2 Comments

1. 

   Bob DeGrande on 31 March 2014 at 19:26

   Excellent piece on Office 365. I think it’s an excellent product although I won’t be getting it myself – it is certainly a far better user interface than Office on Surface.

   You had asked about Android. One thing they have done is to make the old Office Mobile app (which does not require a suhscription) free on Android phones, iPhones, and iPod Touch, and this can create and edit files as well as view them. It is not for tablets on either platform, though.

   Also, Microsoft will also be introducing a smaller license – one tablet and one computer – for $70/year rather than $100, and there is also a free trial at Microsoft’s web site.

   I won’t be getting it because 1)I much prefer Scrivener as a word processor (and I was very happy to hear you mention an upcoming iPad version), 2)my spreadsheet/presentation needs are minimal and anything will work for me, and 3)I have 128 GB of free OneDrive space, so an extra 20 GB doesn’t matter that much. I do think that for many, though, this is a far better option than buying Office and dealing with product keys and severely limited installs. I also really like OneNote, which is now free on all platforms.

   Reply
2. 

   Bob DeGrande on 4 April 2014 at 21:36

   As to how I got 128 GB of free OneDrive space. the free 7 GB amount used to be 25 GB, and we got grandfathered in as long as we clicked a button that said that we were actually using it. There was another 3 GB for enabling auto camera uploads from a mobile device, and, when Microsoft rebranded SkyDrive to OneDrive, they ran a promotion where the first X number of people that solved a puzzle got a free 100 GB. I forgot how many people exactly but it was many thousands.

   Reply