Microsoft Office 365 Home

You install Office 365 on a desktop or laptop by clicking the Install button on a page on Microsoft's Office web site. Then the full suite downloads and installs automatically.

An option on the Office site lets you install the Insider version of Office, which adds new features before they're released to everyone else. You can also install Office 2013 if you need the older version.

You can add access to remote OneDrive and SharePoint sites and collaborate with other Office users who have access to the same sites. Real-time collaboration only works with Word and PowerPoint documents stored in OneDrive or SharePoint.

Office 365 subscribers get new features that aren't in the standalone versions of the same apps, for example, this panel of design suggestions in PowerPoint.

Office apps on a tablet can't match the power of the desktop versions, but Microsoft's iOS versions are elegant and efficient. Note the useful sets of icons at the top of the on-screen menu.

The mobile versions of the Office apps allow printing but with minimal options. For example, don't look for an option to print on both sides of the page.

The desktop versions of the Office apps are rich in conveniences not available in the online or mobile versions, like this informative interface in Excel for selecting a chart.

The OS X and Windows versions of the Office apps are closely similar, with some surprising differences: for example, the Mac version of Word includes useful features not found in the Windows version, like this option that displays a color-coded vertical bar showing which style is in use for each paragraph in a document.