OT: Microsoft Office

[Dave]

I know nothing about computers but someone in the family has to do it and I seem to be less frightened than the rest of them, so I've drawn the short straw.

A relative has taken advantage of a scheme at their workplace that lets them get a legit copy of Microsoft Office 2013 Professional Plus for about ten quid.

They already have a version of Office on their computer (not sure if

2003 or 2007) so my question is, will I be able to install the new version 'over' the old, in the sense that they use Outlook for email, so will the new Outlook keep the email messages (sent/received etc) and settings, or will I have to save everything, then uninstall old, then install new, then restore mail and settings etc?

[Lee]

It's always good policy to back up before installing new software, so I'd still do that. But it should just install and upgrade, do bear in mind though that Office 2013 needs a minimum of Windows 7....

Lee

[Roger Mills]

I'd be very surprised if you can't effectively "upgrade" in such as way that Office 2013 automatically finds your existing email files and settings.

It might be worth checking your relative's eligibility for the deal though. I seem to recall reading somewhere that these cheap workplace deals only allow you to use the software for as long as you are working there. If you change jobs . . .

[Nick]

In message , Dave writes

From memory, and the link below seems to confirm it, you get both versions rather than an upgraded single version. You then run the new Outlook and import everything from the old version.

[John Rumm]

Installing 2013 will not replace the current one - both will then be there and still run. You can then import your email settings. When you are content that works you could uninstall the old version.

(or more likely, after a couple of weeks, uninstall 2013 and go back to the less poncy one that still has menus where you can find what you are looking for!)

[Clive George]

If you change jobs, yes, you're no longer allowed to use it. However it's not actually enforced - the employer isn't required to tell MS that they've left, so they can't tell.

[fred]

In article , Nick writes

A useful backup is to use the MS Office Save My Settings Wizard under MS Office Tools to create a backup of all office settings, then search the comp for all pst files and back them, then you're safe if the upgrade breaks anything.

Personally I'm not convinced the newer versions of office offer a great deal more that the earlier ones, I've recently installed Office 2003 on a new W7 laptop and the user is perfectly happy with it. Later version compatibility is covered by MS's own conversion plugin.

[Lee]

Not just me then ;) I have Office 2011 on my Mac, which I quite like for usebility (mainly Word and Excel) but I'm staying with Office 2007 on my PC, unless Microsoft do a massive U-turn ;)

Lee

[news]

Its not only if you change jobs. You are also at the mercy of the IT director of the company you work for. We used to have such an agreement but as one of many cost saving measures our IT director decided to "downgrade" the companies support contract with MS. We had an e-mail saying that not only could you no longer buy at the discounted cost but anyone who had bought through this scheme must un-install from their home computers.

[Dave]

Dave pretended :

That's brilliant, thanks for all the replies folks - this is indeed one of the most useful groups around :D

[Huge]

I like the "ribbons". The old UI was a mess, it was just a *familiar* mess.

[Brian Gaff]

If I were them I'd flog on the 2013 and keep with whatever they have, its almost certainly better on the machine in question than the new product. I understand that in most cases you can have a choice of versions. at least when I put 2010 on my machine it asked if I wanted to keep 2002 and I said yes and it kept it, I could then compare tthe two versions before the trial ran out, and decided that 2010 added nothing i needed indeed, it made it harder to use due to its daft ribbon menus and sluggish graphic rich crap front end. I can only suspect 2013 will be the same only more so. One word of warning about Office though, When I took off 2010 when the trial ran out Microsoft update still thinks I have it and tries to update it every month. silly billies Microsoft.

Brian

[Brian Gaff]

I recall having a bit of a scare some time back when support for the office xp package stopped and genuine advantage kept saying I had a pirate copy. on Speaking to Msoft it appears this was a bug and they told me how to work around it. This entailed downloading a special version of Office advantage, running it, then uninstalling the softwar and letting it un. that fixed it. Noramally Office advantage won't let you uninstall it but this one did. Really ieeitating though.

Brian

[docholliday93]

I found using 2010 a pain at first, too, although by now I've worked out ho w to use it and found all the things that seemed to have been hidden... I didn't really have a choice, however, since I need to plot datasets which exceed the limits in my previous version of Excel, so I was constantly get ting error messages and finding the latest data had been discarded. (OK, I know I could have got round that by splitting the datasets up, which is wha t I was doing initially, but as the datasets kept growing it would have add ed hours to the working day...)

[John Rumm]

;-) folks like familiar.

MS claim the new UI is easier to learn - if you are learning from scratch. Its just harder for those who already knew the previous versions. Since us dinosaurs will all die out eventually, they probably figure the whinging will stop in time!

[Huge]

This indicates not so much that you need to upgrade Excel as that Excel is the wrong tool in the first place.

[Huge]

I disagree.

And I *am* a dinosaur.

[stuart noble]

ISTR you can buy software to get rid of that bloody ribbon in Excel. Might just be worth it :-)

[Roger Mills]

Ugh! I don't - it takes far longer to find what you want. I've been using Office 2007 for several years now, and *still* can't remember where everything is!

The other thing I don't like is that it doesn't follow Windows conventions. I use Classical menus and themes on W7 (to make it look as much like W98 as possible!) but there's no way that Office 2007 will play ball. It insists on doing its own thing - with slightly rounded corners and with no coloured bar at the top to mark the active window. The times are legion when I've clicked on File or Tools in the wrong application because there's no clear indication of the top of the Outlook window. And they call that progress!

[John Rumm]

Excel seems to be the one that is hindered least by it IMHO...