New to Mac - a question about the Word processing app, any help?

[iMore Question]

New to Mac - a question about Word processing app.

I am new to mac and bought a MacBook Air 11" a few days back. I have been using Office on office.com but it seems that i?ll need to purchase a local installation soon. My question is: Would Office 2016 make my MacBook slow? I?ll probably be working with unto three windows of Word/Excel/PP and a couple of windows of Safari/Chrome.
I have 128 GB HD and 4 GB RAM.

I have tried WPS but i?ll also be working with Arabic font that WPS does not support.
I can use Pages but it does not support Norwegian spell-check.

Any suggestion?

 

[anon(9940776)]

Re: New to Mac - a question about Word processing app.

No, a local installation of Office 365 will not make your MacBook slow. Or slower. Or eat your dog, or force you to sign a contract with satan.

As a matter of fact, if you buy the annual subscription you'll get 1TB of OneDrive space included in the package, so you can dump iCloud if you're paying for it.

I use my subscription on iMac (late 2013) with 16gb RAM, iPad Pro, iPhone SE, Priv, and SurfaceBook.

 

[iAftab]

Re: New to Mac - a question about Word processing app.

well, my question was about Office 2016 and not 365
I have 128 GB and 4 GB RAM. Since i have 4 GB RAM, i am a bit worried that the Office will slow down the performance while i am using it.

 

[Rob Phillips]

Re: New to Mac - a question about Word processing app.

well, my question was about Office 2016 and not 365
I have 128 GB and 4 GB RAM. Since i have 4 GB RAM, i am a bit worried that the Office will slow down the performance while i am using it.

The only difference between Office365 and Office 2016 is one is a subscription while the latter is a straight out purchase. Both will run just fine on your MacBook, even with multiple windows running.

 

[Bazza1]

I'm using the Home & Student version 2011 on my similar vintage MacBook Air without issue. I can't imagine a newer version on a newer machine would pose problems.

Now granted, I'm not a 'power user' - I'm rarely (okay, never) trying to write the modern equivalent of War & Peace, include spreadsheets on the characters and edit pictures of all the characters at the same time - but it does what I need it to do with a minimum of fuss and strain on the Air.

I am not a fan of relying on the cloud for any of my computing needs (I do use some cloud storage to access some files from other devices, but those files are always low priority and saved locally, if lost), while I've always thought the point of a personal computer was to have everything to hand, rather than rely on a distant - and 3rd Party - mainframe somewhere. Anyhoo, that's why Office 365 (or Google Docs, etc) are a non-starter for me.

Some swear by Apple's Pages et al, but its a proprietary WP that no company really relies on (and it is barely compatible with Apple's other devices using the mobile versions), while others like LibreOffice, if you're looking for another free Suite. It works, but sometimes it's translation of Word products can be less-than-perfect. But both Suites work just fine on the Air.