Customer Reviews

Microsoft Office XP Standard for Students and Teachers [Old Version]

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

MS Office XP is the best Office to date. It has minimal bugs, and number of nice usability features. The educational edition sells for what the suite should normally be priced at. The full, non-upgrade price is obscene.

Read the license carefully. Not only must you be a student or teacher, but you must agree to stop using the software the day you graduate or stop teaching. If you wish to continue using MS Office, you're obligated to shell out four times as much for the retail version.

You should look carefully at the other office suites available. MS has been king of the hill for awhile, but Corel's suite will easily handle everything 95% of MS Office users need, at a fraction of the retail price.

This version of Office XP does include the full suite of Office XP programs and does not require an earlier version of Office in order to install the program. It does, however, have two very important limitations. First, it is not a version that qualifies for upgrading to future versions of the Office Suite. This is a major limitation. An even more important limitation is that the program can only be installed on one computer. Users who have both a desktop and laptop computer are in for a rude awakening if they think, as most would, that it can be installed on each so that the program can be used when the other computer is not available.

Now for the biggest surprise of all. Students and teachers at virtually every grade level from K-12 through college also qualify for purchasing the full version of Office XP for virtually the same price as this package. Known as academic pricing, the Standard version of Office XP can be purchased online for about $155, and the Professional version can be purchased for about $185. These academic versions are full versions of the XP Suite, they qualify for future Office upgrades, and they can be installed on a desktop and laptop simultaneously. Why anyone would buy anything other than the academic versions from academic software vendors totally escapes me. As a point of reference, vendors such as www.academicsuperstore.com sell many, many popular software titles at significantly discounted prices. Don't believe me? Check them out for yourself. You will be pleasantly surprised. No, make that incredibly surprised!

If you're looking to buy any of the programs in Microsoft Office and also happen to be a student or teacher, this package is a great way to get them.

Before you buy this package, make sure your school doesn't have a special deal on it (or its sibling packages)! Large universities are especially likely to have an arrangment where students and teachers may purchase all sorts of Microsoft software through them, at a fraction of even the "... for Students and Teachers" price.

Even though you can't upgrade this package, it's still great for people with slim pocketbooks. Students may wind up having to buy a full version of Office someday, but in all probability there will be a new version of it out by then. Teachers face a rosier future - instead of upgrading, just buy the new academic package. It'll cost the same, or less, and you won't have to deal with the potential instability of upgrading if you don't want to.

As far as the software itself goes, it's the standard by which other productivity packages are judged. It's the latest version of Word, Excel, Outlook, and Powerpoint... there's not much else to say. I certainly don't need Access, and I've found that the majority of my peers don't use it either.

Microsoft's activation schemes are irritating, but you probably already knew that.

Don't forget to consider all the options, though! There are several free Windows-compatible productivity suites out there - notably OpenOffice.org - that can do some things as well or better than Microsoft Office. Consider giving them a try before you purchase Office; most people don't stand to lose anything except an investment in software they don't end up needing.

Ultimately, this package is a good choice for academics who need the funcionality, support, or generally "safe" feeling of the latest Microsoft Office package. I've had a good (if uneventful) experience with this software, and I don't feel any qualms about recommending it to those who are eligible to use it.

Here is the License Agreement:

Student License
You are not entitled to use the Office XP Standard for Students and Teachers software product unless you meet one of the following three criteria:

1. Full or part-time student.
You must be an enrolled student at an accredited K-12 educational institution or higher education institution organized and operated exclusively for the purpose of teaching its students. To be qualified as a student of a higher education institution (an institution requiring its students to have completed their K-12 educational requirements) you must be enrolled and, at the time of your acquisition of the Software Product, carrying at least six credit hours. In order to be considered an accredited institution, the institution must be a public or private K-12 school, vocational school, correspondence school, technical school, scientific school, junior college, college, university or other institution which is both (i) organized and operated exclusively for the purpose of teaching its K-12 or higher education students; and (ii) institutionally accredited by a Regional Institutional Accrediting Agency recognized by the U.S. Secretary of Education, including:

Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools
North Central Association of Colleges and Schools
Western Association of Colleges and Schools
Southern Association of Colleges and Schools
New England Association of Colleges and Schools
Northwest Association of Colleges and Schools

Accreditation by a National Institutional or Specialized Accrediting Body alone does not qualify an educational institution as accredited for purposes of determining your status as a Qualified Educational User.

2. Home-schooled student.
You must be a K-12 student, or under the age of eighteen (18), attending to your primary education through a legally recognized home schooling program in your state and either (i) such program belongs to a nationally-recognized home-schooling organization or (ii) you obtain a letter from your local school district which expressly recognizes your home-schooling program as an acceptable alternative to attending an accredited educational institution.

3. Full or part-time faculty or staff of an accredited educational institution.
You must be employed by an accredited educational institution, as defined in Qualification Paragraph 1 above, as faculty or as staff performing administrative duties primarily related to the education of such institution's students, on at least a part-time basis. Part-time shall mean at least twenty hours per week are spent by the user performing such faculty or staff duties.
To determine whether the educational institution which you attend or for whom you work is properly accredited hereunder please contact your educational institution and inquire as to its accreditation status. Erroneous accreditation information obtained from your educational institution shall not be a defense to a charge of non-qualification.

So in a nutshell this program is:
For noncommercial, educational use only.
For qualified educational users only.
Nonupgradable.
Nontransferable.
Has installation support only.
Has a nonperpetual license that is tied to the eligibility of the user

Just a note to those consumers reading these reviews about the students and teachers edition. I work at Microsoft in the customer service division and I can tell you for a fact that the students and teachers edition of office xp can ONLY be installed on ONE system. Just ONE. This means not on a desktop and a laptop. One or the other. We have had customers calling in for this second license when it won't allow them to activate on the second computer and we have to tell them that the reason is because the license extends to one system only. Hope this clears alot of confusion.

In keeping with Microsoft's total lack of concern for consumers, they have fixed this version so the purchaser must do a minimal registration via the web or phone in order to use the product. This means it is locked to your computer. This is an effort to prevent piracy. Preventing piracy is an honorable and important goal. However, there's more to it. If you upgrade or replace your computer, you'll have to call them on the phone and explain your story and if they think you're telling the truth, then maybe you can install the program you bought on your new computer. This also means that if you have two computers on your desk, you have to buy two copies, one for each computer. Also, this is Microsoft's first step toward forcing consumers to lease software instead of buying it. This move would likely force consumers to upgrade to the latest bloated version, even if they are happy with the old one.

Office XP is a decent set of applications, but there are at least two good alternatives that don't come with the obnoxious features. Check out either StarOffice or WordPerfect Office 2002. Both are excellent office suites and both are available on Amazon. Both are totally compatible with Microsoft Office file formats.

So, before dropping a ton of money on another Microsoft marketing scheme, consider the alternatives.

this software can be moved to a different PC, all you have to do is call Microsoft and tell them you want to move the software to a different PC and they will give you a code to enter which will allow you to do this

There is no other product which compares to the Microsoft Office suite. "Microsoft Office XP Standard for Students & Teachers" is the place to to get started. And it is the place you'll probably stay.

Most teachers and fewer students need Access. You do need Word and Excel, and occassionally, PowerPoint. Learn basic word processing and spreadsheet usage. Shine in meetings with PowerPoint.

For e-mailing documents and files to coworkers, you can be confident they'll easily open Office files... there is a good chance they use it themselves.

Word is a huge program which can do far more than you'll need, but it will allow you versaility and simplicity WordPerfect has yet to pull off.

Excel is a basic spreadsheet with incredible math functionality. I don't need most of the math, other than minor budgets and such. You might only need to keep track of your students' coursework, but you can do it in style. Sort your data by student, zip code, GPA, hair color... whatever you like.

PowerPoint makes those cool slideshows with the text that can slip in on the screen. With the templates, you can look good without requiring a graphic design degree.

I fully recommend "Microsoft Office XP Standard for Students & Teachers. You need it, it is easy, and the price is right.

Anthony Trendl

While I thoroughly support Microsoft Office over any other similar suite, I strongly condemn Microsoft for denying upgrades and patches to educators. Given the price for this version, denying a full upgrade to the next version is certainly fair, but Microsoft has issued a plethora of patches, many of them involving security issues, to this version and denying them to educators is both prejudicial and dangerous. In addition, it just isn't good business!

A pretty good office suite for a good price... thank goodness my little girl is in school... saving me $$$ for the student variety. But if you want to load on two of your own computers or even change your mind about which computer to use it on... forget it. Microsoft has once again proven their computer prowess by not affording even honest people to use the software on more than one machine or to even swap it to another computer. Believe me... I'll continue to use it, but I will further investigate other operating systems and office suites and if somebody even comes close I'll swap all five of my PC's next time.