Office Suite for College

I've got my laptop and everything I need so far, but I'm still unsure about what to do about an Office program for what I need. I have OpenOffice downloaded and installed, but is Microsoft Office 2007 worth that $60 student deal or whatever? OpenOffice seems pretty bland and I'm considering Microsoft Office, I'm just hesitant to spend more money.

How does Microsoft Office compare to OpenOffice? I'm a chemical engineering major but I'm not required to run programs and crap on my computer like some engineering majors. Just need a suite to get me through college in the best way possible.

Also, I've heard recommendations of Google Apps, but I'm hesitant to switch to that.

 

Lots of people favor MS Office over Open Office. The "Ultimate Steal" program Microsoft has for MS Office is a real bargain, as a full copy would normally cost $400 (USD). I've tried Open Office, but in a way it's stuck in the 1990's with it's useability. Office 2007 makes doing things a lot easier, as a lot more commands are out in the open so you don't have to go hunting through 5 menu's just to do a simple thing. Even more, Office 2007 integrates with Office Live, so you can have all your documents available anywhere you go just by having an internet connection.

 

If you are talking about the $60 "Ultimate Steal," that is what I have... I enjoy it a lot and it is nice to get all of the MS Office programs

 

I don't know why your college says it's not required, but from my experience, chemical engineers run a lot of excel sheets.

 

I also have the $60 Ultimate Steal, it's much better than Open Office and very much worth it. Remember, you can also install it on two machines legally (your own desktop and notebook).

For $60 you get Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007, it doesn't get much better than that.

 

Yea okay. I've just been spending a lot of money lately and wanted to have a valid reason to turn aside the free version of OpenOffice. I'll try to convince my parents to buy it. Is there a listed expiration date yet for the deal?

 

I am not sure if it does... I know I purchased this from the same site back in early Spring 2008...

Really? Hmm... So I downloaded this onto my desktop in Spring 2008, and I had the backup disks sent in the mail... At this point would it still be legal for me to upload the program to my newly purchased laptop? Even if it is I still have another problem, I do not have the e-mail that has the 25 character product key written in it any more... I suppose that is lost forever, or can I somehow look it up on my desktop?

 

There is no apparent expiration date on the website for the Ultimate Steal.

@TheBMRR: You can try using a product key recovery tool, here.

 

Its a poor choice to use anything another that Office in university. It's the worldwide standard, why spend time learning another program if profs, other students, etc use Office almost exclusively?

I went for the ultimate steal a while back and it works great. Little bummed they didn't include Visio, but I can understand why. The recovery discs they send don't come in the fancy cases you'd find in an electronic retailer, they come is a cardboard sleeve with product details on the outside.

 

I just got the digital edition and burned the installers and a screenshot of the product key to a couple of DVD's.

 

Thanks for the info... I found a printout of the e-mail; it was not with the disks but in my Windows XP box

Anyways, I found this out after I used ProduKey or whatever it is called... It did give me the right 25 letter activation code

 

Is the ability to install it on two machines legally only for the "Ultimate Steal" promotion or is that true for all versions of Office 2007? I have Office 2007 Professional on my desktop and wouldn't mind installing it on my laptop as well if I can use the same key without violating any Microsoft terms (I still have the install CD and key).

 

Office 2007's Live Preview features are alone worth the $60.

 

After finding out that you can install Office 2007 on two computers you own (one desktop and one portable) I installed it on my desktop and it activated just fine.

As far as I can tell, the license key you are getting via the Ultimate Steal is the exactly same as any other retail key.

 

With the "ultimate steal" promotion, this one is a no-brainer.

If you have an empty bank account (or just time on your hands) check out Open Office or Lotus Symphony. They'll get the job done. For free. But MS Office sets the standard, by far.

 

What is the Ultimate Steal program that MS is offering? Can some post a link to it?

 

The thing to think about is:

Do you want to do typical 'office' stuff or do you need something that can do basic-to-mid level desktop publishing?

 

Link:
http://www.microsoft.com/student/discounts/theultimatesteal-us/default.aspx

 

Which version of Office 2007 did you have?

 

For $60, the thing to think about is: where do I send the money and how long before I get Microsoft Office 2007?

 

Unless they have changed things in the past year, you can download the program straight from the site after you buy it, with the option to get a recovery disk mailed to you for an additional $13...

 

For $60 Office 2007 is totally worth it. OpenOffice is ok, so long as you don't need to send documents to other people or open up and work on papers other people send to you - if they're using Word and you're not, doc-sharing isn't going to work too well.

 

It was just a joke...

 

Open Office can read MS Office 2007 documents, that much I know. It's the reverse I'm not sure about, to have OO create MS Office documents. I'm also not sure how close a match OO can render MS Office documents... Maybe Go-OO is better?

 

If you can't get a perfect render, and if Office won't digest OO documents, then there's no useful cross-compatibility, in which case, if you reasonably expect to be swapping files with other people more than once in a blue moon, you ought to go with Office '07 - keep OO around if you want a toy to play with, or if it makes you feel better about yourself rolleyes when you write your own personal documents.

 

I find MS Office to be much more intuitive and easier to use than OO. Even after using OO almost exclusively for more than two years, I can do what I want faster and easier with MS Office.