Is Office 2010 Home and Business worth $167

Amazon has it on sale today. My question is regarding activation. It says it has a 2 PC limit. Do you have to call MS if you format your hardware more than a 1,000 times. Exaggeration of course. I just hate if you have to reformat for whatever reason after so many times you need to get on the phone and beg.

 

If there are any essential features you need that you cannot get from Open Office, then perhaps. But I just can't see paying for any office suite these days, the same goes for anti-virus solutions.

 

There aren't essential features is just that Libre Office 3.5.2 crashes documents and spreadsheets constantly and I get recover messages so now I don't trust Libre Office.

 

$16? where are you seeing this?

 

It's $167, how are you seeing $16?

 

I've never had any such problems. Perhaps you should download the "older" Open Office instead? I use 3.2 and have never had problems with it.

 

I use OOO all the time ,actually it is my main. Not sure what the difference between OOO and libre office.

MS office only worth it if your environment is MS office, like if you use macro ,vba excel frequently and access/outlook stuff.

Just word/excel/powerpoint,I like ooo more (as a student)

 

IIRC Open Office handed the baton to Libre Office.

 

Rather than formatting 1000 times, why not install everything you need and then make a backup image of your OS installation? Works for me...

As for MS Office? If $167 is the lowest you can get and you need to share documents with other Word and Excel users, go for it. Otherwise for high quality, professional, documents I stick with LaTeX and it is a very useful pain in the rear.

 

Oh oops I read $16 instead of $167.

For $167, I don't think it's worth it. The added functionality isn't worth that much more than free (OpenOffice).

 

I find 167$ a bit steep, if you are a student, you should be able to get a good discount for a version equivalent to professional plus. You might also be able to obtain a copy from your job if it is work related purposes. It's worth checking at least.

 

blah, guess time for more research, when I needed office, I just search open office and ooo pop up in my face ~~

 

If you're a student you can get Office Professional for $99.99

 

Actually I read more info on Open Office. Oracle stopped commercial development shortly after acquiring Sun. Shortly after Apache Incubator began to update Open Office and now it's known as Apache OpenOffice. The latest release is 3.4 as it was recently released in May 2012.

Unfortunately i'm not a student.

 

Honestly, unless you really need it, for $167, i'd pass. I purchased office for $100 because of the student deal, otherwise i'd be using something else. If you already have 2007 no need to upgrade either, 2010 is more like a refinement of 2007 rather than some radical change.

How about getting a copy from your job or if you are your own boss, it's possible that you could deduct it form your taxes if it is for business use, that could help you recoup some of the cost. At least, you can in Canada for certain stuff.

 

You can find Home and Business on eBay for $150.

 

No more Ebay software purchases for me, been burned too many times.

Yup i'm my own boss. I found a copy of Works 9 I forgot I had which came with one of my Dell laptop purchases. Using that for now.

 

Now, I know from experiences using Open Office there are some formatting in word that it can't do and one prime example was my nephew tried to put a chemistry equation into the Open office document and instead it separated the formula making it totally wrong. Now this is a small example but if you had to put math or chemistry formula into word documents and it couldn't distinguish which is a problem and a formula formats that I would say is a big problem since it should be able to distinguish between the two when you input the data or specify which is which. This is why I tell people get M$ Office since that is the standard by with all other Office type suites based themselves on. And you can get student discounts to get it for less and the Office 2012 works well with Windows 7 getting you many features that will not be present in XP loaded machine. So in the long term your better with going M$ Office even though it might cost more the support will be there for quite some time to come and if a problem occurs you can be sure you will hear about it and M$ will have to readdress it and you can get the fix even if you didn't have the problem or will catch it eventually. So for anyone to not get M$ Office is more of a budget problem but everyday use I would still recommend getting M$ Office suite or package.

 

I only had one bad hardware I bought so far but the rest have been good overall. My advice is to buyers contact the seller even if you don't get the sale one should do some homework about the product about what they are selling. And when communicating do it in a polite manner and not argumentative manner. That doesn't help the situation or fix the problem.

 

Rodster, don't use Works. It has other issues like file compatibility problems. It's OK for simple in house stuff, but when you email a works file to someone that can't open it, that will reflect on your business savvy.

 

I have all the functionality and compatibility I need through Open Office and Google Docs.

 

Problem is Open office has to be able to put equations and functions in proper format and not dissemble the formula as it was to be shown. Google docs works when your internet is working otherwise if network is down or offline Google docs is good a dead on arrival. There are still dead spots and I rather prefer to have it on my desktop and have access anytime of the day and where and whenever. That is why I keep core program installed on my laptop and desktop and just move the data around to work on info. Most don't realize that but when you got no internet connections Google docs will do you no good and if you site doesn't allow wifi your presentation - if you don't have a good retirement benefits that will be where one would be heading fast if you can't produce the presentation or meeting agendas.

 

With word 2007 and 2010, i have yet to find a built-in equation editor that does the job as well as the one in office. If you know your keyboard shortcuts, typing equations will be almost as fast as typing text.

 

If I had a need to put formulas and equations in the right format easily I suppose I'd get office, but like I said earlier, for me personally, open office and google docs suffice.

 

I did also mention there are time when offline will happen regardless and you have to have backup plans to use then. I know there will be more MS Office users because that is the standard by which other various Office software models after. So it just helps to have a backup when times calls for it-in this time of everything is on the net one needs to expect the unexpected regardless of how confident they are of their network or WiFi. Hardware do fail and internet connections to fail or get cut or go offline rendering your broadband connection dead.

 

That's what Open Office is for

I agree that office is a better program and may be worth what they charge for it to some, but not me. That may change in the future, though.

 

Well, i certainly wouldn't pay $170 for it, but being a student, getting academic plus for 90$ a year ago was a pretty good deal if you ask me. I moved from 2007 and i feel that 2010 is a bit more refined. I still wish i could put the ribbon to the side though.

 

I definitely miss the student discounted software. Hmmm, maybe I'll use my GI bill to go back to school and get another .edu address...

 

Well good for you. Many (most?) people don't get what they need from the open source stuff, hence the need for commercial software.


EDIT: Why is it that anytime someone discusses purchasing some software these 'Open Source' pundits come along and try to push their agenda?

EDIT2: Have a look at TechNet. I believe that the software you download doesn't expire even if your subscription does.

 

I don't know if that comment was directed at me or not because to be a pundit means that you're an expert or at least very knowledgeable in a subject, and I'm by no means an expert. If it was, I wasn't saying that Open Office was the best office program and everyone should ignore MS Office in favor of it. I actually prefer MS Office over Open Office, but because I don't require the added functionality or ease of use, for me it wouldn't make sense to pay $167 for it. I wasn't trying to push an agenda, just share my opinion and experiences.

 

Well said and I fall into the same category. I don't email my docs or spreadsheets, they are all internal so in that case Works 9 is working out pretty well for me atm.

Finding a DVD of Works 9 in my closest was like finding that $10 bill in a pants pocket I had no idea how it got there.

 

I discovered this and i'm going to give it a try, plus it's free.

Free office software, Kingsoft free office suite 2012

 

Ooh I like this a lot. It's a small program around 78 MB. The program opens FAST and it looks very modern. I may check out their Pro version to see what else it offers.

 

I have this on my Android phone. Very nice.

 

I actually like this much better than Libre Office and Open Office. It opens a document or spreadsheet within 2-3 seconds. I never got that performance from either LO or OO. And design and looks wise it destroys both LO and OO.

I was even able to copy and paste all of my spreadsheets and it didn't miss a beat. Everything was there.

 

Will keep that in mind. I used to use OO back in the day and I too had some problems with my Office docs. Wasn't impressed with it either. Now I have Office 2010, it's the best there is.

 

i left my full version installed that came with my pc even though its a trial. I never agreed to register and enter a product key. and every time i open a file or start a new file it asks me for product key but I just hit X at the top and cancel installaion and it still opens up the file for free. its not even the starter edition. not sure if everyone else is getting by with that.

 

Glitches that work in your favor are always good. But even if I had a copy of MS Office i'd still use Kingsoft Office. I love having a document just open in 2-3 seconds.