MS Office 2013 US$9.95 Corporate/Enterprise Home Use Program - Mini-Review

[IainB]

Originally posted:	2013-08-30
Last updated	2015-02-17

Basic Info

App Name	MS Office 2013 US$9.95 Corporate/Enterprise Home Use Program
Thumbs-Up Rating
App URL	http://www.microsofthup.com/hupus/chooser.aspx?culture=en-US
App Version Reviewed	MS Office Professional
Test System Specs	MS Win7-64 Home Premium
Supported OSes	Windows 7 and Mac
Support Methods	Extensive  MS Office support
Upgrade Policy	Automatic updates for this product version.
Trial Version Available?	No. (This is a special offer.)
Pricing Scheme	US$9.95
Relevant links	Useful OneNote links

Intro and Overview:
This review is about purchasing/using MS Office 2013 under Microsoft’s Home Use Program.
If you or a family member works for a company that runs MS Office as part of the corporate licensing program, then you may be eligible for Microsoft’s Home Use Program.
Per worldstart.com:

Want Microsoft Office? $9.95 Could Get You A Copy
Sunday, January 27th, 2013 by Tim

The most popular office productivity software is Microsoft Office, with millions of users in schools, businesses and at home. The major complaint of almost everyone who uses Office isn’t about the quality of the software, but the price.  The full version of Office 2013 Plus runs close to $500.  How would you like to get a completely legal official copy from Microsoft for only $10?
[attach]

[Contro]

incredible indeed.

[IainB]

Yes. With a little bit of gumption, many users who might otherwise feel that MS Office was out of their reach could probably avail themselves of this package deal.

[Innuendo]

Thanks for this.

I'd known about the program in the past, but every email address I threw at it didn't qualify, but I stumbled across this thread the other day & thought since I just recently started a new job I'd give it a go again.

This time not only did I meet with success to qualify for Microsoft Office for $9.95, the web site also politely asked if I'd like to take advantage of purchasing Visio Professional 2013 (MSRP $499.95) as well. Since I could use Visio in my classes, I of course threw that in my cart, too. My suspicion is that what agreement your employer has with Microsoft will dictate whether or not you are offered Visio (or perhaps other Microsoft's products) for purchase as well.

As for the mini-review, I think leaving the "How it compares to other products" section empty was a mistake. At least mentioning competing products (both free and paid) would help readers who don't qualify for this excellent program. However, I'm not going to be too critical of a post that just saved me nearly $1,000. 

[x16wda]

Hm, I didn't realize that was still valid. Was the Visio priced at $9.95 also?    That's a no-brainer!

I have a love-hate relationship with the other Office 2013 programs (except for Outlook 2013, that is purely a hate-hate relationship!).

[Josh]

The home-use program is valid as long as your organization buys into it for employees. MS has offered this for a while and the US Military participates, hence why I have received each of office since 2007 for only 9.95

[IainB]

@Innuendo: I have updated the opening post per your suggestions. Thanks.
It really is a great special offer, and it's been running for years but gets little publicity, and more people could avail themselves of it did they but know it ...
I didn't realise they also did a "You want chips with that?" (for Visio).   

[Innuendo]

Like I said, I think it depends on the licensing agreement your organization has with Microsoft, but yes I was offered Visio Professional for $9.95 as well.

When I followed my "you've been approved" link, Office 2013 and Office Mac were listed, but there was also a Visio section down in the lower right-hand corner of the screen. As soon as I added Office to my cart a little dialog popped up that asked, "Would you like to add Visio to your cart, too?"

I've known about this program for years as well, but I've never paid too much attention to it because in the past I've never had a qualifying employer. You better believe I checked the box that asked "Would you like to be notified of future Microsoft Home Use Program offers?"

[wraith808]

Like I said, I think it depends on the licensing agreement your organization has with Microsoft, but yes I was offered Visio Professional for $9.95 as well.

The home-use program is valid as long as your organization buys into it for employees. MS has offered this for a while and the US Military participates, hence why I have received each of office since 2007 for only 9.95

I can verify that even if your company buys in, it depends on licensing level.  My company changed their license with Microsoft, and now we are no longer eligible, even though we are still locked in with office (A little less so since we've split between MS and Google... oh my what a complicated pie to split).

[dr_andus]

I'd known about the program in the past, but every email address I threw at it didn't qualify, but I stumbled across this thread the other day & thought since I just recently started a new job I'd give it a go again.

I'd say it's even worth trying it a few times with the same email, even if you are declined the first couple of times. I kept trying and after having been declined 2 or 3 times eventually it said I did qualify, and it sent me a link for buying. This almost makes me wonder if digitalriver eventually accepts everyone. I guess it would be in their interest to make a sale eventually... Unless it's just a very convoluted electronic process and the database query needs to be executed a few times before it gets through...


Edit: My mistake. I didn't realise I used a different email address the second time.

Anyway, now that I do qualify, I'm still wondering about the value of upgrading from MS Office 2010 Pro to 2013 Pro. I've checked out a few reviews and on balance (including user comments), they are far from being overwhelmingly positive. I mostly use Word and Excel in Win7. It sounds like a lot of changes were made mostly to serve the Win8 environment. I wasn't happy to see that they've removed the split screen feature from the scroll bar in Word. I use that feature daily.

So what are the compelling reasons to upgrade from MS Word 2010 to 2013?

[Innuendo]

Anyway, now that I do qualify, I'm still wondering about the value of upgrading from MS Office 2010 Pro to 2013 Pro.

Well, the value of getting the latest and greatest versions of Microsoft's flagship suite for $9.95 should count for something!

I've checked out a few reviews and on balance (including user comments), they are far from being overwhelmingly positive.

The biggest batch of negative feedback I've seen are the reviews over at Amazon, but once you cut out all the "I can't get it to download and install" and the "OMG! Amazon's not an authorized retailer so MS will not help you!" posts, you aren't left with a lot. True, there are some things MS has removed, but they are seldom-used features, IMHO. You can go over and read the article on Wikipedia about Office 2013 to see what has been removed.

I mostly use Word and Excel in Win7. It sounds like a lot of changes were made mostly to serve the Win8 environment.

One of the biggest changes were to 'whiten' the interface so one isn't as distracted by the UI when one tries to work. It's going to be up to personal taste as to whether you love or hate that decision. The other is that MS integrated SkyDrive with Office to more easily allow cloud operations.

I wasn't happy to see that they've removed the split screen feature from the scroll bar in Word. I use that feature daily.

Are you talking about the 'Split' function that is on the ribbon under the View tab in the Window section? The one that has the tooltip that says "See two sections of your document at the same time. This makes it easier to edit one section while editing another." If so, that feature is still there.

[rgdot]

How I can get in on this? 


Seriously though, good deal, in my opinion for even OneNote alone

[dr_andus]

Well, the value of getting the latest and greatest versions of Microsoft's flagship suite for $9.95 should count for something!

Well, yes, but only if it is really better than Office 2010... It comes down to specific features that I use in Word 2010.

Re 'split' function, here's what this review says:

Microsoft Word 2013 Review & Rating | PCMag.com

Some of the most powerful features that Microsoft built into Word twenty years are still there, but now you have to look for them. For example, Word is the only current word processor that lets you split a document window into two panes so that you can (for example) edit page 1 in the top pane and page 100 in the bottom pane, while your edits in both panes are instantly reflected in the document. Until now, Word's vertical scroll bar had a "split" tool at the top—you simply dragged on that tool to split the window into two panes. Now you have to go to the View tab on the Ribbon and select Split. Only a tiny percentage of users bothered with the split-screen feature, but it seems unfair to penalize them by hiding a useful tool.

Unfortunately I'm part of that tiny percentage... I use it daily, all  the time. So it would be a nuisance if it takes several steps to activate it.

And then this is what another review says:

Office 2013 review | PC Pro

Word 2013 is a strange mix. It remains the most powerful word processor around, and there are a lot of new features in this version. If you have a touchscreen device, it’s your only option. And yet not all of these new features are successful – and some, in fact, are aggravating. Ultimately, if you already run the previous version and don’t have a touchscreen, there isn’t enough here to warrant the outlay.

$9.95 might be a good deal, but not if I have to uninstall it afterwards and reinstall 2010...

But thanks for your comments, they were helpful. I'm still deciding... The improvements to the review (collaboration) features sound good, and also the headings apparently are now collapsible.

P.S. This also doesn't sound promising:

Office 2013 review: Word 2013 | TechRadar

Also, the AutoCorrect features have disappeared from the menu when you right-click a spelling mistake; you have to go all the way into Word's huge Options dialogue to add corrections you want to use.

[Innuendo]

Unfortunately I'm part of that tiny percentage... I use it daily, all  the time. So it would be a nuisance if it takes several steps to activate it.

All is not lost. I just did an experiment. I went to the View tab and right-clicked Split and selected "Add to Quick Access Toolbar" and bam! It will always be right there at the top left of the screen for you to use with one simple click.

I think some of these reviewers just fire a program up, play with it for an hour or so, and then call it a day.

[dr_andus]

Still mulling it over whether it's worthwhile for me to upgrade from Word 2010 to 2013 (the other Office software are not that important to me, except maybe OneNote, if there is a big improvement from 2010 to 2013).

But I had come across a few reviews on Word 2013 by David Hewson, which seem to suggest that for writers specifically Word seems to offer some improvements. It sounds like he switched from Scrivener to Word 2013:

Word 2013: any use for writers?

Word 2013 for writers: look and feel

How to map a story with Microsoft Word

Scene planning and navigation in Word

Making OneNote and Word partners in writing

Microsoft Word revision – the best solution yet

[IainB]

My suggestion would be to "jump in and take a swim!", and at less than $10 it is incredibly cheap.
In the world of software, one can often be surprised - once one has overcome one's natural inclination to resist/reject the new/change - to find that actually, the newer does have its benefits and seems to have fewer of the disadvantages of the old.
There are exceptions, of course - InfoSelect 10 might be a recent example of such an exception.

Luddite-like, I sometimes have found it very difficult to change my ways and use/apply newer technology or theories. In business school we were taught that business processes could only be viewed in one way (the BPMN way). Then I found myself pushed into a corner because the old way was not working for my client, and if I didn't find an improvement on it, then I stood to lose us a million-dollar contract. Quite by chance, I stumbled upon the IDEF0/3 methodology and a CASE tool that enabled one to model a process using that methodology and integrate it with data models. I hated it because it was different to what I knew was "the right way", but after immersing myself in it and forcing myself to understand it, I was able to independently prove the benefits, and from that point on I could never go back to the old ways. It would have been like going back to using a pick and shovel to excavate a building site, after having learned how to use an excavating machine.

[dr_andus]

My suggestion would be to "jump in and take a swim!", and at less than $10 it is incredibly cheap.
In the world of software, one can often be surprised - once one has overcome one's natural inclination to resist/reject the new/change - to find that actually, the newer does have its benefits and seems to have fewer of the disadvantages of the old.

Thanks for the encouragement. But my issue is not a fear of the new but a fear of having to spend time and effort uninstalling a massive piece of software (and reinstalling the previous version) that doesn't add much new to the features that I use. That would be more expensive to me than the software. I also have some Add-Ins that may get messed up through such an install/uninstall/reinstall. Even if it was free, I'd think twice about it, considering that I already have Office 2010 and it works fine for my purposes.

Having said that, Hewson's blog posts are encouraging. I was just wondering if there are any other writer-types here or out there who have upgraded from Word 2010 to 2013 and found it a positive experience.

[IainB]

...my issue is not a fear of the new but a fear of having to spend time and effort uninstalling a massive piece of software (and reinstalling the previous version) that doesn't add much new to the features that I use. That would be more expensive to me than the software. I also have some Add-Ins that may get messed up through such an install/uninstall/reinstall. Even if it was free, I'd think twice about it, considering that I already have Office 2010 and it works fine for my purposes.

Having said that, Hewson's blog posts are encouraging. I was just wondering if there are any other writer-types here or out there who have upgraded from Word 2010 to 2013 and found it a positive experience.

Ah, thanks for explaining that. I think I might understand what your concerns are now. There are two points I would make:

• (a) Leave yourself an easy backout strategy: I have nowhere seen it recommended as being necessary/mandatory that you have to uninstall an earlier version of MS Word or MS Office as a precursor to installing a newer version. In my case, for example, I had MS Office 2007 installed, and never paid much attention to (saw no need for) upgrading to v2010. However, v2013 had some singularly important differences in features/benefits from my perspective, and because I was unsure whether I would like using the newer version, I simply installed MSO v2013 and left v2007 undisturbed/unchanged (still installed and operational). In fact after installing v2013, I double-checked that v2007 was still fully-functional. All that the v2013 install really did was change the file extension default opening settings (for MSO-related documents) to be handled by v2013 applications.  (By the way, the install was on 2 laptops with Win7-64 Home Premium.)
  
• (b) Test the new version implementation: I then spent time running through some standard test scripts with each of the applications in MSO 2013, trying to compare/understand the differences to v2007 and make sure it worked at least as well as the predecessor. Some conclusions I arrived at included:
  
  • that Excel had finally (at last!) been incredibly well-changed to more easily and better manipulate large tables/arrays and with reduced risk of error - almost idiot-proof. It is still being improved in successive ongoing updates.
  • that OneNote was actually much improved in functionality and ease-of-use (ergonomics and the GUI interface), but needed getting used to (I didn't like it at first, anyway), but that the display colour-schemes sucked badly ergonomically (perceptual disorganisation/confusion - indistinct, washed-out fonts, and everything seemed to be a washed-out pastel colour with indeterminate line-and-colour-separation at the borders between differently-coloured areas...just some of the delights of the MS mandate for going Metro for Tablet use and Windows 8, I presume...
    _________________________________

So, you can compare Word v2010 to v2013 in parallel, on the same PC. Easy to take a "Suck-it-and-see" approach, and without any real risk/difficulty.

As to the earlier suggestion that v2013 could somehow - in part or whole - be better than or make Scrivener redundant, I am not so sure. It would all depend on one's requirements. They are two quite different tools, after all.

[wraith808]

Actually, a lot of the features that he's talking about from Word 2013 were in Word 2010.  I tried it for a while, then after trying it, tried to fix the fact that I didn't want the huge monolithic document and give back my corkboard which I missed by utilizing writing outliner (excellent tool, BTW if you're going with this).  But in the end, I'm back to Scrivener.

[dr_andus]

So, you can compare Word v2010 to v2013 in parallel, on the same PC.

Oh, I didn't realise that. Thanks for clarifying. I thought it would overwrite Office 2010, and so I was worrying about having to uninstall 2013 if I didn't like it and re-install 2010. But if this is the case, then it is really a no-brainer...

It's GBP8.95 in the UK, btw.

But in the end, I'm back to Scrivener.

I wasn't actually looking to replace Scrivener. I do use Scrivener for some special jobs, but it's not my main writing tool. MS Word for me is a post-production tool, for finishing manuscripts, not for writing them.

Otherwise I do my writing in plain text in WriteMonkey. I suppose Gingko is my corkboard of sorts these days (also plain text and markdown).

[IainB]

Actually, a lot of the features that he's talking about from Word 2013 were in Word 2010.  I tried it for a while, then after trying it, tried to fix the fact that I didn't want the huge monolithic document and give back my corkboard which I missed by utilizing writing outliner (excellent tool, BTW if you're going with this).  But in the end, I'm back to Scrivener.

Good point. I had no practical knowledge of what v2010 was like.
The WritingOutliner you referred to has always looked like a useful writing add-in/tool for Word, but I have never used it. I have used (trialled) Pathagoras though, for evaluation purposes on behalf of corporate clients - and ended up recommending it as a powerful document management tool. However, it is really designed for managing a document repository and automating multiple document assembly/maintenance tasks, rather than writing a book. The creator of Pathagoras was always very helpful and kept extending the trial licence without any objection when asked.

[IainB]

I just read the post (copied below) from MS Outlook Info, and checked the version number of my MS Office install, and it was an old version. The updates seemed to have stopped at about 6 versions previously, and the Service Pack 1 version (15.0.4569.1507) evidently had not been installed.

So I went to About Microsoft Office 2013 Click-to-Run Updates and simply followed the steps where they say:

If updates are enabled and you are still at an older version, you can retry the update check by disabling and then re-enabling updates.

• 1. Open any Office application
• 2. Click on the File tab
• 3. Click on Account (Office Account in Outlook)
• 4. Click on Update Options
• 5. Click on Disable Updates
• 6. Click on Update Options again
• 7. Finally, click on Enable Updates

_____________________________

It worked a treat.

The MS Outlook Info post is copied below sans embedded hyperlinks/images - so you probably need to read the actual post for best comprehension.

How to check the Service Pack level in Office 2013
Now that Service Pak 1 for Office 2013 has become available, how do I check if I actually have it installed?

Does this Service Pack also apply to my Office 365 Home Premium installation?

Office 2013 doesn’t really like to show off that it is running at Service Pack 1 level. Instead, you have to recognize it via the MSO version number.
Finding the MSO version number

To see the MSO version number, go to File-> Office Account in Outlook (or another Office 2013 application) and press the “About Outlook” button.

At the top, you’ll see 2 build numbers numbers; 1 for Outlook and 1 for MSO.

About Microsoft Outlook - Service Pack 1 MSO version number
The good old About dialog is still there but no longer reveals SP-level information.

When the number behind MSO is 15.0.4569.1506 or higher, then you have successfully installed Service Pack 1 for Office 2013.

For Office 365 subscription based installations of Office 2013, you’ll see the version number directly in the Office Account section as well. In that case, the version number for Service Pack 1 is: 15.0.4569.1507.

Office 365 Service Pack 1 version number
Forcing Office 365 to check for updates

Update Now button for Office 365When you are using Office 2013 as part of an Office 365 subscription, then the Service Pack update isn’t offered via Windows Update nor can you use the standalone installer.

Instead, the update will be installed automatically after a few days, or you can force the update detection by temporarily disabling Automatic Updates and then directly enable it again.

You can do this via:
File-> Office Account-> Update Options

A few seconds after you’ve re-enabled Updates, Office will show a notification that an update is available and will begin to download it. After it has been downloaded confirm that you want to start the installation or simply close any Office applications when being prompted.

Office 365 - Updates for this product are ready to install.

When the update has already been downloaded for you but you haven’t applied it yet, then you can start the installation of it via the Apply Updates command in the list that shows up when you click on the Update Options button.

Note: Service Pack 1 introduced an “Update Now” command to the Update Options button so in the future, manually checking for updates is much more intuitive.

[dr_andus]

Anyway, now that I do qualify, I'm still wondering about the value of upgrading from MS Office 2010 Pro to 2013 Pro.

Well, the value of getting the latest and greatest versions of Microsoft's flagship suite for $9.95 should count for something!

Finally I got around to installing it today. It was painless enough. I've only tried out Word 2013 so far, but the first experience was disappointing vis-a-vis Word 2010. I must be one of the unlucky ones, but I ran into the infamous font rendering problem. It just looks awful, all pixelated and washed out. Apparently this is a side-effect of making the OS tablet-friendly.

I tried the solutions suggested by Microsoft, but none of them worked. So I'm back to Word 2010 for now, until there is some kind of a fix for this.

[IainB]

^^ I don't have any problems except that I don't like the glary screens of Office 2013 on my laptops.

Did you try this too?:

why the fonts in word 2013 are blurry? - Microsoft Community

In reply to Doug Robbins - Word MVPs post on February 7, 2013:
Check under File>Options>Advanced>Display and check the box for "Use subpixel positioning to smooth fonts on screen" and also try changing the setting for "Disable hardware graphics acceleration"
___________--

OUTSTANDING!!!! Doug, Your The Man!!! BY GOD IT WORKS NOW. Can you tell I'm Happy? I can get out of the Doghouse now with my wife. As you suggested: checked the Display: the "Use subpixel positioning..." was already checked on (presuming it is the Default). Then I found the "Disable hardware graphics acceleration" box Unchecked. I checked the box and exited. Immediately the document on the screen (and Word menus) were clear. I next went to the Font menu box and scrolled up and down the listed Fonts. Instant change for the selected area (I had selected the whole doc) per the highlighted Fonts. Really Impressive to see such changes occur real-time. Next, loaded Excel and a file with text, numbers and graphics. Clear as a bell. I am going to send the Microsoft tech rep who `helped' me last and tell him YOU found the answer to their ****-a-Mamie new feature. Three Cheers for Doug! Hip-Hip-Hooray, Hip-Hip-Hooray,Hip-Hip-Hooray!

[dr_andus]

Thanks, I did try that. Elsewhere it's been suggested that there is no solution to this yet.

I'm on Win7 64-bit, and I installed the 32-bit version of MS Office 2013.

RolandOH replied on

The cause for Office, Modern UI and IE10 to look so bad is that they use a new graphics rendering API offered in Windows 8 (and with updates on Windows 7, too).
The new font rendering engine offered by this new API simply doesn't have Clear Type implemented. So unless Microsoft patches this new API to support Clear Type, no program using this API will ever be able to do so.
The reason why Firefox (and Chrome, to an extend) are able to use Clear Type is because they still rely on the old Windows font-rendering API.

This is a bad decision by Microsoft, but their reasoning behind that (from what i think) is also quite clear: It is based on the assumption that their future will be in the tablet market. Since ClearType only works in one direction (horizontally, that is), it is totally useless if you rotate the tablet. The other thing is animation: if you animate a Clear Type anti-aliased font, its boundaries will start to flicker. And since Modern UI is a lot about animations and transitions, this would offer a bad experience.

Last thing is the much higher ppi (pixels per inch) offered by tablet screens (>200ppi) in respect to computer monitors (mostly <=120ppi), where grayscale-anti aliasing is totally sufficient for crisp fonts.
And the worst thing: the Surface has a display with only 148ppi! So fonts look crappy on their reference design tablet.

The bad thing is: no one can help you with the font rendering problem. You're on your own, as a consumer. For me that meant to downgrade back to Office 2010, ignoring Modern UI and all apps completely and ditching IE 10 (but hey, that's a no-brainer, isn't it?).