iPad Pro How are you guys using Microsoft Office on the 10.5” Pro ?

[TheRealAlex]

I use Excel, PowerPoint, Word, OutLook, OneNote for various tasks at work and daily life they all work seamlessly. And they are fully featured and Free on Devices less than 10 inches.

How is this being handled on 10.5” IPad Pros did you pay, Have you tried alternatives ?

 

[Eric5273]

I have an Office 365 subscription for my business email, so the extra cost to use these apps on my iPad was $5/month.

It's funny how people will line up to pay $600+ for an iPad Pro, and then complain about having to pay for software.

It kind of annoys me. I'm in the music industry, and it's the same thing there.... People will pay hundreds of dollars (or even thousands) for the best stereo equipment, but then they complain about having to pay a few dollars for music.

Even though you can't physically hold software or music in your hands, it's still a product that someone worked hard to create, and they are entitled to earn a living from having created it.

It seems that modern society is very respectful of intelectual property when it's in the form of patents for physical items you can hold in your hands, but much less so for copyrights. That is very unfortunate, and probably the reason why the biggest complaints about the iPad Pro are the lack of good software. Who would want to spend their time creating good software when nobody wants to pay for it?

 

[xxray]

Office subscription included in my university tuition. Some good basic alternatives are Google Docs/Slides/Spreadsheets. There’s also Apple’s Pages/Keynote/Numbers free.

 

[sparksd]

I have an Office 365 subscription that my wife and I use across multiple devices/PCs. With the 1TB cloud storage each, it’s a good deal.

 

[mk313]

I have an Office 365 subscription for my business email, so the extra cost to use these apps on my iPad was $5/month.

It's funny how people will line up to pay $600+ for an iPad Pro, and then complain about having to pay for software.

It kind of annoys me. I'm in the music industry, and it's the same thing there.... People will pay hundreds of dollars (or even thousands) for the best stereo equipment, but then they complain about having to pay a few dollars for music.

Even though you can't physically hold software or music in your hands, it's still a product that someone worked hard to create, and they are entitled to earn a living from having created it.

It seems that modern society is very respectful of intelectual property when it's in the form of patents for physical items you can hold in your hands, but much less so for copyrights. That is very unfortunate, and probably the reason why the biggest complaints about the iPad Pro are the lack of good software. Who would want to spend their time creating good software when nobody wants to pay for it?

I don’t think most people have a problem paying for software, but people don’t like paying a monthly fee to rent software.

 

[RevTEG]

I don’t think most people have a problem paying for software, but people don’t like paying a monthly fee to rent software.

This

 

[Altis]

I don’t think most people have a problem paying for software, but people don’t like paying a monthly fee to rent software.

Especially when it's painfully obvious that the only reason they had to move to the subscription model is because all this software is fully matured and has pretty much nowhere to go. There's rarely a compelling reason to buy the new version anymore.

Well, that and it makes it much easier to maintain as they only focus on the latest release.

 

[Eric5273]

I don’t think most people have a problem paying for software, but people don’t like paying a monthly fee to rent software.

In the old days (1990s-2000s), Microsoft Office Professional sold for around $300. At $5 per month, it takes more than 5 years before you end up paying more than that. I think the subscription model they have now is cheaper.

Yes, it's true people don't mind paying for software, as long as the fee is less than $10. Charge $50 or $100 for software, and I doubt many people will buy it. And that is why there are very few professional apps for iOS.

 

[mk313]

In the old days (1990s-2000s), Microsoft Office Professional sold for around $300. At $5 per month, it takes more than 5 years before you end up paying more than that. I think the subscription model they have now is cheaper.

Yes, it's true people don't mind paying for software, as long as the fee is less than $10. Charge $50 or $100 for software, and I doubt many people will buy it. And that is why there are very few professional apps for iOS.

Except that office 365 costs about $70/year (unless you find it on sale) and a full copy of office costs about $150 today, so it only takes about 2 year to come out ahead by buying it. No one is basing their decision to buy or rent software on what that software would have cost to buy 15-25 years ago.

 

[AlliFlowers]

But with your "rental," you're getting the cloud storage.

 

[rowspaxe]

But with your "rental," you're getting the cloud storage.

Totally agree, but its not just the price--its th functionality. OneDrive with office 365 is awesome. While iCloud is a cross platform nighmare
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Especially when it's painfully obvious that the only reason they had to move to the subscription model is because all this software is fully matured and has pretty much nowhere to go. There's rarely a compelling reason to buy the new version anymore.

I think subscription models are less hackable

 

[hufflematt]

iOS Excel is not completely fully featured. It cannot deal with links to other workbooks. Although I was impressed with iOS Excel, in the end I bought a MacBook for my spreadsheet needs. I'm much quicker using it and I need the version that can cope with links to other workbooks.

 

[AlliFlowers]

Totally agree, but its not just the price--its th functionality. OneDrive with office 365 is awesome. While iCloud is a cross platform nighmare
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I think subscription models are less hackable

Absolutely. I'm a OneNote junkie. So much so that I'll be presenting on it at an international conference this summer. 365 makes it a collaboration dream.

 

[sevvere]

There will come a time when a person will have never have owned a music album, movie, piece of software, a house, and a car, maybe even your phones and personal computers. Everything will be outright rented or basically rented.

Mmmmm... I wonder what type of governmental and economical structure people who have never owned anything will lean to ......


That being said, pirating software created this subscription based situation ... but gouging of software pricing created the pirating situation.

 

[sparksd]

There will come a time when a person will have never have owned a music album, movie, piece of software, a house, and a car, maybe even your phones and personal computers. Everything will be outright rented or basically rented.

Mmmmm... I wonder what type of governmental and economical structure people who have never owned anything will lean to ......


That being said, pirating software created this subscription based situation ... but gouging of software pricing created the pirating situation.

I'm actually pretty happy with it. Good set of tools, always up to date, shared among many devices (tablets, phones, desktops, and laptops) with myself, wife, and daughter, and each with 1TB cloud storage for $100/year.

 

[IowaLynn]

I guess everyone's forgotten buying Excel 4.0 / Word 3.02 and paying $300-399 EACH back in 1989. (Mac SE, SE/30 days) SuperLaserSpool was a must and cost $99. $7/month seems fine.

Operating systemswere on lease model for mainframes. And an IBM PC/AT was $6500 + couple thousand in applications, $495 ea. for Lotus Notes and others.

 

[elf69]

I tend to buy software, not rent.

I bought office 2016 for my Mac at work.
we are a Microsoft partner so have access to refurbisher licence.
I paid £10 for 3 users copy

But on my iPad I have tried WPS office which is free and is ok, but it's free so will not be best option for everyone.
most our paper work at work is web based so even a £50 tablet could do it!

 

[DNichter]

My company supplies an office 365 account for the use of my computer. Works well and I use Word and OneNote daily.

 

[Newtons Apple]

I use it and it works great with Dropbox.

 

[Brenster]

O365 University user here, distance learning with UK Open University. Whilst my main word and note taking is done on a Surface Pro 4, the Office suite on iPad Pro 10.5 is sweet. Some of the more advanced formatting and ink to text/ink to formula is not as feature rich as desktop Windows Office, what is here is absolutely sweet. Making up notes in OneNote on the iPad is great, as is using it as a large e-reader for revising from notes, embedded PDFs etc.

Word is more than good enough for text entry/essay writing with the Smart Keyboard Cover, with final formatting etc left to going on the desktop.

if you've used O365 via the web, O365 on iPad Pro 10.5 sits between O365 web and O365 desktop. More features than O365 web, plays nice with iOS 11 multi-tasking/drag & drop, but not quite as rich as O365 on the desktop.

Having all of my notes and docs hosted on OneDrive and being seamlessly available everywhere would be worth the yearly fee to me anyway, even if I wasn't on O365 University. Office and its integration with OneDrive is one area where Microsoft truly excels. Pun intended.

 

[sonicrobby]

I use Apples versions on my large iPads, but if I need MS office specifically then I'll use my mini for that. I refuse to pay for any subscriptions as my goal is to reduce monthly expenses, not increase them. Id much rather pay $100 once than to pay a monthly fee for the rest of my life.

Assuming you dont have the 10.5" iPad already, and if you dont want to pay for the monthly for what seems like a basic service, then I'd highly consider getting the 9.7" iPad as it is more than capable to do handle word processing.

 

[TinyChip]

I use Word and Excel only on my iMac or MacBook Pro because long-form writing (including formal business letters or reports with lots of special formatting, images, tables, charts, footnotes, etc.) and spreadsheets are ridiculous to do on my iPad Pro 10.5. I’m an advanced spreadsheet user so I need the widescreen of my iMac and MBP and Magic Trackpad to build and edit. Any short-form writing I can do on my iPad with Smart Keyboard using either Google Docs or Pages.

 

[helitech]

Office subscription included in my university tuition. Some good basic alternatives are Google Docs/Slides/Spreadsheets. There’s also Apple’s Pages/Keynote/Numbers free.

^^^this. Also have a subscription included with my tuition. It’s the least they can do considering how much tuition is these days... I just had to get my Master’s.... (I hate school)

 

[Wackery]

ask nextbit robin owners, the problem with subscriptions is that one day it can dissapear and there’s nothing you can do. but an app you bought will outlive the company that created it

 

[TheRealAlex]

There will come a time when a person will have never have owned a music album, movie, piece of software, a house, and a car, maybe even your phones and personal computers. Everything will be outright rented or basically rented.

Mmmmm... I wonder what type of governmental and economical structure people who have never owned anything will lean to ......


That being said, pirating software created this subscription based situation ... but gouging of software pricing created the pirating situation.

I tend to agree with this. It’s all turning to a Licensed System. Where the Software calls home and needs Internet access even to run, and has a ticking timebomb countdown clock internally. Where it will work but if you don’t connect to the internet it will stop working. I remember working at a dentist office as a teenager doing billing and appointments that our dentist was part of a class action lawsuit against A dental software management company for doing exactly this.
Also part of the reason I want a Used Xbox 306E. Since Microsoft lets you download previously Purchased games and I own. Marvel vs Capcom 2 which is $80 just by itself. And many more Classic Arcade game I bought 8 years ago.