ITS is announcing the plans for Microsoft Windows environment support beginning Fall semester, 2008. We are also announcing deployment plans for MS Office 2007 for Windows and MS Office 2008 for Macintoshes.

Operating System: ITS recommends that campus users remain with Windows XP Professional. While Windows Vista will be supported for those who need it, XP Professional works with Oracle, Banner and Blackboard. Vista has issues with all three of these strategic products. XP Professional will be the operating system installed on all Pod and Information Commons Windows machines for the foreseeable future.

Microsoft Office Suite for Windows: ITS recommends that campus users upgrade to Microsoft Office 2007 by Fall semester, 2008. We make this recommendation because incoming students will not be able to purchase legitimate copies of MS Office 2003 and there are significant differences in file formats and menu layouts between the two systems. We also note that newer textbooks are most likely to provide supplemental materials based on the more current suite.

Microsoft Office 2007 is licensed for distribution to faculty and staff for office use on university owned and on personal computers. Faculty and staff can request installation on office machines by calling the Help Desk. They can pick up a CD for installation on personal computers by visiting the Help Desk and trading their campus ID card for the installation CD.

Microsoft Office 2007 will be installed on all Pod, multimedia classroom and Information Commons Windows computers by the beginning of Fall semester. Because of the difference in file formats between Office 2007 and Office 2003, we will choose to have the default file format for the Office 2007 suite in public places be the older Office 2003 format. Until Office 2007 is more universally adopted, we recommend that individuals and campus offices make this same default file format decision.

Beginning Wednesday, April 2, ITS will have a computer in Computer Center 122 and in the UDC Graduate Computer Lab, UDC 328, with the Pod software complement for Fall, 2008. We encourage faculty to experiment with software they plan to use in the fall or software that is included in texts they are requiring for fall semester courses.

The Training and Professional Development Center will have its Office training series converted to Office 2007 by the beginning of Fall semester. Help Desk and other ITS professionals are currently able to assist with questions that arise from the transition from Office 2003 to Office 2007. Look forward to a Bites ‘n Bytes session on this topic during the month of April.

MS Office 2008 for Macs: MS Office 2008 for Macintosh has the same issues with respect to older versions. Older versions cannot be purchased and the new version utilizes new file formats that can’t be easily read by the older version. MS Office 2008 for Macs is available for campus owned computers and for the professional use of faculty and staff on personal Macs. The procedure is the same as described above for Windows Office 2007. ITS plans on installing MS Office 2008 on Macintoshes in Pods, Information Commons and multimedia classrooms by the beginning of Fall semester. A Macintosh with MS Office 2008 configured as we will have it in the public areas will be in Computer Center 122. We encourage faculty to experiment with this system before acquiring software that depends on the Office Suite for Macs.