Office upgrade

A

ariana

I thought I would ask you folks for your opinions on something I am thinking
of just now:

I have Office 2003 Professional installed on my PC (running Windows XP). I
bought the Professional version as, at the time, I did quite a bit of stuff
on Access.

I have recently downloaded a Trial Office 2007 which I quite like. When the
Trial version runs out in November, I need to decide on the options, i.e.
Purchase a full version of Office 2007
Purchase an upgrade to Office 2007 (this is less expensive but are there
disadvantages?)
Which version? Now that I no longer use Access very often, would it be OK
just to buy the Standard version and continue to (occasionally) use Access
2003 which I have already. I mainly use Word, Outlook and Excel.

Your thoughts would be much appreciated.

TIA
 
H

Herb Tyson [MVP]

If the upgrade to what you have is less expensive than other options, I
would go with that. Even though it's called "upgrade", it's not missing
anything. In fact, you don't even need to have Office already installed --
all you need is to have the media available (e.g., on CD or DVD) to
demonstrate that you qualify for the upgrade. Other than needing to see
evidence that you qualify, the upgrade version of Office 2007 Professional
is identical to the full version.

When installing, you can choose to replace all of Office 2003 with 2007, or
to leave some applications in place. A lot of product-specific MVPs, for
example, chose to leave Excel 2003, Word 2003, or PowerPoint 2003 in place
(so we can continue to offer support for those), while installing all of
Office 2007. Note that you cannot have Outlook 2003 and 2007 installed at
the same time due to the way Outlook works, but you can have the other
Office 2007 and 2003 applications installed at the same time.

So... since you qualify for the upgrade, I think you should go for the most
you can get for the buck. You might not need Access 2007 right now... but if
the past is prologue, you might at some point in the not too distant future.

The one "economy" option I would stay away from is the Home & Student 2007
version, which does not have Outlook. You can use it with Outlook 2003, but
the results often aren't satisfactory.

Note: make sure you completely uninstall the trial version (includng the
XPS/PDF add-in, if you installed it) before installing the upgrade. Failure
to do this has frustrated many Office 2007 users.
 
S

Suzanne S. Barnhill

In addition to what Herb has said, I would strongly advise that you purchase
a boxed retail copy of whatever version you decide to get. Although it is
possible to convert the installed trial version into a licensed copy, you do
not automatically get media (CDs or DVDs) this way, and if you opt to get
them, there is an additional cost. The licensing/product options for these
"virtual" copies (whether the trial version was an OEM install or a
download) have proved to be very confusing and entirely unsatisfactory if
you ever have to reinstall the program(s).
 
A

ariana

I have seen Office 2007 Standard Ugrade as a DVD offer on the Internet where
the licence details are shown as "Retail Bulk". Any idea what this means and
if it's likely to be OK, please?
 
S

Suzanne S. Barnhill

I don't have any specific knowledge about that, but I'd be wary. "Retail
Bulk" sounds to me like wholesale (intended for resellers); do you have to
buy more than one copy to qualify for the low price? Or it could be code for
an OEM version, which you definitely want to avoid.

Perhaps Office MVP Beth Melton, who'd investigated these license details,
can get involved here, so I'll copy her on this post.
 
S

Stan Brown

Sat, 15 Sep 2007 11:00:56 +0100 from ariana
I have recently downloaded a Trial Office 2007 which I quite like. When the
Trial version runs out in November, I need to decide on the options, i.e.
Purchase a full version of Office 2007
Purchase an upgrade to Office 2007 (this is less expensive but are there
disadvantages?)

FWIW, I have seen customers who upgraded Office 2003 to 2007 develop
flaky problems in Excel. If you do the upgrade, I would do a detect
and repair immediately -- so far that has fixed things for everyone
who has reported problems.
 
J

JoAnn Paules

eBay - that figures. I wouldn't recommend anyone buy software on eBay.
(Well, maybe a few people I know because I'd love to see them get burned.)

You're talking about that one that's selling for £1.24, aren't you? Sure, go
ahead and give them your money. Amazon.com has great prices and they want
~£99. Do you really think that other version is legitimate? If so, I have a
lovely piece of oceanfront property in Kansas I'd like to sell you.

--

JoAnn Paules
Microsoft MVP - Publisher

How to ask a question
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555375
 
J

JoAnn Paules

Yes but no one is supposed to know about The Big One yet.

--

JoAnn Paules
MVP Microsoft [Publisher]

~~~~~
How to ask a question
http://support.microsoft.com/KB/555375
Suzanne S. Barnhill said:
Well, you know that London Bridge is in Lake Havasu City, Arizona!

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup
so
all may benefit.

JoAnn Paules said:
Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

--

JoAnn Paules
MVP Microsoft [Publisher]

~~~~~
How to ask a question
http://support.microsoft.com/KB/555375
Herb Tyson said:
So... the rumors about the big earthquake are true??? ;-)

--
Herb Tyson MS MVP
Author of the Word 2007 Bible
Blog: http://word2007bible.herbtyson.com
Web: http://www.herbtyson.com


eBay - that figures. I wouldn't recommend anyone buy software on eBay.
(Well, maybe a few people I know because I'd love to see them get
burned.)

You're talking about that one that's selling for £1.24, aren't you? Sure,
go ahead and give them your money. Amazon.com has great prices and
they
want ~£99. Do you really think that other version is legitimate? If
so, I
have a lovely piece of oceanfront property in Kansas I'd like to sell
you.

--

JoAnn Paules
Microsoft MVP - Publisher

How to ask a question
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555375





http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Microsoft-Office-Standard-2007-upgrade

Sounds hinky. Where did you see it and how much was it?

--

JoAnn Paules
Microsoft MVP - Publisher

How to ask a question
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555375




I have seen Office 2007 Standard Ugrade as a DVD offer on the Internet
where the licence details are shown as "Retail Bulk". Any idea what
this means and if it's likely to be OK, please?


In addition to what Herb has said, I would strongly advise that
you
purchase
a boxed retail copy of whatever version you decide to get.
Although
it is
possible to convert the installed trial version into a licensed copy,
you do
not automatically get media (CDs or DVDs) this way, and if you opt to
get
them, there is an additional cost. The licensing/product options for
these
"virtual" copies (whether the trial version was an OEM install or
a
download) have proved to be very confusing and entirely
unsatisfactory if
you ever have to reinstall the program(s).

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the
newsgroup so
all may benefit.

If the upgrade to what you have is less expensive than other
options, I
would go with that. Even though it's called "upgrade", it's not
missing
anything. In fact, you don't even need to have Office already
installed --
all you need is to have the media available (e.g., on CD or DVD) to
demonstrate that you qualify for the upgrade. Other than needing to
see
evidence that you qualify, the upgrade version of Office 2007
Professional
is identical to the full version.

When installing, you can choose to replace all of Office 2003
with
2007,
or
to leave some applications in place. A lot of product-specific MVPs,
for
example, chose to leave Excel 2003, Word 2003, or PowerPoint 2003 in
place
(so we can continue to offer support for those), while installing
all of
Office 2007. Note that you cannot have Outlook 2003 and 2007
installed at
the same time due to the way Outlook works, but you can have the
other
Office 2007 and 2003 applications installed at the same time.

So... since you qualify for the upgrade, I think you should go
for
the
most
you can get for the buck. You might not need Access 2007 right
now... but
if
the past is prologue, you might at some point in the not too distant
future.

The one "economy" option I would stay away from is the Home &
Student 2007
version, which does not have Outlook. You can use it with Outlook
2003,
but
the results often aren't satisfactory.

Note: make sure you completely uninstall the trial version (includng
the
XPS/PDF add-in, if you installed it) before installing the upgrade.
Failure
to do this has frustrated many Office 2007 users.

--
Herb Tyson MS MVP
Author of the Word 2007 Bible
Blog: http://word2007bible.herbtyson.com
Web: http://www.herbtyson.com


I thought I would ask you folks for your opinions on something I am
thinking of just now:

I have Office 2003 Professional installed on my PC (running
Windows XP).
I
bought the Professional version as, at the time, I did quite a bit
of
stuff on Access.

I have recently downloaded a Trial Office 2007 which I quite like.
When
the Trial version runs out in November, I need to decide on the
options,
i.e.
Purchase a full version of Office 2007
Purchase an upgrade to Office 2007 (this is less expensive but are
there
disadvantages?)
Which version? Now that I no longer use Access very often,
would
it be
OK
just to buy the Standard version and continue to (occasionally)
use
Access
2003 which I have already. I mainly use Word, Outlook and
Excel.

Your thoughts would be much appreciated.

TIA
 
B

Beth Melton

I didn't come across any type of license called "Retail Bulk" when I
researched this. I agree with everyone else's assessment, sounds too good to
be true.

Personally, with the added Microsoft Genuine Advantage on microsoft.com I
wouldn't risk my money.

Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email cannot be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Coauthor of Word 2007 Inside Out:
http://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/books/9801.aspx#AboutTheBook

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/
 

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