Microsoft Office 97 is a group of applications, bundled together to form a "suite". There are several versions of Office 97 available; JMU has purchased the Professional Edition of Microsoft Office 97. Here are the applications contained in the suite, and a brief description of each application.

On campus: Office 97 is available free of charge to all JMU faculty and staff for use in their offices. If a user is connected to a campus fileserver and running Windows95, he can simply go to the Start button, choose Run, and type in office97 (all one word).

At home: Office 97 is also currently available to JMU faculty and staff for use at home. Users associated with an academic department will need to contact their liaison. Other staff members can contact Stin Lenkerd (lenkersh@jmu.edu) to obtain a copy. This is only available for Windows95 users and this offer ends September 30, 1997.

Have Windows 3.x: JMU did not purchase Microsoft Office for Windows 3.x. Some PeopleSoft users are required not to upgrade to Windows95. They are provided with a previous version of Office as part of the IIS program, and they will need to contact IIS to obtain this software. Other users must have their department purchase the software. If they purchase a copy, Desktop Services will install it.

Have a Mac: The most recent version of Office for the Macintosh is 4.2.1a. Microsoft says Office 97 for the Mac will ship "this winter". If a user needs Office for the Mac installed, log a call to Desktop Services. Remember to mention that it is a Mac.

Need a local install: Some users (because they have a laptop, for instance) need Office installed locally on their machines. In these cases, log a call to Desktop Services so that they can send someone to do the work.

Need a reinstall: Because of the way the office97 batch file works, users cannot reinstall the package using that command. Office reinstalls should be discussed with your backup.

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E-mail comments to Lon Jarvis jarvislb@jmu.edu
last updated 3/28/00