Should I upgrade MS Office?

The_Salad

Hi I run MS Office 2007 suite (Outlook, Excel, Word etc . . .) on my home laptop. Should I upgrade to 2010 or 2013? If I chose to upgrade how does one do it . . . . is it easy?

Many thanks.

tyllwyd

What is making you think of upgrading? What do you use Microsoft Office to do? Unless you have a specific problem or reason that means that you want to upgrade, personally I wouldn't bother - I've got Office 2007 and I haven't come across anything that makes me want to upgrade at the moment.

Nada666

If it's not broke...

Are you receiving documents you can't read? Are you getting complaints of formatting being messed about when exchanging documents? If not, there is little point [STRIKE]upgra[/STRIKE]buying a newer version.

For a private user you're talking about £100 (and that's not a full bells and whistle version of the Suite, either.) You also have to watch out for the only-a-one-year's-subscription versions, too.

Nada666

(Oh, and if you want to spend ten minutes several times a day for several months trying to locate an ordinary everyday command that you previously could easily find in the pull-down verbal menus go ahead and knock yourself out* with the newer easier-to-use-guess-what-the-icon-does-where-t.f.is-it-over-sized graphical tabbed menu bar.)

* and that is meant literally - stress-frustration triggered seizure guaranteed with every upgrade (sic)

ThemeOne

Unless you need some specific new features I wouldn't bother. Office 2007 is still a supported product, and also uses the new Microsoft file formats, so personally I would save my money and stick with it.

Nick_C

I hate Office 2010. I have used keyboard shortcuts for 20 years. Now, some of them no longer work, and I have to work through the awful ribbon. My productivity has reduced dramatically in Excel.

On the plus side, tables and conditional formatting in Excel are much improved.

Jivesinger

Nada666 wrote: »

(Oh, and if you want to spend ten minutes several times a day for several months trying to locate an ordinary everyday command that you previously could easily find in the pull-down verbal menus go ahead and knock yourself out* with the newer easier-to-use-guess-what-the-icon-does-where-t.f.is-it-over-sized graphical tabbed menu bar.)

But that over-sized graphical menu thing is already there in Office 2007. I think a few things moved in Office 2010 but by and large the OP has already gone through that pain!

To answer the original question, unless there is a specific need to upgrade, or a specific function required which is only in the newer version, I wouldn't bother. Office 2010 is a bit better and sorted out some of the glitches in 2007, but not enough for me to fork out the money to upgrade. Office 2007 is still supported for a few more years (unlike Office 2003 which goes out of support next month).

The_Salad

Thanks for all responses. I think I'll stick with 2007 for now.

ThemeOne

I'd go so far as to say 2007 is probably my preferred version, since it's the last without the awful "Backstage View", which to my mind is a complete design and function fail.

cookie365

I use 2010 at home, 2007 at work.

2010 is nicer, but I can't say it's worth paying to upgrade from 2007. From what I can see from 2013 it isn't that much further ahead from 2010.

So in your shoes I'd stick with 2007 too, unless you qualify for the home use programme

http://www.microsofthup.com/hupuk/home.aspx?culture=en-GB

ThemeOne

Nick_C wrote: »

I have used keyboard shortcuts for 20 years. Now, some of them no longer work, and I have to work through the awful ribbon.

I'm curious to know which keyboard shortcuts no longer work.