Issues with Microsoft Word

[DokiDokiTsuna]

...Or rather, a concerning lack thereof. ^^;

So the free subscription I got from college finally ran out yesterday, and Word asked me to renew. So I did that, and I paid for another year...at least I thought I did. My Microsoft account doesn't show any subscription on it, and my bank account doesn't show any deduction...for some reason, it seems it didn't go through.

I thought I'd wait a while just to make sure, and then try again...but in the meantime, Word seems to be working just fine. ^^ When I open a document, it still tells me to renew to keep using the product 'without interruptions' (whatever that means), but if I just...close the window, I can still use the software normally. It saves all my changes and everything.

What I'm wondering is if this has any drawbacks?? Like, could I just never renew my subscription, and continue like this forever...? Or am I tempting fate; is Word gonna start corrupting my files at some point to make me stop...? ^^; Or maybe I'm in a grace period, and it's not actually gonna refuse to let me use the software until more time passes...someone out there has to know what's going on.

[fleurravenbooks]

use google docs, its free and it has pretty much everything (im sure some stuff is missing but hey its free so we cant complain)
As for not paying, im sure they will find a way to charge you

[yumeryuu]

GOOGLE DOCS

[ninjashira]

Definitely also suggesting Google Docs. It's so nice to be able to access my documents from any device, my Keep Notes will synch right up to my Docs when I make hasty notes right as I'm falling asleep, and I can share the link with several people at once to get their feedback on it. It's sooooo handy!

[yumeryuu]

Serious, GOOGLE DOCS. You can access your files from any computer. And it has all the same bells and whistles and microsoft word.

Its like Photoshop. WTF would I pay $1000 when procreate cost $10 and does the same thing?
Why pay for a Microsoft subscription when Google Docs is free?

[crowstories]

Word is (probably) not going to corrupt your files, but it will stop opening them eventually, though I don't know WTF is up with your renewal, that seems weird...

But like the others have said, google docs is free, and will be able to open your word documents when word no longer will.

[rajillustration]

You're probably just in a grace period so eventually you will be renewing. I personally use libreoffice, which is basically the same as word and opens word documents and saves as word documents if you need to, but it's free. Prefer it to google docs because my internet can be real trash and so google docs is just slow and annoying to use.

[sorible]

I'm a google docs person but I needed Word for certain classes and I did the exact same thing I think it went on for a little less than a year(?) where I used Word without a subscription because I couldn't afford it.

Eventually it wouldn't let me make any changes to the document at all but I never used Word anyway so it didn't really matter.

[DokiDokiTsuna]

You're probably just in a grace period so eventually you will be renewing. I personally use libreoffice, which is basically the same as word and opens word documents and saves as word documents if you need to, but it's free. Prefer it to google docs because my internet can be real trash and so google docs is just slow and annoying to use.

That sounds interesting (I would also greatly prefer to have a word processor that doesn't require internet connection by default)...could I ask what the file type is for the software, and how compatible it is with other software? For instance, I rarely use Google Docs for typing, but I do use it for backup storage (and to view files when I'm away from my laptop), so it's important that I can see them in there.

[rajillustration]

Libre office has their own file types, but can open and save as microsoft office file types as well as PDF. So...it's whatever filetype you like. It works with Windows, with Linux (and I think it actually loads with linux) and ios, I think? It's on their website.

It also comes as a suite, so you get excel, too. I don't know much about their powerpoint clone--if they have one. But, I wasn't using powerpoint anyway.

https://www.libreoffice.org/

[frgmnt]

I'm another person using LibreOffice While I was on Windows XP for many years I had a very old pirated MS Word (I think it was the 2003 one?) but after updating the OS I didn't want to bother with MS Office again so I just installed this one. As far as I know, it can use basically any filetype MS Office can (the only thing I couldn't open with it were some passworded files from Word 2003).
I also can't really use Google Docs much because it's very slow and unreliable on my ancient computer, also I prefer to have a completely offline editor.
I think LibreOffice Impress is their version of Powerpoint - I haven't really used it though.

[KUUPID]

This just happened to me too! I've always used word since that was what I used since like... middle school, lol.

But I didn't even know Microsoft switched office 365 to a yearly subscription; like wtf. I bought this for almost $150 with student discount when I first started uni in 2016 (and for a broke college student that's a lot of money)... Needless to say, I just switched over to Google docs xD I'm not paying a yearly subscription when there are other cheaper and free options out there

[Ordinaryaverageguy]

FWIW, if you like Word, or if you like being able to use Word without internet connection (I sometimes find my vacations are like that), you can still buy copies of older Word or MS Office & install on your computer. There may be other downsides but the only one I see with my Word installation is that it doesn't understand the DOCX file format. Just a pennypincher's idea.

[DokiDokiTsuna]

Okay, so I downloaded Libre Office...and now I have a new problem:

...Why is it telling me this when I try to save, and what does "Word 2007-365" even mean??

Like, is it supposed to be a catchall for all the recent word doc formats (including .docx, hopefully, which this file happens to be...?). Because when you try the 'Save As' function, all you get is a list of these weird terms (Word 2003 XML, Word 97-2003, etc.) instead of, idk, actual extensions or anything even remotely intuitive... ;_;

And what could possibly be in here that somehow doesn't fit into anything from Word 2007 to 365...?? Like, it's just text; basic word processor stuff. There aren't even any bullet points...

My hope is that maybe there's a weird emoticon in here or something that's upsetting the software, and it doesn't really know what it's talking about with this warning. But I'd like to be sure...

[SleepingPoppy]

I used to get this message. If you're worried make sure to save it as a back up first, so you don't save over any file you have going (just to be safe) but I don't think anything is messed up? Though when I used Open Office, I always saved everything as a doc, not docx, because that just seemed easier at the time. It should be fine, but just try it, then open the file back up and make sure it's normal? It's been a while since I was using open office, but I am pretty sure I used to get this pop up all the time without it meaning anything bad.

[Hexigate]

Been using LibreOffice for a while now, maybe I can help.

"Word 2007-365" is the .docx file format. .odf is LibreOffice's own file format.

No need to sweat, you can still open the file. It just means that the spacing, margins, and general format of the document will be different between the .docx format and the .odf format. So spacing might appear weird, lines might be in strange spots further down the page, things like that. They should mostly be easily fixable...I think.

When I made the transition to LibreOffice, I converted all my .docx files into .odf and fixed the formatting afterwards. If I have to share the document, I export it as a PDF because it doesn't cock up the formatting.

[Nopride]

I'm not a big fan of Word or Google Docs, mostly because I absolutely hate the idea of a cloud, but also due to some formatting issues that just make me super irritated.

I use a software called Scrivener. I think it's a one time payment of $40, and it's an absolutely amazing word processor. It's also great for organizational purposes. That being said, learning how to navigate it can be a little tricky at first. But it's nothing a little practice can't cure!

[DokiDokiTsuna]

Been using LibreOffice for a while now, maybe I can help.

"Word 2007-365" is the .docx file format. .odf is LibreOffice's own file format.

No need to sweat, you can still open the file. It just means that the spacing, margins, and general format of the document will be different between the .docx format and the .odf format. So spacing might appear weird, lines might be in strange spots further down the page, things like that. They should mostly be easily fixable...I think.

When I made the transition to LibreOffice, I converted all my .docx files into .odf and fixed the formatting afterwards. If I have to share the document, I export it as a PDF because it doesn't cock up the formatting.

Thank you; that was helpful~

Also, I tried saving a test copy of the file and opening it up with different programs like @SleepingPoppy suggested, and everything seems to be in order.
The only weird thing is that it's 63 KB smaller than the original .docx file...I guess maybe because Word puts * things * in it that don't exist for other software (like bookmarking the spot where you were typing last...I'm gonna miss that feature) so they disappear when you move and re-save.

[nostalgicroxas]

I recall that issue years ago on my XP machine and honestly I got sick of it telling me to renew, and just swapped to OpenOffice.
You can also save your .docx to .doc and open in OO and it'll be fine. That's what I use since pretty much everything can open a .doc file.