Current MS Office components?

[Tuzenbach]

Hello!

I was wondering what the lastest versions of the following Microsoft Office components were:

Word
Excel
PowerPoint
Access

+ whatever else comes with Office these days (FrontPage, etc.)

Also, when a new PC is purchased, are the latest versions of software always included with the purchase or no? I mean, if I got a new PC today, would it come with Excel 2003 or 2005? (and so on and so on....)


Thanks!

 

[reveal]

Hello!

I was wondering what the lastest versions of the following Microsoft Office components were:

Word
Excel
PowerPoint
Access

+ whatever else comes with Office these days (FrontPage, etc.)

Also, when a new PC is purchased, are the latest versions of software always included with the purchase or no? I mean, if I got a new PC today, would it come with Excel 2003 or 2005? (and so on and so on....)


Thanks!

The newest incarnation of each program is 2003. Starting with Microsoft Office 97, they started naming everything "[Program Name][Year in Suite name]." With Office 95, it still referred to Excel, for example, as Excel 4.0.

The next version of Office is scheduled for release sometime next year.

And, yes, if you buy a computer with Office on it, usually it's the newest version, so 2003. But each vendor is different.

 

[Psionicist]

You can always use OpenOffice if you dont want to support Microsoft: http://www.openoffice.org/ Its really nice.

 

[Heretic Apostate]

+ whatever else comes with Office these days (FrontPage, etc.)

Depends on the version you buy. If you buy the Pro version, it comes with extras. Otherwise, you're going to get Word, Excel, and Outlook. Maybe Powerpoint. I think at the Pro level, you get Access. With Small Business edition, I think you also get MS Money.

My Office XP Pro Special Edition upgrade (which I had to go through a lot of effort to find and buy; it was a limited-release) contains the big five, plus Publisher and FrontPage.

Also, when a new PC is purchased, are the latest versions of software always included with the purchase or no? I mean, if I got a new PC today, would it come with Excel 2003 or 2005? (and so on and so on....)

IF you pay extra for the OEM version, you'll get MS Office in the latest version. However, the default is generally something cheaper...

Great. Now that I have Office 2000 Pro (the big five, but with Outlook removed in the upgrade) and Office XP Pro SE (the big five, plus Publisher and FrontPage) on my computer, now I wanna get Office 2003 Pro... Thanks a lot...

 

[Nuclear Platypus]

You can always use OpenOffice if you dont want to support Microsoft: http://www.openoffice.org/ Its really nice.

Are they compatible with files from Excel and the rest of MS Office?

 

[The_lurkeR]

Are they compatible with files from Excel and the rest of MS Office?

OpenOffice.org can open and save files in compatible formats with Word and Excel. It can also save in some other neat formats, like PDF, or slideshows in flash.

Opening MS Office files is usually fine, but depending on the complexity of the Word doc or Excel spreadsheet though, things may look slightly different. Microsoft offers free 'viewer' only versions of their products if you want.

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/results.aspx?Scope=DC&Query=viewer

To the original poster. The current version is "Office 2003". The programs which are included vary by which package you get.

MS Office has had versions 95 , 97, 2000, XP, and now 2003.

 

[Agamon]

Boo. When I saw they droped apps in Office 2003 (without having to get the super-duper deluxe extra-special edition for way too much money), I just said screw the greedy bastards and kept using Office 2000. Still works fine and dandy.

 

[Tuzenbach]

The next version of Office is scheduled for release sometime next year.

So, you're saying there's going to be a Word 2006, Excel 2006, Access 2006, PowerPoint 2006, etc.? I've a PC from 1999. Should I wait for a PC with Office 2006 before upgrading my stuff? Oh, I'm so confused!

 

[drothgery]

So, you're saying there's going to be a Word 2006, Excel 2006, Access 2006, PowerPoint 2006, etc.?

Yup. And Microsoft's changing the default file formats in Word and Excel for the first time since Office 97 in Office 12 (which will probably be branded as Office 2006).

I've a PC from 1999. Should I wait for a PC with Office 2006 before upgrading my stuff? Oh, I'm so confused!

Well, what kind of things are you having problems running on your 1999-vintage PC? If a large portion of the software you're running is hardware limited right now, then it's probably best to upgrade now (even to a $500 Best Buy special). If not, late 2006 is probably a good time to upgrade because the move to dual-core/64-bit CPUs will have trickled down to the midrange, if not the low end, by then; Longhorn (the next version of Windows) should be out or coming Real Soon Now; and Office 12 will be out.

 

[Tuzenbach]

So.....Office 12 = Office 2006???