What Office program is appropriate for me?

[Babbler]

Hey!

 

My parents purchased a new computer recently. It came with a full version of Microsoft Works 7 and a 60 day trial of Microsoft Office Student and Home Edition. I have been previously using the Microsoft Works Suite 2001. My main use for computer, school-wise, is writing essays on the Word Processor, and I may use spreadsheets (my Physics class will use them) and PowerPoint for class presentations. As well, my mother uses email and my bother use word processor and occasionally the spreadsheet.

 

Should I use Works, use Office for now and get to full edition later or use the (free) OpenOffice.org suite I heard about?

[Dave]

I'm not a big fan of Works because they seem to have removed too many features from it. Personally I use MS Office 2003, but I've heard good things about OpenOffice so you might want to give that a shot. Its just a matter of personal preference really. Try them, and then just use the one that you're most comfortable with.

[Primarygun]

Open office is free. It helps you save an enormous amount of money from buying office.

[Silencer]

I use MS Office 2000 and it's great for all your school needs.

 

I may have accidentaly made an image of the cd... pm for more info

[5614]

im running MS office 2000 professional! i also have 2003 prof, but dont want to use it as my everywhere i go is on 2000, so im used to it and its not worth the possibility of non-compatability.

 

it'll be interesting sending a 700MB email silencer, still i'll leave that to you.

 

i find it interesting that the MS office CDs have only serial key protection and that there's no actual CD protection.

 

back to the original question, i think its up to you, try what you have, if you dont like it go the free thing, if you dont like that pay.... that's how it goes, if its just a 'why not upgrade' thing its not worth the money, try the free things, if they really are no good, then pay!

[ed84c]

I find lotus smartsuite better, because then you can both use lotus docs and microsoft docs, MO doesnt open lotus things, but you can save a lotus thing as an office document.

 

LSS is also better as it is more technicall and less 'arty farty'

[5614]

just a point that i thought of when reading ed84c's post, that compatability is an issue in todays world.

 

you dont want to be producing .doc files if you dont have word wherever you may transfer the file to.

 

MS office does do standard formats (for docs is .rtf) although these will not be the default file extension when you save.

[ed84c]

Lotus Word Pro does more, however, which was the point I was making.

[bloodhound]

till now i prefer office xp over office 2k3. office 2k3 seems to add a useless process in the background. and i havent seen any new features.

[5614]

till now i prefer office xp over office 2k3. office 2k3 seems to add a useless process in the background. and i havent seen any new features.

 

ive got one friend who says "never buy the upgrade, it'll always demand more processing power than the last with (normally) no major advantages", so im not saying start using windows 3.1 and notepad, but at the same time you will notice the difference in running speed between office97 and office00 and office03... if you are running a slow computer then you will notice the difference and its worth taking into account.