Office version confusion

[Texas Grandma]

Thanks so much for this forum. I just ordered the new IBM tablet to replace
a cranky 4 yr old Sony notebook. Having read your posts re OEM software, I
unhappily understand that I won’t be able to use the Office Professional from
the Sony on the new computer. I was planning to get by with that until the
release of Vista and the new Office, then upgrade.

So . . . do I have to buy the old Office again to bridge the release gap for
the short term? That would be a bummer. I also found the Office 2000 Pro
upgrade from an old desktop long residing in the dump. I’m guessing those
CDs will not be very helpful. I see there's a 2007 Office beta but it's no
longer available and it sounds like there have been problems installing it.
If I load 2007 Office on the new XP pro tablet will it work when I upgrade to
Vista?

When I upgrade to Vista and Vista compatible Office, will my Word, Power
Point and Excel files be readable by those without Vista?

Thanks in advance for any advice you may offer. At this point I wish I had
just waited for a Vista machine! My first IBM’s OS was DOS and it had only
floppy disks. I’ve been through a few upgrades since the early 80s, but I’m
really getting too old for all this!

Lynn

 

[Bob Buckland ?:-\)]

Hi Lynn,

There is a 60 day trial of the 2007 Office system release product available through
http://trymicrosoftoffice.com

If you purchase a retail copy of Office 2007
(http://office.microsoft.com/suites for comparisons)
you can choose an upgrade package and you can use either your OEM CDs or the Office 2000 CDs during the upgrade package install as a
qualifying product for the upgrade.

The 2007 Office versions allow you to work and/or save in the 'legacy' file formats of the Office 2000, XP/2002 and 2003 file
formats for the Core apps (Word, Excel and Powerpoint) and separately, MS has made available a converter pack that installs with
Office 2000, Office XP/2002 and Office 2003 to allow those applications to open and save in the new 2007 file formats (although they
don't have all of the new features of the 2007 programs).

==============
Thanks so much for this forum. I just ordered the new IBM tablet to replace
a cranky 4 yr old Sony notebook. Having read your posts re OEM software, I
unhappily understand that I won't be able to use the Office Professional from
the Sony on the new computer. I was planning to get by with that until the
release of Vista and the new Office, then upgrade.

So . . . do I have to buy the old Office again to bridge the release gap for
the short term? That would be a bummer. I also found the Office 2000 Pro
upgrade from an old desktop long residing in the dump. I'm guessing those
CDs will not be very helpful. I see there's a 2007 Office beta but it's no
longer available and it sounds like there have been problems installing it.
If I load 2007 Office on the new XP pro tablet will it work when I upgrade to
Vista?

When I upgrade to Vista and Vista compatible Office, will my Word, Power
Point and Excel files be readable by those without Vista?

Thanks in advance for any advice you may offer. At this point I wish I had
just waited for a Vista machine! My first IBM's OS was DOS and it had only
floppy disks. I've been through a few upgrades since the early 80s, but I'm
really getting too old for all this!

Lynn>>

--

Bob Buckland ?
MS Office System Products MVP

*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*