Microsoft Office 2007 and Windows Vista for University Computers: Coming Soon?

Microsoft Office 2007 and Vista project teams (consisting of IT Services and divisional/departmental technology support staff) have been carefully evaluating Microsoft’s latest products and how they work within Miami’s computing environment. Now the teams’ recommendations on timing for roll-out to faculty and staff are in:

• Should I Move to Office 2007? In most cases, the answer is likely to be yes. Please check with your departmental technology support staff for plans in your area or the IT Services Support Desk (513-529-7900) with concerns. The project team has outlined a few situations in which an upgrade to Office 2007 is not appropriate or requires additional planning. Reasons to NOT upgrade Your computer does not meet the minimum system requirements to run Office 2007 You use Access databases developed in Microsoft Access 2002 or earlier You run macros or third-party Office add-ins that have not been tested in Office 2007.

  Microsoft Office 2007: Upgrade this summer!
  The project team recommends departments and individuals migrate to Office 2007 this summer and IT Services will be ready to support departments and individuals by June 1. Office 2007 sports a totally new look and feel and a number of valuable new features. See “Should I Move to Office 2007?” for upgrade considerations.
  
  Instructor-led and online training will be available to help you transition from Office 2003 to Office 2007 quickly and easily. Up-to-date information on training options can be found at www.muohio.edu/training. And, if you have any questions as you are working in the new applications, the IT Services Support Desk will be ready to assist you (see related article).

• Microsoft Windows Vista: Hold off until 2008.
  Key university-wide applications and services have been tested with Vista and a number of incompatibilities have been identified. In most cases, these incompatibilities are already being remedied by the vendors and fixes are anticipated in the June through October timeframe.
  
  The project team recommends that departments and individuals hold off on deploying Windows Vista, except on test machines, until 2008. This will allow time for the known incompatibilities to be addressed and will also allow time for academic areas to test their applications with Vista.
  
  In recognition of the fact that many students will be arriving on campus next fall with computers running Windows Vista, IT Services will offer a “What’s Changed in Vista?” course for faculty this summer.

More information on the project teams’ recommendations can be found in the “Microsoft Office 2007 and Windows Vista Roadmaps and Timelines” PDF.