Microsoft has released a new version of Office (the suite of desktop applications including Word, PowerPoint, Access and Excel) for PCs running Windows. Office 2007 has an improved user interface to help users take better advantage of existing and new features of the programs.

Students entering UD in fall 2007 will have Office 2007 installed on their UD notebook computers. The decision to outfit first year students with the most recent Office suite follows both careful analysis of feedback from our faculty and IT support staff regarding the impact of this implementation on academic and technical support as well as an analysis of peer schools. UDit and academic unit IT staffs are currently exploring support mechanisms for Office 2007. Our primary support focus will be first year students and their instructors.

Office 2007 is available via UD Software (http://udsoftware.udayton.edu or, for many users, at the UDSoftware link on your Windows Start menu). Many faculty and staff computers require administrative rights for the installation of programs such as Office 2007; contact your unit IT staff for assistance.

As students submit homework it is possible that faculty will receive documents saved in the new '07 formats. Most of the computers here at UD have had the compatibility pack installed, but we suspect that some of your home PC's may need this software. To access this free download from Microsoft, plese visit. this link on Microsoft's site.
You need to have administrative rights in order to install programs, but we would expect that you are an administrator of your home PC.
If you need assistance with this install, or any other issues with Office 2007, please contact the Help Desk at 9-3888.

UDit recommends that users remain with Office 2003 for the following reasons:

• Support and training processes are still being stabilized
• The interface change will be a challenge for some users, requiring a period of training and adjustment
• Office 2007 saves documents in a new file format that is not compatible with Office 2003; some incompatibilities with current documents may occur
• Office 2007 performs better on newer (read: faster!) computers
• We expect a Service Pack release will fix many "glitches" and provide a better product

Consequently, we encourage users to remain on Office 2003 unless they have a pressing need, such as supporting the learning needs of first-year students.

For those users who need to upgrade, we have customized the installation at UDSoftware.

If you purchase the CD's at the UD Computer Store, UDit strongly recommends using UDDefaults.MSP to patch/customize your installation. Simply download the file and then run it after you've installed Office 2007. This patch will add the Getting Started Tabs as well as the same settings and tools as the standard installation for Office 2007 implemented by UDit through UDSoftware.

Some classroom computers will continue to use Office 2003 with a software patch installed to enable Office 2003 to open Office 2007 files. First-year student computers will be customized to save files in Office 2003 formats by default to minimize file incompatibility issues. However, students will be able to save files in the new (.docX, .pptX, .xlsX) formats; instructors may receive these file formats as assignment submissions.

We invite you to visit the links on the Office 2007 menu to the right of this page. These offerings will expand and change over the next several weeks and months. Please add this page to your "Favorites" and visit it often. If you have suggestions or content recommendations, please email the IT Training Department at
training@notes.udayton.edu

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