MS to 'backport' Office 2007 security improvements

[OrangeCrate]

Microsoft plans to push security improvements made in Office 2007 down the food chain with the next major update for Office 2003...

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/04/30/ms_office_2003_sp3/

[Marc57]

About time, Considering how much people PAY for these Office programs.

[DavidR]

They probably won't get as far down the food chain as office 97 this is what I'm still using. I just couldn't see the point of updating, a word processor or spread sheet just can't change that much more bells and whistles. I believe the majority of users fall into the 80/20 rule, 80% of the people only use 20% of the functionality.

When it comes time to replace my 10 year old MS Office 97, I for sure won't be paying out hundreds of pounds, no way, Open Office for me. I just can't see how they can justify that kind of money.

[Vladimyr]

Hi DavidR

I agree. Office 97 is still perfectly useful but before you go putting all your eggs in the Open Office basket, see if you can get hold of a redundant copy of Office 2000.
I regularly use Office 2003, 2000 and (to a lesser extent) 97 & (hardly ever) 95 and I think 2000 is a worthwhile upgrade for the following reasons at least.
1/. It's a painless upgrade over 97
2/. The 'Font' combo in the toolbar shows a preview of each font. (Wow!)
3/. Office 2000 SP3 supports the compatibility upgrade for Office 2007 format documents (.DOCX)
4/. It can be installed on any number of machines with the one license code. (Don't tell Mr Gates I said that.)

[polonus]

Halio Vladimyr,

Just at the beginning of this year a lot of OEM computers in Holland did not have Office programs installed, only IE and Outlook and the MS viewer and an extended Notepad version. Before that date all sort of computers were sold with a lot of free software (Words included). In the software shop you pay quite a bit now for the complete Office suite, even for the upgrades (I think far too much). Now that everybody got accustomed at the workplace and at home using for instance Word 97, Word 2000, etc. with the newer versions Mr. Gates comes along to cash in. As I do not want to buy the program, I installed free Open Office and AbiWord, with a bit of orientation fully compatible.
How to legally set up a full-fletched Windows with literary no money at all, you can read here:
http://www.searchlores.org/bangla.htm When there were more manufacturers that came out with alternative distro's like Dell now with Ubuntu, M$ would sing to another tune, but we do not live in an ideal world, far from it,

polonus

[Vladimyr]

Hi Polonus

Interesting list. I think open Office is great for most purposes but a large part of the work the users that I provide support for involves editing, recompiling and transforming documents (usually Word) from 3rd parties, often containing tables, formulas and other graphs & glyphs. OO.org and similar do not handle these at all well.

cheers,
Vlad

[polonus]

Hi Vladimyr,

Yes, those are the things that keeps MS software floating, annoyances and work arounds. For instance I do not know in an Open Office document how to make shortcuts for the specific Polish "znaki", where for instance in Word a combination like ctr + z creates "z kropka" for me for instance, etc. I haven't found out yet how to perform this task with OO. Then you have to convert to the Office document form to load it in Outlook, so that people that are without OO can read it. Those are exactly those little annoyances and hurdles that will keep MS monopoly where it is, and a barrier high enough for people not to try an alternative. MS followed the same tactics towards developers where Sun java was concerned, making sure users have not got enough reason and incentives to jump board. But when there is enough momentum, the tables may turn, I hope that day is yet to come in our lifetime,

polonus

[OrangeCrate]

...Then you have to convert to the Office document form to load it in Outlook, so that people that are without OO can read it. Those are exactly those little annoyances and hurdles that will keep MS monopoly where it is, and a barrier high enough for people not to try an alternative.

Just convert your default document types to Word, Excel, etc. 99% of OOo users do that.

See here:

Configure, Change or Set OpenOffice.org to Default Save Files in Microsoft Office Formats

http://www.mydigitallife.info/2007/01/25/configure-change-or-set-openofficeorg-to-default-save-files-in-microsoft-office-formats/

There was also that option when you installed OOo.

[DavidR]

I agree. Office 97 is still perfectly useful but before you go putting all your eggs in the Open Office basket, see if you can get hold of a redundant copy of Office 2000.
I regularly use Office 2003, 2000 and (to a lesser extent) 97 & (hardly ever) 95 and I think 2000 is a worthwhile upgrade for the following reasons at least.

There was a time when I was concerned with the fact that Word was the de facto standard by default almost everyone had MS Office. However that is no longer an issue for me if I send a document out it is more likely I would send it as an RTF document where no further editing, etc. is required. You can even convert it to a PDF document which is readable almost universally.

As I said, when I come to upgrade (if I can no longer use Office 97, another reason to stay away from Vista) it won't be to another MS Office, but to an alternative office option, even a cheap office 2k is more expensive than OO.org and even some of the other paid for office suites, ability office, etc.

I realise it would be an easy upgrade over 97 and that office 2k is the last non-activation ms office suite, but I have tired of the MS rip off pricing. Here in the UK MS products are almost twice the US price when something is released the $dollar price is literally changed to £pounds and at a $2-1£ rate of exchange this is just greed. For essentially the same product, exchange charges, shipping, etc. don't justify this rip off.

[OrangeCrate]

...However that is no longer an issue for me if I send a document out it is more likely I would send it as an RTF document where no further editing, etc. is required. You can even convert it to a PDF document which is readable almost universally...

I've used OOo since the beginning (1.something) and I set my default documents to MS formats. I send documents to clients to edit on occasion, in Word format, but all of my official correspondence, invoices, etc., are sent as pdf files. One of the big advantages of OOo, is the ability to create pdf files on the fly.

Tongue in cheek, as I was in another thread on the cost of Vista Ultimate...

Amazon's price for Microsoft Office 2007 = $414.99

The price of OpenOffice.org = $0

Freedom of choice?

Priceless.

[DavidR]

I think that the more people start/join the open source revolution if not OS but applications then perhaps (a big perhaps) we might see a fair/reasonable price for M$ products. I really hate being ripped off and it isn't Just MS at it.

[OrangeCrate]

I really hate being ripped off and it isn't Just MS at it.

I could probably name another company, but if I did, I'd be skinned alive by you know .:who:.

 

[DavidR]

I think I know .:who:. you mean, .:whoever:. it is carries a .:knife:. and an .:apple:. for teacher

[Marc57]

I still have office 97, although I couldn't make it work on Vista. 

[Lisandro]

I still have office 97, although I couldn't make it work on Vista. 

If someday you need to upgrade, well, Office 2003 has a 'normal' interface.
Office 2007 is a toy... the toolbars are not there as they were, a mess...
I can't believe MS did this :'(