Install Office 2007 Student & Home over OEM Works

[Orrie]

Hi,

We bought a computer that came with Works v. 8.5 pre-installed. We would
like to install Office 2007 Student and Home edition on that computer, but
have some questions:

1. It looks like Office 2007 Student and Home is only available as a
complete suite, not as an upgrade. Are there any issues we should be aware
of in order to install it on the computer that already has Works? (For
example, on another computer, when I upgraded from Works to Office 2003 Pro,
the help files were still for Works.)

2. I heard that Office 2007 files are not backward compatible with earlier
versions of Office. Our family's other computer runs Office 2003 Pro, and we
often need to supply files to other people who use Office 2003, 2000 and
even earlier versions. Is there any provision in Office 2007 for saving
Word, Excel and other files in earlier version formats, and will the files
be completely compatible with early versions?

3. Can the look of the Office 2007 user interface be set to one like 2003
rather than that the new user interface to shorten the learning curve?

Thank you.

Orrie

 

[LVTravel]

Answers inline

Hi,

We bought a computer that came with Works v. 8.5 pre-installed. We would
like to install Office 2007 Student and Home edition on that computer, but
have some questions:

1. It looks like Office 2007 Student and Home is only available as a
complete suite, not as an upgrade. Are there any issues we should be aware
of in order to install it on the computer that already has Works? (For
example, on another computer, when I upgraded from Works to Office 2003
Pro, the help files were still for Works.)

---Right, full install and no upgrade available or needed. The help files
should be for Office if you are in the Office programs. The only issue you
should have had with Works was if was Works Suite which had Word as the word
processing program. The standard Works program did not have Word as its
word processing program. The writing program in Works is a much simpler word
processing program than Word with many fewer features.

2. I heard that Office 2007 files are not backward compatible with earlier
versions of Office. Our family's other computer runs Office 2003 Pro, and
we often need to supply files to other people who use Office 2003, 2000
and even earlier versions. Is there any provision in Office 2007 for
saving Word, Excel and other files in earlier version formats, and will
the files be completely compatible with early versions?

--- yes and no. There is a switch that you can set in 2007 Word, Excel &
PowerPoint to tell those programs to save as Office 97-2003 format files
(recommended). Works well. There is also a compatibility pack
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...70-3AE9-4AEE-8F43-C6BB74CD1466&displaylang=en
and SP1 for XP or later opertaing systems
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...C5-49C6-47BD-8BEC-0D68693CA564&displaylang=en
that can be installed on the non-2007 machines that allows Office 2000-2003
versions to open the 2007 version files (only as a last resort if you forget
to change the settings.)

3. Can the look of the Office 2007 user interface be set to one like 2003
rather than that the new user interface to shorten the learning curve?

--- Not natively but there are addon programs that can change the ribbon bar
to the 2003 style. There will be a learning curve getting used to the
ribbon.

Thank you.

Orrie

Let us know if this answers your questions.

 

[Orrie]

Thank you for answering all my questions so clearly.

Yes, the Dell OEM version of Works that came with my computer did include
Word instead of the Works word processor.

Orrie