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I want to address this, since it's not the first time I've seen it. > Seriously, just use Office 365. Otherwise you'll forever be dealing with a constant low g

I want to address this, since it's not the first time I've seen it. > Seriously, just use Office 365. Otherwise you'll forever be dealing with a constant low grade stream of interoperability glitches. The obvious answer is that they're already using an alternative to MS Office if they're using Google, and the reason for the migration is not interoperability issues. Importantly, however, Office 365 is also not a usable alternative if you need perfect interoperability with MS Office files. Trust me on this. I've had an administrative position for the last couple years. Suddenly I went from rarely having to deal with MS Office files to a steady stream of them. No big deal, I thought, since my employer uses Office 365. It's literally a joke to think you can share files with users of the desktop version of MS Office. Many, many times a message has popped up telling me I need to open the file in the desktop version if I want to edit. (And I don't think it supports the older Office files at all.) I mentioned that to the secretary and she just laughed and said you can't do collaborative work with the online version when everyone else uses the desktop version.

hyperrail 6y ago
An opposing anecdote: While using the Office web apps, I have rarely seen the "you need to open this file in the Windows desktop version of XYZ to edit the file" message in the last year and a half at Microsoft, a company that intensely uses Microsoft 365. In every case that I can recall, this message showed up in one of 2 cases: 1. Macro-enabled files - there is no VBA or .NET programmability for the web version. 2. Files protected with M365/Azure information protection (DRM/IRM). I don't think either of these scenarios are likely to occur in a charity/nonprofit, which was the original post's concern. As for me personally, I hardly ever wanted to edit files in either category intentionally - the macro-enabled files are old archival docs and the DRMed docs are announcements from executives. > And I don't think it supports the older Office files at all. True. M365 can convert .abc Office files to the .abcx format, save the converted copy, then open it for viewing and editing. That all happens in 1 step but is not the same as supporting the old formats to begin with. > I mentioned that to the secretary and she just laughed and said you can't do collaborative work with the online version when everyone else uses the desktop version. Ironically, I find that to the extent this is true, that's because the desktop version has fewer features. Make a comment on a Word doc? If you did it in the web version, your collaborator gets an email with the comment text, and if they're using the Outlook web or Windows desktop versions, they can even reply to the comment from within the email preview without having to click Reply or open a link to the doc. But if you did it in the desktop version, all your collaborator gets is "Comment previews are coming soon to the version of Word [you] used!" where "soon" has been soon for at least a year and a half.

hyperrail 6y ago

An opposing anecdote: While using the Office web apps, I have rarely seen the "you need to open this file in the Windows desktop version of XYZ to edit the file" message in the last year and a half at Microsoft, a company that intensely uses Microsoft 365. In every case that I can recall, this message showed up in one of 2 cases: 1. Macro-enabled files - there is no VBA or .NET programmability for the web version. 2. Files protected with M365/Azure information protection (DRM/IRM). I don't think either of these scenarios are likely to occur in a charity/nonprofit, which was the original post's concern. As for me personally, I hardly ever wanted to edit files in either category intentionally - the macro-enabled files are old archival docs and the DRMed docs are announcements from executives. > And I don't think it supports the older Office files at all. True. M365 can convert .abc Office files to the .abcx format, save the converted copy, then open it for viewing and editing. That all happens in 1 step but is not the same as supporting the old formats to begin with. > I mentioned that to the secretary and she just laughed and said you can't do collaborative work with the online version when everyone else uses the desktop version. Ironically, I find that to the extent this is true, that's because the desktop version has fewer features. Make a comment on a Word doc? If you did it in the web version, your collaborator gets an email with the comment text, and if they're using the Outlook web or Windows desktop versions, they can even reply to the comment from within the email preview without having to click Reply or open a link to the doc. But if you did it in the desktop version, all your collaborator gets is "Comment previews are coming soon to the version of Word [you] used!" where "soon" has been soon for at least a year and a half.