Office 365 – Is it That Essential?

A lot of people may talk about Office 365 Home Premium and its perks. If you are a business owner, you may even consider getting it. So what is this popular app? It is basically the online version of Office 2013. You connect via the Web, create an account, pay for the subscription and you will get the appropriate files. There are pros and cons to Office 365, but as with any application – it is targeted for specific users.

First, cloud sharing is a term that is applied to hosting files off-site. You upload files via the OneDrive and you synch them with your platform. This is very useful if you need to access your files from different locations. You can also store files on your device since you are the one who created them.  A lot of people are very familiar with the Office desktop. Office 365 and Office Web Apps are relatively new additions. Office Web apps is more like a free yet limited version of the suite that interfaces with OneDrive. You can use it as a reader in computers that don’t have the Microsoft platform.

To run Office 365, you need Windows 7 or Windows 8. If you use Apple, you need OS X 10.6 or higher versions of their system. And of course you need access to the Web so that you can activate your subscription. You need Internet Explorer 9, Firefox 12, Safari 5 or Google Chrome 18. Of course, you need hardware that should be able run those OS’s plus at least 3GB available of disk space.

The apps that go with your subscription include Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Onenote, Access and Publisher. The Apple business versions do not have OneNote, Access and Publisher. The files you will be working with are compatible with Office 2010 and 2013. Some people may ask if there is free Office Web Apps, what’s the use of getting Office 365? The online Web Apps are very limited. There isn’t very much if you intend to work from multiple devices yet need the more extensive functions of Office 2013.

You might go for Google Docs if you need a free and reliable alternative. It works very well and Google services are relatively fast. Office 365, however offers you the maximum flexibility you need to access multiple devices, edit your files especially if those devices do not have Office 2013.

Test all things first, see what you need and if Office 365Home Premium fits the bill, go get it.