My customer is all MS and I'm reviewing manuals created in .doc or .docx. While Google can modify and save these, they don't format perfectly the same when you have tables and pictures.
I pay $13.99 per month($9.05US)just to have(mainly excel)Office on my laptop for when I need it. I must be a sucker? Or am I missing something with Apache? Doesnt look like I'd be missing anything:
I just paid $90 for 2021 MS Office Pro. At least I can be sure that whatever I send back to my client will be the same as what I see before I send it.
You don’t get the updates if you don’t buy 365 but the updates suck and only make work harder. For example I have a lot of workflow through outlook tasks and they changed the task section to almost its own app but not. It’s totally dumb but changed my workflow overnight. If you use OneNote then you need 365 for the cloud access. And the moment you do that you see that office is basically free (compared to alternatives like Evernote)
'Arrogance is astounding': Microsoft hikes subscription prices causing consumer backlash By business reporter Nassim Khadem https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02...price-hike-consumer-complaints-accc/104965682 In short: Microsoft has increased the price of its Microsoft 365 subscriptions, which it says has new AI features, but the price hike caused consumer outrage At least one Australian customer has asked the consumer watchdog, the ACCC, to investigate the matter Legal experts say price gouging in itself isn't illegal but if a company raises prices aggressively and makes false or misleading claims about its prices, this would be illegal. When Microsoft increased the prices of its Microsoft 365 subscriptions in Australia at the start of the year, users flocked to online forums to criticise the changes. The company has sold the price increases as an upgrade, with new artificial intelligence features being added to Microsoft 365. However, some users have expressed anger that it wasn't made obvious they could opt out and remain on their existing, cheaper subscriptions. "Our plan has always been to make Copilot in the Microsoft 365 apps more accessible to a wider audience at a great price," a Microsoft spokesperson told ABC News. "Most of our 84 million consumer subscribers will now have access to Copilot in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, and the newly renamed Microsoft 365 Copilot app." The subscription to Microsoft 365 — which includes popular apps such as Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and Outlook — now costs $159 per year in Australia for a personal licence, up from $109 per year. The fee for a family subscription has increased from $139 per year to $179 per year. For those on a monthly personal subscription, the price rose from $11 to $16 a month. On Microsoft online community forums, users weren't thrilled about paying 30 to 45 per cent more without an option to easily opt out. Microsoft Publisher, which is being phased out and won't be supported from October 2026, is not included in the new, more expensive Microsoft 365 subscription, with the AI-powered Designer in its place. "So effectively they've taken away something to give us something else, but this doesn't justify a price increase of around 30 per cent,” one user posted in the Microsoft forum. "If you're going to jack up your prices this significantly you could at least increase what people get. The arrogance of Microsoft is astounding." khadem.nassim@abc.net.au or nassimkhadem@protonmail.com Another wrote, "Clearly they are losing so much money with their investment in openAI that they are punishing every single one of their users. "I just got a notification that my price will increase by around 30 per cent with less than three weeks' notice — I cannot simply adjust my entire family account in that time." A Microsoft customer who spoke to ABC News anonymously believes the action may be illegal and has put in a formal complaint to the consumer watchdog, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), to investigate. Microsoft's spokesperson said the company was "committed to adhering to the laws and regulations of every country in which we operate in, as well as providing our customers control over their experience" and that the company has "added settings to key apps like Word that allow people to disable or enable Copilot as needed". The spokesperson said customers could switch to other plans without Copilot features or AI credits, like Microsoft 365 Basic. The price of a subscription to Microsoft 365 — which includes popular apps such as Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and Outlook - increased in January. (AP: Alan Diaz, file) Microsoft customers say they should have been asked to 'opt-in' Australian customers can revert to Microsoft's cheaper Classic subscription, by going to their account and managing their subscription. After customer outrage about the price increase, a number of users created online blogs and videos explaining how Microsoft customers can do this. While many said they had been able to switch back to the newly named Classic plan, as one user pointed out on Reddit: "Their AI crap really should be opt-in, instead of opt-out." While customers have complained about price gouging, principal lawyer at Phil Finney McDonald, Joel Phibbs said if that was what was happening, that in itself would not be illegal. But that "if a company like Microsoft raises prices aggressively like this and makes false or misleading claims about its prices, this would be illegal". Lawyer Joel Phibbs says the ACCC could "look more closely at whether there has been any misleading statements or omissions by Microsoft". (ABC News: Sean Warren) "As we are seeing in other litigation and action against big tech, like Apple and Google, the regulatory landscape in this sector and globally is still struggling to catch up to and appropriately moderate Big Tech's conduct where it is either anti competitive or otherwise not in consumer interests," he said. Mr Phibbs noted that if a bank was increasing the rate of a loan, it would have to write to customers and be very clear about the changes and when they come into effect. "At a minimum this is a poor customer experience for Microsoft's Australian consumer customers and one that should damage good will," Mr Phibbs said. "The ACCC might look more closely at whether there has been any misleading statements or omissions by Microsoft in its roll out of these changes." Some customers say they have written complaints to the consumer watchdog about Microsoft's behaviour. (ABC News: John Gunn)