From: coe-l-bounces@lists.purdue.edu [mailto:coe-l-bounces@lists.purdue.edu]
Sent: Monday, June 18, 2007 11:08 AM
To: coe-l@lists.purdue.edu
Subject: [COE-L] Office 2007 is Coming! - (for Windows PC users)

Dear College of Education,

(…sorry for this lengthy message, but a big change is on the horizon and we need to share some important information with you…)

As you may have heard, Microsoft Office 2007 has been released as a replacement for Office 2003 (for Windows PC users).   We anticipate that students arriving for the fall semester, along with  Purdue home computer users in general, will adopt Office 2007 in the coming months .  The Purdue ITaP / TLT computer labs will be upgrading to Office 2007 this summer , and COE computer labs will migrate to Office 2007 near the end of the summer .  So there will be some motivation for us to begin using Office 2007 @ Purdue.  Office 2007 is available at no additional cost to Purdue departments under the Purdue Microsoft Campus Agreement.

As noted in an earlier email message, Microsoft has released t he Office 2007 “Compatibility Pack” which will  enable Office 2003 users to open most documents created in Office 2007.  All COE office computers now have this c ompatibility p ack installed.   However, we need to begin planning for an eventual migration to Office 2007.

The Office 2007 interface is quite different from Office 2003 so you'll want to obtain some training before you jump in with Office 2007.

HOW TO PROCEED

The Education IT team would like to take the following approach to migrating COE faculty/staff to Office 2007:

1. First, we'd like to ask faculty/staff to please engage in some kind of training activity before upgrad ing to Office 2007 to minimize disruption to your work.  (More on training options below.)
2. Second, once you have had some training and you feel you are ready to make the change, we would like to ask faculty/staff to email the EdIT team and schedule an appointment for the upgrade .

TRAINING OPTIONS

There are several training options that we would like to recommend (the first two being the most important initially):

1. Microsoft Online “Up To Speed” Courses [recommended for everyone]
1. We recommend that all COE faculty/staff take, at minimum , the “Up To Speed” course for each Office application you rely on to accomplish your work.  The Up To Speed course is the first course in the list for each Microsoft Office 2007 application.   You can find the Microsoft online courses here:
   
   http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/training/HA102255331033.aspx
2. If you have time, take the additional Microsoft online courses for each Office application after you take the “Up To Speed” course.
               
2. EdIT Office 2007 Videos and Q&A Session [ recommended for those needing more info after option #1]
              
1. The EdIT team is putting together an informal Q&A session for Office 2007 that will include 30 to 45 minutes of professional training videos, followed by a time for questions.  We'll send more information about these sessions soon.
            
3. Reference books
                
1. There are many good books which can be found at local and online book retailers.  Some books you may find include:

   • i. “Teach Yourself VISUALLY Microsoft Office 2007”

   • ii. “Using Microsoft Office”

   • iii. “Office 2007 All-in-One Desk Reference For Dummies”
                     

4. Purchase Office 2007 for use at home
1. You can purchase Office 2007 at a significantly discounted rate through the Purdue Boiler Copy Center and install it at home on your personally owned computer/laptop.  This will help you learn the new interface at your own pace.  Here's more info about obtaining a personal copy of Office 2007 for your personally owned computer/laptop:
   
   http://www.itap.purdue.edu/shopping/online/software

CONTACT

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact the Education IT team at edit@purdue.edu .  

[this message will reply-to edit@purdue.edu ]

Thank you and happy computing !   J

Regards,
Your Education IT Team