Oh, Well, Coulda Been Worse

[CandidPicker]

Was working with my Mac computer this evening and had typed up a document for a neighbor who needed a copy of a written document for her landlord...

Long story short, when I moved to save the document with the Save As feature from MS Office for Mac Word, nothing happened. Earlier today I'd recently updated the Office for Mac software with an update...apparently, the update effectively screwed up the Save As and Save options so that the only option was to print the document copies and provide my neighbor with these.

The remainder of the evening was trying to locate a single-user copy of the most recent release of MS Office for Mac. Apparently, the only current release is Office 2019 from amazon, to the tune of $219 for a one-time download, or get sucked into subscribing to Microsoft 365 and pay monthly recurring fees. Nowhere on Microsoft's website could I sign in with my ID and find a 1-time download of Office 2019 at a reduced price.

Not desiring the recurring fee route it was necessary to cough up the $219 plus tax for the one-time. Well, the software downloaded and installed correctly, and the new dark theme screen background is awesome, but why, Microsoft, why? Did you intentionally sabotage my MS Office for Mac 2016 with a corrupted update file so I'd need to shell out cash for your Office 2019? Why? This sure smacks of conspiracy...

It could have been worse. It could have been raining.

 

[Warmart]

Sorry for the troubles, that is definitely a frustrating thing to deal with! I wouldn't attribute too much malice to Microsoft, they have enough complexity in their software that just keeping things working is enough of a challenge. They aren't going to specifically introduce a bug that caused such a problem. There could be an untold number of factors in play.

 

[CandidPicker]

Sorry for the troubles, that is definitely a frustrating thing to deal with! I wouldn't attribute too much malice to Microsoft, they have enough complexity in their software that just keeping things working is enough of a challenge. They aren't going to specifically introduce a bug that caused such a problem. There could be an untold number of factors in play.

Thanks for commiserating. The only thing that bothers me is that up to Wednesday yesterday, Microsoft has faithfully provided software updates with no issues whatsoever. The most recent MS Office for Mac 2016 update virtually incapacitated all of my MS Office apps. The Save As and Save functions ceased to work.

That posed a problem because my work involves using Word & Excel regularly. Not being able to save documents is simply not an option. The other issue is that I use letter-greetings and envelope templates regularly as well. No other word processing program on today's market I know of has the Mailings feature. To save time and money, the Mailings feature is a must-have. Typing out each individual letter-greeting or envelope address just doesn't work efficiently.

Until Apple updates their Pages & Numbers programs to include a Mailings letter-greeting/envelope template option, MS Office 2019 (or the MS 365 subscription) was my only choice.

The $235 could have been used more appropriately for feeding me and my family. Am deferring CC payments to offset my needs for the next several months, and have help arriving in the meantime. Am not worried at present and will be OK.

Am more concerned with fellow state residents who lost power during Isaias and had to toss food from their fridges that had gone bad. This is no joke. Consider that Covid has knocked us down financially and Isaias stomped all over us by knocking out power to the majority of CT for 8+ days. Locally, we were OK. Having to toss bad food cost other state residents already hurting from Covid once again.

 

[dogrocketp]

Wow! Sorry for all the brouhaha!

 

[CandidPicker]

Wow! Sorry for all the brouhaha!

Thanks for your concern. It wasn't a pleasant experience trying to navigate Microsoft's website only to discover that MS 365 was the only option available through them. And then to discover that the standalone version of Office 2019 was a heavy chunk of change.

Am fortunate this time. Was planning on walking away from MS Office until they fixed the update bug. Couldn't wait. Spoke with immediate family who agreed to front the amount of cost with expectation of repayment later this year. (Am expecting a small stipend in the next several months that will cover the amount). TBH, it would have been a huge mistake to not invest in Office 2019; my work would have not been able to proceed...

While I usually detest asking family for money, this was required, since my finances weren't enough to cover beyond the usual budgeted expenses for this month. (Have needed to budget this month while my income stabilizes). Although I'm not poor myself, it is necessary for me to budget each month to determine what my needs are versus what luxury items are possible. I think a good wedge of the public demographic pie chart fits into this category...

 

[xjbebop]

I understand many people still -need- to use MS office, but luckily, I'm not one.
I haven't wasted time or $$ on that for years.
Been using Open Office for quite some time, with no regrets. Makes my life easier!
https://www.openoffice.org/

 

[CandidPicker]

I understand many people still -need- to use MS office, but luckily, I'm not one.
I haven't wasted time or $$ on that for years.
Been using Open Office for quite some time, with no regrets. Makes my life easier!
https://www.openoffice.org/

Thanks. My issue is that all of my previous documents are MS Office for Mac Word or Excel. Would happily consider OpenOffice if is were possible to convert the files on my Mac to OpenOffice format. My only stipulation is that OpenOffice would need to have a Mailings feature for envelopes templates and letter-greetings from data file source lists.