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When will Office 2007 be available at Michigan? What's with the new file formats?

What if I choose not to upgrade now? Why can't I install the departmental Enterprise edition on personally-owned computers?

This page will be updated whenever new information is available. Current as of  May 22, 2007.

When will Office 2007 be available at Michigan?

FOR PERSONAL PURCHASE: Unfortunately, we did not receive Office Enterprise 2007 for individual purchase in our May shipment. We hope to be able to offer it for sale in June. This date is dictated by the supplier of our Microsoft Campus Agreement products, and we have no control over it.

Students, faculty, and staff will have to decide if the tremendous savings they enjoy by purchasing through the Showcase is worth the wait. We hope to keep the price similar to the $45 we currently sell Office 2003 for and are confident it will not exceed $60.

FOR DEPARTMENTS: System administrators can now order the departmental Enterprise edition DVD using a ShortCode for installation only on University-owned computers. Please also read Why can't I install the Enterprise edition on personally-owned computers?

What's with the new file formats?

Word, Excel, and PowerPoint use a new file format that is incompatible with Office 2003 and earlier versions.

Office 2007 users can open any version of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. However, in order for Office 2003 and earlier users to open an Office 2007 file, one of two things must happen:

• the Office 2007 user must specially save the file in the 97-2003 format.
• Office 2003 and earlier users must have installed the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack that allows them to open Office 2007 files that have not been specially saved.

What if I continue to use Office 2003 or earlier?

You should download and install the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack. You'll then be able to open documents created in Office 2007.

Why can't I install the Enterprise edition on personally-owned computers?

Doing so would violate the terms of our Campus Agreement with Microsoft and would put the University and that agreement at risk.

You must not install the departmental Office Enterprise 2007 on a personally-owned computer under any circumstances. Prior to the Showcase offering it for sale (hopefully in June 2007), anyone wishing to run Office 2007 on a personally-owned computer must purchase it from a retail outlet.

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