Choosing an Office Bundle
This week, I will be focusing on the overall Office 2007 system. Today, I will start by examining the differences between the Office bundles offered by Microsoft.
The core of the Office system is Word, Excel and PowerPoint. All Office bundles include these essential components, so if this is all you want, go with the cheapest available bundle. For most users, this would be Home and Student which has the added feature of allowing installation on three devices. Some additional features included with more expensive bundles are as follows:
- Office Standard adds Outlook, a feature rich e-mail, calendar, contact and task program. Unfortunately, the program does not work with most free e-mail services not offered by Microsoft, but if your e-mail account allows you to use this program, I recommend this bundle.
- Office Small Business also includes Accounting Express and Publisher. It also includes additional components for Outlook. If you are able to use the accounting software, this upgrade may be worthwhile, but I would definitely try the software first.
- Office Professional adds Access to the Small Business bundle. If you have a specific use for Access, you will need to purchase at least this version, but otherwise there is no need to upgrade from Small Business or Standard.
There are additional bundles, but these are not targeted at home users so I will not review them here. Sixty day trial versions are available for all of these products. If you are considering an upgrade and your computer can handle the increased demands, why not try it out today.
What do you think? What Office bundle would you recommend? Have you upgraded yet? Why or why not? I look forward to your comments.