Office applications – loyalty is overrated

I use Google products all the time. Google Sheets is used for budgeting, Docs is used for writing on the go and of course Gmail for my email. I’ve just finished my fourth edition of a Simpler Guide to Gmail and I was thinking of going with Office 365 for a bit – just so I could compare the two. I do have a look every now and again but usually the cost isn’t justified for what I would get.

Don’t get me wrong, I still use Microsoft Word. I tend to use the online free app on my phone but a monthly cost? It’s just not economical for me given there is always Google Docs or one of the Open Source office applications like Libre Office. I also paid for Scrivener years ago but It’s not my first choice.

This brings me to the choice available for free. There are so many applications to choose from and so many are free. I tend to use a combination of applications that suit what I am doing and where I am. Here are some of my thoughts for the free options for office applications.

Email
Gmail, Outlook, Mailinator and Yahoo
I have used all of these but the one I go back to is Gmail. Even with Gmail you can use the Inbox or Gmail websites and apps. They have the same source but the way you look and interact with your emails is different. I do go into both interfaces in my book so I had a really good look around. I did have both apps on my phone for a while but I have deleted the Inbox app again. It just isn’t compatible with my work flow. The one you choose to use has to work for you and that is a very personal decision.

Mailinator is great if you are signing up for something where you don’t trust the source. As long as you don’t give that source any private information, you can always sign up to them with your real information once they’ve proved themselves. Otherwise they can just spam away where no one can see it. Of course you can only receive emails using the mailinator service (you can’t send) and those emails are open to anyone who can guess the address. You can while away a whole afternoon guessing weird and wonderful email addresses to see if anyone has used them on here.

I tend not to use Yahoo. I’ve had spam on an account I opened with them within seconds of opening it – before I even had chance to use the email address. I recommend Yahoo addresses as a spam address for newsletters etc or if you want to keep your personal address uncluttered. These are great for entering competitions. You can still login and check if you have won but you still get to keep your real address for important stuff.

Documents
Libre Office, Open Office, Google Docs, Microsoft Word (phone app)
So much choice with these apps! Of course there are more but these are just ones I have had personal experience with. I will always love Microsoft Word but it is very expensive. The app is limited but then it is free. Google Docs is free but you get the most features for the (non-existent) price. The beauty of Google Docs is that if you create files in the Google Docs format it doesn’t count towards the Google storage limit. Free storage for those files as well all the features.

Spreadsheets
Google Sheets, Microsoft Excel (app)
With no equivocation, I use Google Sheets the most. I track my home budgets and my book sales through this awesome free software.

Online storage
Google Drive, One Drive. Dropbox, personal server at home (because there is no monthly cost)
I use a combination of all four for different aspects of my life. Why stick to one? Using all of them you get a tremendous amount of storage and you get to mitigate their shortcomings. For example, Dropbox is awesome for sharing and working reliably but if someone shares their folder with you, all the files in that folder count towards your storage limit. I had a friend who paid for her storage but someone else shared their folder with her. She had to pay more to cover the cost of the extra files which weren’t even hers. I haven’t even considered paying for this since then because if I pay for space, I expect to be able to use ALL my quota and not have to worry about others’ taking up part of it by design or accident.

These are just some thoughts from the top of my head. I can’t recommend any service over the others but what I can recommend is that you can try all of them and see which you like the best. If you need more features or apace you can always upgrade you accounts for the service you like the most.

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