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Microsoft Office 2019 and 2021 for Mac view-only conversion

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Re: Microsoft Office 2019 and 2021 for Mac view-only conversion

#341

Post by Joel_Mckay »

zelphirkalt wrote: post #321
Joel_Mckay wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most use PDF for exchanges anyway, as there is no guarantee the receiver system has all the document components/features used to author content. 10% of users with MacOS Office 2019 installs just got NERF'd by Microsoft. This story will not encourage users to spend more money on a disappearing rabbit trick. =3

The critical point is collaboration on a document. I wish LO had this. You know, like other collaborative editors online, where you can see the other person's cursor and inputs live and all that, with a conflict free data structure driving it all. LO needs this, if it ever wants to replace MS Word in businesses. Even if it would be totally fine for most situations to edit sequentially, there are those cases, when mul…

>It does not even have to be in a web UI or browser

LibreOffice Writer online was not popular, so it is understandable you assume it doesn't exist. There is also the trivial headless Linux remote desktop cloud hosting with 100% identical functionality.

>"edit at the same time"

Perhaps you meant: "View -> Toolbars -> Track Changes..."

Most documents that support OLE have difficulty handling concurrent writes. Office 365 abandoned desktop publishing in 2019, and replaced it with a web document management system.

Best workaround is every user imports each instanced changes: "File -> Merge Document."

And manually handle any collisions.

I would post how to setup your own remote collaborative environment on an $8/month host, but people seem like they are not interested. =3

Re: Microsoft Office 2019 and 2021 for Mac view-only conversion

#342

Post by arendtio »

jamwise wrote: post #131

Been using LibreOffice for years. Everyone should. If we don't vote with our choices companies like Microsoft will keep pushing the envelope until you have to pay a monthly fee to turn on your own computer. https://www.libreoffice.org/

I have been using it for a while as well (started with OpenOffice). However, not all apps can keep up the pace.

As a word processor, I like Writer even more than MS Word, but Calc, for example, is just much slower than MS Excel when you build a bit larger spreadsheets.

So from an ideological perspective, I agree, but you should know that there are some drawbacks / the products have different strengths.

Re: Microsoft Office 2019 and 2021 for Mac view-only conversion

#343

Post by arendtio »

zelphirkalt wrote: post #319
jamwise wrote: post #131

Been using LibreOffice for years. Everyone should. If we don't vote with our choices companies like Microsoft will keep pushing the envelope until you have to pay a monthly fee to turn on your own computer. https://www.libreoffice.org/

In general, I also am a LO fan, but recently it left me hanging quite a bit. I wrote my CV in LO, to avoid my endless tinkering mode, that I had with my LaTeX CV, that still never looked exactly how I wanted it to look. Then 2 things happened: I upgraded my desktop computer from Debian 12 to 13. Now LO can no longer start. I am only getting a crash without UI error, and on command line I get a nothing saying C++ erro…

Sounds more like a problem with the Debian upgrade.

Sure, better error messages could help, but when it no longer even starts...

Re: Microsoft Office 2019 and 2021 for Mac view-only conversion

#344

Post by zelphirkalt »

Joel_Mckay wrote: post #341
zelphirkalt wrote: post #321

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The critical point is collaboration on a document. I wish LO had this. You know, like other collaborative editors online, where you can see the other person's cursor and inputs live and all that, with a conflict free data structure driving it all. LO needs this, if it ever wants to replace MS Word in businesses. Even if it would be totally fine for most situations to edit sequentially, there are those cases, when mul…

>It does not even have to be in a web UI or browser LibreOffice Writer online was not popular, so it is understandable you assume it doesn't exist. There is also the trivial headless Linux remote desktop cloud hosting with 100% identical functionality. >"edit at the same time" Perhaps you meant: "View -> Toolbars -> Track Changes..." Most documents that support OLE have difficulty handling concurrent writes. Office 3…

Are you talking about the LO WASM thingy? (https://wasm-test.libreoffice.org/)

I have recently tried to use it, but couldn't find a way to open files from local computer in it. It showed me a fake filesystem and dragging and dropping files also didn't work.

I have not used another web browser LO thing, I think. If you are talking about another thing, do you have demo site/link?

> Perhaps you meant: "View -> Toolbars -> Track Changes..."

No, I mean a mode or so that is like online word processors like Google Docs, where you see the cursor of someone else, with their name, and can see them typing live, while you are also typing somewhere in the document. Unless "Track Changes" somehow enables connecting to someone else and seeing their actions concurrently, it is not what I am talking about. I really mean collaboratively editing a document, at the same time, seeing changes others make live, not merging afterwards (the git model).

Re: Microsoft Office 2019 and 2021 for Mac view-only conversion

#345

Post by anticensor »

misswaterfairy wrote: post #194
msla wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every time someone imagines a country going after Microsoft in a serious way these days, I wonder how much that country's government depends on Microsoft software and cloud infrastructure, and if that country imagines Microsoft would continue to allow them to use such things if they become an enemy of Microsoft in court.

Microsoft's key customers aren't consumers, its business and government: specifically enterprise licensing agreements. If Microsoft seriously upset business and governments, they wouldn't be profitable, if in business at all, not long after that. Because of Microsoft's dominant position considering near ubiquitous penetration of Microsoft Office in government, one part of government will slap Microsoft on the wrist f…

Microsoft is actually large enough to start their own country. They'd just pull out of all government contracts all at once.

Re: Microsoft Office 2019 and 2021 for Mac view-only conversion

#346

Post by DrewADesign »

wombatpm wrote: post #163
DrewADesign wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Arbitration agreements are de rigueur in EULAs, terms of service, and all sorts of other contracts.

Until there is a coordinated effort for every user to demand arbitration. Suddenly a corporation wants to combine all complaints into a single case, because each arbitration has a fixed cost for the corporation.

And arbitration agreements have been de rigueur for decades, while users have become more complacent about software licensing. I’d consider the chance of that happening to be somewhere around zero. Without policy change, there’s no way in hell that’s going to change.

Re: Microsoft Office 2019 and 2021 for Mac view-only conversion

#347

Post by IFC_LLC »

mft_ wrote: post #298
IFC_LLC wrote: post #50

The best company to do Microsoft in is Microsoft. They are responsible for awesome sales of MacBook Neo.

I disagree. I suspect the vast majority of Neo sales are simply driven by the ability to get Apple-quality laptop hardware for such a low price. As such, the people driving the Neo sales are competing manufacturers who offer cheap nasty plastic underpowered Windows laptops around that price point. A small minority of buyers may be primarily buying the Neo to escape Windows; but I would argue that if someone is this s…

I think you severely underestimate the power of Copilot. It's the absolute worst thing for windows.

(I've been using Microsoft since Windows 3.11, till Windows 10. Windows 11 was the last drop for me.)

Re: Microsoft Office 2019 and 2021 for Mac view-only conversion

#349

Post by hbwang2076 »

DomenicoMazza wrote: post #108

This change would go against multiple consumer guarantees in Australia where it's 1) a right to have undisturbed possession of a product 2) products must be fit for the advertised purpose https://www.accc.gov.au/consumers/buying-products-and-servic... Microsoft would be breaking consumer law if the change goes ahead for the perpetual licenses they sold in Australia

[flagged]

Re: Microsoft Office 2019 and 2021 for Mac view-only conversion

#350

Post by nonethewiser »

asveikau wrote: post #49
nikcub wrote: post #14

I believe the urgent deprecation timeline here may be related to ai labs using offline licensed Office in agents as part of workflows and Office integration. Microsoft wants _each_ agent instance to be a separate license[0] There was always a probability that Microsoft were going to funnel offline users into O365 at some point - but I imagined that to take place over months / years not weeks and days. Buying a single…

Is it me or are people too eager to "one track mind" everything into AI? If I had said thirty years ago that Microsoft would remote disable old copies of Office asking you to upgrade, literally no one would be surprised. This is standard MO for Microsoft, even in a world without AI.

>If I had said thirty years ago that Microsoft would remote disable old copies of Office asking you to upgrade, literally no one would be surprised. This is standard MO for Microsoft

Ok. Doesnt mean its not because of AI.

Does Anthropic use one or a few licenses to serve all office artifacts?

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