Why use Microsoft Office?

Office 365 is a software-as-a-service subscription.  Many people, myself included, are leery of software subscriptions.  It took me a few years to step away from the pay-once option of Office 2016.

You can still find disks with Microsoft Office 2016 online, often at a discount.  Remember, though, this is the 2020’s.  There is an Office Home & Student 2019 option available, but it doesn’t contain all the features of Office 365.

The best feature of the subscription service is the updates.  When Office 365 upped its accessibility game, I was able to start using it the next time the software updated.  Several other features have also appeared in my version, while my school computer is still stuck back in 2016.

Office 365 Options

Office 365 Home

The most bang-for-your buck comes from Office 365 Home.  This package gives you Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Publisher, and Access.  Each of these is available as a downloadable package that is always available on your desktop or laptop.  Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook are also available online.  You simply log into the website, and you can use the products from anywhere.  The web versions are not quite as powerful as the desktop version, but you can use them on any computer with web access.  You also get 1 TB of cloud storage through OneDrive.  You also get access to the office apps on your tablet, iPad, and phone.

The reason that this is the best version in my opinion is that you can share your subscription with up to 6 people.  Each person can install the desktop versions on their computer and the apps on their mobile device.  You can put the software on your desktop, and laptop as well as your kid’s laptop.

Office 365 Personal

You can save a few bucks a year by purchasing Office 365 Personal.  This gives you all the same features, but you can’t share it with anyone else.  

Here’s a link to Office 365 Personal Home through Amazon.  This version only allows one user,  if you have more than one computer, I’d recommend you get the Home Version.

(As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.)

Other Options

You can find other options for office suites. For example, Google Docs is a free office suite that has a word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation tool. However, it lacks many of the features that are included with Microsoft Office. Google Docs has some accessibility tools, but not nearly as powerful as those in Word.  Google Sheets lacks several of the functions that are standard with Excel.