Software Savings: Microsoft Office on the cheap

If you use Microsoft Office—Word for word-processing, Excel for spreadsheets, Powerpoint for presentations—you'll likely be faced with the need to purchase a new copy of the suite if you get a new Windows computer. Don't even think about using an Office version earlier than 2003 with a Vista-based computer; it's incompatible. And if you decide to install your existing copy of 2003 on a new PC, be aware that you'll lose Microsoft’s mainstream support as soon as April.

The "Standard" edition of Office 2007 isn't cheap: From online retailers, it runs about $325 for new users, or about $200 if you own an earlier version (with a separate install CD, not simply pre-installed on a PC you bought).

But you can get a version of Office 2007 more cheaply, provided you can do without some of its business-oriented components, such as Outlook or Access (not to be confused with Outlook Express, which is part of Windows XP, and has been replaced by Windows Mail in Vista).

Microsoft offers Office 2007 Home and Student edition, which lists for $150, but I found online for as little as $80. (It includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote.) You're allowed to install it on three PCs per household, including laptops that might be taken to school, so long as the student hasn't moved out of the household. And, unlike previous "student" versions of Office, it has no requirement that there be a student in the household.

There's no upgrade version of Home and Student that costs less than this full version, but buying the full version does qualify you to upgrade to a more-advanced Office version if you later find the need.

If you do have a college student, and don't need to install Office on multiple computers at home, you can get Office 2007 even more cheaply. Microsoft's own site offers Office 2007 Ultimate to bona fide students for just $60. Compare that with the $300 to $600 online retailers charger for Ultimate 2007.

Does the student in your household qualify for this bargain-basement price? Here's what Microsoft’s site says:

You must have a valid e-mail address at an educational institution ending with the domain suffix .EDU (ie, leina@contoso.edu) OR have a valid email address at one of the educational institutions listed.

You must be a student at a U.S. educational institution and must be actively enrolled in at least 0.5 course credit and be able to provide proof of enrollment upon request.

Of course, for the ultimate in cost-saving, nothing beats free. As in the free OpenOffice suite, which includes word processing, spreadsheet, presentation, graphics, and database applications. It's mostly compatible with Microsoft Office documents, though it doesn't have quite the same advanced feature set.

—Dean Gallea

Comments

[Peter]

I started using open office recenlty - it's amazing. I don't see any reason to use Microsoft word anymore. Not sure why the mention on this program wasn't in the first paragraph instead of the last one.

[Kevin]

Earlier MS Office versions may not work on Vista 64, but I'll bet 95% of readers of this article do not have 64 bit but 32 and early versions of Office work fine with 32 bit Vista. Just clarifying.

[Joel]

It's a shame that the comment about OpenOffice isn't in the opening paragraph. Instead it's tucked at the end where many will not read it. The first paragraph should simply read "Your old copy of MS Office may not work with Vista, but that's okay; OpenOffice is free and has practically everything you could need."

OpenOffice.org is extremely under-rated. In my opinion (as someone who works in IT), the only reason that it is not more prevalent is that 1.) in the work environment, Microsoft Office (MS Office) has become the standard that everyone knows how to use, 2.) open source projects don't have a marketing budget, and 3.) prior to this last release, it previously didn't have the MS Office conversion utilities built in (this has been changed, and now they're included). OpenOffice, looks, smells, and tastes like MS Office. OpenOffice has 95% of the functionality of MS Office, and 90% of the population uses only 10% of the features in MS Office. Translation: you won't miss a thing (except the removal of cash from your wallet). And, it's free, so if you try it and don't like it, you haven't lost even a penny.

[Practical]

Open Office is a very fine first choice for the typical user. It does almost everything that Microsoft Office does that people need. Business users may need Microsoft office for some specialized purposes.

[Kevin]

Sideshow is right, i run office xp (2002) and 2000 on 4 Vista machines no problem.

[Ann]

I run OpenOffice on my home computer, and use Microsoft Office 2007 at work. I have traded files and documents back and forth in Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and have had exactly Zero problems with compatibility. Even complex formatting in Powerpoint was stable.

[Noffice]

Er, Open office is a close open-source substitute costing zero, nada, zilch.

[Dean Gallea]

Regarding Vista compatibility of earlier versions of MS Office, check Microsoft's list at:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/compatibility/

It states that Office 97 is not compatible--but, of course, there is a "paid upgrade."

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/compatibility/Details.aspx?type=Software&p=Microsoft%20Office%2097&v=Microsoft&uid=&pf=0&pi=0&s=Microsoft%20Office%2097&os=32-bit

Versions of Office earlier than 2003 are listed as incompatible with 64-bit Vista, which is now becoming common.

--Dean Gallea

[Holly Mueller]

I bought the MicroSoft prigam for 2007 workd for my Vista and althought the teacher's union assured me this was the qoriginal Microscot packaging and was factorty sealed in the Microscoft packaging. When i tryed to unload it. it said it was an invalid copy. At least eight other school teachers have recieved the same noticw and were told theyn- norescourse to recive our $80.00 a piece back. We were counting on those programs because we have studebts that have no computer access at home. Now we can not afford to put out our own money to help our stufdents only to be told that although the key number are correct and vaild the are not going to honor the program.
Thank You,
Holly Mueller

[Dan]

Note that the Student version will say "Non Commercial Use" at the top of the screen.

[mike]

if your company happens to be a part of Microsoft's Home Use Program, you can get Office Enterprise edition for $20. It includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Publisher, Access, OneNote, InfoPath, and Groove. The only thing missing is Visio and that can be had for another $20

[Sideshow]

Actually, my copy of Office 97 installed and works just fine on my Vista machine. Where did you get your information that pre-2003 copies of office are incompatible?