Nice people thread part 4 - sugar and spice and all things

zagubov

This bbc article sums up many of my fears http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14437653
The IT industry is just trying to look busy and sell shiny "new" products.

I'll agree that in commerce it maybe matters but for domestic use, I'm sticking with what I've got for as long as I can. :cool:

Generali

vivatifosi wrote: »

Thanks silvercar, that's a great deal.

I'd love to be able to buy a cheap edition of office but don't want to get stung as I run a limited company. I'd like the full version of Acrobat, it would be very useful to produce Acrobat files for my clients. More than anything else though, I need a bulletproof version of Excel. Upgrading that is what strikes fear into me the most. I really need to be able to try before I buy. Unfortunately I've only been able to grab a play on Word 2010.

You don't need Adobe to create .pdf files. I use this:

http://www.cutepdf.com/products/cutepdf/writer.asp

It's free and incredibly simple to use, easily as simple as Adobe which I have also used. Once installed it just becomes a 'printer' so when you 'print' a document you simply select CutePDF Writer from the drop-down menu instead of an actual printer and then follow the prompts to give your file a name and location on your available storage/drives.

I've used Excel 2007 pretty extensively and it has some pretty handy features for using Excel as a database rather than as a spreadsheet (eg being able to sort/search by cell colour without having to use a macro to do so). It has a few user interface features that, once you get used to them, are simpler and more intuitive than earlier versions.

Given the choice I'd use 2007 but I wouldn't pay more than £10-20 extra I reckon.

GDB2222

vivatifosi wrote: »

Funny you should say that. DH still uses Lotus's suite with Ami Pro and 123, he hates Microsoft and also sees no need to upgrade. He did his PhD with 123 and can make it do things that he still can't make Excel do. Though his latest version is at least a Windows one.

I do wonder what the professional take-up of Office 2010 is. I tried to look it up and it seemed that the initial take up was higher in the home market rather than commercial. For the most part I still use 2003 at work. If I thought the majority of British companies weren't bothering to upgrade, I don't know that I would. The problem is I don't know what they are doing.

There's only one person who sends me excel 2007/10 files. Everyone else is at least still saving files in the earlier format, and I suspect using Excel 2003 to produce them.

GDB2222

zagubov wrote: »

This bbc article sums up many of my fears http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14437653
The IT industry is just trying to look busy and sell shiny "new" products.

I'll agree that in commerce it maybe matters but for domestic use, I'm sticking with what I've got for as long as I can. :cool:

Actually, 'commerce' are generally late adopters of new software versions. The benefits of the new versions are generally smaller (a lot smaller!) than the cost of migration.

SingleSue

The scary gas monster is being removed! Yippee! No more struggling to get out in bad weather to get the card topped up.....and being removed free of charge (the thing that stopped us getting it removed when we moved in, we inherited the meter)

And it all came about because it went wrong last week (the battery running out on the machine), when they arranged for an engineer, they asked a few questions relating to health needs as it hadn't been checked before. I thought that was that and they were just updating their computers with latest information until I had a missed call from them Friday and then a letter today asking me to contact them.

I got in touch and they offered to change it for a normal meter...so relieved, I no longer have to dread the bad weather and having to go out to get credit if my joints are bad.

SingleSue

Oh and in other good news....middle son and the rest of the band have been invited to play at the Chamber concert organised by the school next week.

Not quite sure how rock music is going to go down though, I always thought pretty high brow music was played at these things......

SingleSue

GDB2222 wrote: »

There's only one person who sends me excel 2007/10 files. Everyone else is at least still saving files in the earlier format, and I suspect using Excel 2003 to produce them.

I know that for my previous OU courses, I have to send my assignments over in an 2003 compatible version of word...not sure for my current one, haven't got as far as checking if it has changed.

lostinrates

sue, that's super news about the heating! I'm really happy for you.

lemonjelly

So if

Ireland
Greece
Portugal
Italy

get drawn together in the European Championships

Will it be called "the group of debt"

PasturesNew

vivatifosi wrote: »

... shutting or putting on shorter time some police stations ...

I am in a town notorious for drink fuelled problems and rampant drunken holidaymakers. The police station here's only open Tues-Fri 10-2 and 3-7 and Saturdays 9-2. A total of 37 hours/week.

A few years back there were only 2 cops on the beat, with 12,000 clubbers rolling out of clubs and when the 2-3 cells were full they'd have to drive a 50 mile round trip to another jail to bang them up .... so they weren't bothering as it'd mean 0 police.