MS Office 2003 Professional £62.99

asot

https://www.studentoptions.com are offering Microsoft Office 2003 Professional to students and teachers for just £62.99. It's linked to by Athens an education website used by many universities.

Usually the student version of office is Word, Excel, Outlook, Powerpoint but since this is the Professional Edition it should include Publisher and Access as well. Amazon charges £94.99 for the cut down student edition so this Professional edition for £62.99 looks like a bargain.

student100

OpenOffice.org is free: http://www.openoffice.org/

If I didn't already have a (paid for) copy of MS Office (I got it before OO was around) I certainly wouldn't buy it now. I have used OpenOffice quite a lot recently, and in my opinion it's pretty much as good as MS Office, and the more people use it, the better it will get...

Savvy_Sue

student100 wrote:

OpenOffice.org is free: http://www.openoffice.org/

If I didn't already have a (paid for) copy of MS Office (I got it before OO was around) I certainly wouldn't buy it now. I have used OpenOffice quite a lot recently, and in my opinion it's pretty much as good as MS Office, and the more people use it, the better it will get...

I agree that if you are a standalone user, OO is great, superb, wonderful. Just don't let anyone try and tell you that it's completely and seamlessly compatible with MS Office, 'cos it ain't.

student100

Savvy_Sue wrote:

I agree that if you are a standalone user, OO is great, superb, wonderful. Just don't let anyone try and tell you that it's completely and seamlessly compatible with MS Office, 'cos it ain't.

Not quite seamlessly, no, but the seams are pretty hard to find.

OO version 2 will be available soon which should be even better (it's currently in beta release).

The only part of MS Office I do use on a regular basis that I couldn't use OO for is Outlook (although Mozilla Thunderbird are developing a calendar-type extension which will make Thunderbird (also free) very competitive with Outlook).

OO also has some nice features that MS Office doesn't, including PDF (Acrobat file format) generation (which I use regularly since all the reports etc. I have to do for uni coursework must be sumbitted in PDF format), and OO Draw which is a very useful tool for diagrammatic and vector drawing.

There are still a few frustrating things with OO which hopefully will be resolved in version 2.0, but generally it is a very usable application, and could well be all you need. If you're thinking of buying MS Office I'd certaily recommend you download OO and try it out for a bit before you decide you need to fork out for the Microsoft product.

Savvy_Sue

student100 wrote:

Not quite seamlessly, no, but the seams are pretty hard to find.

Unfortunately I seemed to find them all very regularly! Especially in Excel / Calc.

I did try the beta version of 2 but didn't get on any better with that. However I would stress that this was in a work situation where half of us were using OO and half MS Office: if we'd all been using OO I'm sure I wouldn't have been reduced to a cursing gibbering wreck so regularly.

You're right, the PDF facility is excellent! If we'd needed to use that on a regular basis I suspect we'd have gone down the OO route.

StudyHard

I attempted to use studentoptions.com today and they sent me a corrupt file so beware. I am sure it is a great money saver if it works but my copy didn't. They are impossible to contact for any feedback so make sure you use paypal for some insurance.

I am really fed up with them. Not only am I currently £62.99 out of pocket but my computer is riddled with poitnless files taking up space.

zar

It worked absolutely fine for me when I bought it from there about 6 months ago. I'm sure there must be a way for you to get in touch with them - they say they offer refunds within 15 days as well as help with downloading and there is an online form and an email address.

https://www.studentoptions.com/servlet/SecureControllerServlet?Action=DisplayHelpPage&SiteID=msft&Locale=en_GB

p.s. When I downloaded it 6 months ago it did have access and publisher I think (I don't normally use them and not at home atm so can't check!)

melancholly

student100 wrote:

Not quite seamlessly, no, but the seams are pretty hard to find.

Unless you have macros on a spreadsheet... things get difficult then!
But for everything else, OO is great - even more so because it's free. It's worth trying out before having to spend money for microsoft office anyway!