Which version of MS Office should we buy and where can we get it?

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I’m getting two new home PC’s for myself and my wife. We have both been using Windows 7 and MS Office Professional 2003 for years. We use Word, Excel, Outlook, Publisher, and Powerpoint, and the old versions are entirely adequate for us. But I’m trying to decide what version of MS Office to get for the new PC’s. There are vendors who sell downloadable versions, but I’m not sure whether they reliable or authentic, and I would really rather have a CD anyway. However, there is a website called SoftwareGiants selling MS Office 2016 Professional as a download for $79.99. Is there any way to tell whether this is legitimate? Or whether this vendor is an authorized seller ? We really don’t need the latest and greatest version of MS Office and really don’t want to pay for it, but do need something. Thanks in advance for any advice, either on which version of MS Office would be adequate for us and/or the best source of this version.

 

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What’s wrong with keeping Office 2003? You’re used to it, it does what you need, it’s cheap, all you need to ensure is you  AV scan files from outside sources before opening them in Office.

If you do change, there is no need for a CD as you download the software from Microsoft, install and enter your license.

cheers, Paul

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Thanks Paul, for your comment.  We have in fact strongly considered just keeping Office 2003, but I do worry a little bit about security issues with old software that I often read about, although we have not had any download issues for a long time.  I do run MS Security Essentials regularly and also anti-malwarebytes occasionally.  That’s been good enough so far since we haven’t had any problems, but I’m not sure if we should be doing anything additional.  Any other comments welcome.

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I’d also say Security and more and more ISP/mail servers are closing the door on supporting older software.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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I’ve been using Office (Microsoft) 365 for just over a year and find it works for me. It cost £7.99 per month and allows for a full install on up to 5 pc/laptops together with the same on tablet and phones. Has all the products you need but also a few that you may not need.

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… and which limitations does it have in the licensing paperwork regarding shared computers, personal / non-“personal” use and such? Comparing 365 subscriptions is a bit of a hassle with those.

Of course I also wouldn’t know what the OP needs, regarding such licensing clauses…

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Tony H

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While I so subscribe to Office365, a  free and very good alternative is Libre-Office. I opted for MS-Office over Libre-Office for the 1TB of space on OneDrive and MS-Outlook.

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I recommend getting a Family Office 365 subscription. Search around and you can get a discount if you pay for a year upfront. Then, a few months before your subscription is set to renew search around for deals. You can use the deal to extend your subscription. Don’t let Microsoft auto-renew the subscription.

A family subscription is for 2 – 6 people. Each person can install the full desktop suite plus each person gets 1TB of OneDrive storage. Also, each person can install Office on 5 devices. The Office products are updated with fixes and new features using click-to-run technology monthly.

Maximizing your subscription and minimizing your expense takes a little work but can save you significantly over time.

--Joe

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BATcher

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Thanks to everybody for your comments.  Family Office 365 seems to cost around $100/year from any source that I found.  I’m sure Family Office 365 would address some security concerns, but I’m not sure what else I would get for my $100/year, especially if the alternative is to continue using Office 2003 for free.  For routine everyday use, can anybody list an advantage or two from Office 365 that might be worth $100/year?

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Also, the Family and Personal subscriptions are those with the most restrictive clauses on what it can be used for, in the license terms and conditions.

Not a lawyer and those may well be different in other market areas… or possibly even in other EU-member countries, given that the locally valid translations would at least be different…

Just, take care with that.

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Not worth $100 a year to upgrade stick with 2003.

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The problem with older versions of office is security. There are large gaping holes in older versions of office that can’t be patched. Just like on your operating system its important to keep office up to date.

The home version of Microsoft 365 is the best option. Here is where you can find all of the details. It’s good for up to 6 people. Buy Microsoft 365 Family (Formerly Office 365) – Microsoft Store 

One of the many features, is the ability to backup to OneDrive, protect that data from ransomware and in the event that some of your data does succumb, there’s a one click restore.

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SFB

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Roger wrote:

especially if the alternative is to continue using Office 2003 for free.

FWIW I am successfully running Office 2003 Professional in Windows 10, however, Outlook will not work for me.  (If you do an install of Office 2003 on Windows 10 you’ll have to click “ignore” for a couple of error messages that pop up during the install).

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Paul T

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Assuming that you are most likely to encounter security problems when interacting online, if your work with Office is mainly local to your PCs (and agreeing with Paul T about scanning unknown files), how about keeping the Office 2003 versions of Word, Excel and Powerpoint, but replacing Outlook 2003 with a more recent, still maintained email program such as Mozilla Thunderbird?

Alternatively, do you need to restrict yourself to “Microsoft” Office?

I use Softmaker Office (2016 on W8.1 PCs, 2012 on older W7 PCs) for Word, Excel and Powerpoint equivalents and Mozilla Thunderbird for email. There is (still) a link to get a free licence for Softmaker 2012 at https://www.softmaker.de/reg/ofw12giveaway_en.htm if you want to see what Softmaker offers you.

BTW: Softmaker do have a more recent free “Free Office” suite, but I believe that this is limited in the types of files supported, whereas even older versions of the paid for “Softmaker Office” are closer in their level of support to MS Office and maybe close enough for you.

Just a couple of thoughts 🙂

 

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Thanks again for all comments.  I have tried non-Microsoft Office products but all of them seem to have some incompatibilities with MS Office, some of which aren’t obvious.  So I have given up on non-Microsoft Office options just for simplicity.   It does make sense to me, however, to continue with Office 2003 Word, Excel, Publisher, and Powerpoint, then replace Outlook 2003 with something else if it doesn’t work on Windows 10.  Does Windows 10 have any “compatibility mode” that will run programs from Windows 7?  What I like about Outlook 2003 is that it seems to work without error, and I’m never sure about other programs.

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Commenter #2336214 clarifies …

My suggestion about continuing to use most of MS Office 2003 apart from Outlook 2003, but using a current, secure  email program instead of Outlook 2003, was from a security standpoint in reply to your words at the start of this thread, not based on incompatibility or otherwise with Windows 10.

If you create the files used by Word or Excel, or you edit files from known, reliable sources, then even if old versions of these programs have security flaws they are unlikely to be exploited by your files. If your files are from unknown sources it would be a different matter.

On the other hand an email client like Outlook interacts with unknown stuff via the internet all the time, so it is a good idea to have a secure program for this. (The same argument applies to web browsers.)

My point is that it may be excessive to pay a lot of money (and pay continually for a 365 version) for the latest or a recent version of the complete Office suite, when all you may really need from a security standpoint is a current, secure email program. Thunderbird is still being maintained (security updates come out every few weeks or so) and is free.

I hope that this is now clearer 🙂

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Roger wrote:

oes Windows 10 have any “compatibility mode” that will run programs from Windows 7?

I tried running Outlook with compatibility settings, but had no success.  I’m sure it’d run in a Windows 7 virtual machine, but for me doing so would be too much trouble to be worth it.

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Roger wrote:

Does Windows 10 have any “compatibility mode” that will run programs from Windows 7?

Yes. You can run W7 software on W10 in compatibility mode

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On my wife’s laptop, running W10 20H2, she is still using Office 2003 and has never had a problem with it.  When I upgraded my desktop to a newer version (365), she didn’t like it, and particularly didn’t like the “Ribbon” aspect.  “Too complicated, I don’t need it, perfectly happy with what I have now”, especially in Word.  She is a journalist, does a lot of writing, and Word 2003 suits her fine.  I added in the Compatibility Pack so she could open .docx files etc.  Outlook 2003 also works well for her;  emails written with my newer version and sent to her can be opened OK, including any attachments, and also the other way around.

So unless you really need any of the features offered by newer versions of Office, I would suggest keeping Office 2003 (with the compatibility pack, which is free) and saving some money.  But you do also need to have a reliable, competent, on-demand anti-virus program, as mentioned previously.

Windows 10 Pro 64 bit 20H2

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Thanks Bundaburra, for your comments.  Is your wife able to run Outlook 2003 on Windows 10?  And is Microsoft Security Essentials a good enough “reliable, competent, on-demand anti–virus program” (assuming that it, or something like it, still runs on Windows 10)?

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Windows 7: Microsoft Security Essentials
Windows 10: Windows Defender

On permanent hiatus {with backup and coffee}
offline▸ Win10Pro 2004.19041.572 x64 i3-3220 RAM8GB HDD Firefox83.0b3 WindowsDefender
offline▸ Acer TravelMate P215-52 RAM8GB Win11Pro 22H2.22621.1265 x64 i5-10210U SSD Firefox106.0 MicrosoftDefender
online▸ Win11Pro 22H2.22621.1992 x64 i5-9400 RAM16GB HDD Firefox116.0b3 MicrosoftDefender

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Outlook 2003 runs perfectly well on Windows 10, as do the other Office programs (Word, Excel, etc.)  I checked the “compatibility” settings for those three programs, and found as follows:

• Outlook.exe  no compatibility set
• Winword.exe  compatibility set for Windows 7
• Excel.exe  compatibility set for Windows XP.

I can’t remember why I made those settings;  probably trial and error.  You may need to do something similar.  Try them with no compatibity first, see if they work.

We don’t use Windows Defender on W10;  we use another AV package which I don’t want to give a plug for.  But from what I have read, I believe Windows Defender would be good enough.

To check/set compatibility for a program:

• Find the program (e.g. Winword.exe) in File Explorer or similar,
• Right-click it,
• Select Properties,
• Select the Compatibility tab.

Windows 10 Pro 64 bit 20H2

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[Mr. Austin]

I went through the same sort of decisions when security patches for Office 2010 were sunsetted. I opted for Office 2019 around 18 months ago, including Outlook, and found a reputable download licensing source for $50 per license per machine. I didn’t opt for Office 365 because I don’t like subscription models in which the publisher can shut off access to your data – data you own which are none of their business – for reasons they don’t necessarily have to make clear for you with obfuscated click-wrap licenses. Plus, with annual subscription model pricing you keep lining the publisher’s pockets instead of having a one-time license fee.

Human, who sports only naturally-occurring DNA ~ oneironaut ~ broadcaster

• This reply was modified 4 years, 1 month ago by Mr. Austin.
• This reply was modified 4 years, 1 month ago by Mr. Austin.

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For those reasons and more, we have resisted Office 365 in this house. My wife is a health care professional and elected municipal councilor. She requires MS Office for her work. Outlook in Office 365 has a nasty habit of sending attachments as winmail.dat file instead of the proper format (most common with .pdf files), causing a lot of frustration for both the sender and receiver. We have consistently used the standalone versions of MS Office so that we can retain control of our own files. This is particularly important for compliance with health care privacy laws and confidentiality, which, in this country, do not permit placing files on a computer you do not control. Success with free, non-MS Office programs has been abysmal, proving, in my mind, that you get what you pay for. Finally, given that the purchase of MS Office is a business expense, the upgrade to the latest version is a legitimate deduction from income for tax purposes. This is why we went to Office 2019. The upgrade process was seamless and without any unexpected problems. And yes, we use Defender on all computers. It works well.

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WSDKS01 wrote:

Outlook in Office 365 has a nasty habit of sending attachments as winmail.dat file instead of the proper format

Actually, that winmail.dat / TNEF issue predates Office 365 and can still also happen with the permanent-licensed versions. (Also possibly some versions of Exchange Server might generate those even when not using Outlook?)

I don’t think there ever was a version of Outlook without that “feature”? I mean, since it’s theoretically a compatibility feature with Microsoft Mail 3.5 and earlier…

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“Outlook in Office 365 has a nasty habit of sending attachments as winmail.dat file instead of the proper format …”

I had exactly this problem with a club I belong to.  The secretary would send out messages to the members, with attachments, and it turned out that some (not all) of the recipients were receiving a winmail.dat file rather than the correct attachment.  It was traced to the secretary sending in RTF format, and the members receiving winmail.dat were mainly those who were not using Outlook.  I asked the secretary to always send in HTML format (showed her how to do that), and then the problem disappeared.

Windows 10 Pro 64 bit 20H2

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What was your “reputable download licensing source for $50 per license per machine” and how did you know it was “reputable” not a counterfeit?

 

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Hi

I have used Office 2003 since its inception mainly because of the ribbon but a some point I needed to switch to Outlook 2007 and the whole thing runs well together. I do find one problem and that is with Word 2003 which cannot use .docx files so if you exchange documents with those who have  later versions of Word then there can be problems. Oddly I have found that Wordpad in Win 10 can use .docx files without problem but with some loss of utility.

I won’t use 365 because like others I do not like subscription models or my data being controlled by third parties

 

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DriftyDonN

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FYI: It is possible to process files with the newer .docx file extension in Office 2003 by downloading and installing a “Microsoft Office Compatibilty Pack” which extends Office 2003.

I imagine that this can still be downloaded from Microsoft, but it is available at the Softpedia site – see https://www.softpedia.com/get/Office-tools/Other-Office-Tools/Microsoft-Office-Compatibility-Pack-2007-File-Formats.shtml if you want to have a look. You may need to download further Office updates from Microsoft after installing this Compatibility Pack.

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I also have used the Office Compatibility Pack for years and it works great with MS Word 2003, allowing me to read .docx files.

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What differences did you find with Outlook 2007?

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I setup two PC from scratch in 2019, for both I bought a MS Office Pro 2016 on line for about $80. Got the install by download and a legitimate Lifetime Key. Several steps to activate with Microsoft, but activate they did. Both installs have been working just fine. I see them now for much less – around $35.

I remain leery of Office 365 or any software by subscription as my internet connections are sometimes spotty. I know, old school, but gives me peace of mind.

I see newer versions of MS Office Pro available as well, but can only speak first hand to my experience the 2016 Pro version.

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Roger, to address your concern about the software vendor Software Giants, I faced the same situation as you wanting to upgrade from Office 2010. I have purchased other Microsoft Office components, namely MS Access, previously was very satisfied with the Software Giants service. I purchased Office 2016 from them and everything went smoothly. I burned the installer to a CD so I have a permanent copy if I need to reinstall. You may pay a little more but, as the saying goes, you get what you pay for.
Good luck.

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I don’t know what your job situation is, but my employer gets a discount for MS Office 365. I get my Family Plan for $69/yr. This includes the 1TB of storage per person and 6 installs on different machines. Also, my daughter uses a Mac so we get both PC and Mac versions.

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I’m a writer, editor, and proofreader.  I just bought the 2019 version of Office (because I could still BUY it, rather than subscribe to it).  I have been running Word 2010 for many years because it does everything I need it to do … because there’s no learning curve for me to use it … and because I don’t want to have to keep paying and paying for whatever ongoing fixes Microsoft makes to something that wasn’t broken.

I loathe the subscription model because I don’t like having new “features” I didn’t ask for imposed on me, and on the manufacturer’s schedule rather than mine … because I don’t want to change a product that works perfectly well for my purposes … because I live in a rural area where internet access is sometimes uncooperative … because I object to the notion that I could pay and pay and pay for a product, over years — eventually paying SUBSTANTIALLY more for the same number of years of use I’ve always gotten out of my software investments under the old purchase-and-install-yourself model — and then, if I ever couldn’t continue to pay, or got tired of paying, could lose access to years’ worth of files that I’d paid such a premium to create.

I’m 53, hoping to get at least another 10 years out of the 2019 version.  If the much-hated subscription model is my only way forward at that point, I’ll probably try to keep going with the 2019 version, but isolate it on a computer without an internet connection, so I don’t have so many security concerns.  For my personal writing, that should be more than adequate.

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Microfix

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The company I work for just dumped MS Office in December and everyone is using Libre Open Office.  No weekly security patches that patch the previous patches, no nailbiting every patch Tuesday, and you don’t even have to give it internet access once it’s installed ….. unless you want to check for updates using the software.

"War is the remedy our enemies have chosen. And I say let us give them all they want" ----- William T. Sherman

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DriftyDonN

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.. and what do you use in place of outlook?

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I’ve been using Office 2003 since, well, 2003. I tried Word 2010 but I didn’t like the “ribbon” interface. I’ve found no reason to switch.

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I use Office 2019 Pro and would highly recommend it. No problems, Access and Outlook as well as all others work well.

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Cloud wrote:

.. and what do you use in place of outlook?

Unfortunately, IBM Notes.  But at least it integrates.

"War is the remedy our enemies have chosen. And I say let us give them all they want" ----- William T. Sherman

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I tried one of those download sites and got something that wouldn’t install. Then I just went to Microsoft store and paid $150 for Office 2019 Home and Student. It lacks Outlook, but I would never use that anyway. I think the program now costs $125 in this version on Amazon. Totally legit.

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[sigrossman]

I got a version of Office 2016 Pro Plus, which includes Publisher and Access, for $69.  I know it is legitimate because it successfully registered with Microsoft online. As far as the ribbon problem goes, it can be de-activated using the options setting under the File menu. My wife and I had been using office 2010 in Windows 7 and successfully installed it in Windows 10, but started to get compatibility messages so found this website for an update.

I am an avid PDF user and had been using Acrobat XI for years from a disc until certain functions stopped working.  I was forced to go to the subscription DC version, but it is not so bad, and has the added function of editing images.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 1 month ago by sigrossman.

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[BigBadSteve]

Paul T wrote:

What’s wrong with keeping Office 2003? You’re used to it, it does what you need, it’s cheap, all you need to ensure is you AV scan files from outside sources before opening them in Office. If you do change, there is no need for a CD as you download the software from Microsoft, install and enter your license. cheers, Paul

Microsoft hasn’t provided security patches for Office 2003 since 2014.

Running any program that accesses the internet (or documents downloaded from the internet) past it’s EOL (End Of Life) date is extremely poor security. Not everyone’s realtime virus checkers will be set to scan Microsoft document files. And, mainly, not all virus variants, or 0 Day viruses, are detected by virus checkers at all.

Buying a newer version of Office also gives one access to new features, and there’s a heap of nice new ones added to Office since the venerable Office 2003. Presuming one isn’t satisfied with what I assume are the comparitively very basic free office suites.

Like some posters here I stay away from Office 365, since I want Office to keep working on my legacy machines and virtual machines without shelling out more money to MS year after year after year. And I get my Office licenses other than directly from Microsoft. They lost me a few years ago when they changed Office licenses from three licenses per key to one, without decreasing the price (i.e. they tripled the price overnight, presumably so they could push their subscription model).

Asus N53SM & N53SN 64-bit laptops (Win7 Pro & Win10 Pro 64-bit multiboots), venerable HP Pavilion t760 32-bit desktop (XP & Win7 Pro multiboot), Oracle VirtualBox VM's: XP & Win7 32-bit, XP Mode, aged Samsung Galaxy S4, Samsung Galaxy Tab A 2019s (8" & 10.1"), Blu-ray burners, digital cameras, ext. HDDs (latest 5TB!), AnyDVD, Easeus ToDo Backup Home, Waterfox, more. Me: Aussie card-carrying Windows geek.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 1 month ago by BigBadSteve.
• This reply was modified 4 years, 1 month ago by BigBadSteve.

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Thanks to everyone for all your comments.  New PC’s are scheduled to arrive on Feb 8.  My plan as of now  is to install Office 2003 with compatibility pack and see if it works.  If it does, we will continue to use it at least for a while.  Next problem is to figure how to transfer DropBox  and Google Drive files to new PC’s, but that’s another story.  Thanks again !

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Not unlike yourself, I’ve been using Windows 7 and MS Office “Student and Teacher Edition” 2003 for years. However, I was only making limited use of using Word.
Unfamiliar with Excel, when I sought training online, my 2003 version almost seemed to be a different language.
So, when I recently purchased a new Win10 laptop, I added the Office Home & Student (Classic) for a one time $149 charge.
TWT, but given my limited Excel knowledge (even Word for that matter), I am hoping Home & Student will suffice. The thought of paying for quarterly or even yearly upgrades for programs I would use infrequently is irksome.

Duh! Sign in first or be listed as anonymous!

;-{)}

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WSJank, unfortunately online training will always be for the latest version of the software. But now that you have that, the training should be easier to follow. Excel is much more complicated than Word.

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Brief update:  our new PC’s arrived, and I installed Office 2003 on Windows 10 with no problems so far, including Outlook 2003.  Everything seems to work Ok and I am a happy camper.  Thanks again !!

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