Microsoft → Upgrading to Office 365

My wife and I have individual installed versions of Office 2010; my daughter has Office 2013 (student?).

We're considering buying a "Home" Office 365 subscription. Has anyone done that and can comment on how seamless the upgrade is re: all the various customizations (options) in individual applications and accounts in Outlook being ported over?

Is it really and upgrade? Or does one start from scratch (that would almost be a deal-breaker)?

Thanks!

For what purpose are you upgrading? What does 365 offer your needs that 2010/2013 does not?

Before we had 2 laptops and a desktop, each running Office 2013.
I simply downloaded the Office 365 installation program from the office.com web site (you have to log into your account first), then ran it and let it update. After maybe 10 minutes Office 365 was on the computer. I haven't customized my apps much, but all my Outlook settings came over just fine.

I've had it for about 1 1/2 months and haven't had any issues, though I use Outlook much more than any of the other part of the suite.

Keep in mind that Office 365 does not remove your prior version of Office or at least that is an option anyway. For the first time you can run two versions of Office. I wouldn't recommend that as you can run into problems. For instance I have never been able to get the PC version of iCloud to work on my desktop. It protests the installation of two versions of Outlook even though I have Outlook sync turned off. I'd remove it, but that second version of Outlook helps me with an old version of Quicken.

The subscription is a fantastic deal. You are basically getting 5 computers loaded with Office Professional and on top of that you get 1TB plus of cloud storage on OneDrive for each account that you create. The 5- 1TB OneDrive accounts would cost you $500/year alone on Dropbox or Google. Then let's say you need Outlook, you are talking about another $200 minimum /computer for a perpetual license. With three computers, you would have to spend $600 on the software.

it's only a fantastic deal if you don't have Office already. If you own office you pay no annual fee to continue using it and besides that the new interface is downright ugly! Why in the world Microsoft used all capital letters for the interface makes absolutely no sense.

The only advantage to it is that you get the OneDrive accounts but many people don't like using them anyway. If you only use them for backup there are many reasonably priced options available.

Well 1 TB free storage on One Drive is not the only advantage. You get a full version of Outlook and Power Point that you don't get with the non pro versions that have total costs in the $300's. You can also put it on 5 machines, and you get version updates for free.

I was updating my Office about every 3 years to stay current. So cost of the yearly subscription averages out to about the same for me but I get 4 more licenses which is very useful.

Its an option that works for me just fine.

Thanks for the replies.

I'm convinced it's a good deal too... but I'm still not sure that installing it will in fact move over all the small customizations we've done over the years: to the ribbon, to the way the individual programs work, etc. I guess I can start from scratch but I'd hate to.

Thanks for the replies.

I'm convinced it's a good deal too... but I'm still not sure that installing it will in fact move over all the small customizations we've done over the years: to the ribbon, to the way the individual programs work, etc. I guess I can start from scratch but I'd hate to.

Well your template settings will stay the same but yea you will have to re tweak some of the ribbon settings, places where files are stored.... etc.

There are certainly pros and cons. I *really* miss the look and feel of 2010. However, the ability to install all 2013 apps across 5 devices has been really useful. Don't sweat the settings you can recreate them and you will get good learning in the process.

Thanks. I was afraid of that. Don't understand why it can't be an "upgrade"... but it still seems like a good deal.

I have both installed on both my Home PC and laptop. No problems. The only thing you cannot run side by side is Outlook.

As one poster said the menus by default are in all caps, but you can change them to Proper Case If You Want To (see attached picture).

2010 is faster than 2013, but there are some very cool features in 2013 like Flash Fill in Excel, and I have 15TB of space on my account not just 1TB.

Its amazing really, but if 2010 is suiting you well, then 2013 is not a must.

Another thing is if you have a lot of VBA code in your programs, some of it may have to be rewritten for 2013.

Just keep both and you will be happy. I do like the fact I can load it on five (5) computers for $99 a year.

How do you change the capital letters in the menus? I'm assuming you can change them individually because the file tab is still all capitals in your picture.

See: »answers.microsoft.com/en ··· b15696a8

Not hard to do but I'm OK with them the way they are.

I'd seen that hack before and while it changes most of the menu names it can't change all of them, I was hoping you could find a real solution. In addition it's a manual operation and not very elegant. I don't know why in the world Microsoft decided to make Office 365 so ugly!

does your workplace offer MS Home Use Program (HUP)? mine does, Office Pro 2013 cost me $9.95