MS Office queries

TheBazman

Hi

I'm just getting a new pc and I have to choose which version of Office I want. Ideally I want Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and Outlook.

The options are :
1 Microsoft Office 2007 Home and Student English Word, Excel, Powerpoint, OneNote at €152 (Do you know if this has Outlook Express?)
2 Microsoft Office 2007 Standard English, CD: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook - Has what I need but...€499 !!!!!
or
3 Microsoft Office Basic Edition 2003 SP2 English OEM at €193 - I think this also has what I need and is much cheaper than the 2007 version.
I cant imagine I would be at too much of a disadvantage going for the 2003 version over the 2007.

What do you think?

Cheers

walkers

Go for the 2003 edition its exactly the same as the other too despite the year, i have it on my computer, perfect. id be a little bit skeptical about the 2007 edition as they are quite new.

aidan_walsh

Outlook Express doesn't exist any more either, it was replaced by Windows Mail on Vista.

Gadgetman496

TheBazman wrote:

Hi

I'm just getting a new pc and I have to choose which version of Office I want. Ideally I want Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and Outlook.

The options are :
1 Microsoft Office 2007 Home and Student English Word, Excel, Powerpoint, OneNote at €152 (Do you know if this has Outlook Express?)
2 Microsoft Office 2007 Standard English, CD: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook - Has what I need but...€499 !!!!!
or
3 Microsoft Office Basic Edition 2003 SP2 English OEM at €193 - I think this also has what I need and is much cheaper than the 2007 version.
I cant imagine I would be at too much of a disadvantage going for the 2003 version over the 2007.

What do you think?

Cheers

If your new machine is going to have Vista as the operating system you can use the inbuilt mail system "Windows Mail"

You can also use the free alternative to Microsoft Office called "Open Office"
Version 2.0.1 runs on Vista.
You can check it out & download it from here:
http://www.openoffice.org/

-

TheBazman

Cheers guys - thanks for the help - looks like the 2003 version will do fine

Krusty_Clown

As gadgetman suggested, try OpenOffice first. It's free. and if you don't like it you can always de-install it.. No harm in trying!

aidan_walsh

Krusty_Clown wrote:

de-install

Uninstall

DanGerMus

Yeah in fairness i think anyone would be mental to buy/pay for MS office. Open office is free and completely compatible with all MS documents. It's basically the same thing only free and its better. It has it's own version of word excel powerpoint and the other thing that i never use. Looks very similar feels very similar. Oh and it FREE FREE FREE. Of course if you set on Microsoft it aint hard to get it ahem... somewhere else... ahem...

TheBazman

So Open Office is fully compatible with Microsoft Office? Might be the way to go then me reckons

aidan_walsh

TheBazman wrote:

So Open Office is fully compatible with Microsoft Office?

I wouldn't say fully. Most of the work they have done with the older document formats is based on a lot of reverse engineering work, rather than having the official documentation to hand. This means that there can be occasional quirks and glitches with these files.

Anti

Yep open office is fully compatible with ms office. I work for MS and i have open office installed, as the 2007 version is full of bugs. Google also has its own version of office, although it is purely online and im not sure if it is 100% compatible with ms office/open office.

TheBazman

I downloaded Open Office to try it and its grand - tested the powerpoint, word and excel equivalents and all fine.

As long as the Windows mail on Vista is half decent I'm sorted

Gurgle

TheBazman wrote:

I downloaded Open Office to try it and its grand - tested the powerpoint, word and excel equivalents and all fine.

I found the spreadsheet to be very weak, but I love the word processor.

sdanseo

TheBazman wrote:

I downloaded Open Office to try it and its grand - tested the powerpoint, word and excel equivalents and all fine.

As long as the Windows mail on Vista is half decent I'm sorted

Try Thunderbird - works great as a free email client. No calendar though. Pretty sure they've fixed it for Vista too.

TheBazman

Gurgle wrote:

I found the spreadsheet to be very weak, but I love the word processor.

It would only be for bog standard use at home

kaimera

...and i have open office installed, as the 2007 version is full of bugs.

Funny that, I've had no issues with Office 2k7. *shrug*

TheBazman

Just out of curiosity I presume the Windows XP version of MS Office would not be compatible with Vista

aidan_walsh

Yes, it is.

Gadgetman496

TheBazman wrote:

Just out of curiosity I presume the Windows XP version of MS Office would not be compatible with Vista

As Aidan siad, it is & it works a treat!

Sully

If your used to 2003, it will take some time to get used to 2007 as there has been design changes. However, I use 2007 and while it took a short while to get used to - im really liking it.

2003 is great also, and id recommend it. If you dont mind not being "up-to-date" with versions, then it will do fine. Also, Microsoft are/having releasing a new update (service pack) which fixes some of the security issues and probably does other nice updates to.

As for outlook - id advise switching over to Mozilla Thunderbird which is a great alternative, and free. Its probably just as popular, if not more.

OEM versions - well, personaly id use them as I dont think ill ever be going to Microsoft for support. If its something I cant fix myself, ill ask places like Boards or some of the other IT Guys I work with.

TheBazman

Thanks guys - I think you have confirmed the solution in the last couple of threads