Support for Microsoft Office 2007 Comes to an End

Microsoft, Office 2007, Office 2010, Office 2016, , ,
17
Oct 2017

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You may have enjoyed a trouble free relationship with Microsoft Office 2007, but support for the suite has now ended. So what does this mean for you?

Well, the truth is that when support ends for a piece of software, you can continue using it almost exactly as you did before. It’s not going to stop working, in fact it will continue working for many years to come. However, without support, the software is effectively out there on its own without any help or protection. Security flaws are no longer closed and any bugs you discover will remain for good. And this isn’t particularly great for a business which wants to remain competitive.

Therefore, you need to make sure that you know how to move forwards from Microsoft Office 2007 and why you have to do this.

The End of Support for Office 2007

Support for Microsoft Office 2007 officially ended on 10th October 2017 as this was the point that Microsoft decided that it wasn’t viable to continue supporting it. It’s common practice for developers to do this, but when it’s a piece of software which includes Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint, it’s kind of a big deal due to the number of people using these applications on a daily basis.

As mentioned previously, you can continue to use Office 2007 but you’re putting yourself at a huge risk of being hacked. You see, hackers see unsupported software as one of the easiest targets out there and, if they find a security flaw, they’re going to exploit it safe in the knowledge that it’s never going to get patched and these legacy attacks can cause major issues. There are also certain features which will no longer be supported e.g. Outlook 2007 can no longer use Office 365 to access Exchange Online mailboxes and this could create huge communication issues for a business.

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What Do You Need to Do?

Quite simply, you need to upgrade and you need to upgrade quickly due to the potential issues we’ve already outlined. Upgrading ensures that your version of Microsoft Office is not only secure, but can also operate in the way your business needs it to. There’s also the added bonus of new features which were never present in Office 2007.

It’s all a matter of cost, of course, but there are several options available when it comes to upgrades. Office 2010 is the next step up, but you have to bear in mind that Microsoft only ever grant their office suites a 10 year lifespan. Therefore, support for Office 2010 is due to be retired in just three years and means that a further upgrade would be needed relatively soon. This doesn’t make for great economics, so, to give yourself the best experience with Office it may be best to look at going straight in for Microsoft Office 2016.

With its lifespan barely started, Office 2016 promises to provide better security and a better work environment for your organization to operate in.

For more ways to secure and optimize your business technology, contact your local IT professionals.

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Microsoft Office 2016 Preview: What you should know

Software, Uncategorized,
17
Jun 2015

office-2016

Microsoft Office 2016 has features that will benefit any office and business environment. Read our Office 2016 Preview to get an overview of what’s to come.

Microsoft Office has made a big impact in handling the nuances of small and big business document processing and management. With Microsoft Office 2016 being released, everybody is curious to know what features and enhancements it will bring to the work environment.

This version’s focus is definitely on simplifying things. Many features which had been missing in previous versions and were in great demand have now been added to MS Office 2016.

Preview of the Microsoft Office 2016 features

Here are some of the striking features and enhancements that have been included in Microsoft Office 2016:

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  • Word, Power Point and Excel finally get the data loss protection feature. Centralized sharing mechanisms have been built into these tools to help keep the office documents safe. Authoring policies can also be applied which gives a way to restrict and authenticate the use of documents. This feature was previously only available in Outlook, Share Point and One Drive. Due to popular demand it has now been brought over to Word, Power Point and Excel too.
  • Outlook has also been revamped to suit popular business requirements. Support of multi-factor authentication has been added, which scales up the security and integrity of official emails. The search functionality has been improved to a large extent which will make it easier for professionals to search for emails from huge folders or inboxes. Outlook’s performance has also been enhanced so that users don’t have to wait for their messages to download. In addition to the above, extra options related to mail storage has also been included.
  • Excel has added improvements related to accessibility using the keyboards. Vital diagrams like Pivot Tables can now be constructed with keyboard shortcuts which save a lot of time and adds precision.
  • Office will still continue to offer macros and add-ins, which have proven to be a great success in other versions. Since Microsoft feels that these features are designed to the best of their ability, there hasn’t been any updates or changes made to them.
  • Visio has also gone through an enhancement in this version. It can now accommodate Information Rights Management protection. So all Visio images and diagrams can be protected, irrespective of whether they are online or offline.

Along with the enhancements that this version will bring about, IT professionals can reap great advantage by using bandwidth management features. Not forgetting, much more flexibility and support in accessing and applying updates. Administrators will be able to manage users and give them designated rules to activate devices.

For more ways to update and improve your systems, contact your local IT professionals.

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