On June 13, I upgraded the Office suite on both my laptop and our newer one to MS Office 365. Previously, my laptop had been running Office 2019 (the standalone version) and the newer laptop didn’t have any Office software.

Performing the upgrade required a visit to the Microsoft site, a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth, a call to Microsoft tech support, and the last of my patience—but I did it. And I’m so glad I did.

The truth was that Office 2019 was no longer supported by Microsoft, which meant that no updates were available for it anymore. This included security updates, and not having those made my work dangerously vulnerable. The second (and awful) truth was that it was last fall that Office 2019 stopped being supported, but I resisted upgrading because of the cost and the fact that installing new software always makes me nervous.

I have to admit that I don’t know much about Office 365 in terms of its many features. One might wonder why I chose it instead of the standalone Office 2021 or the standalone Office 2024, the latter of which comes out later this year.

From what I read online, Office 2021 will cease to be supported by Microsoft in the fall of 2026, which is less than two and a half years from when I am writing this post. This means that if I were to drop a few hundred dollars on Office 2021 now, I will have to spend around the same amount of money on newer software just two and a half years from now.

As for Office 2024, it will be supported for several more years, but it is not going to be made available to consumers until July at the earliest (probably later than that), and since my work had been made vulnerable by Office 2019 not receiving the latest security updates, I needed to upgrade as soon as possible.

Many of the editors in my associations use Office 365, so I feel much more professional having and using it. Boy…first I upgrade to Windows 11, then Office 365. I am not a luddite anymore. (That was a joke. I was never a luddite to begin with.)

If you are using MS Office 365, what do you like the most about it? Or dislike the most?