I recently purchased a lifetime license to Office 2021 Professional for $49.99 - It is a legit licensed version. Got it from stacksocial.com

I checked this link and it looks like the deal is over now (says "sold out") but keep an eye out, they might bring this deal back:

https://stacksocial.com/sales/...4134799&tmpl=5629312

quote:

Originally posted by ensigmatic:
I should have made this clear: I wasn't pinging you for that. I'm fairly confident you were just doing what the PHB's wanted you to do--just as I was obliged to do the same.

I didn't take it that way at all.
I was fortunate that many of the Excel files I dealt with were generated from our Accounting/Distribution systems or from UPS/FedEx, etc.. They were usually very consistent and caused very few issues.
We had a number of customers provide Excel files for one reason or another.

quote:

Originally posted by ensigmatic:
My larger point was meant to be an indictment of how businesses don't invest the resources they should in proper solutions, rather than mis-purposing inadequate tools to hack things together to just get something that kinda sorta works most of the time.

I worked for a Fortune 500 Company with a lot of older complex systems that didn't talk to each other. They were unwilling to spend the money at the time and looked for workarounds.
Using Excel files, .csv, .xml, etc. for import from other systems was not ideal for automation but it was all we could do at the time. Much of that changed after they realized the cost savings. Many of the manual tasks/hand keying went from hours/days to seconds. I was able to get direct access to many of the SQL/Oracle databases.

Another vote for OpenOffice. You have to be quite the power user to find something it can’t do/make compatible with MicroCrap Office.

I'm an Excel power user. But if you can get by with Libre, you should go with that.

I pay for the subscription because for $70, I get the latest and greatest versions while also getting 1 TB cloud volume.

Microsoft is complicating things as there are some functions/formulas that are on the subscription plan that won't work on non-subscription versions.

Fortunately, none of the companies I've ever worked for have been too cheap to not pay for Microsoft office.

quote:

Originally posted by Riley:
This subscription based log in shit is really getting old.

Can I just get a version of SOME spreadsheet program that I can use and not sign into and not have to be connected online?

Windows 10, 64 bit.

I received a notification yesterday that my Office 365 is about to renew. Since I don't use most of the latest and greatest, I'm going with the one time purchase option this time around.

quote:

Originally posted by ensigmatic:
Office suites have their places. Trying to use them as document management systems and databases ain't it.

Excel was used as a database all over the place at the local Divisions. Mainly because it's what they were familiar with. Corporate IT wasn't exactly jumping at the chance to help.
They had enough on their plate with the non-stop acquisitions and integration issues.

quote:

Originally posted by ensigmatic:
But, as with not wanting to pay for MS Office suites on every last MS-Win PC: They didn't want to invest in proper solutions.

They never do these days.

Our Company decided to save money by switching to Google Docs. They underestimated just how entrenched Office was. There were countless macro enabled spreadsheets that would not work with Google Docs.
Custom Excel docs were created by every department over the years. Many produced reports that were not available anywhere else.

Excel was good for a lot of things. Our Customers/Customer Service maintained mailing lists that would be used for import into Distribution systems for FedEx/UPS/USPS/Freight shipping. Each Customer Service Rep. had dozens of these mailing lists, sometimes hundreds. Macros inside the document would make sure all required fields were complete and contained valid information. Imagine how time consuming it would be to manually insert/format a new column like a second email address or a field to help with international shipments. Having each CSR do this manually was an accident waiting to happen.
One example of automation is where we could recursively iterate though the Customer Service Share, locate only Customer Imports sheets based on the internal format. It would then insert/format a column at the correct location, alter the macro inside the excel file and rename the file so changes could be verified at a glance. We always had to lock the file down to prevent Customers from renaming, reordering or deleting columns. They could be a real pain in the ASS.

For a minute, I almost missed it all. What the hell was I thinking?!

Perhaps I neglected to mention that this is for personal use. Regardless, I now have a copy of Libre Office that I am using. Mainly just for reloading data and serial number tracking. I was able to open the Excel files and save a copy in Libre and it's golden.

Now, if I can figure out how to make the data validations on one column automatically apply to the same column on the next workbook sheet I'd be set. As it is, it's not a big deal to copy and paste over.

Making drop down lists of bullet types, powder, primer etc. and just making it more fancy than needed. Then I only have to type the chrono data, date and weather out. LOL.

Thanks all for the help!!!!

quote:

Originally posted by Riley:
Perhaps I neglected to mention that this is for personal use. Regardless, I now have a copy of Libre Office that I am using. Mainly just for reloading data and serial number tracking. I was able to open the Excel files and save a copy in Libre and it's golden.

Now, if I can figure out how to make the data validations on one column automatically apply to the same column on the next workbook sheet I'd be set. As it is, it's not a big deal to copy and paste over.

Making drop down lists of bullet types, powder, primer etc. and just making it more fancy than needed. Then I only have to type the chrono data, date and weather out. LOL.

Thanks all for the help!!!!

I'm sure someone here will be able to help.

https://forum.openoffice.org/e.../viewforum.php?f=101

YouTube videos can also be a great resource.