Applies to: Anyone using Microsoft Office 2007.
Updated: now includes a little bit on why you need to stop using Office 2007…
What is “End of Life”?

End of life is the technical term Microsoft uses when they stop supporting a piece of software. In this case, MS Office 2007 will stop getting security (and any other) updates from October 10, 2017.

What this means for you (if you use Office 2007)

The advice from Microsoft is to stop using and uninstall Office 2007. You should probably have a plan on how you are going to do this, keep reading for Mike’s plan. Microsoft obviously wants you to buy the latest version of Office, but for most people, you can use free alternatives…

What should you do (if you use Office 2007)

This is what I (Mike) would do if I were using Office 2007 on any computer…. You might need to change/add to this plan depending on which MS Office features you use…

  1. Make sure you have a backup of any important documents (letters, photos, spreadsheets, letters of praise about Mike written to Tim, etc…). And if possible have a copy of the CD/DVD that Office 2007 came on, in case you need to re-install it in the future.
  2. Identify what I actually use it for. Am I using it to check my emails, do something in a spreadsheet, or write the odd letter?
  3. Find a replacement program for each thing I am doing, I would probably pick LibreOffice for letters, spreadsheets and drawing and Thunderbird (see link below for more info) for emails (although I wouldn’t. I would use Webmail (email in a web browser, through a website) but if I didn’t want that I would use Thunderbird).
  4. Install LibreOffice and Thunderbird and set those up the way I like them and make sure I can open all my files in these (LibreOffice can open most MS Office files).
  5. Make sure I can open all the types files in LibreOffice that opened in MS Office 2007.
  6. Uninstall Office 2007 and any other Office 2007 bits listed in the Programs installed list. (give us a shout if you want a hand with this bit, every version of Windows is slightly different)
  7. Forget about MS Office 2007 forever!

Useful websites:

Updated – Why you need to stop using Office 2007

I wasn’t really sure how to word this bit, but after a question from an Inner Circle member (thank you 🙂 ) here is how BT phrase it:

“Security weaknesses and bugs in Office, just like in Windows, can be exploited by hackers in a wide range of ways. A modern web browser and up-to-date anti-malware software might be able to intercept many kinds of attacks, but they can still miss one that’s delivered via an infected Word document attached to an email. Word 2016 may stop it in its tracks, but Word 2000, which hasn’t been updated in anyway since 2009? Probably not.”

Their article is quite well written and you can read the full thing here:
http://home.bt.com/tech-gadgets/computing/software/is-it-safe-to-use-an-old-version-of-microsoft-office-11364006850132

Do you have another version of Microsoft Office? Let us know the version and we can tell you when the End of Life is for yours.
As ever, if you have any questions we (Mike, Jess or Tim) will do our best to help, just drop us a note.
Thanks
Mike 🙂