Microsoft is rebranding Office, rolling apps into Microsoft 365

[Shawn Knight]

Recap: It's been over 30 years since Redmond released the first version of Microsoft Office. The long-running suite of productivity programs, which has helped users create countless essays, spreadsheets and presentations, is arguably the company's most recognizable software brand outside of Windows. Soon, it'll be a distant memory as Microsoft marches forward with its Office rebranding effort.

From November, Office.com will redirect to Microsoft365.com complete with a new icon, a new look and fresh features. The Office mobile app and the Office app on Windows will get the same treatment starting in January 2023, and they'll apply to everyone that uses Office apps for work, school or personal use.

Microsoft said the transition to Microsoft 365 branding will not impact existing accounts, profiles, subscriptions or files. The changes will happen automatically, we're told.

It's worth clarifying that staples like Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook aren't going away entirely. They are simply being rolled into Microsoft 365. "We will also continue to offer one-time purchases of those apps to consumers and businesses via Office 2021 and Office LTSC plans," Microsoft added.

New features destined for the Microsoft 365 app include a new way to group and organize content using custom tags, a content feed populated with information about who you work with and what you work on and new content creation templates.

The news comes on the heels of Microsoft's Surface hardware event where Redmond introduced the Surface Pro 9 2-in-1, the Surface Laptop 5 and an updated Surface Studio 2+ with RTX 3060 graphics. Microsoft also announced that its new set of PC accessibility adapters will be available starting October 25.

While on the subject, there's still time to pick up an Office Professional 2021 license outright for just $49.99. That's an incredible 85 percent off the regular price -- a flat out steal for a lifetime license that grants full access to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, OneNote, Publisher and Access. Software license keys and download links are available instantly after purchase.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/96308-microsoft-rolling-office-apps-microsoft-365.html

 

[Rq3EWAq]

"The offer is only valid for three more days so if you're interested, be sure to grab it ASAP."

No thanks, I've been using OpenOffice and then LibreOffice for last ten years, never felt I need to buy this paid offering. LO suits my needs in 100%.

 

[Plutoisaplanet]

"The offer is only valid for three more days so if you're interested, be sure to grab it ASAP."

No thanks, I've been using OpenOffice and then LibreOffice for last ten years, never felt I need to buy this paid offering. LO suits my needs in 100%.

I've been using Microsoft Office for the last 10 years as well and I've never needed to buy this in order to legally use it. I've just used the subscription that comes with my workplace, which Microsoft 365 intentionally lets you use the license on multiple computers.

 

[terzaerian]

I can't wait for when they roll out Clippy 2.0, who will analyze what you're writing and report you to the FBI or ADL if it is considered hate speech.

 

[Rq3EWAq]

I've been using Microsoft Office for the last 10 years as well and I've never needed to buy this in order to legally use it. I've just used the subscription that comes with my workplace, which Microsoft 365 intentionally lets you use the license on multiple computers.

Good for you. But someone in this example paid the cost - your workplace.
Me, being self-employed, I can choose whatever package I want, so LibreOffice it is.

 

[Plutoisaplanet]

Good for you. But someone in this example paid the cost - your workplace.
Me, being self-employed, I can choose whatever package I want, so LibreOffice it is.

Someone is paying the cost in your situation too. Given that LibreOffice is a non-profit, the cost is shared across its volunteers and donators, so that's why LibreOffice is free to you (and others). And there's nothing wrong with using LibreOffice of course, but I too can choose whatever package I want. Both LibreOffice and Office are free to me, so Office it is.

 

[Rq3EWAq]

Someone is paying the cost in your situation too. Given that LibreOffice is a non-profit, the cost is shared across its volunteers and donators, so that's why LibreOffice is free to you (and others). And there's nothing wrong with using LibreOffice of course, but I too can choose whatever package I want. Both LibreOffice and Office are free to me, so Office it is.

That's the difference, LO has an optional cost for a user, if he decides to donate. Otherwise, it is free. MS Office doesn't have this luxury - someone has to pay, you or your workplace.

If I had the choice of Microsoft Office and LibreOffice, I'd choose LO, because it's free and open source. It's better to support FOSS than one corporation.

 

[ZedRM]

Yay! MS is adding more "features" to their rip-off subscription schemes..

 

[toooooot]

"We will also continue to offer one-time purchases of those apps to consumers and businesses via Office 2021"
Thats the only thing I need. Most people I know dont need a new office every year.
It means purchasing it once and running for years is much cheaper.
I just cant stand 365 because for people who dont use it that often it is way over than they should pay for

 

[torchyear]

This one-system perpetual licence is not for me, but great for some specific circumstances. For example my parents are tightwads and still using Office 2010 on their personal laptop. Attempts to transition them to LibreOffice broke their brains when ancient Word and Excel files weren't formatted correctly. Bringing them to this decade's version of Office is worth the $36 one-off to stop the 9pm family tech support phone calls.

Now if you could please offer me a Visio licence for $36...

 

[DSirius]

Someone is paying the cost in your situation too. Given that LibreOffice is a non-profit, the cost is shared across its volunteers and donators, so that's why LibreOffice is free to you (and others). And there's nothing wrong with using LibreOffice of course, but I too can choose whatever package I want. Both LibreOffice and Office are free to me, so Office it is.

There are some fundamental differences between Libre Office and Microsoft Office. Libre Office is open source and free to use for anybody, donations are optional. Microsoft Office is expensive and the cost is mandatory, customers which are trapped in MOffice ecosystem have to pay for it monthly or annualy. Worse, Microsoft intentionally sabotaged Libre office with it's so called OOXML format, in a desperate move to stop people using free odt format - Open Document format - for documents as a free standard.
I think that more and more people, companies and customers will leave Microsoft Office and start using open source alternatives. The process may take more years but, eventually will have the same effect which free Android did to Windows operating system expensive licenses.

 

[Uncle Al]

More lipstick ... same old pig ...