Off Topic Laptop software

Techies??? I have been saving it on there. Do I need to transfer before I move over to the non subscription version? Or should I continue to have full access to at least transfer?

 

I wouldn’t have thought you’d have any access if you’re not on 365…but that’s a guess tbh

 

I'm no techie, but would think you would immediately lose access as soon as your MS365 subscription ends.
There is still 5GB free online storage with a MS account, and free access to web based versions of MS Office. Unlikely to be enough though.
Not meaning to teach grandma, but if you do move away from MS 365, make at least one copy of all your needed documents, photos and videos first!! It could be disastrous to lose them and could easily happen (by error or by laptop fault).

 

Read this thread completely, and it reminds me of the alphabetti spaghetti I had for dinner! Viva technophobes.



The views expressed in my posts are not necessarily mine.

 

That likely confirms suspicions of some on here then

 

I've never denied it, nor let it bother me in the slightest.



The views expressed in my posts are not necessarily mine.

 

Surely they can’t do that, can they? I’ve just moved everything onto my desktop just in case.
I lose 365 sometime next week and at the same time will move onto Office 2021 edition. I assume it’ll be seamless, as they are all Microsoft products What can possibly go wrong? No Serious question…..what can go wrong?
I still need to sort storage.

 

The Google suite of office programs is fine for basic functionality. If you want to write simple letters and documents, use basic spreadsheets and presentations, it will do the job ok. Probably suits the vast majority of home needs.

For anything that needs more than basic functionality, then you need MS. A couple of years ago you couldn’t even set Google docs to have a mix of both landscape and portrait pages in the same document. Using headings and styles is still very limited, cross references to tables virtually impossible. If you need to publish the document and/or render into a pdf, forget it. I couldn’t use it for essays for example as I needed to to references in a certain style.

So because most corporations use MS, it also has the advantage for home users. Because who wants to learn a new word processor to do a letter for your cycling club when you could get it looking right in Word in 5 minutes?

 

You've answered your own question.
Storage / on line back up.
It's not enough to have backed up to your desktop. If anything goes wrong with your laptop you are likely stuffed. Unlikely, but it's not a risk worth taking.
Unless penny pinching is a priority, then honestly I'd stick with a 365 subscritpion..... or if not at least make sure you sort your cloud storage backup solution (or other solution) before your subscription expires.

 

Just a question, if you bin off 365, the documents for example in excel, can you access them, or can you transfer them into Google drive?

 

For most standard use cases these days - browsing the web, emails, watching videos, word processing/number crunching/presentations etc. You can't go wrong with a Chromebook. Much simpler, lower barrier to entry from Windows than either Linux or Mac and less to go wrong.

 

I dont think you’d be able to access them in one cloud (365) so as you say you need to save them somewhere else before the subscription finishes

 

Err yes. That’s the whole point of the subscription.
Get it stored somewhere else and not just laptop in case that dies.

The one drive storage isn’t on your computer (apologies if you know this) It’s online storage in some cloud or other (a big warehouse full of computer storage)
Therefore if you don’t have 365 you won’t be able to access your stuff in the big warehouse

 

I haven't understood a word of this thread - as far as I'm concerned anything that says 'uodate' means it's worse than before

 

Indeed "uodate" is poor

 

Try downloading stuff on a Chromebook and also using it where there is no internet access
Chromebooks are e-waste.

 

But if I paid a monthly fee to store stuff in a big warehouse and then wanted to stop paying, they wouldn’t be allowed to withhold goods from me.
Anyway to be safe, I’ve got all docs on a memory stick temporarily until I sort the other stuff out.
I don’t like 365, though it could be Windows 11 or even Edge that I don’t like.I was new to them all at the same time, so don’t know which is a part of which and haven’t had time to explore. Just wanna go back as close as I can to what I know…. now where did I put those floppies?

 

Never store anything sensitive on the cloud, ask Jennifer Lawrence or Emma Watson

 

A man's got to know his limitations, I can turn on/off technology, just.



The views expressed in my posts are not necessarily mine.

 

Some of that is true (you definitely can export Google Docs to PDF, and in fact it's way simpler and more intuitive than doing it in Word). You're right that Google Docs etc are stripped back compared to Office stuff, but I think for most people that's a good thing. The majority of people just need to write stuff easily, rather than be dealing with all of the complexity that Office foists upon you. Simple stuff can be so frustrating on Office, like the well-known issue of placing images in a document, that people have moaned about for literally decades, where Word will just keep randomly shuffling the entire document around whenever you try to make the smallest adjustment to the position of the image.

I think the vast majority of people are used to Office because for a long time it was the only real option, so we think it's what we want, but really it's terrible for usability in so many ways. Even the very subject of this thread wouldn't be an issue on Google Docs; there's no worry about what version or what happens when you change version or what you'll lose or whether you need to uninstall the old before installing the new. None of that is a question for Google Docs. To me using Office just feels like going back 15 years.