Office 2010 Purchase and Installation Decisions

We all know how budget constraints, deployment, support, client needs and training resources can ' and often do ' affect IT managers' decisions on which software to purchase and deploy. However, when updating to Office 2010, there is more to it than meets the eye ' and the Microsoft Office 2010 marketing presentations can be very enticing.

Consider which third-party add-ins are “mission-critical” to your firm and need to integrate with Office 2010. My guess, to name only a few, would be: 1) document management system; 2) e-mail management system; 3) forms/templates package; 4) metadata cleaner; 5) paragraph numbering tool; 6) Outlook integrated online meeting software; 7) PDF converters, 8) anti-virus or malware software; and 9) a whole slew of others that I'm not even thinking of at the moment.

To help you make a more informed decision, I'd like to address some of the issues we see as a third-party software vendor and technical support desk.

Office 2010 32 Bit v. 64 Bit

(Note: Don't mistake this with the Operating System 32 or 64 bit platforms, such as Windows 7, Vista, Microsoft Server, or WinXP. Those can all be 32 or 64 bit as well. The Operating System does not reflect your Office version.)

The idea of faster processing, or the ability to have greater volumes of data being processed, is a big incentive to purchase Office 2010 64 bit over Office 2010 32 bit.

Here's the thing: Most third-party add-in vendors have not written their product code and installation packages for Office 2010 64 bit just yet. Some have even publicized that they will not be supporting Office 2010 64 bit. A few specific project-based applications will not be available to you. And many people just don't require Office 2010 64 bit for the types of data they handle.

For more information, in your Internet browser search for: office 2010 32 bit v 64 bit.

What if you've already installed the 64 bit version of Office 2010? You will need to entirely uninstall Office 2010 64 bit and reinstall Office 2010 32 bit. Don't even try to downgrade Office 32 bit “over” Office 64 bit; it's not designed for that.

Office 2010 Click-to-Run

Click-to-Run uses broadband to download Office 2010 and deliver patches and product updates automatically. While this sounds like, and often is, a great idea, again there are considerations prior to making the decision to use Office 2010 Click-to-Run.

Click-to-Run creates a virtual drive on your computer. You may see a new Q: or R: drive on your computer that wasn't there before. This is the location of your virtual Office 2010 installation, and you won't find any of the Office installation or executable files on your standard C: drive. Due to this, many third-party add-ins that need to locate and start Winword.exe, Excel.exe, PowerPoint.exe, some malware programs, etc., won't work. This is because they are not in the standard location and cannot be accessed from the virtual environment by the “calling code” of your mission-critical add-ins.

What if you've already installed Office 2010 using Click-to-Run? It's a relatively easy switch back to an .msi-based Office 2010 installation (.msi being the standard Office installation file).

For more information, in your Internet browser search for: switch from Office Click-to-Run to MSI-based Office.

Be Wary of Trial Versions

When purchasing a new computer, you will often find a trial copy of Office 2010 32 bit already installed. This is fine for the 30-, 60-, or 90-day trial period, but after the expiration of the trial period, you won't be able to continue using Office 2010 without making the purchase, and this may come during a critical document production period. In the Office 2010 Backstage view, the Help screen will let you know (in the upper right hand corner) whether or not your Office product has been activated or needs to be activated.

Here come those mission-critical third-party add-ins again: Many won't work with trial versions of Office 2010, or will stop working once Office is in a state of needing to be activated.

The Office 2010 Upgrade

Many third-party vendors require that add-ins be uninstalled prior to upgrading Office. This is because their code is calling Office applications or program files from a specific location that was determined when you first installed that add-in. Contact your vendors before you upgrade to any new version of Office to see if their product needs to be uninstalled first, and then reinstalled after your Office upgrade. This one is definitely worth the call to your vendor.

Conclusion

Look at your overall production requirements and available IT support. It may very well be that you need the legal third-party add-ins more than you need Office 2010 64 bit at this time. The same goes for Click-to-Run. It is always easier to upgrade your environment when other technology catches up ' rather than try to downgrade, or “roll back.”

We all know how budget constraints, deployment, support, client needs and training resources can ' and often do ' affect IT managers' decisions on which software to purchase and deploy. However, when updating to Office 2010, there is more to it than meets the eye ' and the Microsoft Office 2010 marketing presentations can be very enticing.

Consider which third-party add-ins are “mission-critical” to your firm and need to integrate with Office 2010. My guess, to name only a few, would be: 1) document management system; 2) e-mail management system; 3) forms/templates package; 4) metadata cleaner; 5) paragraph numbering tool; 6) Outlook integrated online meeting software; 7) PDF converters, 8) anti-virus or malware software; and 9) a whole slew of others that I'm not even thinking of at the moment.

To help you make a more informed decision, I'd like to address some of the issues we see as a third-party software vendor and technical support desk.

Office 2010 32 Bit v. 64 Bit

(Note: Don't mistake this with the Operating System 32 or 64 bit platforms, such as Windows 7, Vista, Microsoft Server, or WinXP. Those can all be 32 or 64 bit as well. The Operating System does not reflect your Office version.)

The idea of faster processing, or the ability to have greater volumes of data being processed, is a big incentive to purchase Office 2010 64 bit over Office 2010 32 bit.

Here's the thing: Most third-party add-in vendors have not written their product code and installation packages for Office 2010 64 bit just yet. Some have even publicized that they will not be supporting Office 2010 64 bit. A few specific project-based applications will not be available to you. And many people just don't require Office 2010 64 bit for the types of data they handle.

For more information, in your Internet browser search for: office 2010 32 bit v 64 bit.

What if you've already installed the 64 bit version of Office 2010? You will need to entirely uninstall Office 2010 64 bit and reinstall Office 2010 32 bit. Don't even try to downgrade Office 32 bit “over” Office 64 bit; it's not designed for that.

Office 2010 Click-to-Run

Click-to-Run uses broadband to download Office 2010 and deliver patches and product updates automatically. While this sounds like, and often is, a great idea, again there are considerations prior to making the decision to use Office 2010 Click-to-Run.

Click-to-Run creates a virtual drive on your computer. You may see a new Q: or R: drive on your computer that wasn't there before. This is the location of your virtual Office 2010 installation, and you won't find any of the Office installation or executable files on your standard C: drive. Due to this, many third-party add-ins that need to locate and start Winword.exe, Excel.exe, PowerPoint.exe, some malware programs, etc., won't work. This is because they are not in the standard location and cannot be accessed from the virtual environment by the “calling code” of your mission-critical add-ins.

What if you've already installed Office 2010 using Click-to-Run? It's a relatively easy switch back to an .msi-based Office 2010 installation (.msi being the standard Office installation file).

For more information, in your Internet browser search for: switch from Office Click-to-Run to MSI-based Office.

Be Wary of Trial Versions

When purchasing a new computer, you will often find a trial copy of Office 2010 32 bit already installed. This is fine for the 30-, 60-, or 90-day trial period, but after the expiration of the trial period, you won't be able to continue using Office 2010 without making the purchase, and this may come during a critical document production period. In the Office 2010 Backstage view, the Help screen will let you know (in the upper right hand corner) whether or not your Office product has been activated or needs to be activated.

Here come those mission-critical third-party add-ins again: Many won't work with trial versions of Office 2010, or will stop working once Office is in a state of needing to be activated.

The Office 2010 Upgrade

Many third-party vendors require that add-ins be uninstalled prior to upgrading Office. This is because their code is calling Office applications or program files from a specific location that was determined when you first installed that add-in. Contact your vendors before you upgrade to any new version of Office to see if their product needs to be uninstalled first, and then reinstalled after your Office upgrade. This one is definitely worth the call to your vendor.

Conclusion

Look at your overall production requirements and available IT support. It may very well be that you need the legal third-party add-ins more than you need Office 2010 64 bit at this time. The same goes for Click-to-Run. It is always easier to upgrade your environment when other technology catches up ' rather than try to downgrade, or “roll back.”