Dual Install - Office 2000 & Office 2007 Student

[dawnvk]

My MIL is taking a class, they want the students to install the trial version
of Office 07 student for the class. She already has a full version of Office
2000 on her machine. Can I install the trial version beside her 2000 -
because once the class is over, she doesn't want to have to purchase the
office 07, she wants to use 2000 again. Will it cause any conflicts to have
both on the machine?

Thanks,
Dawn

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

My MIL is taking a class, they want the students to install the trial version
of Office 07 student for the class. She already has a full version of Office
2000 on her machine. Can I install the trial version beside her 2000 -
because once the class is over, she doesn't want to have to purchase the
office 07, she wants to use 2000 again. Will it cause any conflicts to have
both on the machine?

Another point to consider: how much of what she learns about Office 2007 will
even be applicable to Office 2000? They are *very* different.

 

[dawnvk]

Yes, I agree... I suggested she talk to the instructor about letting her
follow along and do the work on 2000, but that didn't get very far. IMHO this
is a huge issue for all industry... even at a school level, we struggle with
it. What do we teach the kids? To prepare them for the future, we should
migrate to 2007, but most don't have that at home, so we're not teaching them
on something they can go home and do their homework on. Then there's the
issue of cost - there is no money to upgrade every computer in the school to
2007 so what do you do? How can you do a partial migration in any way that
makes sense. I am MSFT alumni and I have to say, I am very frustrated with
2007 for these reasons and even for myself as a user. I spend way too much
time trying to find things that are not in my mind intuitive. Again, just my
2 cents...

Dawn

 

[Gordon]

Yes, I agree... I suggested she talk to the instructor about letting her
follow along and do the work on 2000, but that didn't get very far. IMHO
this
is a huge issue for all industry... even at a school level, we struggle
with
it. What do we teach the kids? To prepare them for the future, we should
migrate to 2007,

Err no. That's the wrong way. Teach them computing skills, not
application-specific skills.

 

[dawnvk]

I agree, they need to learn computing skills - that's not my point. For
example, after working at MSFT for over 10 years, I think I have pretty good
computing skills, however, when I work in 2007 - it takes me way too long to
figure out how to do the simplest of tasks. I don't think it's intuitive,
especially for anyone who learned on an older version and has learned to look
for things as they used to be. As Steve pointed out, there is a huge
difference, so like in the case of my MIL who's taking a class on 2007 but
using 2000 - learning one and using another will be confusing... computing
skills or not. The same applies to our students. If we can't migrate the
entire school, they might use 2007 in the classroom and 2003 in the library
or at home to do their homework. It is a problem.

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

One way to look at it:

No matter what you teach the kids now, they'll have to relearn at least part of it
every few years. Maybe the best lesson they can learn is how to cope with
inevitable change.

When I ran a graphics business, I always found it easier to teach a good artist how
to use the computer than to teach a savvy computer user how to be an artist. In the
first case, it was just a matter of learning new tools to perform familiar tasks.
In the second, it was trying to do something unknown with familiar tools. They
didn't know where to start.

In that spirit, if you teach them the fundamentals of, say, word processing, they'll
be able to work out how to perform needed tasks with different tools: Word 2003,
2007, Word Perfect or whatever else life throws at them.

And if you upgrade even a few of the PCs to 2007 and let them switch between
computers, they'll get used to getting used to. <g>

And don't forget that there are Student/Teacher editions of Office available at very
attractive prices.