MS Office 2007 still available?

[Rick Prosser]

Buying a new computer, and I will need MS Office. I don't see enough improvement from 2007 to 2010 for the price, so I would like to get 2007 if possible.


Can you still purchase the old version?

I see a couple of sites that say they will provide license codes if you download the software, but I am not sure if they are legit.

[Mike Henderson]

You can purchase the Student and teacher's edition of Office 2010 for $150 which I thought was a pretty good price. You can also legally load it on either two or three computers (don't remember). I bought my copy at MicroCenter. When I asked them what you needed as proof of being a student, they said "Nothing, just tell the checkout person what school it's for". I took woodworking classes at Cerritos Community College but I told them UCLA.

There's also a web site - JourneyED - that sells to the student and teacher market. You can try them as an alternate. If you home educate a child, that's sufficient to get the discount, and the discount for most things goes from pre-K to college. I think they're even less expensive than the $150.

Mike

[paul cottingham]

I have to ask....have you considered Open Office?

[Curt Harms]

I have to ask....have you considered Open Office?
+1 on Open Office - now called Libre Office due to Oracle buying Sun and some issues with Oracle. Libre Office will open and save .doc files quite reliably. Complex .docx files with heavy formatting, foot notes, images etc. don't work well. Libre Office will save to .pdf without any add-ons though which if the recipient doesn't need to edit a file is probably a better choice than .doc or .docx. Even different versions of MS Office have issues with formatting. For home users and many small businesses Libre Office or Open Office are more than adequate. The default file format is .odt for text and .ods for spreadsheets. MS Office 2010 will open .odt & .ods files, how well I don't know.

Here's their site: http://www.libreoffice.org/ and here's a manual if anyone is interested. http://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/documentation/

Open Office is still available but is not being developed AFAIK. It still works though. http://www.openoffice.org/

[Joe Pelonio]

We just got Windows 7 and office 2010 at work, and I actually find it to be a big improvement over 2007. Mainly in document and data sharing, OneNote is very useful and the ways Word handles the editing/change management is better. If you or your spouse has a job at a major company using Office, you may find that employees get a discount. In my case 2010 is just $10 through my employer.

[Matt Meiser]

In general, MS only sells the latest version. The license agreement usually allows you to instead install a previous version. We do that all with operating systems and SQL Server but I've never done it with Office.

+1 on Joe's comments. And you can get a 3-pack of Home and Student as low as $125 from legitimate retailers if you have more than one PC.

I tried to use Open Office at home for a while but the differences, especially once we went to 2010 at work, were driving me nuts. I haven't tried Libre Office and I'm not saying one is better than the other, but if you use Office at work, switching at home may be annoying.

[Curt Harms]

In general, MS only sells the latest version. The license agreement usually allows you to instead install a previous version. We do that all with operating systems and SQL Server but I've never done it with Office.

+1 on Joe's comments. And you can get a 3-pack of Home and Student as low as $125 from legitimate retailers if you have more than one PC.

I tried to use Open Office at home for a while but the differences, especially once we went to 2010 at work, were driving me nuts. I haven't tried Libre Office and I'm not saying one is better than the other, but if you use Office at work, switching at home may be annoying.

Not much difference between Open Office & Libre Office at this point, mostly bug fixes. The difference is that Libre Office is being actively developed, Open Office is not. I've never spent much time with MS Office but used it once to edit a document that would only open sorta right in MS Office. It drove me up the FREAKIN' WALL!! Trying to make it look like I wanted was as frustrating a task as I can recall. I think I finally gave up and just printed the document and retyped it. This was around 2004.

[Rich Engelhardt]

Not much difference between Open Office & Libre Office at this point, mostly bug fixes. The difference is that Libre Office is being actively developed, Open Office is not.
Sort of - I just removed Open Office and am in the process of installing Libre.
The "bug fixes" of Libre are significant compatability fixes.

Re: Student Edition - Unless MS has changed, the Student Edition of Office has no tech support. You can still get all the updates and fixes, but, if you have to contact tech support you'll have to pay for the incident.

[paul cottingham]

Yes, LibreOffice. I couldn't remember the name it was changed to. In my experience, the compatibility issues between libreoffice and MS office is no greater than the differences between versions of office. and libreoffice is free.

[Rich Engelhardt]

Open has problems with Excel.
I have a bunch of time sheets done in Excel that I can't open now that I've retired and had to uninstall MS Office.
The formatting is all off.

I've been told Libre works.

We'll see.

[paul cottingham]

I have seen the same issues between versions of office, so I cant see the point of paying for office, if you still have to reformat....

[Bryan Morgan]

Buying a new computer, and I will need MS Office. I don't see enough improvement from 2007 to 2010 for the price, so I would like to get 2007 if possible.


Can you still purchase the old version?

I see a couple of sites that say they will provide license codes if you download the software, but I am not sure if they are legit.

You should still be able to get it. Check with CDW or software one.

I'm with you... I've had to run Office 2010 to get ready for a virtual desktop thing we are going to roll out and it is frustrating. Word and Excel don't seem different from 2007 but they really botched Outlook... its a bloody disaster. Nothing but confusing useless junk all over your screen and the features you want (like viewing email headers) are buried in menu after menu. It is the epitome of bloat. We use the terrible MS hosted exchange which makes it even worse...

[Larry Frank]

You can get it at www.buycheapsoftware.com (http://www.buycheapsoftware.com)

If have bought a number of things from them and am well satisfied.

[chelsy hurry]

You can get it at www.buycheapsoftware.com (http://www.buycheapsoftware.com)

If have bought a number of things from them and am well satisfied.
That's nice source, I have to say.

[Brad Adamson]

I have seen people on ebay selling Office cheaper than in most of the stores. I have used Open Office as well and it worked great for me to do all the necessary functions I needed it for.

I have not tried buycheapsoftware but the next time I am looking for something I will take a look into it. Thanks Larry.

[Brian Elfert]

Right now on Black Friday the Office 2010 Home and Student version is being sold by several retailers for $100. Office Max, Office Depot, Best Buy, and Sam's Club all have it at that price. Office Depot has the product key only for $80. Amazon has the DVD version for $90 or the download version for $88.

If price is the only reason to get Office 2007 I doubt you'll get a fully legal version any cheaper than Office 2010.

[Curt Harms]

Right now on Black Friday the Office 2010 Home and Student version is being sold by several retailers for $100. Office Max, Office Depot, Best Buy, and Sam's Club all have it at that price. Office Depot has the product key only for $80. Amazon has the DVD version for $90 or the download version for $88.

If price is the only reason to get Office 2007 I doubt you'll get a fully legal version any cheaper than Office 2010.

You could buy the key from Office Depot then download the program from here:
http://www.mydigitallife.info/download-office-2010-official-direct-download-links/
As long as they key matches the version you're trying to activate you should be okay. That's a legitimate source as far as I know. They also have links to individual apps but I don't know about legit keys for individual apps, one app may cost as much as the whole thing.