Why upgrade to Office 2003 if Office XP works? 1

[cam3r0n]

I have been asked to answer the above question from my "IT manger".

You would laugh even more if you knew where I worked. But that would be naughty of me. I will tell you that it is an important IT company that should be setting a good example to the rest of the world.


To be honest the question has left me speachless! Where do I start? Is it just me or does this guy live under a rock!


Could you guys help?


I know Microsoft stopped providing Calendar support for Office XP. But does this extend to any other areas?


Can you think of as many reasons to change as possible please. I guess I should really be objective and ask for any reason not to as well, but only if your really board.

 

[Auger282]

http://www.microsoft.com/office/editions/prodinfo/compare.mspx

from the horses mouth

 

[JockMullin]

Excellent link from Auger282.

Of course the horse never whinnies about what got removed - for example virtually everyone I have upgraded has complained about losing the Office Toolbar.

Oddly I didn't see any mention in that link of one of the big pluses in Outlook 2k3 - the vastly larger PST file capacity.

In my opinion 2003 isn't worth the effort unless you really need some of the new features, and in your case it doesn't sound like it's broke.

And of course MS isn't the only source for ongoing support. For example, this link tells you how to get the 2006-7 holiday calendar updated in Outlook 2002(XP):

http://www.slipstick.com/addins/calendar.htm

see the link "Holiday Updates" (which points back to Microsoft) and the accompanying install instructions.

Jock

 

[fumei]

I did a report last year - no...the year before..?? - for my employer on upgrading from 2002 (XP) to 2003. As we have many, many, many users it was going to cost us $10,000,000. While some features were improvements, as we were NOT going to SharePoint, so many features (that I thought are good features) were not going to be available.

It was a no-brainer as far as I was concerned. I strongly recommended that it was NOT worth spending $10,000,000. No upgrade. There simply did not seem enough value returned for that kind of money.

Especially as our rather unusual contract with Microsoft would not permit us to also upgrade to Outlook 2003.

Sorry, but to me the answer is - it depends. I still do not see that the "improvements" of 2003 are, in themselves, all that valuable. For maybe < 1% of our users? Sure, maybe. But for the other 99%, nope, nope, nope. It depends on the skill levels of your user community, and what they really need. Shrug. Gee, a needs analysis.

Maybe your users, and your business structure, can truly be brought up a notch with the difference between 2002 and 2003. But frankly...IMHO that is NOT a given.

Gerry

 

[fumei]

Funny, I had forgotten a bunch of things. I took a look at the "horses mouth" link. Yup, the first five items as improvements require SharePoint Services to work. We were not getting SharePoint. No brainer.

Gerry

 

[lkerr]

I'm with fumei. Actually I work for an office that DID upgrade from Office XP to 2003. Honestly, the loss of a couple of features (and the re-invention of a couple of others - esp. in outlook) has been more of a pain for IT than anything else. To be honest, I would recommend an "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" strategy until 2007 comes out and stabilizes (maybe late 2007-early 2008). That way you can make the big jump in implementation all at once. Save the company some money and yourself the aggrevation of a double upgrade for no real reason.

Of course, this is all in my own humble opinion, and you can take it or leave it.

 

[Auger282]

I hear office 12 is going to be a shock to users with the ribbon menu system... so you may be looking at office xp or 2003 for some time.

 

[tf1]

Office 12 will have a HUGE learning curve. It is very different. I'm still undecided about it. To me it has been dumbed down making it easy to do simple tasks and a nightmare to do complex tasks.

I'll go along with the others about the need to upgrade: O2k3 is more stable and it has good document recovery feature. But it is hard to make a convincing case if collaboration using SharePoint isn't on the agenda.


Regards: tf1

 

[fumei]

To me it has been dumbed down making it easy to do simple tasks and a nightmare to do complex tasks.

YES! YES! YES!

This has been my issue for a while. It has been a definite curve in that direction. My specialty is Word, so I can't really comment about the other Office apps, but Word has been progressively getting dumber (read easier) for the simple things, and stupider (read more difficult, and weird) for the complex things. For those of us who really DO use Word, in a lot of ways it has become more of a pain.

And yeah, as far as I'm concerned, there IS no case for 2003 over 2002 - if there is no SharePoint. And frankly, unless you really do have true collaborative documentation, there is not much of a case for it anyway.

Gerry

 

[fumei]

I can see me using XP (2002) for quite some time to come. Unfortunately, no doubt any support for it will vanish with Office 12.

Sigh.

Office 12 will have a HUGE learning curve. It is very different.

tf - I know absolutely nothing about what is happening with Office 12. What can you share about it? Why will it have a "HUGE learning curve"? What is so different. A brief synopsis?

Gerry

 

[tf1]

Hi Gerry

It is very different! MS has a very good Beta site open for anyone to peruse with demos covering many of the changes.

'Up to Speed with the 2007 Microsoft Office System' at

http://officebeta.iponet.net/en-gb/HA100666101033.aspx

It looks and feels like a completely different product. Menus are gone replaced by a Ribbon with the tools available being 'interactive' with what you are doing at the time. For example, the Table Tools appear when you click inside or insert a table. But it really is a nightmare finding your way around the new structure. Even hardened Word users keep asking 'how to' or 'where is it' questions.

At the moment I have only been playing with Office 2007 at home and using Office 2003 at work. So I don't really want to knock it down too hard at this early stage because I am hoping that with more experience I'll get to like it.

I certainly like the enhancements in Outlook and Excel has a much improved formulae wizard (but I am far from expert at Excel which may be why I like it!).

You can try Office 2007 beta2 yourself now because it is an 'open beta'. Current installations will expire on 31 Jan 2007.

Terry

Regards: tf1

 

[fumei]

Took a look...I don't think I shall get the Beta. All the OS at work are 2000 Pro. My main OS at home is also 2000 Pro. I do have a XP machine at home as well, but it is so loaded with stuff, I don't want to bury it further.

Gerry

 

[Auger282]

well the one thing I had heard was that to delete a cell or a row.. or whatever in excel wouldnt be as easy as hitting the delete key..

you would have to use a ribbon menu

 

[Shinken]

Are you having any problems with Office XP?

Is there anything that you have read about in Office 2003 that you can't do in Office XP and would like to?

Do you want a nicer looking GUI?

Do you want a bit more flexibility with the GUI (such as repositioning panes)?

Do you want to answer questions like "I used to do this in Office XP but can't seem to find it in the newer Office 2003?"

If the answer to one or more of the above questions is yes, then consider upgrading. Otherwise, if it ain't broke don't fix it. I just upgraded from XP to 2003 because my Office XP started going flaky on me, reinstalling didn't fix the problem, and I got a great deal on a new OEM copy of 2003 so it wasn't worth the time to try to resolve the problems. However, until XP started to flake out on me, it was doing great and I would probably still be using it. It's only one version down from the latest (2003). My personal (very loose) rule of thumb is that I usually don't bother with upgrades until I'm at least 2 versions down, and then only if there is one or more features that I really like. But that's just my opinion amongst a multitude.

Phil

 

[tf1]

Auger282: that isn't true. Delete works just the same as before. If you ighlight a cell or row or column and press Delete, it empties the contents.

If you right-click and choose Delete, then the cell/row/column is deleted.

Most keyboard commands are unchanged and legacy keyboard shortcuts are available when working in compatibility mode.

Terry

Regards: tf1

 

[TonyJollans]

Gerry (any anyone else interested),

You can now have a play with Office 2007 on the web without having to install the beta. Just go to

http://www.microsoft.com/office/preview/beta/testdrive.mspx

and follow instructions. It will install a Citrix browser plug in but I have just done it and it all went very smoothly.

Yes, Word 2007 is going to be a big learning curve for everybody and an enormous frustration to experienced users but it is coming whether we like it or not. I have had the beta for a few weeks now and still don't like it but maybe others will feel differently.

Enjoy,
Tony

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[fumei]

Grrrrrrr. It requires Windows Live ID. Which I really think they should state BEFORE you download the plug-in. They should state what the requirements are up front. Grrrrrrrrr. Now I have to try an remove the damn plug-in. Grrrrr.

Looks like I am on my way to becoming a dinosaur. I will have to take your word on what it is like. Sounds like I would not like it.

Gerry
My paintings and sculpture

 

[TonyJollans]

Ah, yes - I didn't think to mention that, not that it's a problem signing up for one. I am a fellow dinosaur but I have to ask if there's a reason you don't want a Windows Live Id?

Enjoy,
Tony

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We want to help you; help us to do it by reading this: Before you ask a question.

Professional Office Developers Association

 

[Madawc]

Regarding Word, I share fumei's view, it increasingly does things for you without permission. Fine if you are not very technically minded. But there ought to be a 'Bowman Option' to let you override this and exercise human skill.


Madawc Williams (East Anglia, UK). Using Windows XP & Crystal 10

 

[fumei]

Windows Live ID connections (or Passport) are really screwy through our firewall, and do not function 99% of the time. We allow ZERO connections to anything to do with HotMail - for example. We do not accept any mail from HotMail, nor do we allow mail to go to any HotMail address. We block anything that even sniffs of HotMail.

Our firewall is so tight, that NO mail from anyone (regardless of address, even internal addresses - yeah we have an internal firewall on SMTP gateways) with ANY HTML in it will get through. Only plain-text is permitted. Ever.

Anyway, Windows Live installs and uses verification "touches" on the system that has it. We (at work) do not allow anything - as best as we can...hahahahahaha - to do that. I know it is paranoid, but our systems literally print money - government, you know. Yeah...they are paranoid. But, I got permission to download the plug-in - so I can try out Office 2007. But as soon as I saw the Windows Live ID requirement - again AFTER the plug-in download - boom, game over.

And it royally pisses me off. As I can not locate everything that changed with the plug-in. Which means that I will likely have to blow the machine away and re-image.

I repeat, it is "standard" to state what requirements are. UP FRONT! To not do so, to assume...well of course everyone will be freakin' delighted to use our login system. Don't they have have it already????

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

If I had seen that Windows Live ID was required, I would never have said OK to the plug-in.

Anyway, I am hoping I can find some other machine somewhere that I can still look at this 2007 crap. Chuckle...have not seen it yet, and I already hate it. Even you, Tony, don't like it....hmmmmmm.

Gerry
My paintings and sculpture