Halp computer hayulp

Thorn Bird

Forum Mom
May 24, 2005
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hi guys...totally using y'all right now...at work, and two admins are trying to get microsoft office for at least 2/3 new computers. i know there are ones that are good and ones that are bad. i know there are sometimes ways to buy one product but be able to put it on more than one computer. before they go and buy something, i was gonna ask for some quick help/guidance...i don't wanna get stuck with some awful product. we need office and publisher. please help!

and i love you!
 
thank you so much, aratoeldar!! we also need the email program, though :rolleyes: so i don't think we can go with the free program.
 
hi guys...totally using y'all right now...at work, and two admins are trying to get microsoft office for at least 2/3 new computers. i know there are ones that are good and ones that are bad. i know there are sometimes ways to buy one product but be able to put it on more than one computer. before they go and buy something, i was gonna ask for some quick help/guidance...i don't wanna get stuck with some awful product. we need office and publisher. please help!

and i love you!

Short Answer. Office 2010 professional

Long answer depends on how computer literate these people are. If they aren't, which I'm guessing they aren't since they don't know the answer to this question, then stick with office 2010 pro, since you need publisher.
 
thank you so much, aratoeldar!! we also need the email program, though :rolleyes: so i don't think we can go with the free program.

Depends on your server. If you have an in house exchange server, then exchange is the way to go. If someone is hosting the services, then most likely you can use thunderbird.
 
we don't have a server here anymore. server go boom. none of us know HOW to shop for this stuff...and they aren't into researching too much, so i'm just thinking that they are going to really goof up and i'll be stuck using whatever i get stuck with. and it's a church, so budget is a big concern.
 
we don't have a server here anymore. server go boom. none of us know HOW to shop for this stuff...and they aren't into researching too much, so i'm just thinking that they are going to really goof up and i'll be stuck using whatever i get stuck with. and it's a church, so budget is a big concern.

Then you *could* go with Open Office and Thunderbird, as suggested. Thems are free.

Who handles the email server? Some other company?
 
You have to be affiliated with a non profit charitable organization to be eligible for free MS Software

http://www.microsoft.com/about/corporatecitizenship/en-us/community-tools/nonprofits/

Honestly, you are going to spend a lot of time one the phone with Microsoft sorting it out. If you want to buy an entire setup for X number of computers I would:

a) Figure out how much money I have to work with. This means getting a hold of whichever department keeps the books for the church and getting a budget approved for IT.
b) Contact an approved corporate reseller for Microsoft, and don't waste time with the retail people, you want volume sales/corporate sales, preferably an account manager who specializes in working with non profits.
c) Get up to speed on how this shit works. Office isn't rocket science (except maybe share-point), or hire a company that installs/sets up small business networks.
d) Write everything down.
 
http://home.techsoup.org/pages/EligibilityQuiz.aspx

You can get huge discounts on various hardware and software vendors if your Church meets the qualifications. This is probably your best route. It's pretty insane how cheap you get get some of the Microsoft software.

I'd try the free software route however. OpenOffice or OpenLibre are both great free, open-source alternatives to Microsoft Office. Mozilla Thunderbird makes a decent Email client (not a direct replacement for Outlook though). If the users don't like the free software for whatever reason, then go to TechSoup and get your purchasing on.
 
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I thought oracle killed open office, no? guess they still own the name and probably wont part with it for any sort of reasonable sum