Software upgrade from MS office97 !

Software upgrade from MS office97 !

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came across this product on the web......

"" microsoft office2007  standard upgrade, retail boxed plus free upgrade to 2010 ""

looks like you can get from what you have, to MS 2010 with this - assuming you are say using 2003 and prior.  i currently still have MS office 97 on an old usable laptop,  [yes i know but it does whats needed!]  so with this product offering, would the first  upgrade work seemlessly/ hassle free  from 97 to 2007 ??, with the option to then eventually upgrade to 2010......... or ........just better to go and get 2010 as a more expensive one off hit.  Not a good hands on software upgrader

appreciate the IT/teckies views plus of course us users thought and experience.  Are you all going to 2010 now?

Replies (12)

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By telespan
09th Jul 2010 21:14

Software upgrade from MS office97 !

This link indicates that you would be wasting your money buying an upgrade version of Office 2007 for anything earlier than Office 2000. I have already upgraded from Office 2007 to Office 2010 (x64) - there are those who say that the 64-bit version of Office 2010 is not really worth the effort, and it is true that some add-ins will NOT work (yet).

However, I am one of those unfortunate geeks who absolutely have to have the latest version. So I have it and so far am really well pleased with it.

So I would go for the retail version of 2010 if you have the chance and forget about going with 2007 first and then upgrading.

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By cverrier
11th Jul 2010 20:43

Sounds a bit dodgy

If it's too good to be true, it probably is..

Firstly, NO version of Office actually performs an upgrade - it just installs the new version alongside the old one.  The 'Upgrade' edition is just a full version of the product - offered on slightly different pricing terms for users of earlier versions.

Secondly, the Upgrade Edition offered by Microsoft typically only applies to certain prior versions (the software checks for this and will refuse to install if it cannot find the right version).   My understanding is that Office 2007 upgrade editions only considered Office 2000 or later to be acceptable for upgrade.  I would advise getting the 'full' version (if only to make life easier when you change machines in future).

Thirdly - If you have Office 97, this suggests you are using a pretty old PC - Have you verified that Office 2007 or 2010 will even work on your PC?

My advice...

Get a 'full' version of Office 2010.  There are lots of different editions to suit your requirements and budget.

If you have a decent computer, then either Office 2007 or 2010 will be a real revelation compared to Office 97 - It'll be like upgrading from an Austin Allegro to a brand new BMW 3 Series.  2010 is really an evolution from 2007 - lots of nice 'polishing' of the product.

If you DON'T have a decent computer, then your experience of Office 2007 will not be good, and you'll be wasting your money.  Spend the money on a new laptop instead!

 

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By alan.falcondale
15th Jul 2010 11:17

switching to 2010

When you switch to 2010 make sure you have all of the subsequent patches and fixes for various 'bugs'.
e.g. - in MSAccess the export report to excel function was no longer availble but after much protest was return within an update patch.
Apart from those minor bugs the 2010 apps are pretty slick and a much needed improvement on 97.

It'll take a little while to get used to the new ribbon system and the actual settings for each app are 'hidden' to an extent in the top left windows logo/options, but all in all we have been quite pleased with the increased flexibility in the system.

 

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By richardpoulter
15th Jul 2010 13:23

Quote: "... still have MS office 97 ... but it does whats needed

 "If it ain't broke..." etc

My advise if that if Office 97 still works for you, then stick with it.

Wait until you feel the genuine need to upgrade your laptop, then think about shopping around for a new version.

Unless there's some killer feature or another you're envious of with the latest versions (umm, unless XML figures largely in your life, answers on a postcard please) then consider that you've actually still got a highly powerful and evolved, mature & productive suite of applications there (ignore the version number!) and should perform comfortably on older hardware such as yours.

In any case, anything like that for free should be taken with a massive pinch of salt... buyer beware...

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By telespan
15th Jul 2010 14:06

Quote: "... still have MS office 97 ... but it does whats needed

As this article on Microsoft's web site indicates, Support for Office 97 finished finally in 2004 - over 6 years ago, since when NO patches have been supplied by Microsoft. Microsoft say (quite reasonably) that one should upgrade to a later version of Office. My question, therefore, is "How do you know it isn't broke?".

I have lost count of the number of security patches that Microsoft have provided for its Office products in the last six years and cannot believe that any business in their right mind would even want to have such an old unsupported version, quite apart from the problem that interfacing to other suppliers and clients versions of Office must be an absolute nightmare.

I will provide documents that interface down to Office 2003 for my clients. Fortunately, they all have Office versions which are more up-to-date than that.

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By RogerNeale
15th Jul 2010 14:16

Office 2010 - have you got the hardware to run it?

If you have the hardware to run Office 2010 and you can warrant the upgrade cost, I see no reason no to upgrade.

I've been running Office 2010 for a while now and found the changes to Outlook particularly useful.

Have a look at the table on the Microsoft Office site and make sure oyu go for the right version.

If you don't need MS Access, and you're going to use it at home on a domestic PC ( e.g on a Windows "Home" version) the "Office Home and Student" version is particularly good value because you can install it on 3 PCs.

For commercial use the "Volume licence" can be the best way to buy it.

Just bear in mind that there are many third party applications that link with Office which have not yet been upgraded to work with Office 2010 so, if you have any third party app's, check it out with your supplier first.

If I can offer any help, please don't hesitate to call.

Roger Neale
Perkeo Computer Systems Ltd
Tel: 01623 857972

How Green is your IT?

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By richardpoulter
15th Jul 2010 14:53

Quote: "... still have MS office 97 ... but it does whats needed

Devils advocate response follows ;)

Corporations all around have both legacy & current mission critical systems running on Microsoft products whose support was discontinued some, or a long, time ago.

If you perceive support as an issue for you, for example if you like being adventurous with low macro security settings and casually opening office document attachments, or you don't trust other users of your equipment to behave responsibly with externally sourced material and/or you're not running a reputable, regularly updated internet security suite... then to be on the safe side, it could be wise to upgrade (as long as target hardware can cope).

Interfacing to other suppliers and clients, in my view it's good practice to output to the lowest common denomination of file format, within reason. I've lost count of the times I've received .docx and .xlsx attachments from third parties whose ignorance or implicit selfishness assumes everyone else must have upgraded to the latest & greatest, and many who have do not have a truly valid business case to support that platform shift decision, let alone considered all the big bang user interface retraining that goes with it. Office 2003 is still a mature and legitimate platform and extended support isn't scheduled to end for another 3.5 years yet. It was fine 6 years ago and still is. Apart from this there are the freely available converters from Micro$oft that allow users of older office versions to view the latest document formats. Besides, for read-only document interchange (which must comprise the vast majority of B2B communications) everyone should adopt PDF - de riguer - for that purpose of maximum compatibility for desktops, notebooks and smartphone users alike.

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By fortescuen
17th Jul 2010 12:24

Office 2010 not bug free yet

I bought Office 2007 with a "free upgrade" to 2010. I ddi the upgrade to 2010 and discovered one of my spreadsheets was broken - there was a bug in the SUMIF function. So my recommendation would be to not upgrade to 2010 yet until they have had a bit more time to fix dicovered problems.

Reference for the bug I found: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/excel/thread/cda9fef8-8ad4-4d56-8939-49b1ae50c4e7

 

 

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By telespan
17th Jul 2010 13:06

Office 2010 - Not Bug Free (yet)

With respect, I have to say that it is extremely rare to find that any software is bug-free, EVER! All software companies spend millions of dollars squashing bugs in their products, and it is only when they decide that technology has moved on too far, that they upgrade the product to a new version (which of course, exposes new bugs to public scrutiny).

As for Excel's statistical functions, it is well known in the statistical community that Microsoft's statistical capabilities are extremely limited, and if I need a robust stat engine, I will go and find someone who has access to SAS.

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By ianlawrance1
28th Jul 2010 09:49

Free Office...?

Alongside this debate...anyone out there (apart from me!) ever tried OpenOffice....? It's VERY like MS Office 2003 and it's a free download from the Sun Website....my experience is that Write (=Word) and Calc (=Excel) are fine for anyone but VERY sophisticated users. However, if you use IRIS PM, I'm not sure they support anything other than Word...YET.....

I would certainly recommend this to home users instead of spending hundreds on MS Office when they probably don't need the functionality or the (IMHO) over-glitzy interface, and would probably prefer to spend their hard-earned cash on something else.

It goes without saying that OpenOffice will open MS Office files and can save in MS Office format. We also use it here to open occasional Client files that may have been created in non-MS products, eg, Lotus products or similar...

To me, this offers a real alternative to MS Office, although it will not be to all tastes....

 

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By DMGbus
28th Jul 2010 13:21

Open Office is a "rough edges" product

I did install a free Open Office software package earlier this year and immediately in the first two documents encountered unsatisafctory issues.

Writer (letter writer) : defaults to right margin of text NOT being aligned and no icon to easily put this error right, there is, Open Office tell me, a hidden way of sorting it, but I don't go for hidden (=secret=trash) routines in software, even if they're free.

The spreadsheet's defect is the inability to format cells as "shrink to fit" - so it will on ocasions print out the symbols ###  instead of figures because of lack of this essential facility.    Open Office advise me that this "shrink to fit" facility is on their "wish list".

A further spreadsheet issue is that format painting from Excel to Open Office didn't seem to work.

The above issues were all discovered within an hour or two of using Open Office, I do wonder what other issues might be discovered after a few days use of Open Office.

Open Office has therefore been uninstalled off my computer as I don't have the time to use it and find other defects (if there are any).

 

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By ianlawrance1
02nd Aug 2010 09:11

Open Office, again...

...interesting comments...not noticed those as issues myself....

OO is widely used and a new version has just been released, which seems faster to me, though not without some foibles (like any software...). So it's a bit like using MS Works rather than MS Office...does the same thing but in different ways...

From a personal point of view it "works for me" particularly as I can have it for NOTHING, and avoided me having to spend my cash on MS Office for simple tasks.....

Not convinced the Database ("Base") is up to much, though, as compared to MS Access, which is surprising...or it might be me!

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