#Using microsoft office on mac

[ntrlily]

Is Microsoft Office really that nice :? Compared to other office suites I mean. I've never used it so I don't have a point of reference, I always just thought "Well, office suites is office suites"

[primreaperstuff]

FYI, if you're on Mac, these instructions do not work. CoPilot cannot be disabled-- probably because if you're not on Windows, Microsoft can't use means outside of Office to get your data.

However, you can disable automatic updates and then install a version of Microsoft Office that does not have Copilot. Here's how:

Disable automatic updates (method 1):

Open any Microsoft Office software application.

Click on "Help" on the Mac menu bar.

This should open a drop-down menu which has an option labeled "Check for updates." Click it.

This should launch Microsoft AutoUpdater. On the window the pops up, uncheck the option to automatically check for and install updates.

Note that the AutoUpdater will still check for updates even after you've unchecked the option. However, it will not install any updates without you giving it the go-ahead. It is still super annoying to have a software nag you about updates you don't intend to install. If you don't want to deal with that, use method 2.

Disable automatic updates (method 2):

Open Finder.

Click on "Go" on the Mac menu bar.

This should open a drop-down menu which has an option labeled "Go to folder..." Click it.

In the dialogue box that pops up, paste "/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/" and press enter.

This should take you to the place where Microsoft stores its AutoUpdater application. There should be a folder labeled "MAU", "MAU2.0", or something else along those lines there. Open it.

When you open the folder, you should see an application named Microsoft AutoUpdater. Drag it into the Trash.

Right-click on the Trash icon. This should open a drop-down menu with an option labeled "Empty Trash." Click it and press "OK" when the computer prompts you to confirm the deletion. Microsoft AutoUpdater is gone!

A note: I don't know if another Microsoft software will attempt to reinstall AutoUpdater if it detects that the "MAU" or "MAU2.0" folder is missing. Thus, it's safer to leave that folder where it is and only delete the application within it. I also would not recommend pressing "Check for updates" after this on any Microsoft software.

Installing Microsoft Office pre-Copilot:

First, you'll need to see if this is necessary. Open the Microsoft Office software that you wish to disable Copilot on. On the Mac menu bar, there should be an option with the name of the software on it-- e.g. "Word," "Excel," or "Powerpoint." Click on this option.

This should open a drop-down menu which has an option labeled "About [name of software]". Click it.

This should open a window containing information about the version of the software. The last version of Microsoft Office that does not contain Copilot is 16.88 (from August 13, 2024). If you have 16.88 or earlier, you are all set and simply need to not update anything you don't want Copilot on.

If you have a later version, go to the Applications folder in Finder. Find all the Microsoft Office software that you do not want to use Copilot on, and drag them into the Trash. As of January 24, 2025, the software that use Copilot are Word, Excel, and Powerpoint.

Right-click on the Trash icon. This should open a drop-down menu with an option labeled "Empty Trash." Click it and press "OK" when the computer prompts you to confirm the deletion.

Now, go to this webpage: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/update-history-office-for-mac

This page is official from Microsoft and contains a log of prior versions of Microsoft Office. Scroll until you see August 13, 2024 and download the software corresponding to that date. Any installation from before August 13, 2024 will work too, but I figure you probably want the latest version possible for security reasons.

Follow the install instructions for the software. You should be all set, although you can check the version listed under the "About [name of software]" thing if you're not sure.

Now, all you need to do is not update it! You have fired Copilot!

As a final note, Microsoft has done something rather scummy with its data management policies. Everybody who installs Microsoft Office is automatically opted into something called "connected experiences." Although it's not said outright in the descriptions, opting into connected experiences also opts you into sharing your data with Microsoft-- meaning that your data will still feed Copilot even if you don't use it. Even more scummily, a few useful features, such as autosaving to OneDrive, have been lumped in with connected experiences. However, I think users can still forgo them and have a good time. So here's how you opt out:

Do not grind my bones to make your bread:

Open one of the software in Microsoft Office. Any one will do.

Click on the name of the software in the Mac menu bar.

This should open a drop-down menu with an option labeled "Preferences...". Click on it.

This will open a window containing various configurations for the software. One of the options is labeled "Privacy." Click it.

You should see a paragraph about "connected experiences." Microsoft really tries to sell it to you here by tying it to cloud services and reminding you of a few useful things that got lumped under it. Underneath the sales pitch, there is a checkbox that reads "Turn on optional connected experiences." Uncheck that box.

You should be all set! You have opted out of being fed to Microsoft's bone-grinding machine!

Hey writers!

As of January 16, 2025, Microsoft has decided to automatically enable their AI service, CoPilot, on Word - even if you've previously turned off the service. They've also changed the process to disable it.

If you want to disable it again, go to:

Options -> CoPilot -> Uncheck "Enable CoPilot"

Hope this helps!

[mostlysignssomeportents]

An adversarial iMessage client for Android

Adversarial interoperability is one of the most reliable ways to protect tech users from predatory corporations: that's when a technologist reverse-engineers an existing product to reconfigure or mod it (interoperability) in ways its users like, but which its manufacturer objects to (adversarial):

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/10/adversarial-interoperability

"Adversarial interop" is a mouthful, so at EFF, we coined the term "competitive compatibility," or comcom, which is a lot easier to say and to spell.

Scratch any tech success and you'll find a comcom story. After all, when a company turns its screws on its users, it's good business to offer an aftermarket mod that loosens them again. HP's $10,000/gallon inkjet ink is like a bat-signal for third-party ink companies. When Mercedes announces that it's going to sell you access to your car's accelerator pedal as a subscription service, that's like an engraved invitation to clever independent mechanics who'll charge you a single fee to permanently unlock that "feature":

https://www.techdirt.com/2023/12/05/carmakers-push-forward-with-plans-to-make-basic-features-subscription-services-despite-widespread-backlash/

Comcom saved giant tech companies like Apple. Microsoft tried to kill the Mac by rolling out a truly cursèd version of MS Office for MacOS. Mac users (5% of the market) who tried to send Word, Excel or Powerpoint files to Windows users (95% of the market) were stymied: their files wouldn't open, or they'd go corrupt. Tech managers like me started throwing the graphic designer's Mac and replacing it with a Windows box with a big graphics card and Windows versions of Adobe's tools.

Comcom saved Apple's bacon. Apple reverse-engineered MS's flagship software suite and made a comcom version, iWork, whose Pages, Numbers and Keynote could flawlessly read and write MS's Word, Excel and Powerpoint files:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/06/adversarial-interoperability-reviving-elegant-weapon-more-civilized-age-slay

It's tempting to think of iWork as benefiting Apple users, and certainly the people who installed and used it benefited from it. But Windows users also benefited from iWork. The existence of iWork meant that Windows users could seamlessly collaborate on and share files with their Mac colleagues. IWork didn't just add a new feature to the Mac ("read and write files that originated with Windows users") – it also added a feature to Windows: "collaborate with Mac users."

Every pirate wants to be an admiral. Though comcom rescued Apple from a monopolist's sneaky attempt to drive it out of business, Apple – now a three trillion dollar company – has repeatedly attacked comcom when it was applied to Apple's products. When Apple did comcom, that was progress. When someone does comcom to Apple, that's piracy.

Apple has many tools at its disposal that Microsoft lacked in the early 2000s. Radical new interpretations of existing copyright, contract, patent and trademark law allows Apple – and other tech giants – to threaten rivals who engage in comcom with both criminal and civil penalties. That's right, you can go to prison for comcom these days. No wonder Jay Freeman calls this "felony contempt of business model":

https://pluralistic.net/2023/11/09/lead-me-not-into-temptation/#chamberlain

Take iMessage, Apple's end-to-end encrypted (E2EE) instant messaging tool. Apple customers can use iMessage to send each other private messages that can't be read or altered by third parties – not cops, not crooks, not even Apple. That's important, because when private messaging systems get hacked, bad things happen:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_celebrity_nude_photo_leak

But Apple has steadfastly refused to offer an iMessage app for non-Apple systems. If you're an Apple customer holding a sensitive discussion with an Android user, Apple refuses to offer you a tool to maintain your privacy. Those messages are sent "in the clear," over the 38-year-old SMS protocol, which is trivial to spy on and disrupt.

Apple sacrifices its users' security and integrity in the hopes that they will put pressure on their friends to move into Apple's walled garden. As CEO Tim Cook told a reporter: if you want to have secure communications with your mother, buy her an iPhone:

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/tim-cook-says-buy-mom-210347694.html

Last September, a 16-year old high school student calling himself JJTech published a technical teardown of iMessage, showing how any device could send and receive encrypted messages with iMessage users, even without an Apple ID:

https://jjtech.dev/reverse-engineering/imessage-explained/

JJTech even published code to do this, in an open source library called Pypush:

https://github.com/JJTech0130/pypush

In the weeks since, Beeper has been working to productize JJTech's code, and this week, they announced Beeper Mini, an Android-based iMessage client that is end-to-end encrypted:

https://beeper.notion.site/How-Beeper-Mini-Works-966cb11019f8444f90baa314d2f43a54

Beeper is known for a multiprotocol chat client built on Matrix, allowing you to manage several kinds of chat from a single app. These multiprotocol chats have been around forever. Indeed, iMessage started out as one – when it was called "iChat," it supported Google Talk and Jabber, another multiprotocol tool. Other tools like Pidgin have kept the flame alive for decades, and have millions of devoted users:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/07/tower-babel-how-public-interest-internet-trying-save-messaging-and-banish-big

But iMessage support has remained elusive. Last month, Nothing launched Sunchoice, a disastrous attempt to bring iMessage to Android, which used Macs in a data-center to intercept and forward messages to Android users, breaking E2EE and introducing massive surveillance risks:

https://www.theverge.com/2023/11/21/23970740/sunbird-imessage-app-shut-down-privacy-nothing-chats-phone-2

Beeper Mini does not have these defects. The system encrypts and decrypts messages on the Android device itself, and directly communicates with Apple's servers. It gathers some telemetry for debugging, and this can be turned off in preferences. It sends a single SMS to Apple's servers during setup, which changes your device's bubble from green to blue, so that Apple users now correctly see your device as a secure endpoint for iMessage communications.

Beeper Mini is now available in Google Play:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.beeper.ima&hl=en_US

Now, this is a high-stakes business. Apple has a long history of threatening companies like Beeper over conduct like this. And Google has a long history deferring to those threats – as it did with OG App, a superior third-party Instagram app that it summarily yanked after Meta complained:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/05/battery-vampire/#drained

But while iMessage for Android is good for Android users, it's also very good for Apple customers, who can now get the privacy and security guarantees of iMessage for all their contacts, not just the ones who bought the same kind of phone as they did. The stakes for communications breaches have never been higher, and antitrust scrutiny on Big Tech companies has never been so intense.

Apple recently announced that it would add RCS support to iOS devices (RCS is a secure successor to SMS):

https://9to5mac.com/2023/11/16/apple-rcs-coming-to-iphone/

Early word from developers suggests that this support will have all kinds of boobytraps. That's par for the course with Apple, who love to announce splashy reversals of their worst policies – like their opposition to right to repair – while finding sneaky ways to go on abusing its customers:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/22/vin-locking/#thought-differently

The ball is in Apple's court, and, to a lesser extent, in Google's. As part of the mobile duopoly, Google has joined with Apple in facilitating the removal of comcom tools from its app store. But Google has also spent millions on an ad campaign shaming Apple for exposing its users to privacy risks when talking to Android users:

https://www.theverge.com/2023/9/21/23883609/google-rcs-message-apple-iphone-ipager-ad

While we all wait for the other shoe to drop, Android users can get set up on Beeper Mini, and technologists can kick the tires on its code libraries and privacy guarantees.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/12/07/blue-bubbles-for-all/#never-underestimate-the-determination-of-a-kid-who-is-time-rich-and-cash-poor

[dreamdolldeveloper]

back to basics

mostly free resources to help you learn the basics that i've gathered for myself so far that i think are cool

everyday

gcfglobal - about the internet, online safety and for kids, life skills like applying for jobs, career planning, resume writing, online learning, today's skills like 3d printing, photoshop, smartphone basics, microsoft office apps, and mac friendly. they have core skills like reading, math, science, language learning - some topics are sparse so hopefully they keep adding things on. great site to start off on learning.

handsonbanking - learn about finances. after highschool, credit, banking, investing, money management, debt, goal setting, loans, cars, small businesses, military, insurance, retirement, etc.

bbc - learning for all ages. primary to adult. arts, history, science, math, reading, english, french, all the way to functional and vocational skills for adults as well, great site!

education.ket - workplace essential skills

general education

mathsgenie - GCSE revision, grade 1-9, math stages 1-14, provides more resources! completely free.

khan academy - pre-k to college, life skills, test prep (sats, mcat, etc), get ready courses, AP, partner courses like NASA, etc. so much more!

aleks - k-12 + higher ed learning program. adapts to each student.

biology4kids - learn biology

cosmos4kids - learn astronomy basics

chem4kids - learn chemistry

physics4kids - learn physics

numbernut - math basics (arithmetic, fractions and decimals, roots and exponents, prealgebra)

education.ket - primary to adult. includes highschool equivalent test prep, the core skills. they have a free resource library and they sell workbooks. they have one on work-life essentials (high demand career sectors + soft skills)

youtube channels

the organic chemistry tutor

khanacademy

crashcourse

tabletclassmath

2minmaths

kevinmathscience

professor leonard

greenemath

mathantics

3blue1brown

literacy

readworks - reading comprehension, build background knowledge, grow your vocabulary, strengthen strategic reading

chompchomp - grammar knowledge

tutors

not the "free resource" part of this post but sometimes we forget we can be tutored especially as an adult. just because we don't have formal education does not mean we can't get 1:1 teaching! please do you research and don't be afraid to try out different tutors. and remember you're not dumb just because someone's teaching style doesn't match up with your learning style.

cambridge coaching - medical school, mba and business, law school, graduate, college academics, high school and college process, middle school and high school admissions

preply - language tutoring. affordable!

revolutionprep - math, science, english, history, computer science (ap, html/css, java, python c++), foreign languages (german, korean, french, italian, spanish, japanese, chinese, esl)

varsity tutors - k-5 subjects, ap, test prep, languages, math, science & engineering, coding, homeschool, college essays, essay editing, etc

chegg - biology, business, engineering/computer science, math, homework help, textbook support, rent and buying books

learn to be - k-12 subjects

for languages

lingq - app. created by steve kaufmann, a polygot (fluent in 20+ languages) an amazing language learning platform that compiles content in 20+ languages like podcasts, graded readers, story times, vlogs, radio, books, the feature to put in your own books! immersion, comprehensible input.

flexiclasses - option to study abroad, resources to learn, mandarin, cantonese, japanese, vietnamese, korean, italian, russian, taiwanese hokkien, shanghainese.

fluentin3months - bootcamp, consultation available, languages: spanish, french, korean, german, chinese, japanese, russian, italian.

fluenz - spanish immersion both online and in person - intensive.

pimsleur - not tutoring** online learning using apps and their method. up to 50 languages, free trial available.

incase time has passed since i last posted this, check on the original post (not the reblogs) to see if i updated link or added new resources. i think i want to add laguage resources at some point too but until then, happy learning!!

[felassan]

Game Informer:

"Cover Reveal – Dragon Age: The Veilguard by Wesley LeBlanc on Jun 09, 2024 at 02:00 PM This month, Dragon Age: The Veilguard (you read that right – Dreadwolf is no more) graces the cover of Game Informer. After years developing Baldur's Gate and its sequel early in its history, BioWare struck out to create its own fantasy RPG. That series began with Dragon Age: Origins in 2009. It was followed up with Dragon Age II in 2011, and then Dragon Age: Inquisition in 2014. While the Dragon Age series' history has its ups and downs, fans have been patiently waiting for BioWare to return to the franchise, and 2024 is finally the year.  We visited BioWare's Edmonton, Canada, office for an exclusive look at Dragon Age: The Veilguard, including a look at its character creator, its prologue and opening missions, and more. We also spoke to many of the game's leads about the name change, the series' shift to real-time action combat, the various companions (and the relationships you can forge with them), and The Veilguard's hub location. You can learn about the titular Veilguard, Solas' role in the game, and so much more in our 12-page cover story for Dragon Age: The Veilguard."

"But there are plenty of other excellent reads within this issue of Game Informer! Some of us flew to Los Angeles, California, to attend Summer Game Fest and the not-E3 weekend's various other events to check out new games, interview developers, and more. Our previews section is jam-packed with new details about upcoming releases we can't wait for.  Brian Shea flew to Warsaw, Poland, to check out two upcoming releases – Frostpunk 2 and The Alters – and he came away excited about both. Jon Woodey went hands-on with Final Fantasy XIV's upcoming Dawntrail expansion (and spoke to director Naoki Yoshida, too), and as someone with 8,000 hours in the game, his words are the ones you'll want to read.  On the freelance front, Charlie Wacholz writes about how last year's Dave The Diver is one of the best game representations of the rewards and struggles of working in the food and beverage industry, and Grant Stoner spoke with Sony and Microsoft about the development of process and history of the companies' Adaptive and Access controllers. And for a lil' terror this summer, Ashley Bardhan spoke to several horror game developers about why the alluring town known as Silent Hill is a crucial location to Konami's horror masterpiece.  As always, you'll find an editor's note from editor-in-chief Matt Miller, reviews from various freelancers and staff editors, a Top 5 list (hint hint: dragons), and more. Here's a closer look at the cover:"

"Not a print subscriber yet but want this issue? Well, you're in luck! Subscribing today – or within the next few days – will net you a print copy of this issue! You can join the ranks of the Game Informer print subscribers through our new standalone print subscription! Just head here to sign up for either one or two years at a fraction of the cost of buying the issues individually! You can even gift a print subscription to your favorite gamer! SUBSCRIBE TO THE PRINT MAGAZINE You can also try to nab a Game Informer Gold version of the issue. Limited to a numbered print run per issue, this premium version of Game Informer isn't available for sale. To learn about places where you might be able to get a copy, check out our official Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, BlueSky, and Threads accounts and stay tuned for more details in the coming weeks. Click here to read more about Game Informer Gold. Print subscribers can expect their issues to arrive in the coming weeks. The digital edition launches June 18 for PC/Mac, iOS, and Google Play. Individual print copies will be available for purchase in the coming weeks at GameStop."

[source] <- they explain at the link how to read this issue.

aaah they have had a look at the character creator!!! I can't wait for this coverage.

[warningsine]

what is the best way to get safer/more anonymous online

Ok, security and anonymity are not the same thing, but when you combine them you can enhance your online privacy.

My question is: how tech literate are you and what is your aim? As in do you live in a country where your government would benefit from monitoring private (political) conversations or do you just want to degoogle? Because the latter is much easier for the average user.

Some general advice:

Leave Windows and Mac operating systems and switch to Linux distributions like Fedora and Ubuntu (both very user friendly). Switch from Microsoft Office or Pages/Numbers/Keynote (Mac) to LibreOffice.

You want to go more hardcore with a very privacy-focused operating system? There are Whonix and Tails (portable operating system).

Try to replace all your closed source apps with open source ones.

Now, when it comes to browsers, leave Chrome behind. Switch to Firefox (or Firefox Focus if you're on mobile). Want to go a step further? Use LibreWolf (a modified version of Firefox that increases protection against tracking), Brave (good for beginners but it has its controversies), DuckDuckGo or Bromite. You like ecofriendly alternatives? Check Ecosia out.

Are you, like, a journalist or political activist? Then you probably know Tor and other anonymous networks like i2p, freenet, Lokinet, Retroshare, IPFS and GNUnet.

For whistleblowers there are tools like SecureDrop (requires Tor), GlobaLeaks (alternative to SecureDrop), Haven (Android) and OnionShare.

Search engines?

There are Startpage (obtains Google's results but with more privacy), MetaGer (open source), DuckDuckGo (partially open source), Searx (open source). You can see the comparisons here.

Check libRedirect out. It redirects requests from popular socmed websites to privacy friendly frontends.

Alternatives to YouTube that value your privacy? Odysee, PeerTube and DTube.

Decentralized apps and social media? Mastodon (Twitter alternative), Friendica (Facebook alternative), diaspora* (Google+ RIP), PixelFed (Insta alternative), Aether (Reddit alternative).

Messaging?

I know we all use shit like Viber, Messenger, Telegram, Whatsup, Discord etc. but there are:

Signal (feels like Whatsup but it's secure and has end-to-end encryption)

Session (doesn't even require a phone or e-mail address to sign up)

Status (no phone or e-mail address again)

Threema (for mobile)

Delta Chat (you can chat with people if you know their e-mail without them having to use the app)

Team chatting?

Open source options:

Element (an alternative to Discord)

Rocket.chat (good for companies)

Revolt.chat (good for gamers and a good alternative to Discord)

Video/voice messaging?

Brave Talk (the one who creates the talk needs to use the browser but the others can join from any browser)

Jami

Linphone

Jitsi (no account required, video conferencing)

Then for Tor there are various options like Briar (good for activists), Speek! and Cwtch (user friendly).

Georestrictions? You don't want your Internet Provider to see what exactly what you're doing online?

As long as it's legal in your country, then you need to hide your IP with a VPN (authoritarian regimes tend to make them illegal for a reason), preferably one that has a no log policy, RAM servers, does not operate in one of the 14 eyes, supports OpenVPN (protocol), accepts cash payment and uses a strong encryption.

NordVPN (based in Panama)

ProtonVPN (Switzerland)

Cyberghost

Mullvad (Sweden)

Surfshark (Netherlands)

Private e-mails?

ProtonMail

StartMail

Tutamail

Mailbox (ecofriendly option)

Want to hide your real e-mail address to avoid spam etc.? SimpleLogin (open source)

E-mail clients?

Thunderbird

Canary Mail (for Android and iOS)

K-9 Mail (Android)

Too many complex passwords that you can't remember?

NordPass

BitWarden

LessPass

KeePassXC

Two Factor Authenticators?

2FAS

ente Authenticator

Aegis Authenticator

andOTP

Tofu (for iOS)

Want to encrypt your files? VeraCrypt (for your disk), GNU Privacy Guard (for your e-mail), Hat.sh (encryption in your browser), Picocrypt (Desktop encryption).

Want to encrypt your Dropbox, Google Drive etc.? Cryptomator.

Encrypted cloud storage?

NordLocker

MEGA

Proton Drive

Nextcloud

Filen

Encrypted photography storage?

ente

Cryptee

Piwigo

Want to remove metadata from your images and videos? ExifCleaner. For Android? ExifEraser. For iOS? Metapho.

Cloak your images to counter facial recognition? Fawkes.

Encrypted file sharing? Send.

Do you menstruate? Do you want an app that tracks your menstrual cycle but doesn't collect your data? drip.

What about your sexual health? Euki.

Want a fitness tracker without a closed source app and the need to transmit your personal data to the company's servers? Gadgetbridge.

[illogicalvoid]

Hey, it's me, Alex. I remember your profile had links for art programs like Paint SAI and Adobe Photoshop. Is that archived for me to download?

Accidentally pressed enter while fixing post, am fixing now)) BRUH IM SO HAPPY to even have someone remember this, of course i still have them!! I hope they help! I still remember the day when nothing was stupid subscription~ Here you go!! Folder to Programs (whole overview ) Programs inside include >> - SONY Vegas Pro 13.0 Build 428 (x64) RePack by KpoJIuK - SAI 2.0 (64bit) - SAI 2 RUSSIAN VERSION - PaintTool SAI English Pack - Microsoft Office 2016 VL ProPlus English (x86-x64) June 2016 - Adobe Photoshop 2020 v21.0.1.47 Multilanguage (Pre-Activated) {B4tman} - Adobe Flash Professional CC 2015 - SAI 2.0 (64bit) - Camtasia Studio FULL 8.1.2 + Serials [ThumperDC] - (this restores windows photo viewer if you dont have it on your pc Restore_Windows_Photo_Viewer - (Styxero) Adobe Photoshop CS5 ---------------------------------------- Some of these are a-little older now then when clearly they were posted but should work fine as I still use some of these programs myself. I'm unsure with newer computer models or types. I don't care for mac/apple products so I have no idea if these work for them;; edit- Done anyways i hope any of these are useful for you!!

[allaboutkeyingo]

Get all the Microsoft Office apps for Mac for just $59.98 

Say goodbye to subscription fees.

Forget subscriptions — get a lifetime license for Microsoft Office Home & Business 2021 for Mac for just $59.98 (reg. $229).

Ironically, in a world where there are even subscription fees for music and books, nobody likes subscription fees. Whether it’s your streaming service, your cloud storage, or that random app you forgot you were paying for, they add up fast. But here’s some good news: You don’t have to subscribe to Microsoft Office.

For just $59.98 (reg. $229), you can get a lifetime license for Microsoft Office Home & Business 2021 for Mac — a one-time purchase that gives you full access to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, and OneNote with no monthly fees, no auto-renewals, and no surprises.

     Microsoft Office Home & Business for Mac 2021: Lifetime License $59.98 

     Buy it now 

You can even work offline because it doesn't rely on the cloud. And because this is a lifetime license, you won’t be dealing with nagging reminders to upgrade or ongoing subscription charges. Just install it on one Mac, and it’s yours forever.

You can download and start using Office right away. Then get a instantly delivery of the Office Mac 2021 Home Business key to bind with your Microsoft account to use the Office apps 

What macOS does Office 2021 Home Business for Mac support ?

The latest version of  Office 2021 Home Business for Mac currently support 13 Ventura，14 Sonoma and 15 Sequoia.  You can download it here .

If you have 10.15 Catalina, 11 Big Sur and 12 Monterey, and want to use the Office 2021 Home Business for Mac, you can download the previous 16.66 version here.

[commodorez]

Hi! I'm so sorry if this has been asked before, but I'm completely clueless on computers, but I want to learn about them. Any places you'd recommend starting for bare bones beginners? I'm also interested in early-mid 90's tech particularly too. I'm guessing I have to figure out the basics before I can move onto specific tech though, right?

You're really knowledgeable and nice so I figured I'd just ask. Any help at all would be appreciated. Thank you! :]

That's an excellent question, I don't think I've been asked it before in such a general sense. I was raised with the benefit of being immersed in computers regularly, so providing a solid answer may be a bit difficult since for the basics, I never had to think about it.

I had computer classes of various types throughout my school years. We learned how to use a mouse, typing, word processing, programming -- and that was all before middle school. We got proper typing, html, and general purpose computer science courses in middle and high school, and you can bet I took those too. I also have the benefit of a bachelors of science in computer science, so you'll forgive me if my answer sounds incredibly skewed with 30+ years of bias.

The biggest suggestion I can give you is simply to find a device and play with it. Whatever you can get your hands on, even if its not that old, as long as it's considered past its prime, and nobody will get upset of you accidentally break something (physically or in software). Learning about things with computers in general tends to have some degree of trial and error, be it programming, administrating, or whatever -- try, learn, and start over if things don't work out as expected the first time. Professionals do it all the time (I know I do, and nobody's fired me for it yet).

Some cast-off 90s or early 00's surplus office desktop computer running Windows would be a good start, just explore it and its settings. Start digging into folders, see what's installed, see what works and more importantly what doesn't work right. Try to find comparable software, and install it. Even the basics like old copies of Microsoft Office, or whatever.

I recommend looking through the available software on winworld as it's an excellent treasure trove of operating systems, applications, games, and other useful software of the time period. I'd link it directly, but tumblr hates links to external sites and will bury this post if I do. If you're a mac fan, and you can find an old G3 or Performa, there is the Macintosh Garden's repository of software, but I'm not the right person to ask about that.

Some of you might be like "oh, oh! Raspberry Pi! say Raspberry Pi!" but I can't really recommend those as a starting point, even if they are cheap for an older model. Those require a bit of setup, and even the most common linux can be obtuse as hell for newcomers if you don't have someone to guide you.

If you don't have real hardware to muck about with, emulation is also your friend. DOSBox was my weapon of choice for a long time, but I think other things like 86Box have supplanted it. I have the luxury of the real hardware in most cases, so I haven't emulated much in the past decade. Tech Tangents on youtube has a new video explaining the subject well, I highly recommend it. There are plenty of other methods too, but most are far more sophisticated to get started with, if you ask me.

For getting a glimpse into the world of the 90s tech, if you haven't already discovered LGR on youtube, I've been watching his content for well over a decade now. He covers both the common and esoteric, both hardware and software, and is pretty honest about the whole thing, rather than caricaturish in his presentation style. It might be a good jumping off point to find proverbial rabbits to chase.

I guess the trick is to a find a specific thing you're really interested in, and then start following that thread, researching on wikipedia and finding old enthusiast websites to read through. I'm sure there are a few good books on more general history of 90s computing and the coming internet, but I'm not an avid reader of the genre. Flipping through tech magazines of the era (PC Magazine comes to mind, check archive dot org for that) can provide a good historical perspective. Watching old episodes of the Computer Chronicles (youtube or archive dot org) can provide this too, but it also had demonstrations and explanations of the emerging technologies as they happened.

There are so many approaches here, I'm sure I've missed some good suggestions though. I also realized I waffle a bit between the modern and vintage, but I find many computing troubleshooting skillsets transcend eras. What works now can apply to 10, 20, 30, or sometimes even 40+ years ago, because it's all about mindset of "this computer/program is dumb, and only follows the instructions its given" . Sometimes those instructions are poorly thought out on the part of the folks who designed them. And those failures are not necessarily your fault, so you gotta push through until you figure out how to do the thing you're trying to do. Reading the documentation you can find will only take you so far, sometimes things are just dumb, and experimentation (and failures) will teach you so much more about the hard and fast rules of computers than anything else. I'm rambling at this point...

So, let's throw the question to the crowd, and ask a few other folks in the Retrotech Crew.

@ms-dos5 @virescent-phosphor @teckheck @jhavard @techav @regretsretrotech @airconditionedcomputingnightmare @aperture-in-the-multiverse -- anything big I missed?

[silvermoon424]

I remember Microsoft Office used to be free. Now we have to have a subscription??? What's up with that???

Wait, is that the case now even with Windows? I've always pirated Microsoft Office because I use a Mac, but I always just assumed that PCs would be safe.

I hate how everything is slowly becoming subscription-based and how nobody actually owns anything anymore. It's why I'm a big proponent of archival, piracy, and generally just keeping things circulating.

[neurogt]

Windows is amazing (/s)

Windows 11, and Windows in general, is so annoying, but it's the only thing that'll be supported by Microsoft and get security updates starting in October. Why do I need to login to a Microsoft account to even USE my computer? Like, Not even APPLE forces you to log into an account to use a Mac. The only advantage that Windows has over Linux (for me, a moderately technically inclined user) is support for gaming. Another slight advantage is that Windows is the only OS besides macOS that supports the malware known as Respondus lockdown browser, which I need for some exams (ugh). That's it. And even that is waning, as it's mainly anticheats in multiplayer games that don't like Valve's proton. And the operating system itself is basically adware, a PUP. I am getting ADS in my OS. Not by some shady adware, but by MICROSOFT. Nagging me to get gamepass (even though I already have it). Nags to upgrade onedrive storage. Nags to buy M365 on my personal account even though I have office through my school. There's something I want to make eventually, and it's a Linux distro that is more accessible to Autistic people and other disabled people in general, with many modes making using the OS simpler if needed depending on support needs and even a "helper mode" when someone needs it.

[monsterqueers]

Love your Linux post. I do mechanical work professionally, and while I'm not a software guy, I get pretty in-the-weeds with computer stuff. Despite my concerns about data and privacy and ownership, all the good stuff - I'm a Windows user. And if I ever ran Linux, it'd probably be relegated to its own quarantined machine for a long while before I was ever comfortable. The reason why is simply because I need things to just...work, plug and play, most of the time. And while, sure, you CAN get most things to work on Linux! I don't have the time! I don't want to risk any given peripheral or software being an uphill battle all because...Linux user. Someday, perhaps - but today? I respect Linux from afar, and will continue to be a Windows user for the forseeable future.

Yeah, linux is NOT for everyone, the same way apple and windows are NOT for everyone. They have different use cases and linux just, 90% of the time, CAN'T just plug and play everything and anything. Many work programs that are required for work of all stripes dont Just Work without tweaking also.

Maybe one day linux will get a big enough market share that more things will support it out of the box and it will be painless to switch, but as it is right now, if you need non-foss software, if you need things to just... work with no hiccups on any system without at least a bit of fiddling in many cases, linux is NOT the OS for you.

There are ways to make windows and even mac more privacy conscious and less bloatware-ey and less unintuitive, and they are Work to get through, but for many people that is simply the best option and folks pushing linux have to make their peace with this. They dont need to 'get gud'. The people making the computers and computer programs need to 'get gud'.

Its not the fault of people who can't comfortably switch, its the fault of the people who don't make linux compatible software. Maybe in 10 years we will see linux able to just Use stuff like AutoCAD or Adobe stuff, or see Libreoffice finally have a database feature like Microsoft Office. But its not today.

[cuprohastes]

Typey typey

If I want to do an é on a keyboard in Windows...

Well one guy goes to the Beyoncé page and copies it. You could also hit Windows+. and look for it. Or if you set your keybo to International or live in a country where they can pronounce 'herb' with the H, you just hit alt+`➡︎e.

On a Mac you hold the e key down, and it asks you which one you want.

Downside you can't hold a key down and get repeats. But honestly how many times have you ever needed a big row of e glyphs?

On Mac you can also double tap FN or the globe key, and then expand the emoji pop-up into a glyph search n' select panel with a list of your recently used and space to tahe your favourites.

And Windows... uhhhh. Well, they don't even have search. You can use Charmap, so the answer is Windows is using the same app that your ancestors used in Windows 3.1.

IT's little stuff like that that pisses me off. How do you throw out a hilarious ™ in Windows? With great and abiding difficulty. Mac? Ctrl+Option+2. Wanna talk about rotation or the weather? Boom º - Degree symbol. Autistic about typography enough to want an en AND em dash? Opton+- – Or let the built in text tools handle it.

Need to be weird about punctuation‽ Easily set up in the text expander.

And Windows...

Windows doesn't fucking care. It's for pointing and grunting. Want to flex your keyboard skills? Fuck you. Install Office and do battle. Save as a busted Word file and upload it to Facestergram. There's your unsalted noodles and cold chicken nuggets of a post. Bone apple teat!

Linux probably lets you nerd out hard, but I don't use it, so I have no clue.

But damn you Microsoft... get your text handling into the current century!

[16naughts]

Dev Log Feb 7 2025 - The Stack

Ahoy. This is JFrame of 16Naughts in the first of what I hope will turn out to be a weekly series of developer logs surrounding some of our activities here in the office. Not quite so focused on individual games most of the time, but more on some of the more interesting parts of development as a whole. Or really, just an excuse for me to geek out a little into the void. With introductions out of the way, the first public version of our game Crescent Roll (https://store.steampowered.com/app/3325680/Crescent_Roll juuuust as a quick plug) is due out here at the end of the month, and has a very interesting/unorthodox tech stack that might be of interest to certain devs wanting to cut down on their application install size. The game itself is actually written in Javascript - you know, the scripting language used by your web browser for the interactive stuff everywhere, including here. If you've been on Newgrounds or any other site, they might call games that use it "HTML5" games like they used to call "Flash" games (RIP in peace). Unfortunately, Javascript still has a bit of a sour reputation in most developer circles, and "web game" doesn't really instill much confidence in the gamer either. However, it's turning more and more into the de-facto standard for like, everything. And I do mean everything. 99% of applications on your phone are just websites wrapped in the system view (including, if you're currently using it, the Tumblr app), and it's bleeding more and more into the desktop and other device spaces. Both Android and iOS have calls available to utilize their native web browsers in applications. Windows and Mac support the same thing with WebView2 and WebKit respectively. Heck, even Xbox and Nintendo have a web framework available too (even goes back as far as Flash support for the Wii). So, if you're not using an existing game engine like we aren't and you want to go multi-platform, your choices are either A) Do it in something C/C++ -ish, or now B) Write it in JS. So great - JS runs everywhere. Except, it's not exactly a first-class citizen in any of these scenarios. Every platform has a different SDK for a different low-level language, and none of them have a one-click "bundle this website into an exe" option. So there is some additional work that needs to be done to get it into that nice little executable package.

Enter C#. Everyone calls it Microsoft Java, but their support for it has been absolutely spectacular that it has surpassed Java in pretty much every single possible way. And that includes the number and types of machines that it runs on. The DotNet Core initiative has Mac, Windows, and Linux covered (plus Xbox), Xamarin has Android, and the new stuff for Maui brought iOS into the fold. Write once, run everywhere. Very nice. Except those itty bitty little application lifetime quirks completely change how you do the initialization on each platform, and the system calls are different for getting the different web views set up, and Microsoft is pushing Maui so hard that actually finding the calls and libraries to do the stuff instead of using their own (very strange) UI toolkit is a jungle, but I mean, I only had to write our stream decompression stuff once and everything works with the same compilation options. So yeah - good enough. And fortunately, only getting better. Just recently, they added Web Views directly into Maui itself so we can now skip a lot of the bootstrapping we had to do (I'm not re-writing it until we have to, but you know- it's there for everyone else). So, there you have it. Crescent Roll is a Javascript HTML5 Web Game that uses the platform native Web View through C#. It's a super tiny 50-100MB (depending on the platform) from not having to bundle the JS engine with it, compiles in seconds, and is fast and lean when running and only getting faster and leaner as it benefits from any performance improvements made anywhere in any of those pipeline. And that's it for today's log. Once this thing is actually, you know, released, I can hopefully start doing some more recent forward-looking progress things rather than a kind of vague abstract retrospective ramblings. Maybe some shader stuff next week, who knows.

Lemme know if you have any questions on anything. I know it's kind of dry, but I can grab some links for stuff to get started with, or point to some additional reading if you want it.

[anexperimentallife]

If you're a writer, you don't need MS Word or MS Office. I formatted every manuscript I've ever submitted in Libre Office or its predecessor--and yes, that includes submissions to places that only accept MS Word format, because Libre Office does that format just fine.

Libre Office is free, easy, open source, and customizable. It runs on Windows, Linux, Mac, and there's even a version for Android.

Most of us don't get paid much to begin with; don't waste your money on Microsoft when there's a free tool (actually multiple free tools--Libre is just my favorite) that will do the job just fine.

[douchebagbrainwaves]

EVERY FOUNDER SHOULD KNOW ABOUT WAS

But if angel investors become more active and better known, they'll increasingly be able to reach most of the changes will be for the better. You can use that target growth rate. Ditto for PayPal. Are there zero users who really love you, but they know better than to be friends with the people whose discoveries will make them so. A few steps down from the top. Professors have to publish novel results to advance their careers, but there won't be many of them. When we cook one up we're not always 100% sure which kind it is. So the deals take longer, dilute you more, and impose more onerous conditions. They'll just have become a different, more conservative, type of investment. C was written by people who needed it for systems programming. But I could be wrong. What you're really doing when you start to see growth, they claim they were your friend all along, and are aghast at the thought of a 30% success rate at fundraising makes my stomach clench.

Being around bad people would be intolerable. And it's true, the benefit that specific manager could derive from the forces I've described. Jessica Livingston, Robert Morris, Eric Raymond, Guido van Rossum, David Weinberger, and Steven Wolfram for reading drafts of this. But only about 10% of the time we could find at least one good name in a 20 minute office hour slot. Actually what they need to do two things, one of the keys to retaining their monopoly. And so ten years ago, he could teach him some new things; if a psychologist met a colleague from 100 years ago, writing software pretty much meant writing software in C or Perl. Now we needed to stay alive.

We'll probably never be able to match. I think hiring people is the worst thing a company can do. Hacking is something you do with it. Because they haven't tried to control it too much, Twitter feels to everyone like previous protocols. Nearly all your attachment to it comes from it being attached to you. Why programmers, more than dentists or salesmen or landscapers? So why did they even evolve? For example, the Honeywell thermostats in my house have the most atrocious UI. Barbershops are doing fine in the a department. Imagine the obelisk of startups. And now that I'm an investor, the thought of our startups keeps me up at night. The process inherently tends to produce an unpleasant result, like a student who hasn't prepared for an exam.

To be self-funding—Microsoft for example—but most aren't. You just try to get people to pay you for stuff. Investors' opinions are explicitly tested: startups come to them and they have started to use it? You're better off avoiding these. That's true. A rounds creep inexorably downward. That's nonsense. They're increasingly rare, and they're going to get rarer. The company being sold.

But the way they write software. How much is that extra attention worth? To the popular press, hacker means someone who breaks into computers. The founders can't enrich themselves without also enriching the investors. People don't do hard things gratuitously; no one will work on a harder problem unless it is proportionately or at least to know what an n 2 algorithm is if you want to avoid writing them. In fact many of the people who had them to continue thinking about. Fortunately if this does happen it will take years. And when the Mac appeared, it was obvious that rapid development would be important in this market. Was there a connection?

In a world of small companies, performance is all anyone cares about. It must once have been inhabited by someone fairly eccentric, because a lot of investors hated the idea, but they don't need as much of the innovation is unconscious. You know what a throwaway program is: something you write quickly for some limited task. This may not be easy, because a they may be, but more a way of predicting performance. Civil liberties make countries rich. One thing it means is that at least 20-25% of the code in this program is doing things that you can't be pointed off to the side and hope to succeed. A round.