GS wrote:
So if you don't have Excel now then what are you using for
spreadsheets?
LibreOffice Calc. However, I'm finding finding functions in it a lot
harder to find than I thought. Too often I'll finally find what I'm
looking for and wonder why the hell it was buried over there. There's
not really a migration to Calc. You have to learn it anew. Only little
of what I learned in Excel comes forward to Calc other than some very
basic boob stuff. Excel's ribbon logic is more intelligent, too.
I've also found LO Calc a complete learning curve initially, but I was forced
to get into it by user clients many years ago. I now offer my Excel templates
as Calc templates as a result.
But LibreOffice is free. I tried Kinsoft's Office Suite awhile back,
but after a few months of using it they turned it into adwa printouts
got watermarked, many features got disabled after a 30-day trial period
(and why many reviews were glowing because those authors didn't test
after the trial period), tables couldn't be sorted in docs (not even in
the payware version). I tried Softmaker's FreeOffice, but soon ran into
its limitations.
I can say the same!
While Excel and LibreOffic Calc show the spreadsheets
how I expect (from Excel), the other suites didn't visually render them
the same. Still, I'm getting weary of having to go online to search on
how to do something in Calc that I can find a lot faster in Excel (for
what I've used before but also for functions that I've never used
before).
I keep the offline help for v6.0 just so I don't have to go online. It does me
fine for the most part dealing with the basics.
I also have fpSpread.ocx (v7.0/8.0) for making my own stand-alone spreadsheet
apps in VB6. I got into this when MS 1st introduced the Ribbon UI; - my Excel
app users freaked out about the initial disorientation it threw at them so I
needed a way to duplicate my Excel applications outside of MS Office.
But fpSpread, however, is not 100% Excel compatible; it only supports the old
xls file formats! Nor can it accept inserting existing Excel sheets; - I have
to build them via code. It also only works with WinForms solutions in VS2017 so
I've since bought the SpreadsheetGear DotNet Assemblies to use with C# there.
Bonus is I can use all my Excel templates with this and work with it pretty
much the same as I did using Excel as my development platform.
Of course, all those free/paid alternate office suites lack an
e-mail client, calendering, and contacts, so I was looking at Outlook
alternatives, too, like EssentialPIM and em Client. I thought the free
eM Client was good (if you have less than 2 accounts, but I have more)
until it royally ****ed up my contacts both locally and on the server
(massive duplicates). EPIM used to limit to just 2 accounts max, but
https://www.essentialpim.com/pc-version/pro-vs-free indicates they
lifted that restriction.
I've been using ThunderBird ever since MS dropped their old forums and wiped
out all my data, mail, and news feed threads. Does a great job for mail,
newsfeeds, and calendar IMO! It's never screwed up on me either!
While MS Office 365 is payware, I wouldn't pay the $99/year that
Microsoft wants. I got it a lot cheaper at eBay at $33/year, but only
after doing lots of watching and research to find legit sellers there.
Now that some other of my family are considering dumping their WinXP PCs
and moving up to Win10 along with upgrading to much newer versions of MS
Office, and with Office 365 doling out 5 seats per licence, the cost per
user is a lot cheaper, so I might go back to Office 365.
I have Personal for $CAD79/yr, installable on up to 5 devices. I didn't think
I'd go for it at all but given the cost per device it's the best deal going
IMO!
Plus I find
the Win10 apps for Mail, Calendar, and Contacts to be pathetic. I can
manage using the Mail WinRT/UWP app, but I can't view the raw source of
an e-mail, so I have to use their webmail client for that (and I look at
the headers often enough that I want that feature). Calendar is okay
but limited on how long to sleep after a reminder shows up, plus I've
encountered problems with no notification at the reminder time. Their
People app is really bad.
Most Win10 apps and built-in utilities are spyware mining our data and sending
it 'home' under the hood. I disable Auto-Updates so it runs when I want it to,
and I block as much spyware as possible using 3rd party software.
I find the ThunderBird calendar, reminders, contacts (Phone Book), events,
tasks, and sidebars very efficient.
By the time I pay for a 3rd party Pro office suite and EPIM Pro, it's
getting close to the price of Office 365, but for just the 1-year
subscription cost versus repaying every year for the subscription
(compared to repaying every 1 to 3 years for the next major verison
update of the 3rd party non-subscriptionware).
I do believe you can let your 365 subscription lapse a year or two and when you
renew, it gets updated. During the lapse period it remains as last updated. (I
could be wrong, though!)
I'm not financially throttled, so paying for software isn't some major
aversion to me. I'll keep using LibreOffice for another 5, or more,
months to give it fleshing out to see if I'll stick with it. I did that
with Thunderbird: trialed it for 6 months as my only e-mail client but
dumped it after 6 months and went back to MS Outlook. For me, free is
nice but not essential.
Any MS-based mail client apps, servers, and computer logins allows MS direct
access; - bad idea IMO! Turns out Gmail is heading in the same direction.
Perhaps I should start using my own website mailboxes!
--
Garry
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http://www.eternal-september.org
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