 Students, you can get Office for $129
SOON, you will be able to buy Microsoft Office 2007 Professional edition for just $129.
But don't run out to the stores yet.
You are only eligible for this special price if you are a student under a Ministry of Education (MOE) administered educational institution, including primary schools, secondary schools, polytechnics, the National University of Singapore and Nanyang Technological University.
SINGAPORE POST OUTLETS
From May, these students and undergraduates will be able to get this special deal from Singapore Post outlets as well as the co-operatives of their respective tertiary institutions.
Microsoft Office 2007 comes in many different suites.
Office Standard has Word, Powerpoint, Excel and Outlook, while Office Professional has all of that plus Business Contact Manager, Accounting Express, Publisher and Access.
Microsoft Office also comes in many different licensing schemes.
The ones we usually buy off the counter are the retail packs, while businesses usually get bundled deals known as volume licensing.
This $129 deal is under the Student Select scheme which is only applicable in Singapore schools and tertiary institutions.
So, is the Student Select version any different from the retail pack?
Well, you get a brown sleeve instead of a pretty plastic box and you don't get the usual 90-days phone support with retail packs; but other than that, it's pretty much the same deal.
It's even better than the OEM versions (the ones that usually come pre-loaded on a new PC) since you can re-install it when you switch to a new PC, although you can only have one copy installed at any one time.
Note also that the $129 deal is a full version, which means you don't need to have a previous version of Office installed.
So what happens if you are not an MOE student?
I would suggest you consider getting the Home and Student edition.
In the previous version (Office 2003), Microsoft started the Teacher and Student edition, which limits the purchase to teachers and students.
But now, this has been changed to Home and Student, which basically means any home user can use this version.
At a retail price of $248, you can get Word, Excel, PowerPoint and One Note.
You don't get Outlook, but you can always use the free Outlook Express or your Yahoo or Gmail web-based mail for personal e-mail.
In addition, you can install a single copy of the Home and Student edition (and this only applies to Home and Student, and not other retail packs) on three PCs within the same household. | 
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