Re: [MSUNAG] Office 2003 or 2007?
Regarding the various versions – we are finding it to be life. As many have mentioned on this list, between, students, faculty and staff, we have Office 2003, 2007, Mac Office 2004, 2008 as well as open office and Word Perfect. Since we are working with people who exchange mail from just about any location to here....I have taken the following approach.
It is a change and does create some issue, however a good positive “spin” make the changes easier. I take the approach that we all have things that change, so we are going to need to work together to come up with ways that work for all of use.
Here are the things that I have done, which have helped.
1 – give new users the excel sheet (Microsoft has this, with a 2003 to 2007 where are things listing) and review the basics with them (the things that they do all the time) ....this goes a long way – they get some practice, feel comfortable and more willing to find the other features.
2 – working at this time to create recommended file formats, so that all people can access files – realizing that some features will be lost. This will be used for both the administrative as well as academic. Why academic – two reasons
– one - we are seeing Open office being used by students and Open office uses a different “native” file extension
- two – we are also seeing Mac users, who do not have the “append extensions” checked, so when they upload a file to Angel – the Prof can’t tell what version of what software it was done in....makes it hard to open the file.
3 – connect them with others, who perform similar types of work and recommend that they “share” what they have learned. In these cases, we (okay me, but you would as well) are taking the “back seat” and letting the staff/faculty feel GREAT about what they have learned.....
Regards,
Jeanne
On 1/15/09 2:52 PMGMT-05:00, "David Benjamin" <[log in to unmask]">[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Are we the only department with Office 2007 on Citrix XenApp? It's relatively fresh (as in yesterday), but we plan to use it widely and do file-type association (associate .docx et al with opening Office 2007 app). All desktops still have Office XP 2002 installed, but anything that comes across, at least in the short-term, with the new file type will automatically create a Citrix session and open the respective 2007 product. This method will allow us to slowly introduce 2007 while still allowing 2002. Then eventually removing 2002, altogether. We plan on providing all relative training links from Microsoft to our end-users for reference to learn new ways of doing common tasks. Anyone else out there doing this? Pitfalls? I'm optomistic.
David Benjamin
>>> David McFarlane <[log in to unmask]">[log in to unmask]> 1/15/2009 2:34:18 PM >>>
At 1/14/2009 03:40 PM Wednesday, Ehren Benson wrote:
>Any new installs are getting 2007, people with 2003/XP are getting
>upgraded as they request it.
Pretty much the same here in Psychology. If I do the install, then I
also immediately change the default file format for Word, Excel, and
Powerpoint to the 1997 format, otherwise we have compatibility
issues. Unfortunately, those settings only apply to the current
login account, so if the user makes a new account then they will be
back to the 2007 format. I wish I knew how to make that a global change.
I had read a report that users experienced with the earlier Office at
first hate Office 2007, but after a giving it week or two come to
really prefer it. I always tell that to my users, and so far they
agree. Many features have been moved to unexpected places, but after
awhile people see that they have been moved to where they should have
been in the first place. Office 2007 also does much better with live
previews of changes you are about to make. OTOH, I am a keyboard
snob, and I am not sure that Office 2007 provides a rich enough set
of keyboard methods
[As for me, I still use Word 2.0 for Windows 3.1 (from 1992), and I
am slowly migrating to Excel 2000 from Excel 4.0 for Windows 3.1
(again from 1992) just because Excel 4 does not have tabbed
sheets. And I have all this working under Vista (plus some old DOS
apps that I refuse to give up).]
-- dkm
>Ehren J. Benson, MCSE
>Windows Systems Administrator
>
>[log in to unmask]">[log in to unmask]
>517-884-5469
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: MSU Network Administrators Group [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
>On Behalf Of Cheryl Akers
>Sent: Wednesday, January 14, 2009 3:31 PM
>To: [log in to unmask]">[log in to unmask]
>Subject: [MSUNAG] Office 2003 or 2007?
>
>We're in the middle of deciding of we need to upgrade.
>
>Our department is still on Office 2003. Are you all upgrading to 2007 or
>are you still on 2003?
>Cheryl
>
>Cheryl Akers, MS, CNA - [log in to unmask]">[log in to unmask]
>Microcomputer Support - Microbiology and Molecular Genetics
--
Jeanne G. Carey, PMP
Michigan State University
Residential College in the Arts and Humanities (RCAH)
C210B Snyder
East Lansing, MI 48825
Phone +517-884-6001
Fax: +517-884-1244
E-mail: [log in to unmask]">[log in to unmask]
Website: rcah.msu.edu
GMT-4
