Stuck with Office 2007? Oops!

[GreyGoose]

Read this entire article from the Sun-Times about the new Office 2007!
Downloader BEWARE!!

http://www.suntimes.com/output/worktech/cst-fin-andy13.html

Here's a snippet from that article:
It's called "Bargaining," folks. Microsoft is so late late late with
both Windows Vista and what was originally going to be called Microsoft
Office 12 that at this stage, the only way to placate the huddled masses
is to just let them use the software-in-progress -- now dubbed Office
2007 -- for free.

Go on and download it from
www.microsoft.com/office/preview/beta/

It's fully functional.

One caveat: the beta is free and fully functional, but it stops working
in February. And because Office 2007 uses a new file format, you might
wind up stuck with 2007 files that your paid-for copy of Office 2003
can't open.

I mean, hey, Microsoft might be slow, but they're not stupid.

 

[JoAnn Paules [MVP]]

The fact that there is a new format is not a secret. It's be fully
documented.

 

[Patrick Schmid]

One caveat: the beta is free and fully functional, but it stops
working

in February. And because Office 2007 uses a new file format, you might
wind up stuck with 2007 files that your paid-for copy of Office 2003
can't open.

Wrong. This applies only to OneNote 2007 as there is no way to open
OneNote 2007 files in OneNote 2003.

For the programs with the new file formats (mainly Excel, PPT, Word),
Microsoft is providing converters that can be installed in Office XP and
2003 for free (converters are currently in beta test as well). So you
can open your 2007 documents in an older Office version past the
expiration of the beta.

Patrick Schmid