Missed Opportunity?

[richlevy]

I was in a Goodwill store this weekend and what did I see nestled among the $3 used CDs. Microsoft Office 97 Professional, with the CD key sticker attached! I was tempted to plunk down the $3 since I only have XP Home Edition with Microsoft Works and would not mind having Word 97.

I already have Office 95 Standard and Microsoft Access 97. I use Office XP at work and find that Access 2002 is an incremental improvement over Access 97. They did not fix anything visible that I wanted fixed (better management of import specifications). The only significant change seemed to be making it unable to save databases in a format readable by Access 97.

Since I didn't want Powerpoint, since Outlook Express 6.0 is safer than full Outlook 97, and since I already owned Access 97, it would have meant purchasing Word 97 for $3 to use instead of the Microsoft Works that came with my XP. I don't use the Office Standard for any reason except to allow me to install Access 97, which for some reason thinks its an upgrade.

In the end I decided against it, but I might change my mind. I still play around with Access 97 and it would be nice not to have to install an old copy of Office just to have a qualifying product. I also think that Word 97 is the benchmark of Microsoft Office and I would not mind having full use of templates and such.

I'm thinking of taking my $3 back there. Thanks to the Supreme Court's 'first sale' doctrine, it would give me a full legal license.