Electronics

[Mindy D]

I have been looking at the version available for 1 PC and supposedly a single purchase. It's $139.00. I have questions for someone that has it. Do you have to store your documents in One Drive, if you don't want to? Do you have to renew this plan each year-it seems Microsoft is deliberately being evasive about these questions on their site and in their FAQs. When you downloaded, how many attempts did you have to finally get it? How long did it take you? What is Microsoft hiding about it, or what did you discover about it? I have no intention of sharing my documents, a feature of 2013. Can you keep all your documents, or do they keep them?

[glb613]

Office 365 is the online version. Here is a review:

Office 2013

[ariane]

Onedrive like another disk drive for storing documents or photos. It is not required that you use it. You don't seem to understand the concept of cloud storage. Here is good basic overview: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/getting-started-onedrive-tutorial

[Mindy D]

I do understand the cloud, but until I used your link, none of the things I read about OneDrive sounded like it's use is optional. In your link , the words chose to save are used, answering my question. I also know 365 is the online version. I want to know about Home and Student 2013. It says one time purchase, which sounds like that it isn't necessary to pay to renew--I just want to be sure there are no other fees.

[krissie622]

Every time you go to save a document or excel sheet it will prompt you and give you the choice of saving it to your PC or to the one drive. If you want to access the same files from multiple devices, the one drive would be handy. Up to you. And yes, they are changing the way they sell office to push the subscription model. You can still purchase the product key and own it, like in the past, but they are making the subscription model more attractive.

[PamelaSue72]

I just installed 2013. When I saved a recipe, I simply clicked to where I store my recipes on my hard drive. Simple. I have SkyDrive or OneDrive, but see no reason to deal with it at this point. You save your documents the way you always did. Save them on your hard drive (back your hard drive up periodically) and you'll be fine.

It took me just once to download 2013. I went to the link (had to create a Microsoft account) and downloaded the program. Clicked on "Run" and it installed. I had it put the icons on my Desktop and the icons were also stored on my App page. While I was at it, I also burned an Office disk as well. That created a new product key. This way, if something happens to my copy of Office or to my computer, I have the back-up disk and the product key for that back-up disk. I should be able to re-install with no trouble.

It's not that bad. And you can save the way the normally do. Just because OneDrive is there doesn't mean you have to use it.

[Mindy D]

Thanks to all of you for your help. PamelaSue; did you get the Home and Student one time for $139.00? We're there any other charges or do you have to renew? What happens if you want to sell something on ebay--is this considered a business by Microsoft?

[Still Raining]

I got a new laptop a couple of months ago and installed Office (the $139 version) with no problem. However, as I recall the website makes it difficult to find since they are pushing the monthly subscription plan (which in the end will be much more expensive). So you have to look around. Once you buy it though it will be yours forever.

[PamelaSue72]

On 4/28/2014 Mindy D said:

Thanks to all of you for your help. PamelaSue; did you get the Home and Student one time for $139.00? We're there any other charges or do you have to renew? What happens if you want to sell something on ebay--is this considered a business by Microsoft?

When you buy the activation/product key, you have to go to the website to download the software. After the download is finished, you have the option to create a CD with the same software....it will also generate a new product code that will work with that CD. I suggest you burn a CD and keep the CD with the product code in a safe place.

I think that a copy of this software (with your product code that came with your store purchase) is also kept on the OneDrive/SkyDrive/whatever it's called and, if you have trouble in the future, you can download it again from OneDrive.

You shouldn't have to renew anything. If you get the Office 365, that's what needs to be renewed. I think.

Selling things on ebay would not mean that you had to buy the Office 2013 Small Business software. You could still use Home and Student. You can buy whatever you want; it's just that with Small Business, you also get Outlook, I think. But if you already have a mail program, it's not necessary.....and the Business package is about $100 more.

I hope this helps you. You would be fine with Home and Student.

[LilacTree]

I bought it bundled with the Dell TSV from several months ago. It includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote. I really hated how intrusive OneNote is, so I tried to delete it. I could not find a way to separate any of the programs, and I do not like that feature at all. Microsoft did not used to do this.

I called both Premier PC Support, as well as Microsoft and was told one cannot delete OneNote from the package. I did not stop there, googled it and found a way to diminish its intrusiveness, although I still am unable to delete the program.

I did have to buy MS Outlook separately because that is the only program I have ever used for my email and I was not about to give that up.

Hopefully Microsoft will get enough complaints about the inability to separate and delete the programs from their Office bundle that they will stop doing this!