Checking style in proofing in Word 2016

In her post that begins "The English Style Options are now available to Windows Word and Outlook Insiders with Office build 16.0.7167.2015."Nicole tells us that the Windows Style options are now available to insiders.

I am not an insider.  I don't want to be an insider.  I don't want to subscribe to Office 365.

Nicole - please provide a straight answer to this straight question.

When will license holders of a stand alone version of Office 2016 that one can use off line 24/7 be able to install the stand alone Office 2016 and find it has the Style Checking options listed in your post?

As Background, I bought my laptop this year with a stand alone Office 2016 installed.

Microsoft's promotional material on Office 2016 (a) claims it is better than Office 2013 and (b) makes no claim that it was intended to lack the style checker feature available in Office 2013.  Therefore, this style checker, although it might have more capabilities than that available in Office 2010 or Office 2013, is not a New Feature; it is the restoration of a feature that Microsoft's announcements implied would be part of all versions of Office 2016.

As I needed a style checker, I uninstalled Office 2016 from my PC, bought Office 2013 from a third party vendor and have used it for the past three months. 

Nicole - When can I reinstall Office 2016, as a stand alone product I can use 24/7 off line, and be confident it will contain the style checker features listed in your post, which focuses only on what insiders can access.

Office 2016, without a style checker, is "not fit for purpose,"  If the answer to my question is "never," then when will Microsoft offer to reimburse license holders of a stand alone Office 2016 for its cost, so they can buy Office 2013 licenses from Third Party vendors instead?

Dr. Alford,

I am stuck in a similar position as yourself. Microsoft wants you to subscribe so that can continually make profits if their software costs are already not steep enough).  As I was told from a Microsoft customer service person, you would get updates to Office 2016 as long as it is available. It appears they are putting a shelf life on the product now.  You cannot have two versions of a product such as 2013 version and a 2016 version on the same computer, the programs will no longer work when you do that.  For me, I have other Microsoft products that work the same way (Visio, Project Management Professional).  Shame on Microsoft for doing that!   I am also not an 'insider" also, I am sure they would want more money for that as well. In Nicole's post, she indicated it would be back "soon". "Soon"  is ambiguous to make such a statement. Being vague after the blunders Microsoft has made in recent times seems to be a non-commital word giving an indication of a lack of urgency as "soon" could be many years away.  It makes working on my dissertation a nightmare for what they have done.  In my opinion , they should refund everyone's money to get the features that 2013 or at least release a patch so that the 2013 version will work with 2016 versions until they work out all the glitches before they release such madness.

Traci:

Yes, 365 makes them more money in the long term. That is why they are pushing so hard.

When they say with 365 you will get updates to 2016 as long as it is available, it is not a exactly a question of a shorter shelf life on 2016.  What they are specifically talking about is that with Office 365 one of the specifically included updates is a free "upgrade" to the next version of Office whenever it comes out. 

When you are talking about "2016" you have to be specific, are you talking about 365/2016 or one-time payment 2016. It is important, because only 365/2016 gets the new features. One-time payment users are considered second-class customers, not worthy of the new features. Of course it is a not so subtle effort to "encourage" everyone to switch to 365 ...

A number of people have been able to install 2016 and other versions, myself included (I have 2016 Pro Plus and 2010 Home and Student running right now on my machine).  But yes, MS "new & improved" 2016 to make installing multiple versions more difficult, not for technical reasons, but for the same reason stated in the previous para.  Specifically for Visio and Project, you can get "free upgrades" from 2013 to 2016 if you have 365.  I'll include the links at the end of this reply.

The "insider" program does not cost you money. It simply requires you to volunteer to be an unpaid crash test dummy, running beta test code. The cost is in potential lost time if you get a bad update.

Yes, Nicole's reply of "soon" is vague. But when dealing with programming time lines are often hard to pin down. Remember, those grammar checking features were (in theory) supposed to be included in 2016 when it was released, but they ran into problems writing the code.  Trying to translate natural language into program code is not simple, all of the execptions to the rules are tricky.   But, in this case, Nicole's soon is NOW. She has told us Office 365 "subscribers" will be getting the fix some time this month.  But there is a question of whether the second-class one-time payment Office 2016 customers will get it also.

If you have Office 365 there is way to do a "retrograde upgrade" back to 2013.

Special offer for customers with Office 2016 and Office 2013 standalone applications - Free Upgrade - Visio / Project

https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Special-offer-for-customers-with-Office-2016-and-Office-2013-standalone-applications-c32e3cad-e935-4163-a44f-50d896e10bbc

https://support.office.com/en-us/article/-We-need-to-remove-some-older-apps-error-a225347f-e102-4ea6-9796-5d1ac5220c3b

<SNIP>

Office 2016 and standalone Office 2013 applications (purchased separately via a retailer and not part of a suite of applications) cannot be installed on the same device. To resolve this issue, you’ll need to upgrade your standalone applications to the Office 2016 version of the products. Please contact the Microsoft Answer Desk to obtain a free upgrade for your qualifying standalone applications.

This offer is subject to the following terms and conditions:

• ·      Offer expires June 30, 2016.
• Offer has been extended to Sept 30 2016

</SNIP>

<snip https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/office_365hp-visio/office-2016-uninstalls-my-visio-2013/11954b21-d1bd-42ce-82b2-d3178ae00ca6 >

Yay..today they finally sent me my link to Visio and Project 2016.

You do have to persevere. It took me about ten tries over 5 days with the answer desk online chat before they escalated it. Within 48 hrs they called and emailed me the links.

</snip>

<snip>

I tried SEVEN times, and every representative had a different approach and response.  I finally got someone who "escalated" the issue.  After some e-mail interaction I actually got a call back from someone who knew what they were doing, and got my Visio 2016 license set up. 

**A BIG problem is if you don't have your software associated with a Microsoft account.  If you installed 2013 using a product key, they absolutely can't help you.**You need to have your product key associated with your Microsoft account.

To add your Visio 2013 product key to your account: https://setup.office.com/   /  https://setup.office.com/downloadoffice

(this is the step the representatives don't seem to know)

To check Product Keys associated with Microsoft Account:

office.com/myaccount (https://stores.office.com/myaccount/home.aspx)

</snip>

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbfIHR_52do At the 32 minute point of this video they BRAG about being able to do a side-by-side installation of CTR 2013 beside 2010.  The new limit in the CTR 2016 installer is “artificial”.  CTR technology is supposed to isolate the programs inside of the CTR from those outside!  2016 CTR has broken this feature!

<snip http://searchenterprisedesktop.techtarget.com/definition/Microsoft-Click-To-Run >

Click-to-Run uses embedded App-V 5 technology to run Office in an isolated environment. This feature allows multiple versions of Office to run on the same computer.

</snip>

The above is a non-MS statement, but I have seen essentially the same statement on MS pages, just can’t find the reference right now <sigh>

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNHyHnedY4E - At the 3 minute point of this video he shows the XML required to add Visio and Project to a Pro Plus 365 2016 CTR installation he is customizing