A reader is looking for Office 365 alternatives.
“I have Office 365 Personal for MAC. I do not use Excel, Powerpoint, One Note and my Word has been messed up for the last 6 months. I received notice of my annual renewal for $69.99. The only thing I like and use daily is Outlook email. Is there an alternative email system I could use or can you just purchase Outlook email by itself? I do not believe this is worth $69.99 per year for me.
What are your thoughts on an alternate Word and Outlook email program?
Love the job you are doing daily and you are very helpful and informative. Keep up the great work.”
First, I’m sad that you put up with Word and OneNote not working for six months. Customer support is included with your Office 365 subscription and you should have been able to get assistance from Microsoft solving the issue. Generally, something as simple as uninstalling and reinstalling the programs can solve the problem.
That said, let’s check out some great free alternatives. The Thunderbird email client that I’ve written about before is available for Mac as well. You can click here to learn more.
Or save yourself the trouble and just use your Mac’s built-in email client called … wait for it… Mail! Here’s how to set it all up.
Look for the Mail app on your Dock or search for it in Finder. Click to open.
Select your provider. Hotmail and Outlook users will select Microsoft Exchange.
Type in your username, email address, and password.
It takes just a few seconds to connect and you’re ready to go.
You can add additional email accounts to Mail as well. You can download Outlook for Mac from Microsoft.com. It costs $129, though. So unless there’s some specific feature you need from Outlook, the Mail app on your Mac or Thunderbird ought to be enough.
Tomorrow, we’ll check out free alternatives to Word.