Question What's a good, more recent Microsoft Office version for an "Old School" User ?

[michaelm101]

I'm forced to finally move on from my trusted Win7 PC, which has MS Office 2003.

I'm old-school and don't like clouds, apps and subscriptions.

What's the version to get for my Win 10 PC and the best place to get it?

Thanks very much in advance!

 

[kanewolf]

I'm forced to finally move on from my trusted Win7 PC, which has MS Office 2003.

I'm old-school and don't like clouds, apps and subscriptions.

What's the version to get for my Win 10 PC and the best place to get it?

Thanks very much in advance!

I have Office 2019. No subscription. Not sure about anything newer.

 

[punkncat]

Honestly might wish to take a look at the free office options such Open Office or Libre. Even Google Docs works pretty similarly now, although it may be "cloud", not sure.

 

[USAFRet]

I'm forced to finally move on from my trusted Win7 PC, which has MS Office 2003.

I'm old-school and don't like clouds, apps and subscriptions.

What's the version to get for my Win 10 PC and the best place to get it?

Thanks very much in advance!

Do you need actual MS Office?
Or will some other office suite thing work?

If actual MS Office is required (why?) than probably Office 2019.
If MS Office is not really needed, LibreOffice is really really good.

 

[Math Geek]

i have office 2007 running on win 10 no problem. be hard to get a copy but it installs and runs fine

i have 2016 running on another system. they both work offline without subscriptions and such.

its the office 365 that requires a subscription.

as others have noted though, the free options work great and are compatible with office docs and so on. they are even better for avoiding the online stuff office has in it.

 

[BFG-9000]

Office 2003 was the high-water mark for Microsoft Office if you prefer its traditional dropdown menu interface. While it featured very XP style colors and icons, it's also the earliest Office to support Windows 7, plus supports later type office files like .docx with the Office 2007 Compatibility Pack. It went out of support in April 2014 at the same time as XP.

Office 2007 was the worst for an old-school user as it switched all functions entirely to cryptic scrollable ribbons so both nothing is where you'd expect it to be and there's no text to help in finding it. 2010 added back some text descriptions to the ribbon tab icons so at least you could figure out what they did without having to hover over each, but of course the huge ribbon still takes up plenty of screen real estate which is only usable with a high resolution monitor, otherwise you'd have to edit your document in a mail slot, much like a browser with too many toolbars*. Later versions started defaulting to OneDrive cloud storage of your documents--but at least this doesn't mean they own your documents so are free to data mine it for keywords and images to determine what advertising to send to you, as in the free Google Docs or Office Online (the free version of Office 365 subscription).

OpenOffice and LibreOffice are the closest things to a still supported Office 2003 with both featuring a dropdown menu system, local storage and no subscription fee. Plus they are open-source and free to use.

* opening every available toolbar in 2003 at the same time can provide a similar experience

It's just like Windows--they keep changing the locations of where things are so the office can stay exciting, like a treasure hunt. Eventually you get used to it after googling it enough times, and then they'll change it again.

 

[Deleted member 14196]

The only constant is change. Embrace it.

Use LibreOffice instead

 

[Lafong]

I'm using Home and Student 2010 without incident; I don't know where you can buy it nowadays.

Office 2021 Home and Student one time purchase without subscription is here and likely elsewhere:

https://www.costco.com/CatalogSearch?dept=All&keyword=office+2021

There are always complaints about ending up in download or activation hell when dealing with Office from standard sources....Newegg, Amazon, Costco. I've never installed it from anything but a disc, so I don't know how likely that is.

The free options may be OK for you if you are willing to climb a learning curve. I've also heard macros may be problematic on the free options...don't know how true that is.

I'm sticking with 2010 till forced off. I have seen Office 2019 Home and Student for as low as 100 and did not bite.

 

[BFG-9000]

I don't see how you could get forced off of it when even Office 95 installs and works OK. Everything in Office 2000 works except Outlook 2000. You just don't get any security updates so far out of support, but that's fine if you only edit your own documents and not something downloaded over the internet with it.

I will say that Office 2003 SP3 has problems opening and saving files but there are some workarounds, though it's easier to just use SP2, if the OP wishes to use Office 2003 in Windows 10 or 11.

There's nothing wrong with having both Office 2003 and LibreOffice or OpenOffice installed, but I would install 2003 first so the default app file associations will be with the newer, still supported suite.

 

[punkncat]

The biggest recurring issue I have run into using the older versions (2003, 2010, 2012) is that when you have to reformat the key code may or may not work to reactivate the re-install. I have been running into this with 2010 a lot.

A couple of years ago the compatibility pack to 2003 quit being readily available so importing newer versions doesn't work super well.

 

[Lafong]

The biggest recurring issue I have run into using the older versions (2003, 2010, 2012) is that when you have to reformat the key code may or may not work to reactivate the re-install. I have been running into this with 2010 a lot.

Last fall, I saw some talk on another forum that Office 2010 can't be activated on a new installation and that “phone activation” will appear to be denied.

Denial notice may be "Telephone activation is no longer supported for your product".

866-421-7141

Above Microsoft phone number is supposed to lead to a work-around for that issue.

I've come across a couple of users who successfully used that number.

I haven't tried it myself because I'm on a 7 year old Office installation. I may have to if I ever rebuild.

 

[punkncat]

Last fall, I saw some talk on another forum that Office 2010 can't be activated on a new installation and that “phone activation” will appear to be denied.

I have installed Office 2010 on a W11 build a couple of weeks-monthish ago. It didn't give me any issue.

Normally the key card for the licensure would work on (3) installs or "re". Lately, and I cannot directly correlate it, it will go one install and then pretty much what you said on below. I think it has to do with the new pay service they are attempting to push everyone to.

It is rather funny in that over the past couple of years my actual need for it has lessened to a degree that I could probably get away with using Google docs entirely.

 

[Lafong]

Normally the key card for the licensure would work on (3) installs or "re". Lately, and I cannot directly correlate it, it will go one install and then pretty much what you said on below. I think it has to do with the new pay service they are attempting to push everyone to.

My original purchase was a 3 license pack of Office 2010 Home and Student. I only needed 1 license, but this was near the end of 2010's legit retail availability and a 3 license pack was all I could find...for $160 as I recall.

That was around 2013. I bought new hardware in 2016 and reinstalled Office using my original license without issue. Don't know what will happen next time. I've still got 2 unused licenses that may (?) come into play.

 

[BFG-9000]

Office 2000 FTW. As with Windows 2000, it had no activation system.

 

[michaelm101]

I have Office 2019. No subscription. Not sure about anything newer.

Do you need actual MS Office?
Or will some other office suite thing work?

If actual MS Office is required (why?) than probably Office 2019.
If MS Office is not really needed, LibreOffice is really really good.

I need the software to be able to 1) use my old WORD and Powerpoint docs. And, 2) I need to do text to speech on my PP doc, which my old 2003 version doesn't support.

 

[USAFRet]

I need the software to be able to 1) use my old WORD and Powerpoint docs. And, 2) I need to do text to speech on my PP doc, which my old 2003 version doesn't support.

LibreOffice is free.
Try it, see if it meets your needs.

Home | LibreOffice - Free and private office suite - Based on OpenOffice - Compatible with Microsoft

Free office suite – the evolution of OpenOffice. Compatible with Microsoft .doc, .docx, .xls, .xlsx, .ppt, .pptx. Updated regularly, community powered.

www.libreoffice.org

 

[michaelm101]

LibreOffice is free.
Try it, see if it meets your needs.

Home | LibreOffice - Free and private office suite - Based on OpenOffice - Compatible with Microsoft

Free office suite – the evolution of OpenOffice. Compatible with Microsoft .doc, .docx, .xls, .xlsx, .ppt, .pptx. Updated regularly, community powered.

www.libreoffice.org

Thank you! Will my docs all be maintained on my own PC, that is not floating around on some cloud, online, etc.

 

[Grobe]

Thank you! Will my docs all be maintained on my own PC, that is not floating around on some cloud, online, etc.

Yes. The files will be saved locally.

Just be aware that Libre Office use open document standard as default file format rather than Microsoft Office formats. It can of course open and save docx, xlsx, ... - files, but does work better with it's native document format (odt, ods, ... ).
So my advice is to use the open document formats when working on files, but save copy as Microsoft docx files when sending the files to others (or just simply use PDF).

Also advised: Remember to backup your data.