Excel 2016

[jim may]

Excel has certainly morphed itself into the history books since its beginning. And with each version upto now the VBA environment has remained constant.

I've been running MSO 2013 Prof Plus for the past year, but am considering buying new (Not an Upgrade) MSO 2016 Pro Plus. Since I need Access that's why I opted for the Prof Plus Suite.
The MS Office products presentation confuses me as there is Office 365, etc.

Whatever I buy must be backward compatible.

I'm OLD SCHOOL and want to be self-contained on this new install.

What product name should I buy or any comments offered would be appreciated

Thanks,

Jim May

 

[starl]

Office 365 vs Office as we know it is a licensing terminology headache.

If you purchase Office 365, you are SUBSCRIBING to Microsoft Office. You will always have the latest version of Office. You pay monthly or yearly. You have x licenses.
If you just buy Office - you get that version and that version only. One time price. ONE license.

 

[Smitty]

Office 365 vs Office as we know it is a licensing terminology headache.

Yes, and a poorly communicated one at that.

On the plus side for O365 you'll get automatic monthly updates where MS pushes what they call "bits" to you. For instance you might open Excel one morning and find that you have new functions, like MAXIF(S).

 

[starl]

Yeah, new functions are great - but they're only for 2016 users.. and that's still a small percentage! Last article I read, there was no mention of making them available to 2010 users (or even 2013).

 

[XL&ME]

If PowerPivot, and PowerQuery are important to you, you should look at Rob Collie's post on which versions of MS Office contain these features.

What Versions of Office 2016 Contain Power Pivot? - PowerPivotPro

 

[Smitty]

Yeah, new functions are great - but they're only for 2016 users.. and that's still a small percentage! Last article I read, there was no mention of making them available to 2010 users (or even 2013).

AFAIK there's no plan to retro-upgrade earlier versions with new functionality.