Please explain MS Office Licencing to me...

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DonGould

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#115766 5-Apr-2013 21:20

Visited a site today with a some what distressed client trying to make sense of office.

Someone had been kind enough to load a student copy of Office 2010.... not really very kind to pay a retailer $250 for something that has no value when it's being used in a commerical setting...

The product seemed to be limited in that it had ads in a pane on the right hand side and Excel wouldn't even allow pane freezing.... clearly we need to get them into something else.

But what are the options.

What is Office 365? I see that it can be purchased on a monthly licence. But is that all cloud based? Will anything work if the computer doesn't have an active net connection?

Where is the cloud stuff based? I know there are latency problems to .sg right now, does that actually impact the software?

Should I be getting them into Office 2013? Can they purchase that on a month by month licence?

Is there any value in that student licence? Can it be upgraded from in anyway or is that just wasted money?

They've got 3 computers, all of which need sorting out. Is there a licence option for this?

If they go the 365 way, does it allow saving the files on the local computer or are the files cloud based as well?

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#794090 5-Apr-2013 21:23

Why don't you just refer them to someone who knows the product and can give value based advice?

freitasm

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#794091 5-Apr-2013 21:25

DonGould: Visited a site today with a some what distressed client trying to make sense of office.

Someone had been kind enough to load a student copy of Office 2010.... not really very kind to pay a retailer $250 for something that has no value when it's being used in a commerical setting...

What do you mean by this? The client didn't want to buy Office and pay the $250? Why do you say "has no value"? If the client is using it then there's a value in that.

DonGould: The product seemed to be limited in that it had ads in a pane on the right hand side and Excel wouldn't even allow pane freezing.... clearly we need to get them into something else.

But what are the options.

The options would be for your "client" not to load "borrowed" software with the wrong licence.

DonGould

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#794093 5-Apr-2013 21:26

Dratsab: Why don't you just refer them to someone who knows the product and can give value based advice?

Because I'd like to know this stuff myself.

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#794095 5-Apr-2013 21:29

Office 365 Home Premium is a subscription-based Office 2013 that is always up-to-date and delivered online.

Office 2013 is available from retailers for those desktop-based applications, installed offline (in contrast to Office 365 Home Premium.

Office 365 is a cloud-based service with messaging, collaboration.

But yes, put him in contact with someone experienced in delivering the Office solutions. You can probably get some training on that, but I'd say immediate needs of your client won't be satisfied right now without some "intervention".

freitasm

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#794097 5-Apr-2013 21:31

DonGould:
Dratsab: Why don't you just refer them to someone who knows the product and can give value based advice?

Because I'd like to know this stuff myself.

You need training. Sorry but you won't know all the intricacies of this software overnight, not in time to help this client.

You can learn about it for other clients, but for this immediate problem you may not have all the answers. Unless the client is happy with "on the job training".

DonGould

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#794098 5-Apr-2013 21:32

freitasm:
DonGould: Visited a site today with a some what distressed client trying to make sense of office.

Someone had been kind enough to load a student copy of Office 2010.... not really very kind to pay a retailer $250 for something that has no value when it's being used in a commerical setting...

What do you mean by this? The client didn't want to buy Office and pay the $250? Why do you say "has no value"? If the client is using it then there's a value in that.

DonGould: The product seemed to be limited in that it had ads in a pane on the right hand side and Excel wouldn't even allow pane freezing.... clearly we need to get them into something else.

But what are the options.

The options would be for your "client" not to load "borrowed" software with the wrong licence.

I don't know how the client ended up with a student licence. They're builders, I doubt they read the packaging that closely.

I agree the best option is not to install the wrong thing, and also not to buy the wrong thing.

I found the student edition, with the flashing advertising very annoying. Who would want to be trying to write an assignment and see that lot flashing at you and taking up your screen.

I wanted to upgrade my own version of MS Access the other week and really didn't understand the differences at all between 365 and 2013.

I've been using office since version 4. something... so 20 odd years, but it's all got quite confusing.

Confusing just to get a Microsoft word processor, spreadsheet and database.

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DonGould

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#794099 5-Apr-2013 21:35

freitasm:
DonGould:
Dratsab: Why don't you just refer them to someone who knows the product and can give value based advice?

Because I'd like to know this stuff myself.

You need training. Sorry but you won't know all the intricacies of this software overnight, not in time to help this client.

You can learn about it for other clients, but for this immediate problem you may not have all the answers. Unless the client is happy with "on the job training".

Oh for heavens sakes... I've been developing applications around office products for near on two decades.

I haven't bothered to upgrade a licence since 2003 because 2003 is that functional that I've not had a need.

What a load of rubbish that I need training just to find out what licences are the best option for a SME with 3 computers.

Really?!

Do I just need to push them at Open Office where I can just join a mailing list to find out this stuff?

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DonGould

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#794100 5-Apr-2013 21:39

freitasm: Office 365 Home Premium is a subscription-based Office 2013 that is always up-to-date and delivered online.

Office 2013 is available from retailers for those desktop-based applications, installed offline (in contrast to Office 365 Home Premium.

Office 365 is a cloud-based service with messaging, collaboration.

But yes, put him in contact with someone experienced in delivering the Office solutions. You can probably get some training on that, but I'd say immediate needs of your client won't be satisfied right now without some "intervention".

Ok, thank you very much, that about answers what I needed to know.

Office 365 HP seems like the solution, but does it run on the computer when the computer is off line, and does HP mean it can be used for commerical purpose?

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DonGould

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#794105 5-Apr-2013 21:47

Edit: sorry guys, I've updated the title.

It's the licensing issues that I'm not clear on and what the current versions do on and off line.

I don't need someone to explain the basics of how office works. I've been developing Office based applications for years including complex VBA driven automation, email integration and complex mail merge and graphing systems.

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bazzer

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#794107 5-Apr-2013 21:48

I don't know if that's the Student version (isn't is usually Home and Student or something?). In my experience, this has never been a cut down version. Your issue sounds more like Office Starter, which sometimes comes bundled with PCs and is ad-supported. Things might have changed with 2013. Maybe they haven't installed/activated their Student license (which is probably not applicable to their commercial environment anyway).

DonGould

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#794111 5-Apr-2013 21:53

bazzer: I don't know if that's the Student version (isn't is usually Home and Student or something?). In my experience, this has never been a cut down version. Your issue sounds more like Office Starter, which sometimes comes bundled with PCs and is ad-supported. Things might have changed with 2013. Maybe they haven't installed/activated their Student license (which is probably not applicable to their commercial environment anyway).

Ok that's making more sense... yes I think you might be right, it might be office start. I didn't even know that existed.

...and yes, that student version is not appropriate and we'll be having a chat about that next week.

I see no point in paying anything if you're not going to pay for the right thing. May as well just pirate the software, which I'm not advocating at all, especially not in the case of this client, they're doing just fine out of the earthquake work and it is very much appropriate that the love is shared and the right thing done, the question is just 'what's the right thing'.

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bazzer

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#794113 5-Apr-2013 21:56

DonGould:
freitasm: Office 365 Home Premium is a subscription-based Office 2013 that is always up-to-date and delivered online.

Office 2013 is available from retailers for those desktop-based applications, installed offline (in contrast to Office 365 Home Premium.

Office 365 is a cloud-based service with messaging, collaboration.

But yes, put him in contact with someone experienced in delivering the Office solutions. You can probably get some training on that, but I'd say immediate needs of your client won't be satisfied right now without some "intervention".

Ok, thank you very much, that about answers what I needed to know.

Office 365 HP seems like the solution, but does it run on the computer when the computer is off line, and does HP mean it can be used for commerical purpose?

TBH, you seem a bit defensive, but I'll help you out... try this.

Lias

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#794117 5-Apr-2013 22:11

Microsoft have a fullblown exam around licensing.

http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/exam.aspx?id=70-671

Pretty sure you need to be an MS Partner to get access to the training material thou.

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DonGould

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#794119 5-Apr-2013 22:15

bazzer:
TBH, you seem a bit defensive, but I'll help you out... try this.

Ya thanks for a link to google... If only I'd thought of that.

Clearly you didn't even bother to read half the questions, but thanks for engaging the issue, kinda proves what I half suspected, that most people really have no clue and the space is just annoyingly over complex which is why consumers just don't bother and pirate when they can.

Comment the client made to me this afternoon "Can't I just have Office 2003? I don't need all the bling, I just need frozen panes"

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DonGould

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#794120 5-Apr-2013 22:19

Lias: Microsoft have a fullblown exam around licensing.

http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/exam.aspx?id=70-671

Pretty sure you need to be an MS Partner to get access to the training material thou.

Thanks Lias,

I'm not surprised they now have an exam around it. I recall paying someone $1200 a decade ago to sort out licensing for a site and he still got it all wrong.

...but I'm not actually trying to licence a corporate site, I'm just trying to sort out 3 computers for 3 people who just need a word processor and spreadsheet.... it really shouldn't be to complex.

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