Is it Worth Paying for Office-Like Apps?

[blur xc]

The poll results surprised me -


http://lifehacker.com/5566238/is-it-worth-paying-for-office+like-apps

BM

[samalex]

The poll results surprised me -


http://lifehacker.com/5566238/is-it-worth-paying-for-office+like-apps

BM

Interesting indeed that 1/6th of the people said "Yes, I absolutely cannot do without the advanced features of the premium office suite" since honestly I rarely see anyone using any feature of MS Office that hasn't been in there for 10-15 years.

The biggest advances I personally like in Office 2007 are the new pivot capabilities, but unless you're a DBA (like I am) or really crank on data even these functions can still be done in older versions if you know how to work it.

My guess is that a small fraction of those 1/6th are either power users who do indeed use the advanced features, but the others probably haven't ever used anything except Office and really don't know the capabilities of anything else for comparison.

Sam

[aysiu]

So what kind of computing population is most likely to take a LifeHacker poll?

Are these power users? If so, I wouldn't be surprised to learn a lot of them used Office's advanced features.

[HappinessNow]

So what kind of computing population is most likely to take a LifeHacker poll?

Are these power users? If so, I wouldn't be surprised to learn a lot of them used Office's advanced features.

Agreed.

I use InDesign and Illustrator over any "Office-Like Apps", yet on occasion I use Google Docs.

[samjh]

The poll is missing an option: "Yes, but only because Office is the standard and I need 100% file compatibility with its native formats."

While I'd love to be able to use OpenOffice.org or others, file format support for doc, xls, ppt, including the XML versions of those formats, are severely lacking in non-MS Office suites.

The sooner the world gets out of vendor-lock, the better!

[szymon_g]

"No, I just pirate Microsoft Office and get the best of both worlds. 21% (884 votes)"

mhawahahaha!

[mamamia88]

i like office and got my current copy for $10 from my college bookstore and it's totally better than open office imo. i took a class about how to use 07 now i love new features of ribbon. if there is a similar deal on office 10 i will probably try it

[murderslastcrow]

I suspect the reason they said, "I absolutely need the advanced features of Office," is along the same reason some older people think they need Windows. Because they think it's the only OS with a windows motif in rare occasions, or in some cases they think it's the only OS (Even on Apple's website they have to point out that "Mac OS X is what makes a Mac a Mac).

In the same way, if you think you need those advanced features, and you're so into it, chances are you're unaware of alternatives, unaware of their usefulness, or you've tried them and as soon as something was in a different place than in MS Office you gave up and went back arms flailing.

I suspect that only a percentage of that 1/6 really need those features, or understand what the poster meant by 'most advanced features'.

[magmon]

Who pays o.O?

[Velvet_Man]

I don't know about a lot of other people who picked the first option, but as a publishing professional and journalist, I can't use anything by MS Word. I have OpenOffice installed, and I've tried dozens of others, but none of them stack up. It's as simple as that. I'd rather pay for the best tool for a particular job than settle for second best because it's free -- especially when Office with 3 licenses only set me back $40.

I find it sad that so many people automatically assume that anyone who picked an option they don't understand must be ignorant.

[Ric_NYC]

Hmmmm...

http://img2.pict.com/6a/13/e6/3680293/0/1276832395.jpg

[blur xc]

I don't know about a lot of other people who picked the first option, but as a publishing professional and journalist, I can't use anything by MS Word. I have OpenOffice installed, and I've tried dozens of others, but none of them stack up. It's as simple as that. I'd rather pay for the best tool for a particular job than settle for second best because it's free -- especially when Office with 3 licenses only set me back $40.

I find it sad that so many people automatically assume that anyone who picked an option they don't understand must be ignorant.

Just out of curiosity, as one who uses Word or any other word processor like maybe for 10 minutes out of a given week, if even that much, what are advanced features in the first place?

I would feel it is safe to say that half of the people who selected that they need the advanced features of Word don't know what an advanced feature is, though...

BM