Rating: - Wash the discs!
Purchased July, 2008.

I'm not sure what rating to give this Office 2007 Professional upgrade, as it works well once you get it installed, but getting it installed was like having my teeth pulled!

I've read several reviews on this product, and found many of the reviewers frustrated with installs that would error off, portions of programs not working properly, and the like.

I too, had an install problem. First attempt wouldn't even open the install program. Changed drives, and it did open, but as soon as the install started, it would error off. I cleaned both drives, and tried again. This time it went partially through the install, and again it would error off, but the error message said "possible problem with install disc, notify Microsoft".

The disc looked fine to me, so I cleaned it with a lint free cloth as directed, and tried again. This time it got almost half way through the install before erroring off.

I finally tried washing it with soap and water, drying it with a lint free cloth, and trying again. Success! Installed perfectly the 1st time with no errors, and all programs that I use are functioning as they should (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, Publisher)

CONCLUSION: Wash both discs in soap and water! The semi-sealed plastic case, is constructed of a hard plastic. There is a flap inside the pack that holds the discs and the book. This appears to be of a softer plastic. If stored in a hot, humid environment, or shipped on a very hot day, There MAY be a chemical reaction causing a film to form on the disc. (I'm not a chemical engineer, but I've seen this with some plastics in the past). Anyhow, that's all it took to get it to install and work perfectly. If you have the problem with your install, it's worth a try.

Respectfully submitted, Donnykaye

---

Rating: - Functional, but complicated
I have been required to use Office 2007 For College, and while it is functional, finding the tools and adjustments you need is made much more difficult to find. No more drop down menus with simple labels. But it is a bit more functional than past versions.

---

Rating: - Learning and using went very well.
Very well organized and the explanations are fairly easy to understand.
Not having the best eyesight I wish the photos were larger with better contrast. I have to go to the program and actually see the screen.

---

Rating: - Disappointed Yet Again
We purchased this upgrade because Microsoft no longer supports the version of Outlook we had on our computer and we needed to link with other software so we had to upgrade. We decided to upgrade the whole suite--big mistake. The helpful folks at Microsoft have come out with another unintuitive product that makes more things "automatic", which is very unhelpful. It has removed or hidden some features I used in the former version on a daily basis (for example, the ability to add columns in a simple table in Word--now I have to import an Excel spreadsheet instead--although I can add all sorts of more complex formulas to a Word table--that's just strange). Yet again my Big Brothers at Microsoft have decided that THEY know what I need better than I do so they will make my choices for me. By doing so, they have also made the program much slower and, surprise, sloppier. It's pretty, though--lots of new icons instead of WORDS (imagine that in a WORD PROCESSING PROGRAM!). Guess it would be great if I were ILLITERATE!

---

Rating: - Upgrade - do you really have to?
Overall, happy with the upgrade but not without frustrations. The ribbon takes getting used to and can be frustrating but other improvements in Excel are an improvement.