Word these days ...

[SemeeNerdy]

First, a moment of silence for the always-superior WordPerfect.


Thanks.

I sound like one of the BlackBerry zealots, which I never got to try. My current iPhone 11's my first real cell. But I'd give a lot to have WordPerfect back, which MS robbed from and then slaughtered. And MySpace.

Anyway, I got notices (back when my MacBook Pro still ran ... see other thread) that my edition of Word was no longer supported. I can't recall what version that had been ... 2011? I ignored them.

What must one pay "these days" to access the software? I loathe the intrusions of newer versions of software, such as "Welcome back! Continue where you left off!" (Eff the eff off!), or "Did you really mean that? Would your mother approve?" or "Connect to Linked In?" (WHAT??), but I do apparently have to update at some point. I use Word a lot.

Thanks

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hello,

As the computer industry moves forward, there will be some incompatibilities with older software and the introduction of new functionality/technologies. Most software these days will become incompatible/obsolete within 5 years or so, and will need updated/upgraded to remain compatible. That is why you will see a lot of major software vendors moving to subscription and/or cloud-based version, to remove some of the incompatibilities introduced by new hardware.

Many of the new features iOS/macOS like Continuity, Sidecar, etc.

One way to prevent the need to pay for an update/upgrade, would be to not update OS X/macOS to the latest and greatest without fully researching the ramifications of doing so. I still use a few older Macs for that specific reason.

Another is to switch to other platforms to avoid the subscription models of vendors like Microsoft and Adobe. The iWork (Pages/Numbers/Keynote) applications in macOS are now free, and have some Microsoft compatibility built-in. Also, Google apps (Docs/Sheets/Slides/Drive) are free with a Google account and work very well, but they don't have a lot of the advanced features of Microsoft Office.

The computer/Internet industry is moving faster and faster as each year passes, and all end-users will need to research and decide what updates/upgrades will work for them, or what sacrifices they need to make to maintain their current workflow.

Hope that helps.

C