything out or create a sideshow, I use Google Docs and such. Its free and does basically what I need. Even when I was in college, I started to lean more towards it than Microsoft Office. Unless you NEED it for work or school (as I know they typically do), I honestly wouldn't even recommend them unless they come out with a free version (but to be honest they probably have it already - I just haven't looked unto it).

 

[oji]

OneNote is one love. It's a king among note-taking apps. I've tried many other alternatives, both free and paid, and OneNote always wins. It's the main reason why I can't switch to Linux. Also, Excel extensions Power Query & Power Pivot are a deal-breaker for data wrangling. They're also a part of Power BI, but Excel is enough for most scenarios.

 

[hippy dave]

 

[AncientBoi]

I still use MS Office now n then. Why download another program to do the same thing, And take up more of my precious memory space? No brainer to me.

Besides, it came preinstalled.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

I find Wordpad sufficient for all my word processing needs, and I always have really.
Office was useful for spreadsheets and powerpoint presentations, back when I needed those things for school stuff, but that was a long time ago, and they're not something I need in daily life.

 

[zxr750j]

@work it's ms office (for the simple stuff, I make advanced reports via Cognos and SQL and a bit of python), @home I use google docs for the lists, notes, bookkeeping etc. Only when I need to print something nice I use office (lincensed, bought via my work).

 

[Jayro]

I bounce between WPS Office and OnlyOFFICE, because their compatibility is great, they're portable suites, and they're free. And multi-platform too helps.

I no longer install M$ Office on my machines. I just keep an updated ISO around for clients.

 

[TomRiddle]

LibreOffice works but we use Microsoft Office at school so I ended up downloading a cracked copy to use at home.

That's part of the problem really, microsoft and google have the productivity apps in schools closed to a monopoly with office 365 or google drive respectively, so if you want to use something else you might be out of luck.

Honestly I wish more School boards would consider alternatives but it is what it is.

 

[Magsor]

I use the online version of office more than anything else. Its free and sufficient for my uses.
https://www.office.com/?auth=1
I have used WPS office on my phone its great. I think I could use it on PC instead too.

 

[JuanMena]

I use LibreOffice.
So, no.

 

[godreborn]

same if I didn't already mention it. the hacked version of office I was using would have to be rehacked every six months or so. the only downside to libreoffice is that when I did an xm360 for the 360 of the Japanese store, the characters would always require opening the csv with utf16. not a big deal, but you didn't have to select anything with microsoft office iirc.

 

[godreborn]

I think both libre and mirocoft offices also require manually inputting furigana (the kana above Kanji) for Japanese. pita if you ask me.

 

[coveiro24]

The only one for me...no free version of the other ones available comes close to the office with all the addons I have installed.

 

[InsaneNutter]

I get an Office 365 subscriptions via work, so use that on my personal devices.

 

[universal_eternity]

I haven't used or installed MS Office in ages. The rare times I need that kind of programs, the free "clones" are enough for me.

 

[Glyptofane]

I use it when jobs pay for it and make me use it. That's about it.