Do I need to upgrade to MS Office 2010

jembeth

Hi everyone

Sorry but a bit of an untechy mum. My son has been nagging me to upgrade our MS office which is currently 2003, he uses 2007 at school and finds our system frustrating for homework. He is at primary school but starts secondary next year.

Software 4 students. has MS2010 cheaper than 2007 and
I see that rules are changing re: students getting software cheaper, so was wondering if I ought to get it now while we can.

As with everyone money is tight, so do not want to get it for the sake of it but likewise I don't want to miss out if it is something we should really have for the kids.

My system is Windows XP

Any advice would be gratefully received.

robmar0se

The way that Office works in 2003 vs 2007/2010 is very different from the methodology of using it. I can understand the problem yr child has us oldies had the problem in reverse as we were used to the older style, and found it frustrating to use the new "ribbon" format.

Micrososft are withdrawing the discounts for students ath the end of the month, so instead of the £38 is will be double.

Only you can decide whether the £38 is a wise investment.

AirCooledHeaven

I had the same problem, Office 2000 at home, Office 2010 at school. Although it wasn't really necessary in terms of functionality, I decided I wasn't going to let them use the fact they had an old version as an excuse for not doing their homework properly. I got it from software4students at a great price. Bear in mind the license allows you to install it on three machines that your children use, so maybe you could get some value out of it personally?

jembeth

Thank you, your replies have been helpful, am thinking maybe it would be better to go for it now, will be a bit of a learning curve for me.

BlueC

jembeth wrote: »

Thank you, your replies have been helpful, am thinking maybe it would be better to go for it now, will be a bit of a learning curve for me.

It is VERY good once you get used to it.

jackieblack

I bought office 2010 Pro Plus for my daughter from here as I work in a school and we use RM for purchases so I know they are reliable (had read some not-great reviews about other online student software retailers)
Currently £36.26.
Disc arrived within a few days, well ahead of estimated delivery date even though it was over Xmas/New Year.:)

AirCooledHeaven

jackieblack wrote: »

I bought office 2010 Pro Plus for my daughter from here as I work in a school and we use RM for purchases so I know they are reliable (had read some not-great reviews about other online student software retailers)
Currently £36.26.
Disc arrived within a few days, well ahead of estimated delivery date even though it was over Xmas/New Year.:)

That's a good spot. I just discovered software4students are now charging an extra £5 if you want the DVD as opposed to download, never used to charge extra...

InsideInsurance

The other one to check is if either you or your partner works for a large multi-national company or a governmental department then they may operate the HUP programme which means you can buy a copy of Office for about £10 plus the rarer office components of Viso and Project for £10 each too.

As others have said, in 2007 they redesigned the complete toolbar system and so switching between 2003 and 2007 would be painful - I run 2011 on my home computer and 2003 on my work computer and forever get frustrated switching between the two.

jembeth

Thank you everyone for your help, I will use RM as you recommended jackieblack. It states on their website that the student has to be the primary user of the pc it is loaded on to, is this the same as the administrator and is it just a case of changing my name to his.

jackieblack

jembeth wrote: »

Thank you everyone for your help, I will use RM as you recommended jackieblack. It states on their website that the student has to be the primary user of the pc it is loaded on to, is this the same as the administrator and is it just a case of changing my name to his.

No, it just means that the student you're buying it for should be the main user. So you could install it, for example, onto a family computer if the student uses that and/or a computer mainly for their own use, but not onto a laptop that is solely used by another (non-student) family member.
I think it is probably a condition of the Microsoft licence so wil be the same whoever you buy it from. As they're giving a massive discount to students they want it to be used by the student.
I've no idea how they could monitor this though, I guess its on a trust/honesty basis.

jembeth

Thank you Jackieblack, looks like i'm ready to go then.