stop using 365 free trial (2 Viewers)

[CJ_London]

Any advice appreciated. My client asked me to add in some additional reporting facilities to an excel file and not to use macro's. Basically, the requirement was to click on a value to display the records that relate to that value (easy in Access, not so easy in excel). I used the excel LET function to identify the related data and display it on the same worksheet.

What I hadn't appreciated is that the client is using a perpetual version of 365 (2016) - and that does not include the LET function (among others). So either a waste of the clients money, or they upgrade to a subscription version of 365.

They would like to try it out and by using the free trial and also see if there are other benefits (or disadvantages). However if they decide not to proceed, they cancel the trial.

The issue is, in order to try the free trial, their current version of 365 would be removed. This may have unexpected issues with the other 365 apps (thinking Outlook as a primary example). If they decide to not proceed and revert to their original they may have issues with some files now in a 'later version' state and no longer available to their original version.

Does anyone have any experience of installing subscription 365 then uninstalling to reinstate the previous version? If so what issues need to be considered? Alternatively, is it possible to to have both subscription and perpetual 365 installed side by side?

Other things I've considered:
- move the reporting from Excel to Access - problem, another member of the client team uses iMac which cannot open access
- rewrite using older methods to avoid using LET etc - problem, code is slower, clunky, difficult to maintain and may not provide the required functionality
- use excel macro's - problem iMax user views excel files in Numbers - which does not support macros (the reason no macro's was specified in the requirement)

 

[isladogs]

Sorry but this doesn't makes sense. 365 is ONLY available on subscription. 2016 together with 2019/2021/2024 are all only available as perpetual versions. The only difference is that the perpetual versions are the same as 365 but 'frozen' at a moment in time.

However they all share a common code base (16.0) which means users can switch from one perpetual version to another or to/from 365 without needing to uninstall / reinstall. Certain functionality then becomes 'switched on' or' switched off' depending on which license is currently in use..

So for example, if the user switches from a 2016 license to 2021 they will gain modern charts. Swop again to 365 and they gain e.g. Monaco. Swop back and they lose both features. Similarly for changes in Excel etc

This also means that different users can use the same machine, one having e.g. a 365 license and another on e.g. 2016 but with only one copy of Office 16.0 installed on that machine. Each user will see the version (and functionality) for which they have a license.

Does that help answer your question . . . or not?

 

[GPGeorge]

The one feature which I believe might be a problem would be support for Large Numbers and Date Time Extended, which alter the accdb irreversibly, IIRC.

 

[isladogs]

The one feature which I believe might be a problem would be support for Large Numbers and Date Time Extended, which alter the accdb irreversibly, IIRC.

True though both features can be used with local or linked Access tables without ticking either option.

The workaround if these options do get ticked would be to import all objects into a new blank database before cancelling 365.

Another issue is that any ACCDE files created in the new version would probably not run in the older version

 

[CJ_London]

this is in the context of Excel, not Access. And I'm dealing with a client who is very cautious about change

perpetual versions are the same as 365 but 'frozen' at a moment in time.

precisely - the client has a perpetual licence - it cannot use functionality (LET for example) introduced in a later version

A bit more context - the new feature works fine on my machine, but on the client's machine they see #Error where they should be seeing data. The cell with the LET function starts with this
=LET(
A, Ledger!A2:A654,
B, Ledger!B2:B654,
G, Ledger!G2:G654,
crit1, --(A=I3) + --(IFERROR(B = I3, FALSE)),
....,,
.....

and on my clients machine:
=_xlfn.LET(
_xlpm.A, Ledger!A2:A654,
_xlpm.B, Ledger!B2:B654,
_xlpm.G, Ledger!G2:G654,
_xlpm.crit1, --(_xlpm.A=I3) + --(IFERROR(_xlpm.B = I3, FALSE)),
.....
.....

_xlfn abd __xlpm is Excel's way of saying this function/parameter is not available

It is his personal machine (the client is a small charity all managed by volunteers - and no IT policy/strategy although I'm trying to persuade them they need one)

So for example, if the user switches from a 2016 license to 2021 they will gain modern charts. Swop again to 365 and they gain e.g. Monaco. Swop back and they lose both features. Similarly for changes in Excel etc

So switching from 2016 licence to 365 will solve the 'LET' problem, not questioning that.- my question is about swapping back. From what you are saying, there should not be an issue providing they a) decide they don't want this feature and b) don't create anything that only became available in later versions (unlikely in this case).

This also means that different users can use the same machine, one having e.g. a 365 license and another on e.g. 2016 but with only one copy of Office 16.0 installed on that machine. Each user will see the version (and functionality) for which they have a license.

My thought was around same user having both licences on the same machine (was thinking it would be similar to how you can have different versions of Access on the same machine if done right). So basically it is about changing the license to a subscription one (then presumable running updates if it doesn't happen automatically) then back to perpetual at which point the updates are disabled.

 

[isladogs]

this is in the context of Excel, not Access.

The principle is the same for any Office app

My thought was around same user having both licences on the same machine (was thinking it would be similar to how you can have different versions of Access on the same machine if done right). So basically it is about changing the license to a subscription one (then presumable running updates if it doesn't happen automatically) then back to perpetual at which point the updates are disabled.

The only difference to having say 2010 & 365 installed is that, as everything from 2016 on is v16.0.
So I believe you can only have one 'version' running at a time.
But switching licenses only takes a few seconds.

 

[CJ_London]

Thanks for the input, sounds like it shouldn't be a major issue for the client

 

[isladogs]

That was the message I was hoping to convey