A few years ago, when I got my first notebook from Japan, I had been doing full-time freelance work and the bulk of it required the use of MS Excel. That meant I had no choice but to purchase MS Office for that laptop because I am a Singaporean and Singaporeans don’t do piracy.
Some time at the end of last year, I bought my second laptop as more and more keys on the first one are failing to respond. The windows key doesn’t open up my menu, the left and right keys have fallen out, the left control key is almost falling but refuses to fall out so that I can say I “lost control” and the track pad has been iffy since purchase. But since more and more of my work doesn’t require MS Office anymore, I had thought I would just save on expenses by not paying for the additional software for my new laptop. If required, I would just upload the documents to Google drive, do whatever I need on Google’s version of the Office, download it in MS Office format and send it out. Little did I know, formatting is a bitch during conversion between Google Office and MS Office. They don’t match 100% all the time, and MS Office is more powerful than Google Docs. So, I thought oh damn, I do need MS Office.
A part of me was thinking, perhaps by downloading MS Office from Microsoft’s site, I could use the trial version of some 30 days, which would at least temporarily allow me to complete my then-current assignment. I visited the site, and downloaded the old version of Office and then suddenly recalled, “If I had paid for the Office for my previous laptop, they should’ve given me a key card.”
I went to my wardrobe, pulled out my laptop box and tada! I found the key card. I proceeded with downloading Office, entered the serial number on the key card into the program and presto! I was able to continue using the old copy of MS Office.
So, don’t be dumb like me, thinking you have to purchase a new copy of MS Office each time you get a new laptop. Although a part of me secretly wish that at least one person out there almost made the same mistake so that I feel less alone =\
