Tangling with the evil empire

Enticed by the good spellchecker (you right click and it gives you all sorts of options for words), spurred on by the knowledge that I may have only three weeks left as a student and intimidated by the fact that everyone else in the whole wide world uses it, I bought a student edition of Microsoft Office. 150 euros. About 90 pounds.

Installed it. Tried to register it with Microsoft.

Online. Didn't work.

By telephone. Didn't work.

Telephoned the Microsoft helpline. The helpful lady needs to try decaffeinated coffee. I can't hear as fast as she can speak! In French OR English.

The upshot is that my CD has a different product number from the cellophane-wrapped, Microsoft-stickered box it came in, so I have to take it back to the shop and get it changed.

There I will unwrap the new one and ensure that the numbers match before leaving the shop.

Comments

Emmanuel said…
I told you not to use Microsoft anymore. Why spend 150 euros for Microsoft office when open office is free, and just as performant ? It is also open source, so you can put it on as many computers as you want without having to buy a new license. Open office documents format has also recently been approved as an international standard (not .doc). Ther is also a willing ness with open source software to develop an international standard. Microsoft has locked its source so that how . doc formats is a mistery. Id they want to change their format in 3 years time, they will do it, and you will not be able to consult your older documents.
it's happenned to me. I wrote some years ago a dissertation for my Master's in ethnology with an old version of lotus. It is now impossible to read the floppy disc. Don't say you haven't been warned. You could have saved 150 euros.

PS : More money for Bill gates. Microsoft office is also the target of many viruses.
5:47 pm
Alan said…
Guilty as charged. But in mitigation I do plead that I habitually use Openoffice, I have recommended it on this blog and wholeheartedly do so again.
5:58 pm
Anonymous said…
To be fair to MS, Office is an incredibly powerful package. With VBA you can build almost (?) any application a small business can need using Access, Excel, Outlook, Word and any of the other applications.
10:29 pm
Alan said…
Oh well - fair or foul, it's installed, activated and regstered now. Typical customer support, though, eh? If you don't know the answer make something up that's plausible... Been there. Done it myself, probably, many moons ago. Trouble is you end up believing in your own explanation...
10:43 pm
Anonymous said…
Is Openoffice compatible with existing Word documents? In other words, could I get a copy and still read and edit my MS Word files in it?
11:33 pm
Alan said…
The answer is here:
http://www.openoffice.org/index.html

And maybe someone else will reply with an opinion.
9:15 am
Exile from GROGGS said…
I don't use Microsoft Office: I use OpenOffice. It is free, it is file compatible with MS, and it is less susceptible to viruses than Office. I am irritated by the fact that people exchange DOC files assuming that this is a universal standard of interchange, when even if you have MS Office, there is no guarantee that the document will look the same when it is loaded - why not use RTF or PDF - PDF can be produced on the fly by OpenOffice.
3:50 pm
Alan said…
Hi there! Yes. I frequently receive .doc files to print out, and often have to reformat them to make them readable! Very irritating. It is much better to send out pdf files, and OpenOffice produces them very easily indeed. My favourite word processor remains WordPro (the one nobody else uses).It really is WYSIWYG and always has been since when it was Samna AMI all those years ago! You can lay out your document easily on the screen and when you print it looks just the same. Brilliant! And it means you only have to print once.

Friend Emmanuel is in the process of migrating to Linux. It would be good if he could blog about that for us, would it not?
4:16 pm
Emmanuel said…
What difference blogging would make ? I am not sure I would have enough to say about it.
5:30 pm
Alan said…
It would show us how easy it is to migrate to Linux, and how little time it would take and how successful your migration has been - which might convince me, for one! Share your experience with us, brother. We need to know, don't we, everyone..
4:18 pm
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