Western Moves Toward Office 2007 with Microsoft Donation Program

Issue 39, Winter 2008

by Susan Brown

We are extraordinarily lucky at Western to benefit from a Microsoft Matching Gift program that matches donations from Microsoft employees with Microsoft software. Over the past 10 years, Microsoft employees who are Western alumni, friends or family of Western students, faculty and staff have donated cash and software valued at more than eight million dollars! This has had a tremendous impact on the ability of students, faculty and staff to work with the most up-to-date Microsoft software.

The Western Washington University Foundation in partnership with ATUS is working to obtain 2500 donated copies of Microsoft Office 2007 to enable the entire campus to upgrade to this latest version of the Office Suite. Microsoft matches every $5 contribution with one license for Microsoft Office 2007 Pro Plus. The cash donation can be designated for additional software or a specific program or department. As of December 13, 2007 we have received over $8,400 through 60 individual donations. These donations were matched with nearly 1,700 copies of Office 2007 worth over $150,000!

We would like to thank the Microsoft donors, and urge you to thank them as well. If you have friends or family at Microsoft, please let them know that their generosity is greatly appreciated and is supporting quality curriculum and performance throughout WWU. For specific information about the donation program, please see www.wwu.edu/microsoft.

Office 2007 Distribution at Western

The first priority for installation of Office 2007 is all labs and classrooms to benefit as many students as possible. As donations are received, distribution will continue first to faculty with a curricular need to teach using Office 2007 or to update curricular materials, then to other faculty and all staff. If you have a particular need for Office 2007, please contact ATUS Software Services at 650-3159 or Software.Services@wwu.edu. Microsoft Office 2007 can also be purchased for $61 for installation on Western-owned computers through ATUS Software Services.

Dual installation in General University Classrooms and Labs

General university classrooms and most general university labs currently have a dual installation of Microsoft Office 2003 and 2007. Office 2003 is configured as the primary Office Suite but Office 2007 will be readily available for those wanting to take advantage of its new features and interface, or simply explore its use.

To be sure to work with the program of your choice in classrooms and labs with both Office 2003 and Office 2007 installed, first open the software program, then open your file. We expect labs and classrooms to be fully upgraded to Office 2007 by summer quarter 2008. Office 2003 will no longer be available in labs and classrooms at that time.

MS Office Compatibility

Office 2007 applications, with the exception of Publisher, have a new file format which improves file and data management. Office 2007 filenames end with the following extensions:.docx,.xlsx,.pptx,.mdbx. This new file format is not downwardly compatible, which means that the files cannot be opened using prior versions of Office. To maintain compatibility, Office 2007 files can easily be saved in "Office 97-2003" format. This has been set as the default save mode in general university classrooms and general university labs to reduce the potential for incompatible files. Contact the ATUS Help Desk for more information about file formats or default settings.

In addition, an Office 2007 Compatibility Pack is available that enables Word 2003, PowerPoint 2003 and Excel 2003 to open documents from the corresponding Office 2007 programs. The Compatibility Pack has been installed in all general university classrooms and labs, and has been available for installation on all campus computers since last spring. All users of Office 2003 are encouraged to install the compatibility pack on your office and home computers. For more information, see www.wwu.edu/2007compatible.

Resources for Transitioning to Office 2007

The Student Technology Center has developed transitional workshops for Microsoft Office 2007 Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Faculty and staff members can register at the training website, www.training.wwu.edu. Students can register through the Student Workshops listed in MyWestern. Workshops can also be scheduled specifically for departmental or academic groups.

For more information about Office 2007 distribution at Western, please contact ATUS Software Services at Software.Services@wwu.edu or 650-3159.

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