I (Doug) think I’d rather go to the dentist.
Swapping out a new laptop is a mixed bag. Certainly, we all look forward to the increased productivity that can come with speedier chips, brighter screens, and larger hard drives. But… wow. Once we experience the couple of days of lost productivity trying to transfer files and install applications, it can leave one with that gnawing sensation that says, “Was it worth it?”
Apple users say it’s easier for them. Sigh. But alas… I’m a Windows user through and through. But… wow.
Reinstalling Microsoft Office is always a hassle. Inevitably, I choose the wrong download file — and end up with Office 365 — which is NOT my fave because I enjoy being able to work offline… so I want to OWN the application, not rent it over the web. So then I have to use an Office uninstall cleaning tool or approach (examples: https://www.techwalla.com/articles/how-to-remove-microsoft-office-from-the-registry or https://support.office.com/en-us/article/uninstall-office-from-a-pc-9dd49b83-264a-477a-8fcc-2fdf5dbf61d8 ) because if there’s any TRACE of Office 365 on your machine, Microsoft keeps assuming you want it more than anything else. (These are important links to remember.) I know … I sound like a whiner. But — does it have to be this hard? Anyway, I’m starting to turn a corner on it (after three days). Hopefully, now I can start enjoying that increase in productivity???
An application that can make the migration to a new computer easier is Fab’s Autobackup. It will backup/move your data and settings for many programs. I use the pro version for our ministry to migrate users over to new computers. I find it saves a lot of time and effort. It may help you get closer to what our Mac friends have with Time Machine.
Thanks for the tip, Vaughan!
My wife (PC) and I (Mac) use Office 365 offline all the time.
Hi Michael. I was under the impression that Office 365 was basically a web “software-as-a-service.” Does the whole package work offline?
Yes, you can install the software and work offline. It will sync with the web when you are able to get online. Works for me.
We use Office 365 offline, too. This is important to us because we are often in areas where there’s no internet.
What we really like about it is we can have five computers on the same subscription ($100 US, as I remember, per year). So my husband and I have our computers on it plus three others who work on our New Testament translation.
Maybe you can seize the chance to use LibreOffice (Free Office Suite, https://www.libreoffice.org/). It is easy to transfer the configuration, the settings are in one folder, see https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/UserProfile. Just backup and transfer this folder. This works on Windows, MacOS and “the third way” Linux.
It has come a long way and we happily use it day by day.
One tool that I’ve found that’s useful of moving stuff from one machine to another is MirinSoft’s CloneApp. The primary difficulty is in moving registry entries, and CloneApp does that well.
For Office 365, yes, it’s a cloud-focused system, where the expectation is that your computer is a thin client (essentially a display, a keyboard and a mouse), where you’re interacting network-based data and applications. Besides control issues, cloud apps don’t work well if you don’t have an open Internet connection, and there’s lots of places in the world where Internet connectivity is neither ubiquitious, cheap, or even reliable.
With Office 365, if you get one of the Enterprise versions, those do allow for local installation, where you can work without Internet connectivity.
Our office recently purchased Office 2019 for our Windows users — with a 7-year support window, the cost that we got through volume licensing was cheaper than what we would pay on the best deal that we can find for Office 365. With our Mac users, we are using Office 365, because of the shorter support window.
As noted in another response, depending on how you work, LibreOffice may be an option to consider. It’s got all the power of MS Office, and is free, and if you don’t like Microsoft’s Ribbon interface, Libre supports the traditional hierarchical menus. There are a handful of tradeoffs to account for:
– The biggest one is a question of how much you need to collaborate with others that use MS Office. With Version 6, Libre has gotten to be pretty good at sharing, but there are differences, and occasional quirks, especially between Word and Writer. With Writer, it works in Open Doc formats, and if you open a .DOC/.DOCX file in Writer, then the document is converted to .ODF. You can save back to .DOC/.DOCX, but that requires another conversion, and with each conversion, there is some loss of fidelity (not unlike photocopying a copy). That’s generally not a problem for routine documents, but for stuff that has extensive formatting with graphics and page layout (e.g., documents that are essentially desktop publishing) or where you’re making use of change tracking, those don’t handle multiple conversions easily. Calc used to be limited on complex spreadsheets (macros, and pivoted tables), but I think a lot of that has been improved with V6, but perhaps not all.
– If you’re frequently working with limited Internet connectivity, updates to Libre can be a pain. The only tool for upgrades is a simple notification that a new version is available (no incremental updates), and then you have to go and manually download and install a new copy. And the updates are big — 6.3.4 for Win64 is a little larger than 300 MB.
– For some, the graphical presentation of Libre is a negative. As with many open source projects, it uses XP-vintage graphics, which often imply “old and slow”, even if the underlying product is every bit as good as what Microsoft produces.
@zEKE Thank you for the supportive comment! I agree with you and can share some more information.
– Compatibility of LibreOffice (LO) with Word can be an issue with very complex documents but not with normal documents. The LO team is constantly working on this and it is working well for most documents. The best would be if the people you collaborate with would also switch to LO, that would be a cost saving and privacy-focused win-win-situation for all.
– Update: I understand this can be a pain for Windows-users with a limited internet connection. Maybe a another reason to consider Linux, the “third way” (e.g. Ubuntu, OpenSuse) as it updates LO automatically and package-wise.
– The LO user interface has been upgraded and can be adapted now. You can use the traditional look or newer different tabbed interface options (View>User Interface). The tabbed interface is close to the Ribbon Interface. Here are the news about this with some pictures:
https://blog.documentfoundation.org/blog/2018/06/18/simplicity-and-flexibility-choose-the-right-libreoffice-interface-for-you/
https://hothardware.com/news/libreoffice-62-released-user-interface-based-muffin-concept
Give LibreOffice a try :).
Zeke, Dan, and Carolyn, these are SUPER helpful comments. THanks for taking time to explain. VERY helpful.
To answer your title question: Not only do I dread it, I HATE changing computers.
Once, when it was my turn for a new computer, I left it in the box for three months. My husband finally said to me, “If you aren’t going to use it, I’ll sell it to someone who will.” So I got busy and changed over but, like you, hate the wasted time and energy to get it how I like it.
Love it — someone else who identifies! : )