boomer

I currently have legitimate (albeit quite old) copies of Office 4.2 and Office 97 Professional - which still do a fairly good job. However it seems that you can now get "Home and Student" edition (Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote(?)) for less than sixty quid, and legally install it on up to 3 PCs for non-commercial use.

I believe that the 2007 version is "Vista-ified", whereby they randomly move common and well-known menu options to some completely different location (but with still the same basic functionality), so it might take a bit of getting used to if i upgrade.

Can anyone actually using 2007 in anger comment on the pros and cons of upgrading - i'll be running on XP SP3 (but will keep my Office 97 for my Windows 98 machine - "upgrading" from 4.2 )

Cheers,

mb

boxst

I use 2007 and it is okay. It isn't leaps ahead of the previous version. Having used Word and Powerpoint for ... arg .. more years than I care to remember it was a bit of a shock as I couldn't find anything!

Steve

bioforger

iTrader: (1)

To be honest I would stick with the previous version office 2003. As said in 2007 they've ditched all the menus for a ribbon bar, so even hardcore users have to relearn all the shortcuts and menu options.

staffs Mike

For me it was somewhere between this..



and



hitting me in the face at great pace.

I hated it so much, I started using openoffice, the only downfall of which is that you can't open .docx files.

mike1210

I don't mind Office 2007, before Service Pack 1 it was very crash happy though for me, now seems a lot more stable but as above you will have to re-learn how to use it

spectrum48k

Have you checked out OpenOffice ? Completely free and pretty good too:
www: OpenOffice.org - The Free and Open Productivity Suite


Might be worth a look - it loads and will "save as" all MS Office stuff.

Semper

Business wise, Excel 2007 is awesome. 1,000,000 rows, 16,000 columns (ish). Compared to the olden days of 64,000 rows. Bah. Give me 2007 any day!

boomer

Some interesting comments, thanks!

It least nothing seems to be "broken" in 2007, it's just everything that you are familiar with is very hard to find with all these new bangles and ribbons and things

I use 2003 at work, which is pretty similar to 97 (and 4.2) in usage, but we will soon be upgrading to 2007 so i have no choice but to learn the new syntax

The "Home and Student" edition at less than sixty quid is an absolute bargain - less than twenty pounds a PC compared to over THREE HUNDRED QUID for the "standard" edition that just gives you Outlook on top (i use Thunderbird anyway).

I had originally thought about OpenOffice, but that would be another command/menu system to get my head around. I'll certainly be installing it if i get a linux machine though (Acer Aspire One - mmmmmmmmmmm).

So, unless someone can come up with a show-stopper, i'll be ordering 2007 H&S on Monday

Cheers,

mb

pimmo2000

iTrader: (6)

I like the previous versions... cant stand word 2007

Kieran_Burns

iTrader: (1)

You may all thank me later

iTWire - Want the old Office ‘Classic Menus’ back in Office 2007?
Classic Menu for Office 2007 - Free software downloads and reviews - CNET Download.com
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/ma...CE010958251033
Office (Classic) Menu Addins for Office 2007

yeah - I got narked off as well

Hanley

Cool

Wenker Man

I wouldn't call Office 2007 as Vistified as I can use vista with ease.

I would call office2007 as being Impossified, because I be damned if I can find half the functions and tools I need for anything more advanced than a basic letter or speadsheet.

Consequentally I use www: OpenOffice.org - The Free and Open Productivity Suite instead. Like the old office apart from its FREE!