Office 365 vs Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2019

Perhaps this article will help explain the differences. Note that Office 2019 is not "full blown" compared to Microsoft 365. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/what...

"Perhaps this article will help explain the differences."

Nope Brian, it didn't.

Didn't answer a single question I asked.

But thanks for trying with that simple Microsoft Pravda Propaganda link enticing users to go with subscription based software.

Hoping I can get some answers to my questions as posted.

TAIA

Access should be included if you are running Microsoft 365 Family under Windows (see the overview at https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/buy/compare-all-microsoft-365-products?&activetab=tab:primaryr1).

You will have to ask the retailer if Office Professional is really a full version or if it is just a trial version. The Professional versions are usually sold to corporations and other organizations (see https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/business/microsoft-office-volume-licensing-suites-comparison). 

No reason to be snide.

Microsoft 365 Family will always be the most up-to-date because it's a subscription. The individual apps will receive feature updates. It also allows you to share your subscription with five other people and you get expanded OneDrive space. You can also install it on as many devices as you own and use it on up to five of those devices simultaneously.

Office 2019 is a one-time license for a single person and can be installed on exactly one computer and only once on that computer. While it will receive security updates, it will not get feature updates. No additional cloud storage as well.

You should not have both Microsoft 365 and Office 2019 installed on the same computer, which means that if there are any applications you need that are in Office 2019, you should not subscribe to Microsoft 365. There is one case where you can have them both installed and that is if Office 2019 is an MSI installation and not a click-to-run installation. MSI installations are generally for Volume License products. I have seen a report that they can both be installed, but that it can interfere with the Office 2019 license detection.

It's not certain to me whether or not you can uninstall Office 2019, use Microsoft 365 for a subscription period, then uninstall it and reinstall Office 2019. Reason says you can, but I've seen Microsoft documentation that says you can install it only once and other documentation that says you can reinstall.

So, in the end, Microsoft 365 is the "full-blown" version and I do think I've answered the questions you included, some of which were answered by the article to which I originally directed you.

"No reason to be snide."

You're right.  I'm sorry.  I guess I kinda snapped cause you were snide to me first.  I should have taken the high road.  Please accept my sincere apology.

I'm also sorry that you were so offended by the use of the term "full-blown," as you have once again referred to that term, even though I have clearly removed its usage from my original post, prior to your most recent reply,  I should have stated the correct terminology for the software that I have currently installed: 

Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2019

So to everyone else that is following this thread, and who may have the same questions or concerns that I have (I'm sure I'm not the only one that is in this situation), has my questions as posted been answered to your satisfaction?  

Does anyone here have their favorite Go-To site or forum they refer to with Office related issues?

Is there a telephone number that I can reach out to Microsoft directly so I may speak to a Microsoft professional to seek the answers to my questions; something similar to what Apple has thru their Apple Care program?

Thanks again, and again I'm sorry to everyone who may have been offended or hurt by this exchange.

Sorry you though I was snide. I didn't know what you meant by "full-blown", so I quoted it, as that was the term you used. I cannot see any title change you may have made when I'm using the Directly platform and not the Microsoft Community platform and so had no idea you had edited your original post.

Office Professional Plus is typically a volume license and so probably an MSI installation. It should install along side Microsoft 365. If volume licensed, then it will need to contain the organization's activation server periodically in order to stay activated.

Don't know if it would get you what you want, but you could try 1-800-MICROSOFT.

Thanks

Access is part of 365 Family, I have it, 365.

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In theory, you can install 365 "over" 2019, but don't. In the past it was doable. But, recently, we have seen that Office's decision to use the same version number 16.0 for Office 2016 / 2019 / 365 is causing problems identifying what is installed. 

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So it is probably best to do a "simple" uninstall of 2019 before installing 365. It will (potentially) save confusion and angst in the future.

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Your 2019 license is "permanent", so if you decide to jump off the 365 milk train you would be able to re-install it in the future.

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Even I admit there are a few "advantages" to 365:

• you get the latest bells and whistles, aka "new online features" like dictate that are limited to 365
• you get new 365 commands only, such as "Dynamic Arrays" in Excel
• if you need to install on more than one computer
• if you can share Family with one or more people
• you are mobile and need more than the 5GB of free OneDrive space to access current files online (a little more secure than using a thumbdrive)

Disadvantage:

• You already recognize the long term cost.
• if you 365 only commands, like Dynamic arrays or XLookUp() (in Excel) then you create files that don't work on other versions

if you are not using on multiple machines or sharing 365 Family, then it the not so long term it becomes more expensive than one-time payment (the math depends on your specific situation). But, you've already paid for 2019, so unless you NEED the other "advantages" of 365, it becomes a net loss until 2019 reaches EOL in 2025.

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I've seen mention of the costco offer before. It is a really good deal, you are not likely to see better.  If you are going to be sharing 365 Family then take FULL advantage of it:

• Buy at least 4 cards, You can stack up to 5 years of subscriptions in advance (ie 4*15=60)
  
• buy a few more if you have the money! there is no stated expire day on product keys, check these cards to confirm that).
  
• check to see if you can get the "free extra month" for turning on auto renew
• talk around to your extended family and find 5 people who would like to share the cost of the license with you (or "gift" the shares ... replacing a $70/yr Person subscription is not a cheap gift)

There is a second offer you can try to take advantage of. When you are subscribing, BEFORE submitting your product key, TURN OFF the auto renew feature (it is on by default). If you are lucky, this will trigger an "offer" of an extra "free" month if you turn it on.  Turn it On, submit your key to get the extra month (I believe it shows up immediately in your expire date).  Turn it off, start the process to submit the next key.  If you are doing this, you can only submit 3 keys initially. Then you have to wait 4 months before you can submit the 4th one to get the full 5 years 4 months you would be "entitled" to.

If you do buy more than 4 costco keys, keep the extras in a safe place. And keep your userid and password in your will. If you get hit by the proverbial bus, you want your family to be able to continue using the subscription.