Office XP or Office 2k?

[Salvador]

Hi,
I'm wondering if Office XP is a worthwhile upgrade to Office 2K? I plan to install this on an older Celeron 366 with 128 mb's of RAM.

Is Office XP just bloatware, or is it a worthwhile upgrade?

TIA,

Sal

 

[IamDavid]

I think it depends on whats applications of Office you use. XP is a complete change from 2K in alot of ways but almost the same in others.

 

[Salvador]

I use mostly Word, Excel and Access. I occasionally use Powerpoint.

What's so different about Office XP? Is it really bloated compared to Office 2K? I didn't notice that much of a difference from the jump to Office 2k from Office 97. I did notice a difference from Office 95 to 97 though. Office 97 seemed really bloated on the slower machines compared to Office 95.

Anyway.. Thanks for the reply.

Sal

 

[jkresh]

I have XP and I would have to say that while it is nice it does not really have anything that is necessary. There are a fair amount of little additions but nothing major, also the activation is something of a nuisance if you upgrade often. In other words, if you have the money and are willing to pay for a few features, get it, if not wait.

 

[MrMilney]

Take a look at this edition of Woody's Watch. Woody's Watch is a free newsletter written by Woody Leonhard, the man responsible for countless books about Office. Woody will give it to you (and Microsoft) straight. If it works, he will tell you. If it is broken, he will tell you that too. Take a look at the newsletter I linked to above and see if you find it helpful. While you are there, do yourself a favor and look at some of the other newsletters Woody puts out. Really great stuff (and no, I'm not getting paid for this).

 

[Salvador]

Thanks! I have access to it from work. I'm currently running Office 2k, but thought that I'd try out XP since I can. At least I think I can. What's this deal with user registration. I've heard about it with WinXP, but not with Office XP. Would I be able to bring home a version from work and install it on my machine at home?

If money was a consideration, I'd definitely wait. I lived with 95 for quite a while and only upgraded to 97 on one of my machines to try it out shortly before Office 2k came out.

Anyway.. Thanks again,

Sal

 

[MrMilney]

The registration scheme was basically set up to lock a given copy of Office XP to a given machine. Every time you attempt to install Office XP you have to contact Microsoft and get a key in order to complete the installation. This way they can make sure you are not installing your copy of Office XP on multiple machines. Large businesses can, however, get a special key that allows Office XP to be installed on multiple machines (instead of having to get 100 unique keys to install the software on 100 machines in the building). If you are getting XP from work you may be able to use that key (there are a range of legal issues associated with doing this that I'm not going to get in to here). Again, Woody does a much better job of explaining this than I do. Check out the archived newsletters on his site (you can perform a search from his web site).

 

[Salvador]

Thanks! I'll check it out.

Sal

 

[Agamar]

I am going to have to find a way around this. I install Office on dozens of machines a week.

 

[MrMilney]

<< I am going to have to find a way around this. I install Office on dozens of machines a week. >>



Good luck. Unless these dozens of machines all belong to the same company and you get yourself one of those magic corporate keys then you will have to get individual keys for each and every installation.

 

[Superself]

That is the solution....get a corporate ticket! I've used one from a guy who posted it in an IRC chat room.
Then you need a corporate CD...not a retail one off the shelf.