Discounted Microsoft Office

[Arty Fufkin]

I've been told that military / government personnel can obtain a copy of Microsoft office at a much discounted cost ( about a tenner). Any one happen to know the website address to place an order? Tried googling but no joy.

Cheers,

Arty

[Burnswannabe]

I think it used to be http://sabs.sbl.r.mil.uk/

I think only accessible from a work computer. Hope it works.

[Al R]

http://www.softbox.co.uk/NR/rdonlyres/410CFEE5-13AB-4CA0-806D-0D0A422F966E/602/HomeBenefitMicrosoftMcAfeeJimLocke.pdf

SBL is one of them for sure, and its not just MS that is discounted. There are (were) one or two others, forgotten who though. Try the Training and Education people (if they still exist).

[Dysonsphere]

Hmmm not been funny I dont know anyone who has paid for MS Office other than companies and the like.

[Pontius Navigator]

This offer is not one limited to the MOD. Many organisations, including the NHS, have negotiated this Home User Licence. Search for Microsoft Software Assurance.

The catch of course is that you have to delete the program from your home PC when you leave their employ.

[talk_shy_tall_knight]

If you get no joy on the SBL link (won't open for me), and have no access to the sources as alluded to in the previous post, you might want to consider openoffice. It's totally free, about a 110 meg download or you'll commonly find it on PC mag coverdisks. I was sceptical at first, worried about compatibility with MS Word and Powerpoint etc, but it's totally interoperable (bingo!). I've made presentations on it that i've subsequently used at prayers using the Sqn networked IT. It's the mutts doodahs.

[Arty Fufkin]

Cheers all.

I think you may be right about the first link only working from a service computer. I'll give it a go next time I'm in!!!

Arty F

[talk_shy_tall_knight]

Sorry forgot the link

http://www.openoffice.org/product/product.html

[ZH875]

The cost is about £17.41, and you can get either Office 2003 or Office 2007. One copy per household, and you can install it on one machine and one laptop only. The product needs to be registered within 30 days of installation, or parts of it stop working.

It also must be removed from your PC if you leave MOD employment.

If you have bought Office 2003 under this program, and then buy and install Office 2007, you are not entitled to use Office 2003, and must remove it and not install it on any other machines.

Visio is also available.

[SirToppamHat]

We've been here before; it is an excellent scheme:

See Here. (http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?t=219326&highlight=microsoft+office+home+programme)

I have just spoken to the people who run it and they reckon they've got a problem with their website at the moment. Their tel no is: 01347 812100.

Just a reminder though that the website is only accessible on the intranet!.

For more information from Microsoft see here:

Link to Microsoft Site (Internet) (http://www.microsoft.com/Industry/Government/licensing/homeuseoptions.mspx)

I would suggest anyone who wants to use it tries again next week.

Regards

STH

[South Bound]

You can only get Office 2007 now, they no longer offer 2003.

Still works, ordered my 2007 upgrade a couple of weeks ago. I absolutely definitely promise to remove it from my systems when I leave the Service, honest!

[Navaleye]

I junked MS office and use free Openoffice. I have not had one compatibility issue and in fact it does some things better.

[Truckergrove]

ZH875 has it pretty well explained, my wife got our Office 2007 as she works for the NHS. £17.50 I think is what she paid. The MoD should have the info for you to get yours.

Yours Truckergrove

[knowitall]

you can get the full version of star office (upon which open office is based) from google for nowt, along with other stuff

http://pack.google.com/intl/en-gb/pack_installer.html?hl=en-gb&gl=uk&utm_source=en_gb_UK-et-more&utm_medium=et&utm_campaign=en_gb_UK


just un tick the stuff you dont want

[Jimlad1]

I've done it and its very efficient. Ordered the product and it turned up within about 10 days, so well worth doing.

[HH60Guy]

The program does exist... you need to search for the "Home Use Program"

Not sure if you can start the process as an individual, or if it must go through the MoD or DoD...

You need to get a "program code" which you eMail into MS from your 'official' eMail only. MS will then answer you back with a link to a web page where you can purchase Office for about 10 pounds!

Cheers!

[SirToppamHat]

Ordered the 2007 version myself the other day - the Web Site was back up and running (see my previous post). £17.31 inclusive for Office Pro full version (ie not an upgrade or OEM.

The service is provided by Software Box Limited (hence SBL). Did I mention you have to order it on the Mil Network? There is no actual involvement from anyone else - if you have a mil email address they send you apply for a PIN on the website and they send it to you at your Mil EMail (RAF Mail, DII, BSA or whatever) and you can then log-in.

If you have problems logging in, check with your IT people that your system is OK, and if all else fails, give the nice ladies a ring on the number I put in my last post.

You should get a genuine DVD in a padded envelope.

STH

[Tonkenna]

Got mine a month a go... one of the very very few perks left eehhh:rolleyes:

Works fine though

Tonks :hmm:

[Pontius Navigator]

Although I have the full Office 2007 Suite I confess I don't use the full suite and still use WordPerfect for documents but there are features I use all the time.

First and foremost has to be Outlook. This is an excellent iteration, well laid out, quite colourful, and a delight to search.

Next I use Search Desktop. This is an indexing system that enables you to search either desktop or web.

Then there is a program called One Note. This is supposedly an intuitive program and superior to Notepad. When I say intuitive is would be to someone who did know computing <g>.

You open it. You do not save anything, it does that itself. It opens pages as required. It blocks things. You can move lines and words or whatever in much the same way as you move a picture in word. I am still toying with it.

Then just having got a new PDA, it offers One Note for Mobiles.

I have to say the software is now getting well ahead of my abilities :)

[ZH875]

I liked Office 2007 that much, I uninstalled it and put Office 2003 back on.

I too, still occasionally use WordPerfect V5 but I wish I still had WordPerfect V4.2 for DOS.

[Pontius Navigator]

ZH875, ignoring the possibility that you are piss-taking, I actually use WP 11, I decided that 12 and XIII did off any more than I need.

At work I often start documents in Word, or get them in Word and eventually give up and switch to WP which allows me to properly format them, remove gash coding etc and ultimately republish in Adobe PDF which stops every other b:mad:r plagraising my work :)

[ZH875]

PN, not piss-taking this time, it is just that I never could get on with the later windows versions of WP, and found the earlier versions that much easier to use.

IIRC WP4.2 operated off of one 5¼" floppy disk.

BTW PDF is easy to cut and copy, even if a password has been set, it just takes a reasonably short time...:O

I just felt that the total change of front end for Office 2007 was not worth the effort, so went back to 2003.

[Pontius Navigator]

ZH, yes, I resemble what you say which is probably why I have not really engaged with the mainat programs in 2007 such as Word.

When I tried to type a letter in word I found that the templates were online. As I was not online the time that rathed faxed that up, as Prince Charles was once heard to say.

I started with WP5.0 but I did have WP Office 3.0. I kept the editor program for that for years as it was better for creating batch files etc than notepad.

Agree about bloatware. Last 'big' program I had in floppy was probably WP7, some 23 AFAICR.

Now you have to buy floppy drives as an add on.

Or take the disk to work, load it on the locked down machine, and email it home. Agh!





PS, of course I would never dream of doing that. Got that advice from a Provost Officer, 'onest Guv.

[EODFelix]

Also able to get Visio and Project 2007 for the same £17.41 ea

[mad_collie]

If you phone MS to complete the registration instead of registering the application online, you can install Office 2007 on as many machines as you like (provided they are all your own personal machines).

[Capt W E Johns]

/Rant on

At the risk of being accused of zealotry (sp?) I too recommend OpenOffice as the alternative to MS Office. oOo is free, open, compatible, capable, cross-platform (MS/Mac/Linux) and will only keep improving. Think "the Firefox of office suites".

/Rant off

[Tricorn]

Now all we need to do is get Office 2007 on the military system. I keep sending docx files from home and cannot open them!!:ugh:

Yes, I know there is a free converter and our server peoples are looking into it (the software not the server) :O

[Mark in CA]

I bought Office 2003 Student Version (years ago). All you have to show is that someone is a student, including your wife, kids, a neighbor's kids, etc. You just say you're buying it for them. Good for installation on up to five machines. It's the full software suite, nothing missing. I assume a similar discount is available on Office 2007. Look for "academic discount." Online shops usually hold order until you email them some documentation, which can consist of a university receipt, school id card, etc. Usually pretty liberal.

[Tiger_mate]

Does anybody know if similar discount schemes exist for Adobe software? Photoshop CS3 in particular.

[Baskitt Kase]

A similar scheme does not exist for Adobe. That said, SBL is allowed to make private sales at the same rates that they charge the MoD provided you're an MoD employee. Contact them and they will be able to do you a discounted (but not massively so) price. SBL would have been able to do me an upgrade to CS3 Extended for the same price that most places were selling CS3 upgrades. However, I didn't have a need for the extended features and found a slightly better deal on the straight CS3 upgrade online once I had factored in the quidco rebate.

[Tiger_mate]

Thanks for that, it looks like I shall have to be a 'student' again whilst purchasing from eBay.

[BEagle]

Were Bill Gates to offer his software at sensible prices, those liars and frauds who keep the pirate software market alive would have no further reason to do so.

I find it quite amazing that someone would brazenly admit to 'pretending' to be a student in order to buy software at lower cost.

Perhaps it's just that I'm from an era when honesrty and integrity were amongst the characteristics expected from a gentleman?

[Background Noise]

Tricorn - you should be able to save files using 2007 in 2003 format. That will help the transfer but I know its not the best solution - and you lose 2007-only aspects of your documents - but it may help.

2007 also allows you to keep previous 2003 versions installed so you have the choice of either version to use.

[Al R]

Tiger Mate,

Did you know that all Adobe software (inc PS) is available on a free download trial basis?

http://www.adobe.com/downloads/

It goes without saying that making up hotmail accounts and using proxy servers in order to perpetuate the arrangement is probably not strictly within the spirit of it..

[Pontius Navigator]

The Office discount is part of the microsoft software assurance scheme.

As it happens Corel had a similar, but cheaper scheme with WordPerfect etc and this may be true of Adobe too.

Essentially an employee was authorised to install a copy of the program on his home machine provided his employer had a licence for his office machine. This was a defacto recognition that people ripped off the software and also a marketting ploy as an employee moving companies might ask for WP to be installed at work.

The catch, as far as the MOD was concerned was getting hold of the company copy in the first place.

[Tiger_mate]

Beagle, I am so glad that you are not a Police man, Customs man or Tax Inspector. For jumping in with:

I find it quite amazing that someone would brazenly admit to 'pretending' to be a student in order to buy software at lower cost.

Perhaps it's just that I'm from an era when honesrty and integrity were amongst the characteristics expected from a gentleman?

When I am buying for my 13 year old 'student' youngest son who is not allowed to purchase from eBay is IMHO entirely with integrity. In the interim, I did not appreciate your premature assumption, so p155off and mind your own business.

£150 or £500, lets think about this: .....and there is no guarantee that you are older than me either,

AIR: Thanks for the tip, but that is far too nauseous. I did it once or twice with Nikon NX software and then bought it anyway. Adobe have the fleet leader with Photoshop CS3 and they know it.

[Pontius Navigator]

Tiger_Mate, we are almost all students.

My first experience of cheap software was when Borland offered Quattro Pro at a competitive user discount (few thousands at today's prices compared with Office now :))

I returned their offer commenting that I would love to be allowed to take up their offer but I was merely a SuperCalc user at work and did not actually own a copy of SuperCalc. They actually rang me up, said no problem, and a deal was done. Later, based on that deal they offered me a cheap copy of the dBase.

Some time later, as a legitimate student, I ordered a copy of Symantec's AV Suite. This time they asked signed evidence from my 'school' although they accepted the course letter from the university.

Other than Symantec, 'user-licence', 'student edition' etc are all sales gimics. Capture the user first time round and you get a virtually assured income stream from upgrades.

[engineer(retard)]

TM

"When I am buying for my 13 year old 'student' youngest son .....and there is no guarantee that you are older than me either,"

Do the math. If Beags had a 13 year old child he would have become a father at 102. I think it is a safe bet that he is older than you.

regards

retard

[Al R]

Tiger,

I have trialed two products from Adobe and ended up buying them at the end of the trial period. The free trial process is very seductive, and clever too. They know that actually using the product is only half of the experience.. owning it is just as important, and that most people inclined to dabble are honest people at heart.

As an aside, I see that Yahoo has rejected Microsoft's offer.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7237320.stm

Microsoft was mad but found itself forced to offer such a high price, and Yahoo is mad to reject it. Unless of course, it thinks that Microsoft is desperate enough to go higher.

[Flying_Scotsman]

I know this has been a recurring question, and here it is again! However, I have just tried the link to apply for my cheap Office copy and it doesn't seem to work anymore. Anyone have any ideas? It would be nice to load on my new laptop!

[Background Noise]

Are you trying this from home? It only works from a service computer. Whether you can apply direct to the company, which is in Sutton on the Forest, I don't know but it relies on a 'work' email address to logon.

[akula]

+1 On Background Noise's response.

I placed my order a month or so ago(7 day delivery time).

[Bo Nalls]

There's also Software4Students (http://www.software4students.co.uk/Office_Software-list.aspx) which has office priced at £35. You just need to find a student to qualify (or maybe not as no formal check is made;) )

[ICO]

I used this a few years ago and got the Office 2003 and Project 2003 versions - no problems at all. My concern now is, with Office 2007 out, can you still get 2003?

I had the misfortune of sapping my life away trying to work out Office 2007 when in sandy places using a US system recently. I rapidly came to the conclusion that the software industry is unique in that it will instigate change for the sake of it without any discernible benefit for the consumer and we still buy it!!

[SirToppamHat]

... the software industry is unique in that it will instigate change for the sake of it ...

Eh? You can't be serving in the same MOD as me then mate!

To come back to the thread, I don't believe Office 2003 is available, it wasn't when I ordered.

MS is very clever in issuing only 2007, which we all get used to and eventually apply pressure to our employers to do likewise. I read this morning that Office 2010 for PC is on its way.

STH

[Flying_Scotsman]

Thanks for the replies. I am on the work pc and the link at the start of this thread: http://sabs.sbl.r.mil.uk/ Does nothing- cannot find server.

Akula, is this the route you took?

[PostMeHappy]

Try https://sabs.sbr.r.mil.uk/ (https://sabs.sbr.r.mil.uk/) which should then work fine (the extra s is something to do with security levels blah blah).

[GreenWings]

https://sabs.sbl.r.mil.uk/regunreguser.asp

works on DII/C at High Wycombe...

Hope this helps :ok:

GW

[bayete]

Why not give OpenOffice a go, I find many things better and it opens all manner of different kinds of doc/spreadsheet/presentation. You can save stuff in any format and it is totally free.
You have nothing to loose giving it a try.
OpenOffice (http://openoffice.org-suite.com/index.asp?aff=101&camp=gg_oo_uk&se=google)

[SirToppamHat]

Open Office is fine for what it's worth, and if the only alternative were to pay £200-300 for a copy of Office, then it would make sense. However, here you have the opportunity to get a great piece of software for less than £20.

There's really no thought required; get it, and if you can't get the link to work then I suggest you look up Software Box on Google and give them a call.

STH

[Wader2]

STH is right, £20 is excellent of Office 2007 Professional. Other software, like Vista Home Premium Upgrade at £67 is a total rip off.

Now I must check who I send my copy of Office too when I retire :}

[Background Noise]

Yes, it's a bit of a shame that 2003 is not available. It says quite plainly that the current version and the most recent previous version are available then promptly contradicts itself. Not sure how many service systems have 2007!

[SABS Helpdesk]

I thought it worth mentioning that HUP (Home Use Programme) offers:

1. Office Enterprise 2007
2. Visio 2007
3. Project 2007

All at the discounted price of £12.94 each

Sharepoint Designer 2007 was part of the offer but this is now available as a free download.

Other software is available on the EPP (Employee Purchase Programme) but the discounts are not as appealing!

If you have any queries relating to the Home Use Programme you can ring the SABS Helpdesk on 01347 812103. Contact information is also shown in the Common Questions part of the SABS Site

[Roland Pulfrew]

Anyone know what version the Home Use Programme is up to now?

[E-Spy]

RP
I did this last year and got Office 2011 for Mac, nice and easy downloadable from the web.
Spy

[CoffmanStarter]

RP ...

MS Home User Programme (http://www.microsofthup.com/hupuk/home.aspx?culture=en-GB)

[Tiger_mate]

I used this service recently and got Office 2010 - MS Project 2010 & MS Viseo 2010 all for just under £9 and then paid as much again for hard copies of the CD/DVD. I had hoped the hard copies would come with instruction booklets which they dont but it still remains awesome value for money. If only Adobe would follow suit with their products. Students get discounted Adobe but military do not, and they being an american company where the military normally get huge discounts.

[5aday]

Is there a particular code to use?

[Tiger_mate]

You need to have access to a [email protected] email address or it will not let you in.

[5aday]

Thanks.
Sorted.

[scarecrow450]

I got it 18 months ago, but when my pc went tits up I rang them to get a back up disk but they said I'd already got one issue so I couldn't get another one !

[jamesdevice]

Does anyone know if these use "normal" Office setup disks, or the limited-use MDSN/Technet ones (usually brown in loose sleeves)? The two types use different product key sequences

If they are normal ones then you can legally download the ISOs from Digital River, and use them with your product key. If they are MSDN/Technet ones then I don't think theres an official M$ download link, though you can find them on The Pirate Bay (usual warnings apply)

[Tiger_mate]

In appearance, the backup discs look the same as discs often supplied with a new PC and are Orange (Office) Blue (Visio) & Green (Project)*. A white disc envelope with a DVD labled as a backup disc inside and a sticker bar code on the envelope. The software is initially downloaded using a key code supplied by email to a private email address. The process is not straightforward due to a software glitch on the download page. You have to 'add to your basket' and then click on your basket without waiting for the download bar to travel its course. Once the order has been placed, the reply (confirming acceptance) is not automated and some time may pass by before the operator sends her response. You also have to order Office as a single item order whereas Project and Visio can be ordered as a pair. For myself, a combination of telephoning the support line before and after placing my order helped oil the cogs.

You pay Microsoft direct not the agent however the agent is the gateway into the MS process by ensuring entitlement via a mod.uk email address. Service users without Dii access will not be able to process an application other than by proxy which is probably illegal. As I have stated previously; I did order backup discs at the same time which doubled the cost to approx £52 for three software downloads +discs. Office 2010 for a windows based PC, online download only would have been £8.95. Double that with a back-up DVD. The MAC software is Office 2011.

*The back-up discs are not in boxes and do not include documents.
MS Software Offer:

MS Office Professional 2010
MS Visio 2010
MS Project 2010

All at £8.95 instead of several hundreds of pounds each. The link is:

https://sabs.sbl.r.mil.uk which can only be reached by a Dii computer.

[jamesdevice]

they sound like MSDN/Technet disks then. The ISOs from Digital River probably won't work. I don't think theres an "open" download for those from MS - you have to sign in as a member.
As I said before, they are listed as Torrents on The Pirate Bay, but that opens up a whole can of worms
Scarecrow's best bet is to get someone to provide a copy, and then use his product key with them

[Stuff]

Office 2013 is available now for PC users (Mac users are still on 2011).

You can order direct from Microsoft though the process involves a few more steps.

Visit www.microsofthup.com/hupuk/home.aspx?culture=en-GB (http://www.microsofthup.com/hupuk/home.aspx?culture=en-GB)
Click "Don't know your programme code"
Enter your @mod.uk address
Wait for activation email to arrive.

Click on the link in the activation email and order Office 2013 for £8.95
Project and Visio 2013 are also available for separate purchase at £8.95 each.

Dii and EGS tends to mangle the Microsoft site so you may find it easier to forward the activation email to your home address and do the ordering there.

Edit: And SoftBox have now caught up so there's no need for the complicated process above. Office 2013 is available direct on https://sabs.sbl.r.mil.uk from a Dii computer.

[peppermint_jam]

Thanks for the external link stuff, it worked for me yesterday. The Dii link dies once you add office 2013 to your cart.