As a writer, I have a very large number of Word files, but with Microsoft moving to an annual subscription model, the cost of remaining with Word is looking prohibitive.After that, you click to confirm the Cancellation. Do more with your docs: Pop in an online video, open a PDF and edit the content, align pictures and diagrams with minimal fuss.I chose Microsoft Word for Mac when I switched to a MacBook Pro some years ago. It boasts improved performance on the previous version, and more features. Word 2019 is Microsoft's latest word processor, part of the Office 2019. More about Microsoft Word 2019.
![]() Trial Of Microsoft Word Free Suite AlsoWhy use Word?Word is powerful and flexible, but you pay for that utility. Office 365 includes online, desktop, tablet and smartphone versions for both PCs and Macs, Android and Apple’s iOS. I expect this list will continue to grow in the future.So, if you want to use Word, you have three choices: the online version (free), the desktop program (one-off payment), and Office 365 (annual subscription). The main difference is that Microsoft’s programs are better, except for multiuser simultaneous editing.Microsoft’s free suite also includes OneNote, Skype, Calendar, People, Tasks, Photos, Sway, Flow and Forms.Rtf (rich text) file format, which almost any word processor can read. But if your documents are simple text files, then a lot of programs will load them.I tried to avoid this problem by saving all my files in Microsoft’s. If your documents include multiple columns, embedded images, custom fonts, footnotes and similar features, you can more or less forget about using anything else. This depends on the complexity of your files. That’s why I’ve used it for a couple of decades.The second reason is that you need it to read old files, which is one of your problems. The best is that you like using it, because of its power, rich feature list, ease of use or whatever.If you are not a business, you can certainly live without it or use the free online version. If you’re paying staff, say, £20,000 to £60,000 a year, and can’t afford £100 a year for Office 365 – less for a boxed version – then you have bigger problems.Decide where you are on the spectrum from “I like it” to “can’t live without it”. This applies in spades to files that use VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) and macros, and to Excel spreadsheets where errors can have career-ending financial consequences.This isn’t going to change in a hurry because Microsoft Office is also a platform with hundreds of add-ons and plug-ins, it’s supported by thousands of books, video tutorials, websites and consultants, and it’s what most office workers already know how to use.And when time is money, the cost of sorting out incompatibilities and usability issues is far higher than the cost of Office. But I found I still needed Word to compare files, and to cope with the publishing industry’s use of styles, comments and “ track changes”.The third reason is that we live in a world where Microsoft Office is the de facto standard for business documents, and you absolutely have to be able to read them accurately.If you lose the activation code, you can’t get a new one without giving Microsoft proof of purchase.Cheaper versions of Office are locked to the PC on which they were originally installed. If you lose the DVDs, you can download the software. Boxed copies have more or less disappeared, but if you own one, you need to keep the code marked on the box to reinstall it. Boxed OfficeThe traditional advantages of buying boxed copies of Office were that you could use it on two PCs (a desktop and a laptop, but not at the same time) and that you could transfer it to a new PC. Extra features over the Home & Student edition include Outlook, the desktop email and organisation program, 60 minutes of Skype calls, apps for Android and Apple iOS smartphones and tablets, and 1TB of online storage instead of 15GB. Photograph: MicrosoftOffice 365, launched in 2013, is the cloud-based version of Office, but usually provides access to the full desktop programs as well. Office 365Office 365 includes online access and cloud storage. It will be more than the usual £12 a year. You can divide the price by the number of years you expect your 2012 MacBook Pro to last. I suspect Microsoft will support it until 14 October 2025, which is the end of support date for Office 2016, and that Office 2022 (yes, there will be one) will only get five years.A further complication is that Microsoft only supports the last three versions of MacOS.Office Home & Student 2019 looks like a bargain at £119.99 or less, but that’s a single-installation version. For a family of four, it’s only £20 per year each. Everyone gets their own terabyte of storage, up to 6TB in all. This costs £79.99 a year for up to six users, including friends. (Google charges £57 a year for 1TB, and £24.99 a year for 200GB of Gdrive.)However, the family version, Office 365 Home, is far better value. The Office 2019 versions are fixed. First, the 365 programs have more and better features, because they are continuously updated. There’s no need to buy three or more single-machine copies to install them on a desktop, laptop, 2-in-1 tablet and so on.Also, Microsoft claims that Office 365 is better than Office 2019. Docx formats, and some can also write or export them. Alternatives to WordLots of programs claim they can read Microsoft Word. It’s not clear how useful most of these are to solitary users, apart from instant translation. LibreOffice is both open source and free, so it will only cost you the time needed to try it.The less-well-known German suite SoftMaker Office has a ribbon interface and uses Microsoft Office file formats by default, without conversion. Otherwise, your best bet is LibreOffice 6.2.2, which now has its own optional ribbon interface. Just keep your original files, instead of overwriting them.You could start with Apple’s Pages, because it’s free, and you may have it already. If you only write plain texts, you should be fine. You will need to load and “save as” a few of your most complex documents to see how much of the formatting survives. Visio viewer 2013 for macAll our journalism is independent and is in no way influenced by any advertiser or commercial initiative.By clicking on an affiliate link, you accept that third-party cookies will be set. Users who like it could consider a “lifetime” purchase for $79.99 (individuals) or $119.99 (businesses), but try SoftMaker first.Have you got a question? Email it to article contains affiliate links, which means we may earn a small commission if a reader clicks through andMakes a purchase. Unfortunately, the free version includes advertising, which I found unbearable, and the Premium version isn’t worth $29.99 a year. WPS used to claim 100% compatibility, and it’s actually pretty good. Of course, nothing stops you from using both.I was also going to suggest WPS Office, the suite owned by China’s Kingsoft, but it only has Windows, Linux, Android and iOS versions, not MacOS.
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