Has its annoyances, but so ubiquitous you can't escape it.
May 23, 2018

Has its annoyances, but so ubiquitous you can't escape it.

Tom Pentzer | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 3 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Software Version

Microsoft Office (Installed)

Overall Satisfaction with Microsoft Office 365

Office 365 subscriptions are provided by my medical school and are required software. Word and Powerpoint are regularly used for reading lecture packets, and OneNote is a favorite for annotating lecture slides. Outlook is the most common email program used, although some Mac users prefer to use Mac's mail function. The on-site IT staff are familiar w/ the software and are able to assist when problems arise.

Pros

  • It opens and edits the vast majority of file formats given to us for our education.
  • It's widely used and relatively easy to learn if you've never been exposed to it before.
  • The additional web accessibility is handy for getting some cloud-based documents and emails while away from my computer.

Cons

  • OneNote for Mac does not have all of the features OneNote for PC does, and it's patently absurd for said features to be missing. I'm unable to make templates, make custom tags, and there's no option for freehand drawing, should I elect to try using a Wacom style input.
  • Use of the quite requires me to be signed in, and at least three times a year, Word or Outlook will decide that I'm no longer signed in, thus, I cannot continue to edit the documents I'm working on. This requires me to reboot my computer, not something I'm happy doing while trying to take notes during lecture.
  • To continue the rant about a need for authentication, I can see no reason why, after the initial purchase/download, authentication and a sign-in would be needed if I'm not sending stuff to the cloud.
  • Positive: I've been able to write papers needed for educational advancement.
  • No real negatives, it's just annoying to have to re-authenticate my subscription several times a year.
I've played with OpenOffice some, but have not spent that much time with it. OpenOffice was helpful for editing some pdf files I needed to update. No MS Office product was able to do this.

Evernote was handy for on-the-go note taking with their mobile app, but I didn't use it often enough while at my computer to have enough skill for using it during lectures.
It's ubiquitous and therefore widely recognized. Everyone knows how to use it and finding help with problems is easy. It does not perform particularly well, at least on Macs, with some functionality hamstrung. Also, while documents can be saved and stored in the fashion that most people are used to, this manner is not always so nicely suited for lecture notes and assigned readings. Thus, many students use other materials/file management programs/systems.

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