MS Office for Forces

[letsgoandfly]

Hi, I heard on the grapevine a while back that serving personnel can get MS Office for quite a discounted price from somewhere on the intranet - can anyone point out where? I've had a look all over DII as have a few other interested colleagues and anything that once was on the intranet concerning this seems to have vanished during the DII migration!

If anyone knows where it can be found or if you've got to call someone or so forth can a post or pm would be much appreciated!

Thanks :ok:

[Pontius Navigator]

look for 'software assurance'

You can find info through google although you will need intranet access to order. IIRC it is about £15.

[letsgoandfly]

Hi Pontius, thanks for your reply! I've already tried Google and I can't see anything relating to UK Forces use, just American Forces. Are you able to post any links etc as I will have intranet access when I go into work tomorrow and can look then.

Thanks again!

[lurkio]

Hi Letsgo,

not £15 but try these people as they will do it for £35 if you have kids at school. If not, borrow a kid. Apparently you can install on 2 machines per copy. I got the link through the computers forum.

Microsoft Office 2007 Home and Student Software UK at Software4Students.co.uk (http://www.software4students.co.uk/default.aspx)

[Evalu8ter]

LetsGo
Got it last month for about £12-15. They gave us the "Enterprise 2007" edition which has the full suite of Office products and works with previous versions (essential with some of the vintage software the MoD still use). I simply did a search on the Defence Intranet, found the link, and filled in the form. A quick e-mail at home followed to confirm ID then my Disk arrived within a week. Fantastic VFM!

[Gunnerrock]

Try the link below for more info.

http://www.pprune.org/archive/index.php/t-311360.html

GR

[SirToppamHat]

The correct link for the MS Home Use MOD Programme is:

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

BUT IT WILL ONLY WORK FROM A WORKS PC (ie you need access to the MOD intranet, which most mil guys will have through Restricted machines such as DII, RAF Mail, BSA etc etc)

ISTR that the 's' at the end of the http is critical and where most people go wrong.

Several guys at work have used this over the last few months, but more recently, I understand the company sends you a link to a download site and a User Serial Number for the package. However, I haven't spoken to anyone who has actually gone through this process.

Software for Students is good for Photoshop etc, but the deal offered by sabs (software Box) is unbeatable unless you are paying for your internet by the MB!

It would be useful if anyone could confirm the current position.

Edited to Add that the following is available from home PCs and explains all about the Home Use Programme:

Microsoft Home Use Programme for MOD Employees PDF (http://www.softbox.co.uk/NR/rdonlyres/410CFEE5-13AB-4CA0-806D-0D0A422F966E/1192/MicrosoftSABS.pdf)

However, you still have to be at an MOD machine to use the actual link. Remember that it is the Home Use Programme that offers the best benefits, not the Employee Purchase Programme.

STH

[Dengue_Dude]

Why not use OpenOffice, it's free and is compatible with MS Office and is actually multi-platform too?

No-brainers in my book.

Now been using it seamlessly for over a year producing both MS Office and OpenOffice files, since I migrated to Apple Macs.

[Pontius Navigator]

DD, what email software does OO use? I think the best bit of Office 2007, and the bit I use all the time, is Outlook, the rest is just there.

[ian16th]

PN,

Open Office does not have an e-mail client.

For a very good free e-mail client I recommend and use Mozilla Thunderbird from: Mozilla | Firefox web browser & Thunderbird email client (http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/)

There are many add on's available for Diary functions and such.

[Memetic]

Email is not built into the OO suite. However the closest answer to a default email client, in my view, for OO would be Thunderbird (Thunderbird - Reclaim your inbox (http://www.mozillamessaging.com/en-US/thunderbird/)) and to add full scheduling capability its email plug in Lightening (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/2313).

Both are from the Mozilla foundation- creators of Firefox.

I have used OO and Thunderbird for years, adding Lightning when I went freelance a year ago. Neither I or more importantly my clients, have missed MS Office.

[Pontius Navigator]

I'll stick with Outlook 2007 as I have it; miles better than the 2003 version at work.

For office work though I use WordPerfect. Lost count the number of times I have to load a Word doc into WordPerfect to sort out the formatting then save to Word for the MS Slaves.

[Vortex_Generator]

Did it 2 weeks ago. All pretty seamless and only cost £8-95

[letsgoandfly]

Hi again, I've had a look on the website that people have posted - thanks! - and can't find MS Office Pro 2007 under the HUP. What have people been buying, is it the MS Office Enterprise Edition? It also says at the bottom MS HUP Download but doesn't specify what it is - yet if I put it in my basket it will cost £8.95 to download. Is this what they're calling Offic Pro?

Thanks once again!

[Vortex_Generator]

Letsgo, that is correct. You get MSO2007 Enterprise edition which is the full suite.

[Alpha Whiskey]

In a similar vein, I think you can also get a "Home Use" deal with Macafee as well. Anyone shed any light?????

[pigsinspace]

About 50p (equivalent) down the local market here...and it works..(So I am told)

[Top Bunk Tester]

Be aware that MS have taken Visio 2007 off of the site, I ordered it through SABS a couple of days ago and the order went through without a problem, then following the link sent to my home address to download the software, et voila ....no Visio. SABS are aware of the problem and are working on it.

[PerArdua]

They have taken MS Project off it as well. As I tried to order this yesterday SABS, like you say, are aware but haven't recorded any details from people who tried to order it previously.

PA

[ICO]

PN wrote "I'll stick with Outlook 2007 as I have it; miles better than the 2003 version at work."

You're the first person I have come across with this view. I had the dreadful misfortune to use this pile of tripe in sandy places on a US system. It took me nearly 2 hours (and a great deal of restraint) to switch the spell checker to UK English, I pretty much gave up on the automated DW templates I set up for Office 97/2000/2003 that work perfectly well on those versions.

Software companies are in a unique position in that they will replace a product with something that:

- Is completely different from its predecessor
- Costs more money
- Does not give any discernible benefit to the customer
- Reduces productivity whilst people learn how to use it

I'm in the process of changing over to Apple but the one thing that puts me off is that the Apple equivalent of MS Office mimics the 2007 version.