Support for Office 2004

[Richard_Jones]

Version: 2004
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: Intel

According to Macworld (http://www.macworld.com/article/140114/2009/04/office2004.html?lsrc=rss_main), support for Office 2004 is scheduled to be retired on 13 October 2009. If this is true, will Office 2008 support VB macros by then? Because my business use of Excel depends on VB support. Otherwise I might as well migrate to Apple's Numbers as to Office 2008: at least I have confidence that Apple will support the Mac platform.

 

[Diane Ross]

According to Macworld
(http://www.macworld.com/article/140114/2009/04/office2004.html?lsrc=rss_main)
, support for Office 2004 is scheduled to be retired on 13 October 2009. If
this is true, will Office 2008 support VB macros by then?

No, Office 2008 will never support VBA. The next version, Office 2010
(unsure what it will be named) will bring back VBA.

You can continue to use Office 2004 and it will work perfectly well. The
issues that could come up with end of life software is updated files for
changes to Daylight Saving Time and security issues.The Holiday file is also
not updated. We've had reports for Passover already not showing up for next
year in Office 2004. I wouldn't run out and buy the new version just for
holidays, but it's little things like this you'll see being outdated.

Entourage X went a little past the official time period for updates and
Office 2004 could as well, but it would probably only be a few months at
most. This is a total guess on my part, but many users are staying back
because of VBA so Microsoft might update longer than normal...again they
might not.

Hope this helps!

 

[Jim Gordon MVP]

Version: 2004
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: Intel

According to Macworld (http://www.macworld.com/article/140114/2009/04/office2004.html?lsrc=rss_main), support for Office 2004 is scheduled to be retired on 13 October 2009. If this is true, will Office 2008 support VB macros by then? Because my business use of Excel depends on VB support. Otherwise I might as well migrate to Apple's Numbers as to Office 2008: at least I have confidence that Apple will support the Mac platform.

That seems true based on Microsoft's web page:
http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/?LN=en-us&x=7&y=14&p1=2490

Notice that it says Mainstream support, and that is defined here:
http://support.microsoft.com/gp/lifepolicy

To the best of my knowledge, there has never been a hotfix for Mac
Office 2004, and I don't expect one any time soon, if that is what's
worrying you.

Have you been paying for support incidents? You won't be able to pay for
those after 13 October. You'll just have to get it for free elsewhere
(or pay elsewhere).

I don't expect the Microsoft Knowledge Base articles relating to Office
2004 to suddenly disappear on 14 October. They seem to linger almost
forever.

This forum supports 2004 AND 2008, so it's not going anywhere.

What are you worried about losing?

-Jim

 

[zheaton]

Jim, I can't speak for Richard, but the main thing that gets my attention is the lack of security updates for Office 2004 after 14 October. Normally, Microsoft would provide these through the duration of an "Extended Support" phase, but Microsoft appears to have decided that there is no extended support phase for Office 2004. (There is an extended support phase for Office 2003, however - I guess 2003 qualifies as a business product, and 2004 does not?)

While there may not have been "hotfixes" to Office 2004, there have been security updates galore. The last security update for Office 2004 was just released a week ago, and was for a critical hole in Excel:

<http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/Bulletin/MS09-009.mspx>

If we lose security updates for Office 2004 in October, that's going to *hurt.*

 

[Bob Greenblatt]

Jim, I can't speak for Richard, but the main thing that gets my attention is
the lack of security updates for Office 2004 after 14 October. Normally,
Microsoft would provide these through the duration of an "Extended Support"
phase, but Microsoft appears to have decided that there is no extended support
phase for Office 2004. (There is an extended support phase for Office 2003,
however - I guess 2003 qualifies as a business product, and 2004 does not?)

While there may not have been "hotfixes" to Office 2004, there have been
security updates galore. The last security update for Office 2004 was just
released a week ago, and was for a critical hole in Excel:

<http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/Bulletin/MS09-009.mspx>

If we lose security updates for Office 2004 in October, that's going to
*hurt.*

While there is nothing official, my guess is is that Microsoft will continue
to support Office 2004 beyond the announced data until the next version of
Office is available. They (Microsoft) are very much aware of the fact that
2004 is in wide use because of VBA, and I think are very unlikely to
"abandon" that population until the next version with VBA becomes available.

 

[Jim Gordon MVP]

Jim, I can't speak for Richard, but the main thing that gets my attention is the lack of security updates for Office 2004 after 14 October. Normally, Microsoft would provide these through the duration of an "Extended Support" phase, but Microsoft appears to have decided that there is no extended support phase for Office 2004. (There is an extended support phase for Office 2003, however - I guess 2003 qualifies as a business product, and 2004 does not?)

While there may not have been "hotfixes" to Office 2004, there have been security updates galore. The last security update for Office 2004 was just released a week ago, and was for a critical hole in Excel:

<http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/Bulletin/MS09-009.mspx>

If we lose security updates for Office 2004 in October, that's going to *hurt.*

Hi,

The MVPs don't speak for Microsoft, and all we have to go by is their
past behavior. Like the ads say for financial products: "past
performance is no guarantee of future behavior."

As Bob pointed out, in the past Microsoft has continued security update
support until the next large Mac release comes out. Despite the
information on the web site, I am inclined to think that Microsoft will
continue to support office 2004, at least in regard to security updates,
past 13 October. But I have no more inside information than you do.

Another whole bunch of questions come into play when you think about
Snow Leopard. Will Office 2004 run in Snow Leopard? Who knows? After
all, the system requirements definitely did not include Snow Leopard
back in 2004.

I would advise less worry about what will happen in the future until the
future gets here. MacBU tries to do right by its customers, so I think
you can put away the indigestion pills.

-Jim