Microsoft Office XP Professional Upgrade [Old Version]

I noticed improvements over the older versions of MS Office at several places - while the improvements may be minor to some people, the fact that the product runs without a glitch is enough for me to justify the purchase. Everything is very intuitive & straightforward, and without cumbersome handling and abundant variety of errors encountered in non-MS products.

If you want to get frustrated, do everything twice as long with numerous glitches appearing usually at the least convenient moments (like when you need to have something urgently done, save your work to the file, etc. ), get free Open Office or pay moderate fee for Star Office 6.0; if you want to work fast and effortlessly since the first minute following the ultra-smooth installation, do yourself a favor and purchase OfficeXP; if you're not in a hurry, you may want to wait for Office 2003, which should be out soon.

(Note: installed on Win2kPro-SP4 machine /P2.4GHz-1GB RAM/, absolutely smooth ride and I'm impressed with the software - reviewed version: OfficeXP(2002)SBE/DSP incl. Word, Excel, Outlook and Publisher)


If you're a regular user, DON'T USE IT   June 21, 2003
 3 out of 6 found this review helpful

Microsoft Office is an essential suite for computer users, because it lets you write documents, elaborate presentations, that sort of thing. And you thought there's nothing out there that can really replace it. Think again.
I absolutely have no problems against MS Office, except for two things: THE PRICE. I refuse myself to pay 400 dollars for this. Besides, I don't even have 400 dollars to spend.
THE ACTIVATION PROCESS. Microsoft can't kidnap my right of installing the program on the amount of computers I want to.
Yes, I know this is still a very good software package. But if you're a high school or college student who doesn't have a budget worthy of a Fortune 500 company, or just a regular Joe who wants to write neat stuff in his computer, you can try alternatives such as StarOffice or OpenOffice.org, which are very similar, the learning curve is nonexistant if you've already used MS Office, and the price is unbeatable (it can be even free). It even opens and saves stuff in MS Office formats. Ask one of your techie friends to download OpenOffice.org and burn it into a CD, and YOU WON'T BE BREAKING ANY LAWS. If you're a corporate user and you can pay this much for Microsoft support, go ahead. It's really not worth it anymore.


Crashes / Doesn't Maintain Earlier Version Format Integrity   May 27, 2003
 6 out of 11 found this review helpful

After having used Word 6.0C and the same other programs on my computer for years, without hardly ever crashing, OfficeXP2002 was my nightmare in waiting. Once installed on my Win98SE 256/40G, Office XP crashed regularly while reading emails, writing emails and editing Word documents. Explorer also started to crash regularly. I got to know the blue screen really well!

After passing on error messages to MS, they told me it was conflicting with my Nvidia graphics software. Upgrade their driver I was told. After that, my Epson 800 printer wouldn't work. The new Nvidia driver conflicted with a Librarydll file. Had to msconfig and turn Nvidia's flashy controls off at startup. Now the printer works. OfficeXP still crashes, but it seems not mid document, usually when exiting or restarting when one or two other programs are running, thus locking up the entire system. Shutting down never seemed the same also - a hanging Win98 screen!

After reinstalling Win98SE and reading several articles, I went to a MS Win98SE patch html page and updated about 7 updates! My computer still crashes, usually daily, probably because Outlook is always running and I need to run two or three other programs. Never had this problem over the years with Outlook Express always running.

OfficeXP hasn't crashed mid-email or mid-Word document (yet) but my computer hardly ever goes a day without crashing.

OfficeXP's Word will not maintain the formatting integrity of my Word 6 or Word97 documents! You can count on boxes and lines being out of alignment with text. Apparently MS changes the formatting in Word for every new version (to force everyone to upgrade?) Doesn't even maintain formatting integrity when you save a document in an older version (just try opening it up with the older version!!!) The whole thing is a nightmare but I now feel locked in. It will be a loooooog time before I upgrade ever again. One day there'll be an alternative to Word that is truly cross-platform and productive.


Mother's Little Helper   April 13, 2003
 0 out of 11 found this review helpful

Bought this for me Mum to go with her birthday laptop. Her emails and photo attachments seem to be getting thru OK, so I guess the books works.