Microsoft 365 vs. Office 2019

- If you often have to move between different types of tasks for work like writing documents, creating spreadsheets, putting together presentations, and handling your calendar, you could do all of these things with several individual apps from multiple software developers, but it often makes more sense to work with apps that have been designed to work together, giving you the ability to move seamlessly between them. Microsoft Office, for example, is a collection of applications designed to work in conjunction with each other to make it easier for you to accomplish tasks and get things done. Office includes applications like Word for word processing, Excel for working with spreadsheets, and PowerPoint for creating slideshow presentations. There are versions of Office available for Windows and Mac operating systems, mobile operating systems, as well as an online version that can be accessed from any computer's web browsing application, regardless of the operating system it's running. It's a good idea to explore different software suites to find the one that will be best suited for the type of work you do. Other software packages similar to Office include Apple's iWork suite, which includes Pages, Numbers, and Keynote for creating documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. If you're a Mac user, you may want to consider these apps since they're included for free on all macOS computers. Similarly, Google's online G Suite is also free for consumers and includes apps like Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides to create your documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. So be sure to look at these and other alternatives when deciding which software to use. In this course, we'll be focusing on Microsoft Office as it's the most widely used of these productivity suites of applications. There are two main versions of Microsoft Office available, currently named Microsoft 365 and Office 2019. Microsoft 365 is a subscription-based version of the suite of applications. There are multiple subscription plans like Microsoft 365 Personal, Microsoft 365 Home & Student, and Microsoft 365 Business Premium, among others. The cost of the subscription depends on which plan you choose, and the apps contained in each version can vary, although they all contain the most popular applications, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook. With your subscription, you can install the software on up to five Windows machines or Macs, five tablet devices, and five mobile devices, which is convenient if others in your household need to use the software too. Your subscription also includes the many software updates that Microsoft regularly releases for the suite of applications. These updates can include bug fixes as well as new features and abilities. As long as you pay your monthly or annual subscription fees, you'll continue to have access to the latest versions of all the applications included in your plan. Office 2019, on the other hand, is a one-time purchase. Unlike Microsoft 365, you pay a single price for access to all the applications in Office 2019, with no future fees or charges. The software is yours to use indefinitely. You need to keep in mind that your purchase only allows you to install the software on a single computer rather than multiple computers and mobile devices. You also don't get access to any new features or other updates with Office 2019. So if you want to update to a new version months or years later, you'll have to pay for that new version as well. So which version you choose depends a lot on how much you'll be using the Office applications and if having access to the latest versions of the software is important to you. For example, if you need the ability to work across devices, like if you want to be able to work on an Excel spreadsheet on your phone during a commute and later pick up where you left off on that spreadsheet from your desktop computer or tablet, you'll want to go with Microsoft 365. On the other hand, if you know you need Word, Excel, or PowerPoint, but you use them infrequently enough that you don't need the latest versions or features or to work on your files between multiple devices, Office 2019 is probably better suited for you. Lastly, if your use of Office products is very infrequent, you can access free versions of most of the Office applications online at office.com. These are lightweight versions of the Office products, but they have a lot of the functionality of their full-featured counterparts. And again, you can check them out for free at office.com to see if they'll work for you. Otherwise, you can find out more about the various Office packages at microsoft365.com.