Microsoft Office Home and Student or Pro?

Sending my son to college. I know about open source, but he's pretty mainstream and I need Office for him

Can't decide between Student or Pro.

Basically, with Pro you get Access and Outlook, but not OneNote, with Student you get OneNote but not Access or Outlook. Student (need very legal copy for school) is around $130-$150, Pro is $199.

Any real world experinece with OneNote? is it just a gimiick or useful?

He may never use Access in school, right? I use it at work for database, but he's a Political Science/Pre-Law major.

And what else do you use for e-mail (he has hotmail but school also has e-mail). Does IE have Outlook Express?


Doesn't Mozilla/Firefox have an OE type program?

 

OneNote is a love-hate type of thing. Some people think it's the best thing since sliced bread, others (like me) find it useless.

I suppose it may be useful in a tablet PC, but I don't like how it's proprietary. Many of the same things can really just be done with Word.

Personally I would tell you to stick with something that gives him Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Unless he really wants to use all the features of Outlook (e-mail, calendar, tasks, large phonebook), there are plenty of free or cheaper alternatives for e-mail programs. Access is worthless unless he's specifically going to need it for a class.


His university may actually offer the software even cheaper, I'd check with the bookstore/technology store. Another good source is www.academicsuperstore.com.


Mozilla has Thunderbird, an e-mail client.

 

I personally tried and found no use for OneNote. If one knows how to use word efficently then OneNote isnt needed. but following thegsrguy, I suggest going to the local university bookstore and see what they have in stock and compare it to other sources to find the most affordable suite that matches your style.

 

The school prices were what I quoted. They don't sell licences, just retail versions at a discount.


AcademicSuperstore prices are the same as the school prices. And they get terrible Reseller Ratings. I've been burned before. Newegg has Student for around $130 shipped, Pro is $199.

Their business school (need to take a business course) has the Microsoft Alliance connection and he can get some free Office Apps. As a matter of fact he can get OneNote or Access free (if he takes a business ocurse down the road)

I am leaning toward the cheaper Student, unless someone else chimes in here and has other opinions.

 

Outlook is useful if one wishes to sync with a WM-based PDA or SmartPhone. I've always viewed Access as a poor excuse for a database; however, I do understand that it has improved. I've never seen OneNote, so if I'm missing something I guess it is not critical in my life.

I use Firefox and Thunderbird, so IE and Outlook are also-rans in my book.

I did get Office Basic 2007 with my new Vista Home Premium laptop. It did come with one of those infernal trials for an upgrade to Office 2007 Pro, so I have Powerpoint, Access, and Publisher taking up space on my harddrive, but unusable. If I try to run them I'm told that my system clock is set wrong with today's date. I guess that is MicroSpeak for saying the trial has expired.

Here is a page showing the different versions for comparison.

 

i would say that the best part of Outlook for students are its PIM features, but those can be easily emulated by a wealth of online PIMs (like Google Calendar, 30 Boxes, RememberTheMilk, etc.) or, if you're on Vista, Windows Calendar. As for mail, Mozilla makes Thunderbird, which is a very robust piece of software.

OneNote is great for note taking and data storage, although it can get a bit complicated to manage all the content after a while.