Hi,



I'm just wondering if anyone can advise me which Office version to go for please?

Ideally I'd like the latest 365, with MS Access included, but at the moment I don't want to pay a continuous subscription, as things are a bit tight.

At the moment I have Office 2007, which is perfect for my needs, apart from a couple of issues. Firstly, I'm learning to use Python in conjunction with Excel, and it seems the Python packages are more geared to work with Office 2010 and upwards.

Also, my macro enabled and binary Excel files keep crashing (the normal Excel files don't). I expect the later versions won't have this problem for me.

So basically, I'm wondering what the cheapest option would be for me at the moment, and which version to go for? I would like to be able to use Office on at least two devices, preferably four. And also where to buy from? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks.

The subscription is not as bad Price wise as some make it out to be. The old model was a new version about every three years. This brought huge changes and often different delays throughout the world as to version and therefore compatibility issues. ~$400+ with the version including Access.
The Subscription pricing is ~$70 a year, PLUS you get additional storage and the incremental upgrades on the schedule you choose. Bleeding edge developer/trainer or stable role out.
I have O365 Family which gives me access from multiple devices.
If you really want the fixed install and one-time price/cost there is Office 2021, but I don't believe you get Access with that? It is only $249. Supposedly Access 2019 is the available version for add-in, but cost and availability thru Microsoft sucks.
CDW or other retailer may have. Use a trusted source! Looks like $142 for Access.

Many thanks for your very detailed reply, that very helpful.

Since I posted, I noticed that Amazon is doing a year's 365 subscription for £54.99, which seems pretty reasonable. I'm just wondering, when the year is up, if I can renew the subscription on a similar Amazon deal, if one exists.

I also read that Microsoft is considering doing away with Access at some point. I don't know if this is true or not. I read that Access is not rated that highly, compared to other databases. At the moment, I've written code to link Excel and Access, so I'm thinking I should start moving to something else, but maybe this is the subject of another thread!

Should go from your anniversary date.
Is that price any different than going thru the Microsoft site?
I hope not. I'm using Access for a project right now that I would hate to do any other way. Access may go away since the demand for consumer databases has been waning from what I remember. Unfortunately, I believe that DB should be taught more in schools than Excel because the DB concepts are more important when dealing with Data Structures. Excel has its place in analysis. Yes, Excel can be used for for small databases, but still suffers on the data entry and storage size.