[Jack1000]

This is more for future use than anything else. But I would like to know the differences between the various editions of Office 2007?

Office 2007: Student/Home Edition: I understand that this replaces the student Teacher Editions of MS Office. I also heard that like the ST versions, this version is not upgradeable when new patches are released, but users must wait till the next yearly version comes out. Seems to be reasonably priced. AFAIK, does not include MS Outlook.

Office 2007-Small Business: How is this different that the Office 2007 Standard?

Office 2007 Standard: Includes everything but MS Access, correct?

Office 2007 Pro-The full blown version of MS Office a little pricey but this gives you MS Access correct?

I saw stand alone versions of Word 2007 for about $100 at Best Buy.

When I got XP, the options for me were (back in October 2004) to take either MS Works, (Watered Down Office), get Coral Word Perfect for free, or Office XP for $175 extra.

As a home user, this forum recommended keeping Office 97, which I did and had almost no compatibility problems with it. At the time, Office XP was too bloated and buggy, and it was not neccessary for an upgrade to 2003 for me

There is also Open Office for free which is an excellent alliterative to MS Office for those on restricted budgets. www.openoffice.org If all you are doing is Word Processing, you can still get Word Perfect for nothing when you get a new computer and don't take an Office package AFAIK.

What options would you choose if all you are doing is World Processing? What about noted bugs or annoyances with Office 2007? Is it too soon to upgrade? Would you wait till Windows Vista gets its bugs out, than just get Office 2007 with a new computer?

Jack

[kiwiguy]

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/su...635841033.aspx

If your used is wholly "non commercial" the "Home and Student" package would be my choice. Note it now includes "Home" use.

Your comment about not being upgraedeable with patches is incorrect, it is not "upgradeable" but any security patches or service packs will be able to be applied.

Upgrading and patching are two separate issues.

[Jack1000]

Thanks for the help! (and the conversion chart) I gotta say though I HATE Word 2007's new interface! through looking at the press release screen shots. The toolbars seemed to be more organized and manageable from the original Office 95-2003 versions.

I wanted to provide alternative options to Office as well in my post so that people can look at and respond to their needs based on what they can afford based on tasks management home vs. business user (or both), and money.

Jack

PS. Personally, that new interface is a downer to me. (and a plus for the Coral Word Perfect and Open Office Users who are used to a more narrow toolbar design.) I look forward to comments from everyone on this topic.

Oh BTW, I have WP 12 updated so it's not like my WP needs aren't being met or that I don't have a more modern WP program. Word Processing has been pretty straight forward over the years regardless of options chosen IMO.

[kiwiguy]

Have not yet upgraded, but will be soon through the Microsoft MVP program. But that will be on a new system that has not yet been ordered...

I have had comments to the opposite on the new Office 2007 "ribbon" from users who like it better but I cannot comment personally yet.

[ferrija1]

Office Ultimate is the biggest office suite.

This should solve a couple of your questions, just look at the What's Included box on each product suite page.

What options would you choose if all you are doing is World Processing?

I would try OpenOffice, it has most of the same basic features as Word. If you don't like it or it is too basic for you, you could always buy Word by itself.

The ribbon is great. There aren't many new features but with the new interface, it seems like there are since it was harder to see features in the old offices.

[Zack Barresse]

I personally love the Ribbon. Grouping in visual & functional areas is so much easier to find things now as compared to the strictly textual menus we had. Don't get me wrong, programming the old menus and toolbars were so much easier. I did not want to learn XML or any other new languages, but I think it's worth it.

I like the Office 2007 Professional. And unlike Office 2003 Standard, the 2007 version (I believe) comes with XML support, etc. MHO.

[Jack1000]

Guys,

I've added some additional information for everyone in this thread so that they can look at the choices of MS Office updates as well as alternative options to Office updates.

For example, if MS Office 97 or Office 2000 works fine for you and you don't want or can't afford to shell out $200-$300 for a higher version of Office, but you have those two annoying Word documents that Office 97 or Office 2000 can't open, or don't read properly, you might want to consider downloading/installing Word 2003 viewer.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en

This will allow you to view, print, and copy, Word Documents even if you:

a. Have a version of Office that can't read the more advanced documents (Office 2000 and below.)

b. Are trying to open a Word Document with advanced formatting features and can't.

MS says that if you have Word 97 installed, your viewer for Word 97 will be upgraded to Word 2003. Support is also still available for Word Viewer 2003 through Microsoft Update, which includes updates for Office programs.

The download helped me a few times.

Jack

[Zack Barresse]

I've never known a viewer that would allow you to edit the document..

[Jack1000]

Originally Posted by firefytr

I've never known a viewer that would allow you to edit the document..

Thanks Fire,

I have made the corrections above.

Jack