Our Black Friday Gift To You! Save 20% now through November 28, 2017, 11:59 p.m. PST New Users -> Learn More & Save Exclusive offer for our loyal Parallels Desktop users -> Upgrade & Save Save 20% now through November 28, 2017, 11:59 p.m. PST (Prices may vary depending on your location.) Spend more time […]
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Microsoft® Office for Windows® is the gold standard for a productivity suite, and the spreadsheet in that suite, Excel, is the gold standard of spreadsheet applications. So, it is not surprising that many Parallels Desktop users turn to Excel® for their spreadsheet needs, and getting the best performance out of Excel is important to them. […]
The post How to Improve Excel Performance in a VM appeared first on Parallels Blog.
When it comes to running Microsoft Outlook on a PC versus Mac, the choice between the two is often less a question of need and more a question of preference. It is essentially the specific functionality of these products that creates the user preference. Preference can, of course, be influenced by need, and every user […]
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Microsoft Office remains the gold standard of productivity suites, but there are several different versions/editions of Office available for users of Apple hardware. Together with Parallels Desktop and Parallels Access, the Apple user can access just about any of these versions/editions on each of their hardware platforms. While Microsoft produces all of these suites and the […]
The post The Differences Between in Microsoft Offices on Mac, Windows and iOS appeared first on Parallels Blog.
We all know and love Microsoft Excel, especially when you can run it on Mac using Parallels Desktop. It comes as no surprise that like the rest of Office, Excel is one of the most popular programs in the world. But for Excel newbies, sometimes using the powerful spreadsheet software can get a little confusing. […]
The post 7 Microsoft Excel Tricks Everyone Should Know appeared first on Parallels Blog.
When it comes to productivity applications, Microsoft Word takes the cake. In fact, I’d even go so far to say that Microsoft Word is more than a productivity app; it’s a utility. A necessity for anyone who owns a computer—and yes, even if you own a Mac. I use Microsoft Word every day. I used […]
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Just like Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Office has evolved significantly over the years. From the introduction of powerhouse applications like Excel, Word and PowerPoint; to the rise and fall of Clippy, Office has changed a lot. Even so, it’s remained the stalwart solution for work and productivity—whether you’re on a PC, or a Mac. (Thanks, Parallels […]
The post The History of Microsoft Office (Infographic) appeared first on Parallels Blog.
Guest blog by Manoj Raghu, Parallels Support Team In previous blogs, we talked about setting up your Windows virtual machine, tuning it and using advanced functionality. Now let’s take a look at installing Windows-based programs in a Parallels Desktop VM. Although this process is pretty similar to installing programs on a PC, there are a […]
The post Installing Microsoft Office and Other Third-Party Software in Parallels Desktop appeared first on Parallels Blog.
For more detail and opinions read this, and listen to this.
Guest Post by Sharon Shapiro of Cloud Sherpas
Although it only entered the cloud computing market in July 2011, Microsoft has already made a name for itself with Office 365, its hybrid cloud solution available to businesses. But despite its initial climb, Microsoft has yet to catch up to Google when it comes to cloud computing.
Google has worked as a cloud service provider, with its fully-based cloud solution Google Apps, since 2006. Google offers customers four different cloud computing platforms (business, education, government, and non-profit) and a 99.9% uptime guarantee, including service and updates, that it regularly exceeds. In contrast, Office 365 is currently available only for businesses and has had issues meeting its promised 99.9% uptime, which does not include service and updates. Google Apps pricing is also much lower than Office 365 pricing, with the highest priced Google Apps platform (business) operating at $50/user/year and the lowest Office 365 plan operating at $72/user/year. But a lot of that is about to change as Microsoft has announced news that it hopes will bridge the gap.
First, Microsoft recently announced that it will be cutting the price of Office 365 by up to 20 percent. Microsoft says this is because it now costs less to run the hybrid cloud platform than it did when Microsoft first introduced Office 365 last July.
Second, Microsoft says it will soon add a new plan – Office 365 for Education – which will widen the customer base. The release of Office 365 is clearly an attempt to compete with the success of Google Apps’ free education platform.
Although lowering its prices and adding a plan for educational institutions are steps toward competing with Google Apps, Microsoft still has a big gap to close. Google Apps will still boast more platforms (government and non-profit, in addition to the free version that many people use in their personal lives) and five more years of experience in the cloud. With this greater experience, comes enhanced cloud service, as Google Apps is a fully cloud-based solution that offers its users complete universal access and proven reliability. In contrast, it is important to remember that Office 365 is still a hybrid cloud solution that requires on premises servers and that, when it comes to document creating capabilities, works best in conjunction with Microsoft Office installed on a desktop. Both of these necessities limit the mobile access that Office 365 users can enjoy. Additionally, Office 365 has already been plagued with a number of outages that have resulted in significant amounts of downtime for users across the world.
These key differences between Office 365 and Google Apps may be part of the reason why the governments of major cities, like Pittsburgh and Los Angeles, trust Google Apps for their communication needs.
While Microsoft’s price cut and addition of an education plan will definitely improve the Office 365 cloud suite, these changes will certainly not put Microsoft and Google on an even playing field, as Google still boasts more authority, reliability, and a wider range of services.
