Starting this summer, ITS will be transitioning the campus from Microsoft Office 2003 (Windows) and 2004 (Mac) to Microsoft Office 2007 and Office 2008. By the beginning of Fall Term, all classroom computers, all public and managed departmental labs, and all new machines and setups (i.e. computers that come back to ITS to be rebuilt) will have the 2007/2008 versions of Office installed on them. The rest of campus will be moving to the new versions over the course of the 08-09 academic year. We will work closely with the owners of these machines - faculty, academic staff, and administrative staff – to schedule the transition between now and then.

Although the look and feel of Office won't change much for Mac users, it will change substantially for Windows users. ITS will be providing lots of support and help, - including documentation, online training, and classroom instruction - to ease this transition.

We are aware of the challenges of beginning this transition during the summer and because of that we will schedule training and help sessions to take full advantage of the week between Labor Day and the Faculty Retreat.

Faculty and academic department assistants who would like to start using Office 2007/2008 over the summer and who are not scheduled for a new machine or a setup, can ask to be upgraded the newer version sooner. Please call us at x5999 to arrange a time if you would like to make the transition this summer.

Why are we transitioning now?

Because MS Office 2007 for Windows has been available for about 18 months and MS Office 2008 for Macintosh has been available since January 2008, many faculty, staff, and students who have upgraded their personal machines have gotten the new versions. Since the old versions and the new versions do not use the same file format, this has caused compatibility issues.

This upgrade will also provide us with new, useful features, such as better data import, automated generation of citations and bibliographies, contextual spell checking, and new tools for collaboration, to name a few. A more complete list can be found here.

What is the plan?

As mentioned above, all classroom computers, all public and managed departmental labs will have the 2007/2008 versions of Office installed on them by the beginning of fall term. New machines and setups will be deployed with the new versions as well. We will be transitioning the remainder of faculty and staff computers over the course of the 08-09 academic year, working closely with each department to schedule transition dates.

Classroom training for both the Mac and PC versions of Office will be offered throughout the fall. We will be distributing quick-start guides to all attendees. Additional documentation and online training will be available here.

As we develop the schedule of transition dates, it will be posted and updated here. All announcements and messages relating to the transition will be available here. A list of Frequently Asked Questions is maintained here. Known issues and compatibility problems are documented here.