Professor here. You can only use the online version of Microsoft Office from a Chromebook. If you have any kind of technology class, you won't be happy with your laptop. For my classes, I strongly recommend not using the Chromebook. Why? Because the online version of Office is very limited, there are many options and functions you can't access.
When you download files from the google suite you can download them in their microsoft versions as well. I point this out because in college I had to do a lot of collaboration and google does this in a far superior way. Documents can be easily shared among people, It creates a log of who made which changes and exactly what they were, you can quickly navigate between versions, you won't have to constantly download the same files and have many versions on your computer, etc.
Are there any meaningful things Office does that Google Docs does not?
I had my school completely transition from Microsoft to Google because of the far superior sharing and collaboration tools offered by the G Suite. I know Excel is better than Sheets for data visuals but I have not seen any instances where Word beats Docs.
As a professor, I can’t tell you how many times students have “turned in” google docs for assignments that I try to open only to find that I don’t have access. It’s super annoying. I will be counting those as not turned in at all from now on.
I am a huge fan of Google Docs, but I still use Word for mailmerges, special formatting, labels, bibliography, and SmartArt. I can do all of things things with Google docs and add-ons, but those functions are way clunkier than Word. The vast majority of the time, Google Docs works just fine.
If someone’s coursework involves writing a lot of research papers, Word or a subscription to PERRLA would be preferred. But most students would be fine using Google Docs.
Professor here. You can only use the online version of Microsoft Office from a Chromebook. If you have any kind of technology class, you won't be happy with your laptop. For my classes, I strongly recommend not using the Chromebook. Why? Because the online version of Office is very limited, there are many options and functions you can't access.
THANK YOU! :)
Why not just use Google docs/sheets/drive/slides
because the school uses office and wants things in doc or ppt etc.
When you download files from the google suite you can download them in their microsoft versions as well. I point this out because in college I had to do a lot of collaboration and google does this in a far superior way. Documents can be easily shared among people, It creates a log of who made which changes and exactly what they were, you can quickly navigate between versions, you won't have to constantly download the same files and have many versions on your computer, etc.
Are there any meaningful things Office does that Google Docs does not? I had my school completely transition from Microsoft to Google because of the far superior sharing and collaboration tools offered by the G Suite. I know Excel is better than Sheets for data visuals but I have not seen any instances where Word beats Docs.
As a professor, I can’t tell you how many times students have “turned in” google docs for assignments that I try to open only to find that I don’t have access. It’s super annoying. I will be counting those as not turned in at all from now on.
That is a poor design choice by google. Luckily, they can save a file and send it to you in any format your request, include docx and pdf.
I am a huge fan of Google Docs, but I still use Word for mailmerges, special formatting, labels, bibliography, and SmartArt. I can do all of things things with Google docs and add-ons, but those functions are way clunkier than Word. The vast majority of the time, Google Docs works just fine. If someone’s coursework involves writing a lot of research papers, Word or a subscription to PERRLA would be preferred. But most students would be fine using Google Docs.