Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007 is the essential software suite for home computer users that enables you to quickly and easily create great-looking documents, spreadsheets, and presentations, and organize your information in one place, making it ea

There's no point fixing something that ain't broken!, 07 Nov 2008
I don't enjoy using Office 2007. Millions of people around the world got use to the original Microsoft Word, Powerpoint, Excel etc. and then they decided to change the layout of everything.

After a while, you end up getting use to it and I quite like the way you switch from one tab to the next on Word. In other words, I quite like the way you switch from "file, edit, view... (although it's now called Home, Insert, Page layout...)".

There are little things though, which are really annoying. First, I don't like the fact that there are no permanent margins around the page on Word - it makes it harder to quickly adjust the layout of headings etc.

I can't stand the way it automatically double spaces, every time you press enter. Sometimes you don't want it to do that - it is difficult to change this.

Finally, I don't like the way it saves every file in the .docx format. You can change this to .doc and it will save all your work fine - so why bother even introducing .docx in the first place? It just means that if you forget to change the format to .doc when you save documents at work/university - you can't open the file at home unless you have already purchased Office 2007 on your PC at home.

It Wasn't Broken - It Is Now!, 02 Nov 2008
If you have Office 2003 (unlike me!) then avoid upgrading to this this ridiculous product. It provides nothing that you couldn't do, often more easily, with the old menus and toolbars of Office 2003.

On offer is the prominent "ribbon" interface that provides quick access to many features that in all reality will be fairly redundant for many users. In Word, any takers for Styles, Symbols, Themes, Citations & Bibliography, Captions, Table of Authorities? Thought not!

Conversely, many commonly used features are less accessible than before.

However, many of the old dialogue boxes are still lurking beneath the surface, which just goes to show that ugliness too can be only skin deep.

Think twice before buying this product it is a con!!!, 01 Nov 2008
Think twice before buying this product. I bought a new laptop that had office 2007 etc loaded as a trial. I bought Office Home Student 2007 as a Amazon special offer along with the laptop. Office Home Student 2007 does NOT include Outlook 2007 so the 60d trial runs out and the only way you can get Outllok 2007 is to pay a further £78.78 for Outlook from Microsoft. After the 60 days you just cannot get any more e-mail without buying the product unless you revert back to an alternative e-mail programme.- Why buy the office suite without Outlook?? It is not made clear when you buy Home & Student 2007 with Amazon.

Overall 0/10 Amazon & Microsoft - A true con.

Happy customer, 01 Nov 2008
I'm not big user of office and mainly use it for typing letters and reading documents from work. However compared to office 2003 i find it more user friendly and visually looks a lot better. It does the job and am happy which is why 5/5 -

I don't understand why the low marks that outlook 2007 is not included when if you have windows vista it comes built in windows mail ( which is same as outlook express ) and far better email client then outlook 2007.

Before buying from amazon i search the web to see if i could find better price and by far amazon is lowest by at least 20-30pounds. Super-save delivery took about 4days -

Also had registry issues due to previous office causing problems after uninstall. Microsoft technical support was first class and resolved the issue within minutes.



I dislike Office 2007 and will stick with Office 2003 - but schoolkids can get Office 2007 Enterprise for just over £50, 29 Oct 2008
I work at Oxford university and get Office 2007/2003/XP etc.. free via educational licences, but I choose to stay with Office 2003 Professional. As mentioned by other reviewers Office 2007 is a bit of a pain in the positrons compared to just about all other versions of MS Office that keep to the same basic menu and file format. It takes you 5 minutes just to work out how to load a word document with the new interface. I run many networked PCs at home and at work, and casual users who are Office 2003 savvy don't take kindly when this new 2007 interface pops up. Worst still, almost unforgivable even, is that a Professional version of Office 2007 Student is no longer offered, when even secondary school kids need Access and Publisher as part of the GSCE in IT. Plus no Outlook either. So, great software as Excel, Word and PowerPoint is, this loses Office Student two stars in my book. Another downside is that many schools are likely to stay with 2003, making it hard for the kids to adapt to two interfaces and file formats at home and school [for similar reasons all our new Vista PCs have been reformatted back to XP Pro].

However if you have a schoolkid/student in the house and their academic institution [i.e. School or College] is on the participating list, and most will be, you can pick up the full Office Professional 2007 for them for just £45 [incl postage] via any Microsoft educational software partner. With Office Pro you get Access/Publisher/Outlook as well, for about the price of this cut-down Office Home & Student. If the kids might need OneNote as well then go for top of the range Office Enterprise 2007 for just £55 [there's even Wacom 'educational use' graphics stylus/tablets on offer]. Try for instance Microsoft Partner www.Software4Students.co.uk: you just select the school and input your kids name [who must be on the role-call and live at the delivery address], buy the software and the bare CD/wallet appears in the post. The rather natty CD/DVD is emblazoned with Microsoft holograms and the text 'Licensed by student and facility only'. Likewise you can buy your kids the superb Encarta Premium enhanced Student 2009 for just £14 [retail price £49] - it integrates into Office and gives superb homework help [Encarta encyclopaedia, Maths equations, languages and English literature]. Well now children that even makes Office 2007 seem desirable. For the rest of though I'd save the pennies and stick with Office 2003 for the time being, assuming you're lucky enough to own it.

Priced for home and school, these Office basics help you achieve more, for less. Whether your projects are around the house or in the classroom, the reinvented Office 2008 for Mac experience makes it easier than ever to create professional-looking work. Main Features:Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac Home and Student Edition Features:WordExcelPowerPointEntourage...

There's no point fixing something that ain't broken!, 07 Nov 2008
I don't enjoy using Office 2007. Millions of people around the world got use to the original Microsoft Word, Powerpoint, Excel etc. and then they decided to change the layout of everything.

After a while, you end up getting use to it and I quite like the way you switch from one tab to the next on Word. In other words, I quite like the way you switch from "file, edit, view... (although it's now called Home, Insert, Page layout...)".

There are little things though, which are really annoying. First, I don't like the fact that there are no permanent margins around the page on Word - it makes it harder to quickly adjust the layout of headings etc.

I can't stand the way it automatically double spaces, every time you press enter. Sometimes you don't want it to do that - it is difficult to change this.

Finally, I don't like the way it saves every file in the .docx format. You can change this to .doc and it will save all your work fine - so why bother even introducing .docx in the first place? It just means that if you forget to change the format to .doc when you save documents at work/university - you can't open the file at home unless you have already purchased Office 2007 on your PC at home.

It Wasn't Broken - It Is Now!, 02 Nov 2008
If you have Office 2003 (unlike me!) then avoid upgrading to this this ridiculous product. It provides nothing that you couldn't do, often more easily, with the old menus and toolbars of Office 2003.

On offer is the prominent "ribbon" interface that provides quick access to many features that in all reality will be fairly redundant for many users. In Word, any takers for Styles, Symbols, Themes, Citations & Bibliography, Captions, Table of Authorities? Thought not!

Conversely, many commonly used features are less accessible than before.

However, many of the old dialogue boxes are still lurking beneath the surface, which just goes to show that ugliness too can be only skin deep.

Think twice before buying this product it is a con!!!, 01 Nov 2008
Think twice before buying this product. I bought a new laptop that had office 2007 etc loaded as a trial. I bought Office Home Student 2007 as a Amazon special offer along with the laptop. Office Home Student 2007 does NOT include Outlook 2007 so the 60d trial runs out and the only way you can get Outllok 2007 is to pay a further £78.78 for Outlook from Microsoft. After the 60 days you just cannot get any more e-mail without buying the product unless you revert back to an alternative e-mail programme.- Why buy the office suite without Outlook?? It is not made clear when you buy Home & Student 2007 with Amazon.

Overall 0/10 Amazon & Microsoft - A true con.

Happy customer, 01 Nov 2008
I'm not big user of office and mainly use it for typing letters and reading documents from work. However compared to office 2003 i find it more user friendly and visually looks a lot better. It does the job and am happy which is why 5/5 -

I don't understand why the low marks that outlook 2007 is not included when if you have windows vista it comes built in windows mail ( which is same as outlook express ) and far better email client then outlook 2007.

Before buying from amazon i search the web to see if i could find better price and by far amazon is lowest by at least 20-30pounds. Super-save delivery took about 4days -

Also had registry issues due to previous office causing problems after uninstall. Microsoft technical support was first class and resolved the issue within minutes.



I dislike Office 2007 and will stick with Office 2003 - but schoolkids can get Office 2007 Enterprise for just over £50, 29 Oct 2008
I work at Oxford university and get Office 2007/2003/XP etc.. free via educational licences, but I choose to stay with Office 2003 Professional. As mentioned by other reviewers Office 2007 is a bit of a pain in the positrons compared to just about all other versions of MS Office that keep to the same basic menu and file format. It takes you 5 minutes just to work out how to load a word document with the new interface. I run many networked PCs at home and at work, and casual users who are Office 2003 savvy don't take kindly when this new 2007 interface pops up. Worst still, almost unforgivable even, is that a Professional version of Office 2007 Student is no longer offered, when even secondary school kids need Access and Publisher as part of the GSCE in IT. Plus no Outlook either. So, great software as Excel, Word and PowerPoint is, this loses Office Student two stars in my book. Another downside is that many schools are likely to stay with 2003, making it hard for the kids to adapt to two interfaces and file formats at home and school [for similar reasons all our new Vista PCs have been reformatted back to XP Pro].

However if you have a schoolkid/student in the house and their academic institution [i.e. School or College] is on the participating list, and most will be, you can pick up the full Office Professional 2007 for them for just £45 [incl postage] via any Microsoft educational software partner. With Office Pro you get Access/Publisher/Outlook as well, for about the price of this cut-down Office Home & Student. If the kids might need OneNote as well then go for top of the range Office Enterprise 2007 for just £55 [there's even Wacom 'educational use' graphics stylus/tablets on offer]. Try for instance Microsoft Partner www.Software4Students.co.uk: you just select the school and input your kids name [who must be on the role-call and live at the delivery address], buy the software and the bare CD/wallet appears in the post. The rather natty CD/DVD is emblazoned with Microsoft holograms and the text 'Licensed by student and facility only'. Likewise you can buy your kids the superb Encarta Premium enhanced Student 2009 for just £14 [retail price £49] - it integrates into Office and gives superb homework help [Encarta encyclopaedia, Maths equations, languages and English literature]. Well now children that even makes Office 2007 seem desirable. For the rest of though I'd save the pennies and stick with Office 2003 for the time being, assuming you're lucky enough to own it.

Blah., 17 Nov 2008
Office 2008 is ok. The interface is normal. It doesn't crash all that much. It is quite compatible. Its all right. Blah.

If only Microsoft hadn't lost their nerve and made something as lovely as the PC Office 2007. I'm a dual user and find myself drifting back to my PC when I want to do anything work related. And that is a shame. It's just like the old days - Mac for media fun and PC for serious work and gaming. Some things never change. Not much point upgrading from 2004.

Ideal for creating windows compatible documents..., 11 Nov 2008
I am by no means a computer genius but talking from a novice point of view I have to say that after purchasing this product 3 months ago I have been perfectly happy with it. I previously had the office 2004 for MAC which admittedly was perhaps a little more user friendly and generally straight forward, but decided to upgrade to the new Office 2008 when I purchased a new iMac.

I generally only use Word and Excel, occasionally Powerpoint, and they serve the purpose that they are there for. After a little bit of getting used to, I've figured most things out, although creating web pages with the Word is not as simple as it was with 2004, and would happily recommend it to a friend. I am currently using it with Leopard operating system.

If you simply want to be able to create Windows compatible documents then this pack should give you everything you need. I use mine for writing word documents and creating spreadsheets and transferring these between my Windows based PC at work and my iMac at home. For this everything serves the purpose well.

Mixed bag, Intel native good, no VBA bad., 29 Oct 2008
I'm a fairly casual home user of Office, I used Entourage all the time, Word infrequently and the rest of the package almost never (mostly as readers of Powerpoint and Excel docs). I bought this because I bought an Intel MacBook and iMac. The emulated performance of Office 2004 was painfully slow.

Reading the reviews people seem to have had real problems with stability, these seem to have been corrected by a series of fairly large upgrades. I've had no real problems there.

However removing VBA support was a fairly silly decision on the part of Microsoft, as it means I've got to keep around the older versions to run any macros people send me. They are putting this functionality back in, in the next version but still.

Compatibility seems OK for my purposes, although word defaults to a .docx format that most people can't read. So you have to convert if you want your docs to be shared.

I've also stopped using Entourage very recently, because it conflicts with my Time Machine backup. Essentially Entourage uses a big database to store your e-mail messages and TM sees this as a (large), constantly changing file which it backs up every hour. So if your e-mail database is 1Gb, that means 24Gb daily if you leave your machine on all the time. This chews up drive space. I suspect MS use a big database for historic reasons (Windows/ Mac weren't very good at dealing with lots of small files). MS actually recommend excluding the Entourage backup from Time Machine backups and making your own backups. I gave up and started using Apple Mail which is less pretty and more stripped down but a perfectly good e-mail client free with the OS which integrates better with the Apple iCal and Address book.

Given this, I'm not sure how much longer I'll be buying MS Office, I already have iWork installed and if Apple make the document formats transparently interchangeable with MS Office I doubt I'll buy Office again.


So Slow, 30 Sep 2008
It looks good but not the same as before so there is some relearning required. But the biggest surprise of all is that it is frustratingly slow. I have iWorks but bought this because my wife kept saying that MS office was better, but even she now admits it's not.

Only buy this if you absolutely have to, or if you have more patience than me.

Don't upgrade - VBA is off, quite slow, 12 Sep 2008
This product should have never been released. It miss a fundamental subset of Excel, VBA. Suddenly all macros stopped to work after I upgraded, and the unthinkable was correct, yes Microsoft has removed VBA, even from the help! after some online research to confirm, I removed it and re-installed 2004. This is not to mention the huge resources consumption or the new improved, or should say, ugly interface.

Office Home and Student 2007 provides office software essentials to help you accomplish tasks more efficiently. You can use Office Home and Student 2007 to create great-looking documents, spreadsheets, and presentations, and you can manage your notes and information in one place. With improved menus and tools, enhanced graphics and formatting capabilities, new information management tools, and more reliability and security, Office Home and Student 2007 makes working at home easier and more enjoyable.Main Fe...

There's no point fixing something that ain't broken!, 07 Nov 2008
I don't enjoy using Office 2007. Millions of people around the world got use to the original Microsoft Word, Powerpoint, Excel etc. and then they decided to change the layout of everything.

After a while, you end up getting use to it and I quite like the way you switch from one tab to the next on Word. In other words, I quite like the way you switch from "file, edit, view... (although it's now called Home, Insert, Page layout...)".

There are little things though, which are really annoying. First, I don't like the fact that there are no permanent margins around the page on Word - it makes it harder to quickly adjust the layout of headings etc.

I can't stand the way it automatically double spaces, every time you press enter. Sometimes you don't want it to do that - it is difficult to change this.

Finally, I don't like the way it saves every file in the .docx format. You can change this to .doc and it will save all your work fine - so why bother even introducing .docx in the first place? It just means that if you forget to change the format to .doc when you save documents at work/university - you can't open the file at home unless you have already purchased Office 2007 on your PC at home.

It Wasn't Broken - It Is Now!, 02 Nov 2008
If you have Office 2003 (unlike me!) then avoid upgrading to this this ridiculous product. It provides nothing that you couldn't do, often more easily, with the old menus and toolbars of Office 2003.

On offer is the prominent "ribbon" interface that provides quick access to many features that in all reality will be fairly redundant for many users. In Word, any takers for Styles, Symbols, Themes, Citations & Bibliography, Captions, Table of Authorities? Thought not!

Conversely, many commonly used features are less accessible than before.

However, many of the old dialogue boxes are still lurking beneath the surface, which just goes to show that ugliness too can be only skin deep.

Think twice before buying this product it is a con!!!, 01 Nov 2008
Think twice before buying this product. I bought a new laptop that had office 2007 etc loaded as a trial. I bought Office Home Student 2007 as a Amazon special offer along with the laptop. Office Home Student 2007 does NOT include Outlook 2007 so the 60d trial runs out and the only way you can get Outllok 2007 is to pay a further £78.78 for Outlook from Microsoft. After the 60 days you just cannot get any more e-mail without buying the product unless you revert back to an alternative e-mail programme.- Why buy the office suite without Outlook?? It is not made clear when you buy Home & Student 2007 with Amazon.

Overall 0/10 Amazon & Microsoft - A true con.

Happy customer, 01 Nov 2008
I'm not big user of office and mainly use it for typing letters and reading documents from work. However compared to office 2003 i find it more user friendly and visually looks a lot better. It does the job and am happy which is why 5/5 -

I don't understand why the low marks that outlook 2007 is not included when if you have windows vista it comes built in windows mail ( which is same as outlook express ) and far better email client then outlook 2007.

Before buying from amazon i search the web to see if i could find better price and by far amazon is lowest by at least 20-30pounds. Super-save delivery took about 4days -

Also had registry issues due to previous office causing problems after uninstall. Microsoft technical support was first class and resolved the issue within minutes.



I dislike Office 2007 and will stick with Office 2003 - but schoolkids can get Office 2007 Enterprise for just over £50, 29 Oct 2008
I work at Oxford university and get Office 2007/2003/XP etc.. free via educational licences, but I choose to stay with Office 2003 Professional. As mentioned by other reviewers Office 2007 is a bit of a pain in the positrons compared to just about all other versions of MS Office that keep to the same basic menu and file format. It takes you 5 minutes just to work out how to load a word document with the new interface. I run many networked PCs at home and at work, and casual users who are Office 2003 savvy don't take kindly when this new 2007 interface pops up. Worst still, almost unforgivable even, is that a Professional version of Office 2007 Student is no longer offered, when even secondary school kids need Access and Publisher as part of the GSCE in IT. Plus no Outlook either. So, great software as Excel, Word and PowerPoint is, this loses Office Student two stars in my book. Another downside is that many schools are likely to stay with 2003, making it hard for the kids to adapt to two interfaces and file formats at home and school [for similar reasons all our new Vista PCs have been reformatted back to XP Pro].

However if you have a schoolkid/student in the house and their academic institution [i.e. School or College] is on the participating list, and most will be, you can pick up the full Office Professional 2007 for them for just £45 [incl postage] via any Microsoft educational software partner. With Office Pro you get Access/Publisher/Outlook as well, for about the price of this cut-down Office Home & Student. If the kids might need OneNote as well then go for top of the range Office Enterprise 2007 for just £55 [there's even Wacom 'educational use' graphics stylus/tablets on offer]. Try for instance Microsoft Partner www.Software4Students.co.uk: you just select the school and input your kids name [who must be on the role-call and live at the delivery address], buy the software and the bare CD/wallet appears in the post. The rather natty CD/DVD is emblazoned with Microsoft holograms and the text 'Licensed by student and facility only'. Likewise you can buy your kids the superb Encarta Premium enhanced Student 2009 for just £14 [retail price £49] - it integrates into Office and gives superb homework help [Encarta encyclopaedia, Maths equations, languages and English literature]. Well now children that even makes Office 2007 seem desirable. For the rest of though I'd save the pennies and stick with Office 2003 for the time being, assuming you're lucky enough to own it.

Blah., 17 Nov 2008
Office 2008 is ok. The interface is normal. It doesn't crash all that much. It is quite compatible. Its all right. Blah.

If only Microsoft hadn't lost their nerve and made something as lovely as the PC Office 2007. I'm a dual user and find myself drifting back to my PC when I want to do anything work related. And that is a shame. It's just like the old days - Mac for media fun and PC for serious work and gaming. Some things never change. Not much point upgrading from 2004.

Ideal for creating windows compatible documents..., 11 Nov 2008
I am by no means a computer genius but talking from a novice point of view I have to say that after purchasing this product 3 months ago I have been perfectly happy with it. I previously had the office 2004 for MAC which admittedly was perhaps a little more user friendly and generally straight forward, but decided to upgrade to the new Office 2008 when I purchased a new iMac.

I generally only use Word and Excel, occasionally Powerpoint, and they serve the purpose that they are there for. After a little bit of getting used to, I've figured most things out, although creating web pages with the Word is not as simple as it was with 2004, and would happily recommend it to a friend. I am currently using it with Leopard operating system.

If you simply want to be able to create Windows compatible documents then this pack should give you everything you need. I use mine for writing word documents and creating spreadsheets and transferring these between my Windows based PC at work and my iMac at home. For this everything serves the purpose well.

Mixed bag, Intel native good, no VBA bad., 29 Oct 2008
I'm a fairly casual home user of Office, I used Entourage all the time, Word infrequently and the rest of the package almost never (mostly as readers of Powerpoint and Excel docs). I bought this because I bought an Intel MacBook and iMac. The emulated performance of Office 2004 was painfully slow.

Reading the reviews people seem to have had real problems with stability, these seem to have been corrected by a series of fairly large upgrades. I've had no real problems there.

However removing VBA support was a fairly silly decision on the part of Microsoft, as it means I've got to keep around the older versions to run any macros people send me. They are putting this functionality back in, in the next version but still.

Compatibility seems OK for my purposes, although word defaults to a .docx format that most people can't read. So you have to convert if you want your docs to be shared.

I've also stopped using Entourage very recently, because it conflicts with my Time Machine backup. Essentially Entourage uses a big database to store your e-mail messages and TM sees this as a (large), constantly changing file which it backs up every hour. So if your e-mail database is 1Gb, that means 24Gb daily if you leave your machine on all the time. This chews up drive space. I suspect MS use a big database for historic reasons (Windows/ Mac weren't very good at dealing with lots of small files). MS actually recommend excluding the Entourage backup from Time Machine backups and making your own backups. I gave up and started using Apple Mail which is less pretty and more stripped down but a perfectly good e-mail client free with the OS which integrates better with the Apple iCal and Address book.

Given this, I'm not sure how much longer I'll be buying MS Office, I already have iWork installed and if Apple make the document formats transparently interchangeable with MS Office I doubt I'll buy Office again.


So Slow, 30 Sep 2008
It looks good but not the same as before so there is some relearning required. But the biggest surprise of all is that it is frustratingly slow. I have iWorks but bought this because my wife kept saying that MS office was better, but even she now admits it's not.

Only buy this if you absolutely have to, or if you have more patience than me.

Don't upgrade - VBA is off, quite slow, 12 Sep 2008
This product should have never been released. It miss a fundamental subset of Excel, VBA. Suddenly all macros stopped to work after I upgraded, and the unthinkable was correct, yes Microsoft has removed VBA, even from the help! after some online research to confirm, I removed it and re-installed 2004. This is not to mention the huge resources consumption or the new improved, or should say, ugly interface.

get off the microsoft tredmill, 11 Nov 2008
Having a house full of PC's of varying ages and a mac. I am loathed to buy
more licenses as I already have older pc and a mac version of office.
Get "Open Office - 3" virtually free and run on any machine and save files as microsft versions .doc .ppt etc and vice versa.
I am thinking of stripping vista off my childs new lap top and going over to a linux version and avoid the other rip off that is microsoft security software

Office 2007 Home and Student, 11 Nov 2008
Upgraded from Office 2003 mainly to keep in mainstream of product. Very surprised by the change of 'look and feel', with a lot of the functionality I have used for years within MS Office products moved or hidden (but still there when searched for, often with more functionality). Fits well with look and feel of MS Vista OS, not so well with Windows XP. Also more resource hungry (definite Core 2 processor with at least 1Gb memory as a minimum). Overall very good product, and the home and student licencing (ie non-commercial) made it an economical upgrade for three machines. Only downside, no MS Outlook (Microsoft oversight or a way to encourage us to buy more expensive version?), so still running Outlook from Office 2003 alongside.

I dislike Office 2007 and will stick with Office 2003 - but schoolkids can get Office 2007 Enterprise for just over £50, 23 Oct 2008
I work at Oxford university and get Office 2007/2003/XP etc.. free via educational licences, but I choose to stay with Office 2003 Professional. As mentioned by other reviewers Office 2007 is a bit of a pain in the positrons compared to just about all other versions of MS Office that keep to the same basic menu and file format. It takes you 5 minutes just to work out how to load a word document with the new interface. I run many networked PCs at home and at work, and casual users who are Office 2003 savvy don't take kindly when this new 2007 interface pops up. Worst still, almost unforgivable even, is that a Professional version of Office 2007 Student is no longer offered, when even secondary school kids need Access and Publisher as part of the GSCE in IT. Plus no Outlook either. So, great software as Excel, Word and PowerPoint is, this loses Office Student two stars in my book. Another downside is that many schools are likely to stay with 2003, making it hard for the kids to adapt to two interfaces and file formats at home and school. For similar reasons [compatibility] all our new Vista PCs have been reformatted back to XP Pro.

However if you have a schoolkid/student in the house and their academic institution [i.e. School or College] is on the participating list, and most will be, you can pick up the full Office Professional 2007 for them for just £45 [incl postage] via any Microsoft educational software partner. With Office Pro you get Access/Publisher/Outlook as well, for about the price of this cut-down Office Home & Student. If the kids might need OneNote as well then go for top of the range Office Enterprise 2007 for just £55 [there's even Wacom 'educational use' graphics stylus/tablets on offer]. Try for instance Microsoft Partner www.Software4Students.co.uk: you just select the school and input your kids name [who must be on the role-call and live at the delivery address], buy the software and the bare CD/wallet appears in the post. The rather natty CD/DVD is emblazoned with Microsoft holograms and the text 'Licensed by student and facility only'. Likewise you can buy your kids the superb Encarta Premium enhanced Student 2009 for just £14 [retail price £49] - it integrates into Office and gives superb homework help [Encarta encyclopaedia, Maths equations, languages and English literature]. Well now children that even makes Office 2007 seem desirable. For the rest of though I'd save the pennies and stick with Office 2003 for the time being, assuming you're lucky enough to own it.

What a great programme, 10 Oct 2008
Microsoft Office 2007 Home and Student Edition (3 User Licence) (PC)

Just updated from 2003. what a brilliant programme, easy to install and very easy to use. I am not a professional user so this is great for us silver surfers to have. easy to install, easy to follow.

Another disappointment, 04 Sep 2008
Slower than ever, clunkier, and a weird new menu system detract from this very expensive 'cheap' option.
We returned ours, installed Open Office - amazing value, faster on our installations of XP, more stable and a familiar environment.
Where is Publisher? Why include PowerPoint in a home/student edition? Pointless, really.
MS have shot themselves in the foot, it seems.

Office Word 2007 is a powerful authoring program that gives you the ability to create and share documents by combining a comprehensive set of writing tools with an easy-to-use interface.

There's no point fixing something that ain't broken!, 07 Nov 2008
I don't enjoy using Office 2007. Millions of people around the world got use to the original Microsoft Word, Powerpoint, Excel etc. and then they decided to change the layout of everything.

After a while, you end up getting use to it and I quite like the way you switch from one tab to the next on Word. In other words, I quite like the way you switch from "file, edit, view... (although it's now called Home, Insert, Page layout...)".

There are little things though, which are really annoying. First, I don't like the fact that there are no permanent margins around the page on Word - it makes it harder to quickly adjust the layout of headings etc.

I can't stand the way it automatically double spaces, every time you press enter. Sometimes you don't want it to do that - it is difficult to change this.

Finally, I don't like the way it saves every file in the .docx format. You can change this to .doc and it will save all your work fine - so why bother even introducing .docx in the first place? It just means that if you forget to change the format to .doc when you save documents at work/university - you can't open the file at home unless you have already purchased Office 2007 on your PC at home.

It Wasn't Broken - It Is Now!, 02 Nov 2008
If you have Office 2003 (unlike me!) then avoid upgrading to this this ridiculous product. It provides nothing that you couldn't do, often more easily, with the old menus and toolbars of Office 2003.

On offer is the prominent "ribbon" interface that provides quick access to many features that in all reality will be fairly redundant for many users. In Word, any takers for Styles, Symbols, Themes, Citations & Bibliography, Captions, Table of Authorities? Thought not!

Conversely, many commonly used features are less accessible than before.

However, many of the old dialogue boxes are still lurking beneath the surface, which just goes to show that ugliness too can be only skin deep.

Think twice before buying this product it is a con!!!, 01 Nov 2008
Think twice before buying this product. I bought a new laptop that had office 2007 etc loaded as a trial. I bought Office Home Student 2007 as a Amazon special offer along with the laptop. Office Home Student 2007 does NOT include Outlook 2007 so the 60d trial runs out and the only way you can get Outllok 2007 is to pay a further £78.78 for Outlook from Microsoft. After the 60 days you just cannot get any more e-mail without buying the product unless you revert back to an alternative e-mail programme.- Why buy the office suite without Outlook?? It is not made clear when you buy Home & Student 2007 with Amazon.

Overall 0/10 Amazon & Microsoft - A true con.

Happy customer, 01 Nov 2008
I'm not big user of office and mainly use it for typing letters and reading documents from work. However compared to office 2003 i find it more user friendly and visually looks a lot better. It does the job and am happy which is why 5/5 -

I don't understand why the low marks that outlook 2007 is not included when if you have windows vista it comes built in windows mail ( which is same as outlook express ) and far better email client then outlook 2007.

Before buying from amazon i search the web to see if i could find better price and by far amazon is lowest by at least 20-30pounds. Super-save delivery took about 4days -

Also had registry issues due to previous office causing problems after uninstall. Microsoft technical support was first class and resolved the issue within minutes.



I dislike Office 2007 and will stick with Office 2003 - but schoolkids can get Office 2007 Enterprise for just over £50, 29 Oct 2008
I work at Oxford university and get Office 2007/2003/XP etc.. free via educational licences, but I choose to stay with Office 2003 Professional. As mentioned by other reviewers Office 2007 is a bit of a pain in the positrons compared to just about all other versions of MS Office that keep to the same basic menu and file format. It takes you 5 minutes just to work out how to load a word document with the new interface. I run many networked PCs at home and at work, and casual users who are Office 2003 savvy don't take kindly when this new 2007 interface pops up. Worst still, almost unforgivable even, is that a Professional version of Office 2007 Student is no longer offered, when even secondary school kids need Access and Publisher as part of the GSCE in IT. Plus no Outlook either. So, great software as Excel, Word and PowerPoint is, this loses Office Student two stars in my book. Another downside is that many schools are likely to stay with 2003, making it hard for the kids to adapt to two interfaces and file formats at home and school [for similar reasons all our new Vista PCs have been reformatted back to XP Pro].

However if you have a schoolkid/student in the house and their academic institution [i.e. School or College] is on the participating list, and most will be, you can pick up the full Office Professional 2007 for them for just £45 [incl postage] via any Microsoft educational software partner. With Office Pro you get Access/Publisher/Outlook as well, for about the price of this cut-down Office Home & Student. If the kids might need OneNote as well then go for top of the range Office Enterprise 2007 for just £55 [there's even Wacom 'educational use' graphics stylus/tablets on offer]. Try for instance Microsoft Partner www.Software4Students.co.uk: you just select the school and input your kids name [who must be on the role-call and live at the delivery address], buy the software and the bare CD/wallet appears in the post. The rather natty CD/DVD is emblazoned with Microsoft holograms and the text 'Licensed by student and facility only'. Likewise you can buy your kids the superb Encarta Premium enhanced Student 2009 for just £14 [retail price £49] - it integrates into Office and gives superb homework help [Encarta encyclopaedia, Maths equations, languages and English literature]. Well now children that even makes Office 2007 seem desirable. For the rest of though I'd save the pennies and stick with Office 2003 for the time being, assuming you're lucky enough to own it.

Blah., 17 Nov 2008
Office 2008 is ok. The interface is normal. It doesn't crash all that much. It is quite compatible. Its all right. Blah.

If only Microsoft hadn't lost their nerve and made something as lovely as the PC Office 2007. I'm a dual user and find myself drifting back to my PC when I want to do anything work related. And that is a shame. It's just like the old days - Mac for media fun and PC for serious work and gaming. Some things never change. Not much point upgrading from 2004.

Ideal for creating windows compatible documents..., 11 Nov 2008
I am by no means a computer genius but talking from a novice point of view I have to say that after purchasing this product 3 months ago I have been perfectly happy with it. I previously had the office 2004 for MAC which admittedly was perhaps a little more user friendly and generally straight forward, but decided to upgrade to the new Office 2008 when I purchased a new iMac.

I generally only use Word and Excel, occasionally Powerpoint, and they serve the purpose that they are there for. After a little bit of getting used to, I've figured most things out, although creating web pages with the Word is not as simple as it was with 2004, and would happily recommend it to a friend. I am currently using it with Leopard operating system.

If you simply want to be able to create Windows compatible documents then this pack should give you everything you need. I use mine for writing word documents and creating spreadsheets and transferring these between my Windows based PC at work and my iMac at home. For this everything serves the purpose well.

Mixed bag, Intel native good, no VBA bad., 29 Oct 2008
I'm a fairly casual home user of Office, I used Entourage all the time, Word infrequently and the rest of the package almost never (mostly as readers of Powerpoint and Excel docs). I bought this because I bought an Intel MacBook and iMac. The emulated performance of Office 2004 was painfully slow.

Reading the reviews people seem to have had real problems with stability, these seem to have been corrected by a series of fairly large upgrades. I've had no real problems there.

However removing VBA support was a fairly silly decision on the part of Microsoft, as it means I've got to keep around the older versions to run any macros people send me. They are putting this functionality back in, in the next version but still.

Compatibility seems OK for my purposes, although word defaults to a .docx format that most people can't read. So you have to convert if you want your docs to be shared.

I've also stopped using Entourage very recently, because it conflicts with my Time Machine backup. Essentially Entourage uses a big database to store your e-mail messages and TM sees this as a (large), constantly changing file which it backs up every hour. So if your e-mail database is 1Gb, that means 24Gb daily if you leave your machine on all the time. This chews up drive space. I suspect MS use a big database for historic reasons (Windows/ Mac weren't very good at dealing with lots of small files). MS actually recommend excluding the Entourage backup from Time Machine backups and making your own backups. I gave up and started using Apple Mail which is less pretty and more stripped down but a perfectly good e-mail client free with the OS which integrates better with the Apple iCal and Address book.

Given this, I'm not sure how much longer I'll be buying MS Office, I already have iWork installed and if Apple make the document formats transparently interchangeable with MS Office I doubt I'll buy Office again.


So Slow, 30 Sep 2008
It looks good but not the same as before so there is some relearning required. But the biggest surprise of all is that it is frustratingly slow. I have iWorks but bought this because my wife kept saying that MS office was better, but even she now admits it's not.

Only buy this if you absolutely have to, or if you have more patience than me.

Don't upgrade - VBA is off, quite slow, 12 Sep 2008
This product should have never been released. It miss a fundamental subset of Excel, VBA. Suddenly all macros stopped to work after I upgraded, and the unthinkable was correct, yes Microsoft has removed VBA, even from the help! after some online research to confirm, I removed it and re-installed 2004. This is not to mention the huge resources consumption or the new improved, or should say, ugly interface.

get off the microsoft tredmill, 11 Nov 2008
Having a house full of PC's of varying ages and a mac. I am loathed to buy
more licenses as I already have older pc and a mac version of office.
Get "Open Office - 3" virtually free and run on any machine and save files as microsft versions .doc .ppt etc and vice versa.
I am thinking of stripping vista off my childs new lap top and going over to a linux version and avoid the other rip off that is microsoft security software

Office 2007 Home and Student, 11 Nov 2008
Upgraded from Office 2003 mainly to keep in mainstream of product. Very surprised by the change of 'look and feel', with a lot of the functionality I have used for years within MS Office products moved or hidden (but still there when searched for, often with more functionality). Fits well with look and feel of MS Vista OS, not so well with Windows XP. Also more resource hungry (definite Core 2 processor with at least 1Gb memory as a minimum). Overall very good product, and the home and student licencing (ie non-commercial) made it an economical upgrade for three machines. Only downside, no MS Outlook (Microsoft oversight or a way to encourage us to buy more expensive version?), so still running Outlook from Office 2003 alongside.

I dislike Office 2007 and will stick with Office 2003 - but schoolkids can get Office 2007 Enterprise for just over £50, 23 Oct 2008
I work at Oxford university and get Office 2007/2003/XP etc.. free via educational licences, but I choose to stay with Office 2003 Professional. As mentioned by other reviewers Office 2007 is a bit of a pain in the positrons compared to just about all other versions of MS Office that keep to the same basic menu and file format. It takes you 5 minutes just to work out how to load a word document with the new interface. I run many networked PCs at home and at work, and casual users who are Office 2003 savvy don't take kindly when this new 2007 interface pops up. Worst still, almost unforgivable even, is that a Professional version of Office 2007 Student is no longer offered, when even secondary school kids need Access and Publisher as part of the GSCE in IT. Plus no Outlook either. So, great software as Excel, Word and PowerPoint is, this loses Office Student two stars in my book. Another downside is that many schools are likely to stay with 2003, making it hard for the kids to adapt to two interfaces and file formats at home and school. For similar reasons [compatibility] all our new Vista PCs have been reformatted back to XP Pro.

However if you have a schoolkid/student in the house and their academic institution [i.e. School or College] is on the participating list, and most will be, you can pick up the full Office Professional 2007 for them for just £45 [incl postage] via any Microsoft educational software partner. With Office Pro you get Access/Publisher/Outlook as well, for about the price of this cut-down Office Home & Student. If the kids might need OneNote as well then go for top of the range Office Enterprise 2007 for just £55 [there's even Wacom 'educational use' graphics stylus/tablets on offer]. Try for instance Microsoft Partner www.Software4Students.co.uk: you just select the school and input your kids name [who must be on the role-call and live at the delivery address], buy the software and the bare CD/wallet appears in the post. The rather natty CD/DVD is emblazoned with Microsoft holograms and the text 'Licensed by student and facility only'. Likewise you can buy your kids the superb Encarta Premium enhanced Student 2009 for just £14 [retail price £49] - it integrates into Office and gives superb homework help [Encarta encyclopaedia, Maths equations, languages and English literature]. Well now children that even makes Office 2007 seem desirable. For the rest of though I'd save the pennies and stick with Office 2003 for the time being, assuming you're lucky enough to own it.

What a great programme, 10 Oct 2008
Microsoft Office 2007 Home and Student Edition (3 User Licence) (PC)

Just updated from 2003. what a brilliant programme, easy to install and very easy to use. I am not a professional user so this is great for us silver surfers to have. easy to install, easy to follow.

Another disappointment, 04 Sep 2008
Slower than ever, clunkier, and a weird new menu system detract from this very expensive 'cheap' option.
We returned ours, installed Open Office - amazing value, faster on our installations of XP, more stable and a familiar environment.
Where is Publisher? Why include PowerPoint in a home/student edition? Pointless, really.
MS have shot themselves in the foot, it seems.

NICE PACKAGE, BUT MS VISTA DOESN'T LIKE IT!, 21 May 2008
Have just loaded MS Office 2007 pack into my PC (XP system) and am very impressed with the new Word 2007 & Excel 2007 layouts. Unfortunately, I also tried to load the software into my wife's laptop (Vista operating system) but Vista doesn't like it - everytime she clicks on the Word 2007 icon the software starts installing itself all over again. Vista is really pretty awful - where's that nice button on Control Panel which says 'Install New Programs' - seems to have disappeared in Vista.


Hateful!, 01 Apr 2008
Not a word I like to use, but the only one I can think of to apply to WORD 2007. I have been using WORD since Microsoft introduced it, probably getting on for 20 years ago. Now I am faced with a completely new interface. It is like learning a new word processing program and I really don't think any firm has the right to thrust something like that on its customers. I am told that Microsoft programmers have designed the interface in a way that responds to the way people actually do things. Really? Didn't it occur to these geeks that THEY were the people who introduced us to WORD in the first place? We use WORD in the way we have learned to use it over the years. So why not just buy another program instead, because with WORD 2007 you will be starting from scratch, your productivity will be down. If you still want one, have mine. I won't be using it.

Out with the old...., 27 Mar 2008
I must say that I DID (read underlined and bold) agree with the comments about it being a terrible system, until that is, I really practiced with it. At first it is very difficult to switch from a previous version of Office to this one, but, with a little practice and a lot of, initial, patience, I feel that the rewards of this system far outweigh the hassles!

I LOVE the new flexibility that has been added to the various parts of the system, and the way the 'Ribbon' (after initially being a bit frustrating due to my using 2003) puts all the tasks you are used to, and more, in easy access tabs. I know that there are those out there who want it to look like the 2003 system as that is the system they are used to (go do a search on the net and you'll find lots of free add-in downloads to do exactly that for you!!). And if you are one of those who likes to move all the icons around, or add your own, then you'll either need to learn how to write in XML, or just add them to the quicktask menu (no different than adding them to a toolbar in 2003!!).
And there is the fact that you can make template packages (Themes) that you can use across the board (Excel, PP, Word, Publisher, et al), the 'Live Preview' function to see what the formatting will look like in your document (it changes the formatting in the document as you hover over the options, not changing it until you click it), et. al.

And don't even get me started on the amazing capabilities of One-Note!! I have a PDA and can now chat away, draw diagrams and scribble notes while away from my computer, then have them import automatically when I cradle it. I have to say that this is one of the most amazing tools I have used for my project work and personal study that I have ever found - It alone makes the price of this worth it to me!

In conclusion, just take your time - leave 2003 installed until you get used to this version (all the programs in the suite will run side-by-side without conflict, bar Outlook) - and get to know the new system! You'll be amazed at the power that has been added ....

.... if you let yourself! ;-)

CJ

The Next Step of Control, 02 Nov 2007
The title can be read in two ways.

If you think that Microsoft are here to control you then you will think that this is the case with this product, however, this is down to a very narrow view point.

I am a Senior Lecturer and work with a range of students who can be very confident with computer but also can be very nervous with them.

Yes if you are use to the earlier versions of Microsoft Office then you might feel frustrated that the items you want are not in the same place, however, on a personal front then I feel they have made it a lot more common sense.

If you want an older version style then why do you want an upgrade to a more modern one? Surely it would be a waste of money and people would be complaining that there is nothing new for the money spent, whereas at present it is a completely different style and a lot more user friendly.

Dealing with one of my specialism subjects, people do not like change as they are forced to come out of their comfort zone. As a result of this then people will complain and want to go back to what they feel comfortable with. If this is the case then I would suggest that you do not consider this package, however, if you are wanting to have a user friendly and better overall package then this is your package.

One element which was a little frustrating was that if you saved the documents and then opened them in an earlier version then all what was seen was machine code. I know that this is always a problem with software when older and newer version are on offer, however, I would have thought that Microsoft would have resolved this in such a manner you do not have to be a technical person to resolve this. There is no problem with respect to an earlier version being read by this version. It is for this reason that I have not given it all of the stars.



You would be mad to buy this, 24 Oct 2007
The title says it all. You really would be mad at the moment to buy this package.

Why? Well do a search on Amazon for "Microsoft Office 2007 Home and Student Edition" At the time of writing this review that package costs £81.48.

It includes Word 2007, Excel 2007, Powerpoint 2007 and One Note 2007 - thats 4 products in one box. You also get a licence to install them onto 3 Computers!

As a result this pack is very poor value for money

Office PowerPoint 2007 enables you to quickly create high-impact, dynamic presentations, while integrating workflow and ways to easily share this information. From the redesigned user interface to the new SmartArt Graphics and formatting capabilities, Office PowerPoint 2007 puts the control in your hands to create great-looking presentations. Powerpoint Home and Student 2007 makes working at home easier and more enjoyable.Main Features:Create Dynamic Presentations - Quickly create dynamic and great-looking ...

OneNote 2007 is a flexible software program that provides peopleone place to gather their notes and information powerful search tofind what they are looking for quickly and easy to usecollaborative tools so that they have a solution to informationov

There's no point fixing something that ain't broken!, 07 Nov 2008
I don't enjoy using Office 2007. Millions of people around the world got use to the original Microsoft Word, Powerpoint, Excel etc. and then they decided to change the layout of everything.

After a while, you end up getting use to it and I quite like the way you switch from one tab to the next on Word. In other words, I quite like the way you switch from "file, edit, view... (although it's now called Home, Insert, Page layout...)".

There are little things though, which are really annoying. First, I don't like the fact that there are no permanent margins around the page on Word - it makes it harder to quickly adjust the layout of headings etc.

I can't stand the way it automatically double spaces, every time you press enter. Sometimes you don't want it to do that - it is difficult to change this.

Finally, I don't like the way it saves every file in the .docx format. You can change this to .doc and it will save all your work fine - so why bother even introducing .docx in the first place? It just means that if you forget to change the format to .doc when you save documents at work/university - you can't open the file at home unless you have already purchased Office 2007 on your PC at home.

It Wasn't Broken - It Is Now!, 02 Nov 2008
If you have Office 2003 (unlike me!) then avoid upgrading to this this ridiculous product. It provides nothing that you couldn't do, often more easily, with the old menus and toolbars of Office 2003.

On offer is the prominent "ribbon" interface that provides quick access to many features that in all reality will be fairly redundant for many users. In Word, any takers for Styles, Symbols, Themes, Citations & Bibliography, Captions, Table of Authorities? Thought not!

Conversely, many commonly used features are less accessible than before.

However, many of the old dialogue boxes are still lurking beneath the surface, which just goes to show that ugliness too can be only skin deep.

Think twice before buying this product it is a con!!!, 01 Nov 2008
Think twice before buying this product. I bought a new laptop that had office 2007 etc loaded as a trial. I bought Office Home Student 2007 as a Amazon special offer along with the laptop. Office Home Student 2007 does NOT include Outlook 2007 so the 60d trial runs out and the only way you can get Outllok 2007 is to pay a further £78.78 for Outlook from Microsoft. After the 60 days you just cannot get any more e-mail without buying the product unless you revert back to an alternative e-mail programme.- Why buy the office suite without Outlook?? It is not made clear when you buy Home & Student 2007 with Amazon.

Overall 0/10 Amazon & Microsoft - A true con.

Happy customer, 01 Nov 2008
I'm not big user of office and mainly use it for typing letters and reading documents from work. However compared to office 2003 i find it more user friendly and visually looks a lot better. It does the job and am happy which is why 5/5 -

I don't understand why the low marks that outlook 2007 is not included when if you have windows vista it comes built in windows mail ( which is same as outlook express ) and far better email client then outlook 2007.

Before buying from amazon i search the web to see if i could find better price and by far amazon is lowest by at least 20-30pounds. Super-save delivery took about 4days -

Also had registry issues due to previous office causing problems after uninstall. Microsoft technical support was first class and resolved the issue within minutes.



I dislike Office 2007 and will stick with Office 2003 - but schoolkids can get Office 2007 Enterprise for just over £50, 29 Oct 2008
I work at Oxford university and get Office 2007/2003/XP etc.. free via educational licences, but I choose to stay with Office 2003 Professional. As mentioned by other reviewers Office 2007 is a bit of a pain in the positrons compared to just about all other versions of MS Office that keep to the same basic menu and file format. It takes you 5 minutes just to work out how to load a word document with the new interface. I run many networked PCs at home and at work, and casual users who are Office 2003 savvy don't take kindly when this new 2007 interface pops up. Worst still, almost unforgivable even, is that a Professional version of Office 2007 Student is no longer offered, when even secondary school kids need Access and Publisher as part of the GSCE in IT. Plus no Outlook either. So, great software as Excel, Word and PowerPoint is, this loses Office Student two stars in my book. Another downside is that many schools are likely to stay with 2003, making it hard for the kids to adapt to two interfaces and file formats at home and school [for similar reasons all our new Vista PCs have been reformatted back to XP Pro].

However if you have a schoolkid/student in the house and their academic institution [i.e. School or College] is on the participating list, and most will be, you can pick up the full Office Professional 2007 for them for just £45 [incl postage] via any Microsoft educational software partner. With Office Pro you get Access/Publisher/Outlook as well, for about the price of this cut-down Office Home & Student. If the kids might need OneNote as well then go for top of the range Office Enterprise 2007 for just £55 [there's even Wacom 'educational use' graphics stylus/tablets on offer]. Try for instance Microsoft Partner www.Software4Students.co.uk: you just select the school and input your kids name [who must be on the role-call and live at the delivery address], buy the software and the bare CD/wallet appears in the post. The rather natty CD/DVD is emblazoned with Microsoft holograms and the text 'Licensed by student and facility only'. Likewise you can buy your kids the superb Encarta Premium enhanced Student 2009 for just £14 [retail price £49] - it integrates into Office and gives superb homework help [Encarta encyclopaedia, Maths equations, languages and English literature]. Well now children that even makes Office 2007 seem desirable. For the rest of though I'd save the pennies and stick with Office 2003 for the time being, assuming you're lucky enough to own it.

Blah., 17 Nov 2008
Office 2008 is ok. The interface is normal. It doesn't crash all that much. It is quite compatible. Its all right. Blah.

If only Microsoft hadn't lost their nerve and made something as lovely as the PC Office 2007. I'm a dual user and find myself drifting back to my PC when I want to do anything work related. And that is a shame. It's just like the old days - Mac for media fun and PC for serious work and gaming. Some things never change. Not much point upgrading from 2004.

Ideal for creating windows compatible documents..., 11 Nov 2008
I am by no means a computer genius but talking from a novice point of view I have to say that after purchasing this product 3 months ago I have been perfectly happy with it. I previously had the office 2004 for MAC which admittedly was perhaps a little more user friendly and generally straight forward, but decided to upgrade to the new Office 2008 when I purchased a new iMac.

I generally only use Word and Excel, occasionally Powerpoint, and they serve the purpose that they are there for. After a little bit of getting used to, I've figured most things out, although creating web pages with the Word is not as simple as it was with 2004, and would happily recommend it to a friend. I am currently using it with Leopard operating system.

If you simply want to be able to create Windows compatible documents then this pack should give you everything you need. I use mine for writing word documents and creating spreadsheets and transferring these between my Windows based PC at work and my iMac at home. For this everything serves the purpose well.

Mixed bag, Intel native good, no VBA bad., 29 Oct 2008
I'm a fairly casual home user of Office, I used Entourage all the time, Word infrequently and the rest of the package almost never (mostly as readers of Powerpoint and Excel docs). I bought this because I bought an Intel MacBook and iMac. The emulated performance of Office 2004 was painfully slow.

Reading the reviews people seem to have had real problems with stability, these seem to have been corrected by a series of fairly large upgrades. I've had no real problems there.

However removing VBA support was a fairly silly decision on the part of Microsoft, as it means I've got to keep around the older versions to run any macros people send me. They are putting this functionality back in, in the next version but still.

Compatibility seems OK for my purposes, although word defaults to a .docx format that most people can't read. So you have to convert if you want your docs to be shared.

I've also stopped using Entourage very recently, because it conflicts with my Time Machine backup. Essentially Entourage uses a big database to store your e-mail messages and TM sees this as a (large), constantly changing file which it backs up every hour. So if your e-mail database is 1Gb, that means 24Gb daily if you leave your machine on all the time. This chews up drive space. I suspect MS use a big database for historic reasons (Windows/ Mac weren't very good at dealing with lots of small files). MS actually recommend excluding the Entourage backup from Time Machine backups and making your own backups. I gave up and started using Apple Mail which is less pretty and more stripped down but a perfectly good e-mail client free with the OS which integrates better with the Apple iCal and Address book.

Given this, I'm not sure how much longer I'll be buying MS Office, I already have iWork installed and if Apple make the document formats transparently interchangeable with MS Office I doubt I'll buy Office again.


So Slow, 30 Sep 2008
It looks good but not the same as before so there is some relearning required. But the biggest surprise of all is that it is frustratingly slow. I have iWorks but bought this because my wife kept saying that MS office was better, but even she now admits it's not.

Only buy this if you absolutely have to, or if you have more patience than me.

Don't upgrade - VBA is off, quite slow, 12 Sep 2008
This product should have never been released. It miss a fundamental subset of Excel, VBA. Suddenly all macros stopped to work after I upgraded, and the unthinkable was correct, yes Microsoft has removed VBA, even from the help! after some online research to confirm, I removed it and re-installed 2004. This is not to mention the huge resources consumption or the new improved, or should say, ugly interface.

get off the microsoft tredmill, 11 Nov 2008
Having a house full of PC's of varying ages and a mac. I am loathed to buy
more licenses as I already have older pc and a mac version of office.
Get "Open Office - 3" virtually free and run on any machine and save files as microsft versions .doc .ppt etc and vice versa.
I am thinking of stripping vista off my childs new lap top and going over to a linux version and avoid the other rip off that is microsoft security software

Office 2007 Home and Student, 11 Nov 2008
Upgraded from Office 2003 mainly to keep in mainstream of product. Very surprised by the change of 'look and feel', with a lot of the functionality I have used for years within MS Office products moved or hidden (but still there when searched for, often with more functionality). Fits well with look and feel of MS Vista OS, not so well with Windows XP. Also more resource hungry (definite Core 2 processor with at least 1Gb memory as a minimum). Overall very good product, and the home and student licencing (ie non-commercial) made it an economical upgrade for three machines. Only downside, no MS Outlook (Microsoft oversight or a way to encourage us to buy more expensive version?), so still running Outlook from Office 2003 alongside.

I dislike Office 2007 and will stick with Office 2003 - but schoolkids can get Office 2007 Enterprise for just over £50, 23 Oct 2008
I work at Oxford university and get Office 2007/2003/XP etc.. free via educational licences, but I choose to stay with Office 2003 Professional. As mentioned by other reviewers Office 2007 is a bit of a pain in the positrons compared to just about all other versions of MS Office that keep to the same basic menu and file format. It takes you 5 minutes just to work out how to load a word document with the new interface. I run many networked PCs at home and at work, and casual users who are Office 2003 savvy don't take kindly when this new 2007 interface pops up. Worst still, almost unforgivable even, is that a Professional version of Office 2007 Student is no longer offered, when even secondary school kids need Access and Publisher as part of the GSCE in IT. Plus no Outlook either. So, great software as Excel, Word and PowerPoint is, this loses Office Student two stars in my book. Another downside is that many schools are likely to stay with 2003, making it hard for the kids to adapt to two interfaces and file formats at home and school. For similar reasons [compatibility] all our new Vista PCs have been reformatted back to XP Pro.

However if you have a schoolkid/student in the house and their academic institution [i.e. School or College] is on the participating list, and most will be, you can pick up the full Office Professional 2007 for them for just £45 [incl postage] via any Microsoft educational software partner. With Office Pro you get Access/Publisher/Outlook as well, for about the price of this cut-down Office Home & Student. If the kids might need OneNote as well then go for top of the range Office Enterprise 2007 for just £55 [there's even Wacom 'educational use' graphics stylus/tablets on offer]. Try for instance Microsoft Partner www.Software4Students.co.uk: you just select the school and input your kids name [who must be on the role-call and live at the delivery address], buy the software and the bare CD/wallet appears in the post. The rather natty CD/DVD is emblazoned with Microsoft holograms and the text 'Licensed by student and facility only'. Likewise you can buy your kids the superb Encarta Premium enhanced Student 2009 for just £14 [retail price £49] - it integrates into Office and gives superb homework help [Encarta encyclopaedia, Maths equations, languages and English literature]. Well now children that even makes Office 2007 seem desirable. For the rest of though I'd save the pennies and stick with Office 2003 for the time being, assuming you're lucky enough to own it.

What a great programme, 10 Oct 2008
Microsoft Office 2007 Home and Student Edition (3 User Licence) (PC)

Just updated from 2003. what a brilliant programme, easy to install and very easy to use. I am not a professional user so this is great for us silver surfers to have. easy to install, easy to follow.

Another disappointment, 04 Sep 2008
Slower than ever, clunkier, and a weird new menu system detract from this very expensive 'cheap' option.
We returned ours, installed Open Office - amazing value, faster on our installations of XP, more stable and a familiar environment.
Where is Publisher? Why include PowerPoint in a home/student edition? Pointless, really.
MS have shot themselves in the foot, it seems.

NICE PACKAGE, BUT MS VISTA DOESN'T LIKE IT!, 21 May 2008
Have just loaded MS Office 2007 pack into my PC (XP system) and am very impressed with the new Word 2007 & Excel 2007 layouts. Unfortunately, I also tried to load the software into my wife's laptop (Vista operating system) but Vista doesn't like it - everytime she clicks on the Word 2007 icon the software starts installing itself all over again. Vista is really pretty awful - where's that nice button on Control Panel which says 'Install New Programs' - seems to have disappeared in Vista.


Hateful!, 01 Apr 2008
Not a word I like to use, but the only one I can think of to apply to WORD 2007. I have been using WORD since Microsoft introduced it, probably getting on for 20 years ago. Now I am faced with a completely new interface. It is like learning a new word processing program and I really don't think any firm has the right to thrust something like that on its customers. I am told that Microsoft programmers have designed the interface in a way that responds to the way people actually do things. Really? Didn't it occur to these geeks that THEY were the people who introduced us to WORD in the first place? We use WORD in the way we have learned to use it over the years. So why not just buy another program instead, because with WORD 2007 you will be starting from scratch, your productivity will be down. If you still want one, have mine. I won't be using it.

Out with the old...., 27 Mar 2008
I must say that I DID (read underlined and bold) agree with the comments about it being a terrible system, until that is, I really practiced with it. At first it is very difficult to switch from a previous version of Office to this one, but, with a little practice and a lot of, initial, patience, I feel that the rewards of this system far outweigh the hassles!

I LOVE the new flexibility that has been added to the various parts of the system, and the way the 'Ribbon' (after initially being a bit frustrating due to my using 2003) puts all the tasks you are used to, and more, in easy access tabs. I know that there are those out there who want it to look like the 2003 system as that is the system they are used to (go do a search on the net and you'll find lots of free add-in downloads to do exactly that for you!!). And if you are one of those who likes to move all the icons around, or add your own, then you'll either need to learn how to write in XML, or just add them to the quicktask menu (no different than adding them to a toolbar in 2003!!).
And there is the fact that you can make template packages (Themes) that you can use across the board (Excel, PP, Word, Publisher, et al), the 'Live Preview' function to see what the formatting will look like in your document (it changes the formatting in the document as you hover over the options, not changing it until you click it), et. al.

And don't even get me started on the amazing capabilities of One-Note!! I have a PDA and can now chat away, draw diagrams and scribble notes while away from my computer, then have them import automatically when I cradle it. I have to say that this is one of the most amazing tools I have used for my project work and personal study that I have ever found - It alone makes the price of this worth it to me!

In conclusion, just take your time - leave 2003 installed until you get used to this version (all the programs in the suite will run side-by-side without conflict, bar Outlook) - and get to know the new system! You'll be amazed at the power that has been added ....

.... if you let yourself! ;-)

CJ

The Next Step of Control, 02 Nov 2007
The title can be read in two ways.

If you think that Microsoft are here to control you then you will think that this is the case with this product, however, this is down to a very narrow view point.

I am a Senior Lecturer and work with a range of students who can be very confident with computer but also can be very nervous with them.

Yes if you are use to the earlier versions of Microsoft Office then you might feel frustrated that the items you want are not in the same place, however, on a personal front then I feel they have made it a lot more common sense.

If you want an older version style then why do you want an upgrade to a more modern one? Surely it would be a waste of money and people would be complaining that there is nothing new for the money spent, whereas at present it is a completely different style and a lot more user friendly.

Dealing with one of my specialism subjects, people do not like change as they are forced to come out of their comfort zone. As a result of this then people will complain and want to go back to what they feel comfortable with. If this is the case then I would suggest that you do not consider this package, however, if you are wanting to have a user friendly and better overall package then this is your package.

One element which was a little frustrating was that if you saved the documents and then opened them in an earlier version then all what was seen was machine code. I know that this is always a problem with software when older and newer version are on offer, however, I would have thought that Microsoft would have resolved this in such a manner you do not have to be a technical person to resolve this. There is no problem with respect to an earlier version being read by this version. It is for this reason that I have not given it all of the stars.



You would be mad to buy this, 24 Oct 2007
The title says it all. You really would be mad at the moment to buy this package.

Why? Well do a search on Amazon for "Microsoft Office 2007 Home and Student Edition" At the time of writing this review that package costs £81.48.

It includes Word 2007, Excel 2007, Powerpoint 2007 and One Note 2007 - thats 4 products in one box. You also get a licence to install them onto 3 Computers!

As a result this pack is very poor value for money

Very Good information management system, 03 Dec 2007
I do a lot of private research in many subject areas and this is the best product I have found for the price that allows you to collate information from many electronic sources.

In essence OneNote allows you to create a virtual filing cabinet with different draws into which you can place folders that have notes and sub-notes. The notes and sub-notes can contain virtually any data format including images, drawings, voice or text. During installation plug-ins are added to your Office products and Explorer enabling information to be imported to OneNote very easily and this makes research on the Web very efficient.


Non MS applications 'see' OneNote as an installed printer so any file that can be printed can be sent to OneNote. If you do not want to import the data you can just import a hyperlink to any file on your system.


Most other information management tools that I have used implement a keyword system so that you can quickly find all information associated with a particular subject but the problem with this approach is that you have decide upon your keywords upfront. OneNote goes one step further by suggesting that you install the Windows desktop search application that allows you to do a freeform text based search from your desktop of all of your storage devices, including all of the information in OneNote. The drawback of this utility is that it can dramatically slow the performance of your machine when updating its indexes. As far as I can tell OneNote works fine without this search facility and it is only really needed if you are a serious researcher so if you have a machine with anything less than a top range Pentium 4 processor I would try to live without it.

The installation of OneNote was painless and I have been using it for several months without any application crashes and it is very easy to use.

Highly recommended for anyone who needs to structure and search large amounts of information from different sources.

Visual Studio Standard Edition is an entry point professionaldevelopment tool that maintains the simplicity of the Express linebut delivers access to the powerful development tools necessary toconstruct data-focused client applications n-tier applic

There's no point fixing something that ain't broken!, 07 Nov 2008
I don't enjoy using Office 2007. Millions of people around the world got use to the original Microsoft Word, Powerpoint, Excel etc. and then they decided to change the layout of everything.

After a while, you end up getting use to it and I quite like the way you switch from one tab to the next on Word. In other words, I quite like the way you switch from "file, edit, view... (although it's now called Home, Insert, Page layout...)".

There are little things though, which are really annoying. First, I don't like the fact that there are no permanent margins around the page on Word - it makes it harder to quickly adjust the layout of headings etc.

I can't stand the way it automatically double spaces, every time you press enter. Sometimes you don't want it to do that - it is difficult to change this.

Finally, I don't like the way it saves every file in the .docx format. You can change this to .doc and it will save all your work fine - so why bother even introducing .docx in the first place? It just means that if you forget to change the format to .doc when you save documents at work/university - you can't open the file at home unless you have already purchased Office 2007 on your PC at home.

It Wasn't Broken - It Is Now!, 02 Nov 2008
If you have Office 2003 (unlike me!) then avoid upgrading to this this ridiculous product. It provides nothing that you couldn't do, often more easily, with the old menus and toolbars of Office 2003.

On offer is the prominent "ribbon" interface that provides quick access to many features that in all reality will be fairly redundant for many users. In Word, any takers for Styles, Symbols, Themes, Citations & Bibliography, Captions, Table of Authorities? Thought not!

Conversely, many commonly used features are less accessible than before.

However, many of the old dialogue boxes are still lurking beneath the surface, which just goes to show that ugliness too can be only skin deep.

Think twice before buying this product it is a con!!!, 01 Nov 2008
Think twice before buying this product. I bought a new laptop that had office 2007 etc loaded as a trial. I bought Office Home Student 2007 as a Amazon special offer along with the laptop. Office Home Student 2007 does NOT include Outlook 2007 so the 60d trial runs out and the only way you can get Outllok 2007 is to pay a further £78.78 for Outlook from Microsoft. After the 60 days you just cannot get any more e-mail without buying the product unless you revert back to an alternative e-mail programme.- Why buy the office suite without Outlook?? It is not made clear when you buy Home & Student 2007 with Amazon.

Overall 0/10 Amazon & Microsoft - A true con.

Happy customer, 01 Nov 2008
I'm not big user of office and mainly use it for typing letters and reading documents from work. However compared to office 2003 i find it more user friendly and visually looks a lot better. It does the job and am happy which is why 5/5 -

I don't understand why the low marks that outlook 2007 is not included when if you have windows vista it comes built in windows mail ( which is same as outlook express ) and far better email client then outlook 2007.

Before buying from amazon i search the web to see if i could find better price and by far amazon is lowest by at least 20-30pounds. Super-save delivery took about 4days -

Also had registry issues due to previous office causing problems after uninstall. Microsoft technical support was first class and resolved the issue within minutes.



I dislike Office 2007 and will stick with Office 2003 - but schoolkids can get Office 2007 Enterprise for just over £50, 29 Oct 2008
I work at Oxford university and get Office 2007/2003/XP etc.. free via educational licences, but I choose to stay with Office 2003 Professional. As mentioned by other reviewers Office 2007 is a bit of a pain in the positrons compared to just about all other versions of MS Office that keep to the same basic menu and file format. It takes you 5 minutes just to work out how to load a word document with the new interface. I run many networked PCs at home and at work, and casual users who are Office 2003 savvy don't take kindly when this new 2007 interface pops up. Worst still, almost unforgivable even, is that a Professional version of Office 2007 Student is no longer offered, when even secondary school kids need Access and Publisher as part of the GSCE in IT. Plus no Outlook either. So, great software as Excel, Word and PowerPoint is, this loses Office Student two stars in my book. Another downside is that many schools are likely to stay with 2003, making it hard for the kids to adapt to two interfaces and file formats at home and school [for similar reasons all our new Vista PCs have been reformatted back to XP Pro].

However if you have a schoolkid/student in the house and their academic institution [i.e. School or College] is on the participating list, and most will be, you can pick up the full Office Professional 2007 for them for just £45 [incl postage] via any Microsoft educational software partner. With Office Pro you get Access/Publisher/Outlook as well, for about the price of this cut-down Office Home & Student. If the kids might need OneNote as well then go for top of the range Office Enterprise 2007 for just £55 [there's even Wacom 'educational use' graphics stylus/tablets on offer]. Try for instance Microsoft Partner www.Software4Students.co.uk: you just select the school and input your kids name [who must be on the role-call and live at the delivery address], buy the software and the bare CD/wallet appears in the post. The rather natty CD/DVD is emblazoned with Microsoft holograms and the text 'Licensed by student and facility only'. Likewise you can buy your kids the superb Encarta Premium enhanced Student 2009 for just £14 [retail price £49] - it integrates into Office and gives superb homework help [Encarta encyclopaedia, Maths equations, languages and English literature]. Well now children that even makes Office 2007 seem desirable. For the rest of though I'd save the pennies and stick with Office 2003 for the time being, assuming you're lucky enough to own it.

Blah., 17 Nov 2008
Office 2008 is ok. The interface is normal. It doesn't crash all that much. It is quite compatible. Its all right. Blah.

If only Microsoft hadn't lost their nerve and made something as lovely as the PC Office 2007. I'm a dual user and find myself drifting back to my PC when I want to do anything work related. And that is a shame. It's just like the old days - Mac for media fun and PC for serious work and gaming. Some things never change. Not much point upgrading from 2004.

Ideal for creating windows compatible documents..., 11 Nov 2008
I am by no means a computer genius but talking from a novice point of view I have to say that after purchasing this product 3 months ago I have been perfectly happy with it. I previously had the office 2004 for MAC which admittedly was perhaps a little more user friendly and generally straight forward, but decided to upgrade to the new Office 2008 when I purchased a new iMac.

I generally only use Word and Excel, occasionally Powerpoint, and they serve the purpose that they are there for. After a little bit of getting used to, I've figured most things out, although creating web pages with the Word is not as simple as it was with 2004, and would happily recommend it to a friend. I am currently using it with Leopard operating system.

If you simply want to be able to create Windows compatible documents then this pack should give you everything you need. I use mine for writing word documents and creating spreadsheets and transferring these between my Windows based PC at work and my iMac at home. For this everything serves the purpose well.

Mixed bag, Intel native good, no VBA bad., 29 Oct 2008
I'm a fairly casual home user of Office, I used Entourage all the time, Word infrequently and the rest of the package almost never (mostly as readers of Powerpoint and Excel docs). I bought this because I bought an Intel MacBook and iMac. The emulated performance of Office 2004 was painfully slow.

Reading the reviews people seem to have had real problems with stability, these seem to have been corrected by a series of fairly large upgrades. I've had no real problems there.

However removing VBA support was a fairly silly decision on the part of Microsoft, as it means I've got to keep around the older versions to run any macros people send me. They are putting this functionality back in, in the next version but still.

Compatibility seems OK for my purposes, although word defaults to a .docx format that most people can't read. So you have to convert if you want your docs to be shared.

I've also stopped using Entourage very recently, because it conflicts with my Time Machine backup. Essentially Entourage uses a big database to store your e-mail messages and TM sees this as a (large), constantly changing file which it backs up every hour. So if your e-mail database is 1Gb, that means 24Gb daily if you leave your machine on all the time. This chews up drive space. I suspect MS use a big database for historic reasons (Windows/ Mac weren't very good at dealing with lots of small files). MS actually recommend excluding the Entourage backup from Time Machine backups and making your own backups. I gave up and started using Apple Mail which is less pretty and more stripped down but a perfectly good e-mail client free with the OS which integrates better with the Apple iCal and Address book.

Given this, I'm not sure how much longer I'll be buying MS Office, I already have iWork installed and if Apple make the document formats transparently interchangeable with MS Office I doubt I'll buy Office again.


So Slow, 30 Sep 2008
It looks good but not the same as before so there is some relearning required. But the biggest surprise of all is that it is frustratingly slow. I have iWorks but bought this because my wife kept saying that MS office was better, but even she now admits it's not.

Only buy this if you absolutely have to, or if you have more patience than me.

Don't upgrade - VBA is off, quite slow, 12 Sep 2008
This product should have never been released. It miss a fundamental subset of Excel, VBA. Suddenly all macros stopped to work after I upgraded, and the unthinkable was correct, yes Microsoft has removed VBA, even from the help! after some online research to confirm, I removed it and re-installed 2004. This is not to mention the huge resources consumption or the new improved, or should say, ugly interface.

get off the microsoft tredmill, 11 Nov 2008
Having a house full of PC's of varying ages and a mac. I am loathed to buy
more licenses as I already have older pc and a mac version of office.
Get "Open Office - 3" virtually free and run on any machine and save files as microsft versions .doc .ppt etc and vice versa.
I am thinking of stripping vista off my childs new lap top and going over to a linux version and avoid the other rip off that is microsoft security software

Office 2007 Home and Student, 11 Nov 2008
Upgraded from Office 2003 mainly to keep in mainstream of product. Very surprised by the change of 'look and feel', with a lot of the functionality I have used for years within MS Office products moved or hidden (but still there when searched for, often with more functionality). Fits well with look and feel of MS Vista OS, not so well with Windows XP. Also more resource hungry (definite Core 2 processor with at least 1Gb memory as a minimum). Overall very good product, and the home and student licencing (ie non-commercial) made it an economical upgrade for three machines. Only downside, no MS Outlook (Microsoft oversight or a way to encourage us to buy more expensive version?), so still running Outlook from Office 2003 alongside.

I dislike Office 2007 and will stick with Office 2003 - but schoolkids can get Office 2007 Enterprise for just over £50, 23 Oct 2008
I work at Oxford university and get Office 2007/2003/XP etc.. free via educational licences, but I choose to stay with Office 2003 Professional. As mentioned by other reviewers Office 2007 is a bit of a pain in the positrons compared to just about all other versions of MS Office that keep to the same basic menu and file format. It takes you 5 minutes just to work out how to load a word document with the new interface. I run many networked PCs at home and at work, and casual users who are Office 2003 savvy don't take kindly when this new 2007 interface pops up. Worst still, almost unforgivable even, is that a Professional version of Office 2007 Student is no longer offered, when even secondary school kids need Access and Publisher as part of the GSCE in IT. Plus no Outlook either. So, great software as Excel, Word and PowerPoint is, this loses Office Student two stars in my book. Another downside is that many schools are likely to stay with 2003, making it hard for the kids to adapt to two interfaces and file formats at home and school. For similar reasons [compatibility] all our new Vista PCs have been reformatted back to XP Pro.

However if you have a schoolkid/student in the house and their academic institution [i.e. School or College] is on the participating list, and most will be, you can pick up the full Office Professional 2007 for them for just £45 [incl postage] via any Microsoft educational software partner. With Office Pro you get Access/Publisher/Outlook as well, for about the price of this cut-down Office Home & Student. If the kids might need OneNote as well then go for top of the range Office Enterprise 2007 for just £55 [there's even Wacom 'educational use' graphics stylus/tablets on offer]. Try for instance Microsoft Partner www.Software4Students.co.uk: you just select the school and input your kids name [who must be on the role-call and live at the delivery address], buy the software and the bare CD/wallet appears in the post. The rather natty CD/DVD is emblazoned with Microsoft holograms and the text 'Licensed by student and facility only'. Likewise you can buy your kids the superb Encarta Premium enhanced Student 2009 for just £14 [retail price £49] - it integrates into Office and gives superb homework help [Encarta encyclopaedia, Maths equations, languages and English literature]. Well now children that even makes Off