Another computer question

[Hawkmoon]

Has anyone used or even tried the on-line versions of Word or Excel? I've been using Outlook.com to communicate by e-mail with my late wife's family in South America ever since Hotmail was absorbed by Outlook.com, but I've never explored anything else in Outlook.com. I was poking around, trying to find a way to back-up e-mails (and not finding anything) when I stumbled upon on-line versions of Word, Excel, and Powerpoint.

Any good? There has to be a catch -- are they free to use, or is it a trap? What's the scopp?

[lee n. field]

Has anyone used or even tried the on-line versions of Word or Excel? I've been using Outlook.com to communicate by e-mail with my late wife's family in South America ever since Hotmail was absorbed by Outlook.com, but I've never explored anything else in Outlook.com. I was poking around, trying to find a way to back-up e-mails (and not finding anything)

Don't have an opinion on the online Office apps, but backing up email should be no problem.

In a regular email program, like Thunderbird, set up the account, using the IMAP protocol.  It should keep a local copy while leaving the stuff on the server alone.

[Phantom Warrior]

Don't have an opinion on the online Office apps, but backing up email should be no problem.

In a regular email program, like Thunderbird, set up the account, using the IMAP protocol.  It should keep a local copy while leaving the stuff on the server alone.

Do you mean POP?  I have a lot of experience dealing with peoples' random old emails and POP was always the protocol I was happiest to see since it saved the emails to the local data file on that person's computer.  Whatever happened to the email on the server the POP emails were still on their computer.

Regardless, I agree that that installing an email program and downloading your emails from Outlook.com is the easiest way to back everything up.  I'm a particular fan of Thunderbird for their consistency, ease of use, and ongoing support.  Unlike Microsoft's tendency to change email clients with every version of Windows.

[Phantom Warrior]

It looks like Microsoft is coming up with their own free, online office suite to compete with Google Docs.  After two minutes of research it looks like there isn't really any catch.  It's a free, online only office suite with some limitations compared to the full paid for version.  I imagine like Google Docs you can save, email, share, and print whatever documents you create online. 

If you always have Internet access and your needs are simple the online Office will probably work fine.  If you need more advanced editing features or the ability to work on documents while offline it may not be the best option for you.

[Hawkmoon]

I know I could use Thunderbird, but I already use Thunderbird for my professional e-mail and for another quasi-professional e-mail address I use. For reasons it's not necessary to delve into (and which probably boil down to my personal quirk) I'd prefer to keep the family correspondence completely separated from the professional e-mail.

That said, my question here is about the on-line version of MS Office. I kicked the e-tires on the Word app/program last night and I think I could work with it. I just wondered if anyone has used it at all extensively and can give me some "verified user" feedback as to whether or not there are pitfalls lurking under the surface. Like the "free" version of Office that came pre-installed on my tablet, that's read-only unless you buy a subscription to Office 365.

[RoadKingLarry]

You should be able to set up multiple separate accounts on Thunderbird.

[Hawkmoon]

You should be able to set up multiple separate accounts on Thunderbird.

I have two accounts on Blunderbird -- my professional, consulting practice e-mail, and another related to a secondary quasi-professional endeavor. For various reasons, I would prefer not to have the personal messages to and from the wife's family in that mix.