Comments on: Open IT Forum: Do we need Microsoft Office anymore?

By: Ken Harthun

Ken Harthun — Fri, 17 Aug 2012 15:13:41 +0000

For the vast majority of users who just type documents, occasionally convert them to PDF, and need only basic spreadsheet functions, OpenOffice is king; I still advocate its use over MS Office for those who don’t have the several hundred bucks to spend. If I didn’t have free use of Office as a Net Admin, I’d still be using OpenOffice. However, Office will probably never go away.

By: carlosdl

carlosdl — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 16:02:31 +0000

I agree. Many companies will still use it. Here, we have maybe 70% of our users using OpenOffice since about 5 years ago, but the rest are still using Office, and I don’t think that is going to change in the near future.

By: ToddN2000

ToddN2000 — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 15:22:22 +0000

Office has it uses. I mainly use Outlook for mail and Excel for data trasfers and statistical reports. Some organizations/businesses let you download from their site into an Excel format. Word is ok. There are a lot similar packages out there. I rarely if ever use PowerPoint or Access. Again, there are a lot of other applications out there that are free.Most companies I have worked for provide Office for their employess who if they are lucky use 1 or 2 of the programs provided. The other never get used. To me that’s a waste of financial resources. It would be best if you could just by the program you need and not invest in the whole pre-packaged box set. Unless we get a majority of the bussiness world to change to other packages we will be using office for years to come.

By: TomLiotta

TomLiotta — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 04:36:32 +0000

And by “best choice” I mean the best fit for the types and volumes of work done by personnel involved. Sometimes the best choice is an economy vehicle rather than a fully-loaded luxury car.

Tom

By: TomLiotta

TomLiotta — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 04:30:07 +0000

Most organizations will still use it, even though most probably shouldn’t. It has much more features than the vast majority of users care about or need. It’s become so overloaded that I’ve begun seeing it be more of a productivity drain than gain. The only reason I’ve used it for at least the past five years is because it was set as company standards — not because it was the best choice. Tom

By: jinteik

jinteik — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 01:16:37 +0000

Microsoft office is here to stay as many people are quite use to their features. If there is a change, people will have to re learn the whole process of knowing the other kinds of office software out there

By: AndreaF

AndreaF — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 22:55:52 +0000

We are just upgrading our entire company to Office 2010 – and I can’t see that changing anytime in the near future. I agree with MrDenny about Google Docs – cannot compete with the features available in Office applications. Even though I often recommend Open Office for private users looking for a free alternative, I believe that businesses need the richer features.