MicroSoft Products

[k2hsharpe]

i've just got MicroSoft Office Ultimate and installed it on my Lappie. For the limited amount of office work I do I've been happy with OpenOffice. And I tend to avoid MicroSoft products on principle even though I am dedicated PC person.

But ....

Barbara is entering a time when she may need to be able to keep track of several commercial projects simultaneously and 'Outlook 2007 with Business Contacts' and 'One Note 2007' seem ideally suited to that. In fact I gotta say I'm a tad impressed with them. I really wished I'd had them a couple of year ago when I was doing a web based review project on H5N1. Especially if Zotero can be linked, though perhaps the above 2 make Zotero redundant? I suspect so?

Thing is though, using the above will probably best be served by also using Internet Explorer for several reasons including to be able to effortlessly link URL's in reports, calender events, emails etc (or even excerpts from a web page and have the URL embedded with it). But I so dislike Internet Explorer etc, have used Mozilla for so long I have trouble even spelling 'Explorer'. It seems so slow and clumsy next to FireFox.

My questions for you people - do you use Internet Explorer? Is there anyway of having it function like FireFox? Is it really worse than fireFox or is it just that I'm unfamiliar with it? In the end, should I really give a rat's?
Do any of you use MicroSoft Office, Outlook and One Note in particular? How do you find them? Any hints?

Anybody have an opinion on the above or any suggestions?

[Poetic Lass]

Hmmm... I'm not too sure what to tell you, Kevinski. You should probably ask Liam.

[BenJohnson]

I only use Internet Explorer for webpage design to check it looks ok on the widest used browser. I stopped using it on version 6 due to all the poor level of css implementation. I used Firefox for many years and now use Opera. The latest version of Explorer is a lot better than previous ones, it has become more Firefox like, but for me since it has the largest market share it will always be the most insecure browser, another reason why I stay away.

I use Office and Outlook everyday at work, the latest incarnation is extremely confusing with the dramatic changes to the look, whether it will make sense in time or not, I don't know. However I think Microsoft do lead the office software battle by a mile.

[k2hsharpe]

Carolyn, I'm stalking Liam as I type, just need to know enough first that I can pretend to hom that I'm not a total idiot
lolol

Ben,
"the latest incarnation is extremely confusing with the dramatic changes to the look, whether it will make sense in time or not, I don't know"

this is the first times I've used MicroSoft's suite so I'm confused as it is. I've only used the browser for 1 day and it's already annoying the shite out of me. But I suspect I should persevere because of it's integration with Office 2007 (Edit with Word and Send to OneNote etc). Like you say, Explorer does have the largest market share, it's funny though, I don't think I know anybody that uses it. Bit like our second last Federal election when John Howards was returned - I didn't know a single person who voted for him (laughing))))

Ah well, suppose I best just keep on etc

[k2hsharpe]

still using MicroSoft Explorer and it's still slow as a wet weekend
does anyone reallly like it?

[smorzando]

I prefer Firefox over Internet Explorer. Like Ben, I only *really* use Internet Explorer to check what any coding I want to do actually looks like in the browser, as different browsers interperet things differently. Also, I use Internet Explorer at school, simply because that way I need not remember to clear my browsing history in Firefox, as there are some sites that I go on at home that the my school, which is very heavily Anglican, would frown upon.

smorz.

[k2hsharpe]

"as there are some sites that I go on at home that the my school, which is very heavily Anglican, would frown upon."

this is a worry
: -)

[Esko]

I's day firefox(or most other browsers ive tried) is much better than Explorer for many reasons. IE is the most widely used browser so hackers are mainly targeting it. Over the years i remember numerous security issues with IE. I also like firefox because of its plugins and themes.
I havent really tried the newest version of IE though...

Personally i'd never buy Sowftware like Microsoft Office, too expensive for me :D
Theres an Office clone called Open Office and its completely free. There are also numerous free open source programs to replace Microsoft Word for example which have been good enough at least for me.

[Mr. Blocks]

I only use Internet Explorer for webpage design to check it looks ok on the widest used browser. I stopped using it on version 6 due to all the poor level of css implementation. I used Firefox for many years and now use Opera. The latest version of Explorer is a lot better than previous ones, it has become more Firefox like, but for me since it has the largest market share it will always be the most insecure browser, another reason why I stay away.

That will eventually change if it hasn't already according to my university lecturer. I believe there is a place you can check the statistics.

I believe Firefox is the most used.. or if not there is only a slight margin between it and IE. And even then, Google Chrome is apparently going to feature far more in the future.

I use firefox due to it not lacking in security. I find it runs faster and doesn't crash so much like IE does.

I don't use MS products, I prefer open office. I also use Ubuntu - Linux. I hate Vista, but I do have it on a single of mine.