The educational disc means that they got it through the school at a high discount (the Microsoft Ultimate Suite is regularly $500, I got mine for $73 with the back up cd and taxes. Make sure they did not use this on their own computers, because it can only be downloaded on up to 5 computers. So if you have more than one computer or if you buy a new computer in the future you may not be able to use the program on them. Here is the thing they probably only paid $60 to $70 for it. Also if you get it, do not tell people that it is an educational disc, because they are not supposed to be used for business. It is the full and same version that you find in stores but it was purchased for college courses not for business.

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Erika Glem
www.advadminsol.com Let my administrative solutions be to your advantage.

Thanks Erika ... I was hoping it was OK!

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Let Me Do It!
Tess Mickelsen

Thanks Tess for asking that question.

That was very informative for me!

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Alicia ~
Soaking it all in!

Hey Alicia,

Great avatar! And your name is very cute, too! Yes, all this software stuff gets confusing doesn't it?? I thank these ladies for setting me straight!

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Let Me Do It!
Tess Mickelsen

Thanks Tess!

My avatar kinda resembles me approaching the VA business.

Yes, these ladies are awesome!

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Alicia ~
Soaking it all in!

I guess I need to upgrade to Office 2007. I've been on 03 for some years and I admit I've been avoiding it until now. Established clients have 03 but when they or a startup get a new computer it comes with 07.

As I'm somewhat technically challenged, I have a few questions:

- I imagine an upgrade overwrites 03 and upgrades the programs to 07

- Would you just buy the professional upgrade and load/install as with any software?

- 03 comes with a number of programs I don't seem to have - just the basic 4
but I read somewhere that all the others are on the installation disc. I guess I should retrieve and install the other programs from 03 before installing the upgrade?

- can I install the upgrade on my laptops as well? - if I have to buy for each of those they can stay on 03 as they are only used for presentations and documents prepared on desktop.

Any advice would be very much appreciated.

Lynne

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The Wordpro Wizard
www.wordprowizard.com

Hi Lynne,

I certainly don't consider myself an expert on any of this, as I am awfully technically challenged, too! But I thought I'd chime in since I just went through this.

First off, I went to E-bay to attempt to get a good price on Office 2007. I decided to go with "Professional" since it has Outlook with Business Contact Manager (which sounds good) and Publisher, in addition to Word, Excel, PowerPoint & Access. I paid $80 for what sounded like a good deal, but turned out to be a rip-off, a fraudulent piece of software that I threw out. Luckily I paid for it through PayPal & got all my money back. Then I found (with advice from my 23 yr. old son about what to look for in an E-bay seller) the same Office Pro 2007 on E-bay for $109.99 with free shipping, and this one turned out to be fine. The one I bought said it has 3 legal installs (verbage was listed in the ad), but I don't know if that's true; my understanding is that a standard piece of software, sealed in the box (like I bought) will allow 3 install, so you could conceivably install it on several machines.

I am running this on an E-machines desktop that I bought less than a year ago. During this Office 2007 experience, I did learn that, although I seemed to be running 2003 on a Vista operating system without a problem, 2003 is not supposed to be compatible with Vista ~ again, don't know if that's true. But I was instructed to remove (through uninstall) all of Office 2003 and the 2007 60-day Trial that was installed on my computer when I bought it. I was told to do all that, restarting my computer between uninstalls, and only then to install 2007. I've only been up & running 2007 for about a week now, but I like it! No problems yet. I do intend to delve deep into some of the trainings to be sure I know it all before my VA launch on 1/1/10. And I have had no problems accessing any of the documents I had saved on my computer prior to all this, many of them created on 2003/Vista and/or earlier versions.

So to answer your specific questions, I don't know if upgrading via the internet might overwrite 2003?? But I kind of doubt it ~ I think you need to manually remove 2003. I can't see any need to install other 2003 programs before installing 2007, because you are going to remove 2003 from your computer completely.

Hoping someone else with lots more experience with all this will respond, too. But so far, I'm happy with my "upgrade"! Good luck!

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Let Me Do It!
Tess Mickelsen