MS Office is available in various editions and suites used for different purposes. MS office students and MS Office professionals are some of them. The student edition is used by students and casuals users who need core applications like word, excel, and PowerPoint, and the professional edition of MS Office includes some extra applications.
MS Office Student vs MS Office Professional
The main difference between MS Office student and professional is that MS Office student contains the most basic applications of MS Office whereas MS Office professional contains three additional applications namely, outlook, access and publisher and so provide wider services to the commercial professionals. The professional edition costs more than the student edition as the services provided in it are higher than student edition services.
MS Office student edition is widely used on a non-commercial basis by students and casual users in which standard MS Office applications are available through which the goals of basic users are achieved. Word, Excel, and PowerPoint are the core applications that a basic user needs.
MS Office professional is like a superior edition to the standard edition, which provides additional three applications to help the professionals of the corporate world to manage their several work strategies. The outlook is an information manager that manages emails, contacts, and tasks.
Comparison Table Between MS Office Student and Professional
| Parameters of Comparison | MS Office Student | MS Office Professional |
| Definition | Designed for the use of students with all the necessary and minimal applications required for a student. | Designed for the use of professionals with extra applications that are required at their work. |
| Applications provided | Applications: word, excel, and PowerPoint. | In addition to core applications, it provides outlook, access, and publisher also. |
| Price | Cheaper | Quite costly. |
| Technical support | Offers 90 days of free technical support from Microsoft. | Offers 1-year of free technical support from Microsoft. |
| License | Microsoft only provides it for non-commercial usage. | For both commercial and non-commercial usage. |
What is MS Office Student?
MS Office student is widely used at home and schools by students as well as teachers for daily data management. Student edition has a word that is used to maintain any document in written form or to preserve any other information. Other applications are excel and PowerPoint; Excel is a spreadsheet application that contains visualization tools that are used to manage and analyze the data.
PowerPoint is used to create a presentation with the use of text, images, sounds, animations, and many other quintessential tools. In addition to these core applications, in MS Office 2019, student version OneNote is also available. Student edition can be installed on one PC or MAC, and it is compatible with windows 10, Mac OS 10.12, and up. It falls under the one-time purchase category. This edition is cheaper than other editions, and it is sufficient for a casual user with moderate work. Microsoft also offers free 90 days of technical support from their professional tech teams.
If an individual faces any difficulties while using it, then they can call the Microsoft techs, and their issue will be solved by the tech team of Microsoft free of cost until their 90 days period is valid.
What is MS Office Professional?
MS Office professional is used for the corporation and large businesses. Along with the basic applications, it has three more applications that prove to be powerful applications needed for corporate professionals at work time. Those are outlook, access, and publisher.
- Outlook- Outlook is an information managing application it keeps track of all your mails and informs you about all the new activities so that you do not miss out on anything and can plan your schedule accordingly. It helps the busy working professionals to cope up with their hectic schedule and not missing any task or activity.
- Access- it is a database managing application that provides a platform for storing huge data with various functionalities like create, modify and find the data. It is a very necessary application for those who work where data is managed through databases.
- Publisher- it is a desktop publication program that helps to create publications for companies or any other general cause.
It is a one-time purchase type edition that can be installed only on one PC. It is compatible with Windows 10 only. It is a bit high in cost while purchasing but worth every penny as it provides such a wide variety of applications.
Main Differences Between MS Office Student and Professional
- The student edition is simply used for casual and personal use, whereas the professional edition is strictly used for corporate and business tasks.
- The student edition contains the basic MS Office applications, which are word, excel, and PowerPoint, whereas the professional edition provides more with the basic apps, mainly outlook, access, and publisher, for making the work of a busy professional an easy task.
- The student edition costs less compared to the professional edition.
- In both editions, free technical support is provided. The fine line difference between them is the tenure for which free support services are provided. In the case of the student edition, it is 90 days, and in the professional edition, it is one year.
- The student edition is licensed for personal or can term as non-commercial usage only, and on the other hand, the professional edition is licensed for commercial usage only.
Conclusion
Both student and professional edition provide what is required for its ideal users fulfilling their goals. An individual has to choose according to what is their sole purpose and aim that they are expecting to achieve. If an individual requires the basic applications, then the student edition is going to be a satisfactory one. On the other hand, if that individual is working at a firm, then a professional edition is best to go with.
MS Office is providing the best services in both the edition. There are several versions in each of the editions, and Microsoft has been enhancing and bringing changes in each of the applications for a better user experience.
References
- https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=SKpCAwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PT15&dq=Microsoft+office+professionals&ots=xqiq_Cvkdu&sig=npqeWvuaysX2Xw6ck5lEdy61b8M
- https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=7RUIAAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PR3&dq=Microsoft+office+students&ots=PoTiYGfzB6&sig=Lf5LsxyHuwepbj1JKJkGF8-LMXM