Saying Goodbye to Microsoft Office

I have used Microsoft Office for as long as I can remember, in fact when I was 6 years old I used to help my teacher use Powerpoint…

Office is powerful and well built, but it just doesn’t feel very modern, and it’s obviously focused on a file management system and file directory on a Windows operating system. I hate folders with a passion, and I am well entrenched in the Apple ecosystem. Together, this means that for me Microsoft Office is no longer the right fit for me, and I am now exploring some alternatives on a trial basis.

I’m currently testing these apps out with some new uses:

Read on to see more about how I’m using these apps instead of Office.

Onedrive to Capacities

I have more than a decade worth of content in Onedrive, so at this point, this is a change going forward rather than completely emptying it.

Capacities is a note-taking app primarily but its data structure (goodbye folders, hello tags and databases), support for different file types, and lack of limit on how much you can upload to it, have changed the ways I see and use information, and unsurprisingly that’s filtered down to how I want to store information.

I started adding inspiration pictures for a future house to Capacities and categorising via tag rather than leaving them in a folder like I used to. The wall view brings information to the surface and saves the information from being hidden in a prison I have to double clink to enter. I didn’t realise how much I hated this until Capacities showed me how I could store information!

Here’s a screenshot of a tag for my masters module ‘International Relations thoery’. I find it incredibly powerful seeing page content without having to open a document, and even then, a document isn’t a document, I can create my own content types (definition, people, topics etc). I have real control of my knowledge.

Microsoft Word to Capacities

Capacities also has a really good text editor and actually does everything I need it to: bold, italic, headings, some colour, word count. This is the same as what I want from Word. In fact I’d say Capacities’ automatic table of contents helps me structure my work more than Word did.

Powerpoint to Canva

Canva is an app that does so much, but I use it for creating visual assets for my blog and Etsy shop. I pay £10.99 a month for all the pro features. Canva has an amazing array of templates and it’s easy to use, so given I already pay for Canva pro for various business needs, I may as well make the most of its features and create slide decks on there too. I almost wish I had an excuse to create a presentation..

Excel to Rows HQ

I use excel all day every day in my day job on my work Windows laptop. All of my personal devices are Apple though, and Excel on Apple devices is just not as good. I’d seen some ads for Rows HQ which is an exciting new spreadsheet app that has some amazing integrations and the same functions I use regularly on excel. It’s free for personal use too!

I’m still very much in the trial period here, but so far so good.

I’m really excited by these changes. These are great apps that are developing well and are increasingly integrated and work better on Mac from my experience. Will see how this goes and report back soon! It will be interesting to break the habits of constant Microsoft Office use but I’m excited to experiment and see what new tools can do!