The 11 January 2010 deadline has passed with sales of Office 2007 continuing, only now in the USA the software is sold without the ‘Custom XML’ feature. The 11 January 2010 deadline has passed with sales of Office 2007 continuing, only now in the USA the software is sold without
Office 2010 can be 50% more expensive than Office 2007. Microsoft’s price announcement for Office 2010 tries to disguise a significant price increase compared to Office 2007. The removal of upgrade discounts has led to price increases. There is the usual rearrangement of the content in MS Office bundles which
A simple table showing how bad a choice the Office 2010 Product Key Card really is. Office Watch has already talked about the Office 2010 Product Key Card (PKC) purchase option and how it is quite different from the boxed product with the same name. The main difference between the
Microsoft drops its long-standing benefit for loyal Office users. For as long as anyone can remember Microsoft Office has a cheaper ‘upgrade’ price option – but not for Office 2010. Microsoft has confirmed to Office Watch that there will be no upgrade pricing offers for existing Office users. Everyone, existing
The new Office 2010 Product Key Card is a more expensive way to buy Office. Part of the Office 2010 pricing regime is confirmation of a new way to buy Office: the Product Key Card. An innovative but more expensive way to buy Office. The idea is simple – at
What to look for on retail shelves. The Office 2010 Professional box has a small box saying ‘1 Year Technical Support included’. As in the past, the Academic edition is limited to qualified academic users only. The Product Key Card is labelled ‘for 1 preloaded PC only’.
Prices for Office 2010 have been announced with a new twist that looks cheaper but isn’t and upgrades dropped entirely. Microsoft has announced some of the US retail prices for Office 2010 and there’s a new way to buy which looks cheaper but isn’t. Boxed Product This is the standard
Should you buy Office 2007 this week instead of waiting? If you’re thinking of buying Office 2007 there’s a case for getting it this week instead of waiting until later in the month. In the USA, the Office 2007 software you get this week may be different to what you
Here’s the known situation regarding an enforced change to Word 2007 and Word 2003. We’ll update this page as hard information becomes available. Microsoft isn’t exactly forthcoming about this problem so there are more questions than we’d like and even less answers. Office Watch asked a series of questions to
Microsoft will release a ‘patent patch’ for Word 2003 and Word 2007 – but why bother? Quietly, in last hours of 2009, Microsoft released some details of an ‘end user’ patch to cover the ‘Custom XML’ patent dispute. Looking at KB article 978951 says there will be a link to
About the feature that Microsoft has to remove from Office 2007. Just what is the ‘Custom XML’ feature that Microsoft has to remove from Office 2007? The Office 2007 document formats (docx xlsx pptx etc.) are stored in XML format which looks like the HTML used in web pages. For
Microsoft says it’s been working on the Word 2007 patent patch for months, so why does it look like a rush job? As we’ve previously reported, Microsoft lost another round of the ‘Custom XML’ patent case and must stop selling, in the USA, Office 2007 with the offending code after
A simple fix to make PDF preview work in 64-bit Windows 7 Windows 7 has a nifty file preview pane in Explorer, available by clicking the icon on the right of the toolbar. Most common document types are supported either by Windows itself or appear when the appropriate software is
Microsoft loses another round in a Word patent case, an Office update is coming in the new year. A US court judgment seems to have forced Microsoft to release an update to Office 2007 in the new year. The US Federal Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld the judgment that
It’s too late for Christmas cards but not too late for a simple Xmas Email. We’re the first to admit that sending a Christmas email isn’t the most traditional method but it can be done with good cheer and grace. Here’s just one example from a friend and some tips
Workarounds for a curious omission in Microsoft Word for Mac. Eileen B writes: “I designed an awesome certificate, but the background won’t print. I’m working on a Mac.” Eileen has been using the tips and supplied certificates in our popular ebook “Creative Certificates with Word“. This includes sample certificates like
A new Office 2003 bug that stops you opening documents. There’s a new Office 2003 bug but it doesn’t affect most users and almost certainly not home or small business customers. If you have Microsoft’s Rights Management Service (RMS) in your organization then documents protected with that system might not
What to watch for when making a place for your documents. Once you’re setup Office Live Workspace you have to create one or more workspaces to put documents in. Before creating a workspace it’s worth keeping in mind a big limitation of Office Live Workspaces – sharing permissions are only
How to get started with Office Live Workspace – assuming that you want to. Microsoft’s Office Live Workspace (OLW) is a free file sharing and online storage service. In the workspace you can create, save, access, edit and share documents with Microsoft Office Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF, etc. It is
Excel 2010 changes function names like STDEV and VAR partly for Microsoft’s own benefit. Excel 2010 has revamped all the Standard Deviation STDEV and VAR functions with the old version ‘deprecated’ or demoted. There is now STDEV.S and STDEV.P for the sample and population versions of the function. STDEV and
Microsoft says people can test ‘Office in a browser’ so why doesn’t it work? Microsoft says people can test ‘Office in a browser’ so why doesn’t it work? If you have a Windows Live login you can go to Skydrive.com and try out Microsoft’s new ‘Office Web Applications’ which are
In a rare capitulation to customer demands, the File menu returns to Office 2010 – sort of. There’s one immediate and noticeable difference in the latest Office 2010 beta – the return of the File menu. In Office 2007 the old file menu was replaced by the Office button, the
The most noticeable changes in Office 2010 are in Outlook and, sad to say, they aren’t all for the best. Some early notes and first impressions based on the most recent beta release of Outlook 2010. The most noticeable changes in Office are in Outlook 2010 and, sad to say,
You can try out Visio 2010 now. The Visio 2010 beta is now available. MSDN users can get it from the MSDN web site. The rest of us can go to http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/ee390821.aspx to get a copy. You need to register first. You’ll also need to download the Enterprise CAL edition
