Office Upgrade?

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We have 2 PC’s with Office 2003 installed. On 1 of them we tried the beta version of Office 2010 – finding it to be very different and at times confusing compared to 2003. Our business needs are well served with 2003, but we usually like to upgrade to newer softwear – we have installed W7 in October ’09. Because of the (what I considered to be) steep using/learning curve with Office 2010, buying it could hinder our productivity. Therefore should we remain with Office 2003 or upgrade to 2010? I suppose it’s not the actual do I / don’t I advice, but the comments from other Loungers that I’d like please.

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My inclination would be to upgrade to 2010. Your productivity will decrease while getting used to the Ribbon UI. The learning curve will probably not be as bad as you think if you are forced to use 2010 daily. You’ll most likely learn to do your “normal” tasks rather quickly. Much will depend on how many of the Office products you use regularly. The ribbon is not going to go away so at some time or another you’ll most likely have to get used to it.

The other thing to consider is that Office 2003 has moved out of mainstream support to extended support. See Microsoft Support Lifecycle for details. Extended support means you’ll get security fixes only.

Joe

--Joe

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If it was my business, I’d stay with Word 2003. Just install the free Compatibility Pack so that it can open the docx/m format and the bonus of having all the new C-fonts to minimse font substitution.

IMHO, the new ribbon interface is non-intuitive and has a steep learning curve. And I honestly don’t really see any ‘must have’ features in either W2k7 or W2k10. In fact, if you are heavy users of features like AutoText and AutoComplete, then there is much to lose because the replacement (Building Blocks) is trickier to use and a nightmare to organise and (except for dates) there are no AutoComplete prompts. And Custom Toolbars with custom button faces are (almost) dead.

If you cannot see a feature of Word 2010 that you MUST have, stick with W2003.

Soon you will be able to install the free Office 2010 Starter edition which will let you have some free practise of the new ribbons and delay coughing up any dough until you feel comfortable with the change.

Terry

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…we tried the beta version of Office 2010 – finding it to be very different and at times confusing compared to 2003.

For power users, the ribbon UI introduced in Office 2007 is puzzling, but I think you need to consider how it will look to new hires as well. With its cheap home and student pricing, Microsoft probably has converted a whole generation of students to the ribbon by now, and for them the old UI probably will be equally puzzling and unproductive. No immediate action required, but at some point, it will become obvious that it’s counterproductive to cling to the past. (Says the guy still using Office 2003. ) Luckily there are some add-ins to help with the transition.

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Thanks for the advice – I think I’ll stay with 2003 for the time being.

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