Memo

Date: 07/19/2007
To:     University of Idaho Faculty and Staff
From: Information Technology Services
RE:     New University-wide Software Agreement with Microsoft

The Information Technology Advisory Group, University of Idaho Bookstore, and Information Technology Services (ITS) are pleased to announce a Microsoft Campus Agreement with the University of Idaho.  Under this agreement, University of Idaho Faculty and Staff are encouraged to install Microsoft Office 2007 Enterprise Edition (including Office 2004 Professional for the Mac) and, eventually, Windows Vista.  There is no cost to your college or department. This means if your area was planning to upgrade to Office 2007, the cost is now covered centrally and you can install directly from an ITS Web site. The campus agreement also allows for no-cost, at home use on your home computer. Detailed instructions for installing are below.

Most noticeable changes in Office 2007

Microsoft Office 2007 brings a number of changes to Office applications such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Access. The most obvious change is in the navigation bar at the top of each application. In an effort to make navigation easier, Microsoft has introduced the “Ribbon.” To learn more about Office 2007 navigation and using the Ribbon, you may view a brief Microsoft Word demo using Microsoft Internet Explorer.

In addition to the new Ribbon, another significant change in Office 2007 is to the file extension format. Previous versions of Office used .doc, .ppt, .xls, and so on at the end of file names. To accommodate many of the new features, Office 2007 uses .docx, .pttx, .xlsx file extensions. It is very important to note that previous versions of Office will not be able to open an Office 2007 file unless the 2007 user saves the file in the older format or if the non-2007 user installs an Office compatibility pack from the Microsoft Web site.

In addition to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Access, Office 2007 Enterprise Edition includes software for Communicator, Groove, InfoPath, OneNote, and Publisher. Please visit Microsoft’s Web site for more information on Office 2007 Enterprise Edition.

New university Exchange email/calendaring system and Outlook 2007

Outlook 2007 is the ITS recommended email and calendaring client for the university’s new unified Microsoft Exchange system. Outlook 2007 email/calendaring is included in the Office 2007 installation, but if you’re not ready for Office 2007, you can install just Outlook 2007 from the ITS software Web site mentioned below. More details about the new email and calendaring system will soon be provided in the Register and via email.

Other Microsoft software available

Under the new agreement, UI colleges and departments may purchase other heavily discounted Microsoft software including server software—the most common titles being Project and Visio. You may view a comprehensive list of available software for purchase.

A “call for software” will be announced shortly after the start of fall semester for colleges and departments to place their software orders with the UI Bookstore.

Where do I get Office 2007 or Outlook 2007?

To download Office 2007 or Outlook 2007, visit ITS’ online help desk, http://support.uidaho.edu/ .  Click on the UI Packaged Software link in the left-hand navigation frame. Toward the top of the UI Packaged Software page is Microsoft Software. Under that section are blue “InstallShield Wizard” buttons. Click on the buttons to install the available software. You will be prompted for your UI Novell username and password to verify your UI affiliation.

You should note that the downloads are large and do require several gigabytes (1,000 megabytes) of available hard drive space for installation. The installation may ask you to free up disk space if your hard drive does not have the available space required. For home use, we do not recommend installing from the ITS Web site if your home Internet connection does not have broadband speeds of at least 1 megabit/second (1,000 kilobits/second). For slower home Internet connections, we recommend that you purchase the installation media from the University of Idaho Bookstore and install using your home computer CD drive.

Final word – Windows Vista

Windows upgrades are a part of the new campus wide software agreement with Microsoft. Most individuals on campus run Windows XP which is the ITS recommended Windows operating system. Windows XP remains the most compatible operating system with university applications such as Banner. Upgrades to Windows Vista eventually will be available on the ITS Web site but not until applications such as Banner are certified to run on Vista. Microsoft has also changed the licensing verification method in Vista and ITS is still exploring this change and will have more information available in the future.  At this time, ITS does not encourage the installation of Windows Vista.

Questions or Need More Information?

If you have questions, or need additional information or assistance, please contact the ITS Help Desk at 885-HELP (4357) or helpdesk@uidaho.edu.

In the next couple weeks, the ITS Help Desk also will have Office 2007 Ribbon information sheets available for pick-up or these may be sent to you through campus mail upon request.