After more than ten years, Microsoft is ending the Office XP support in July 2011. From this time on, no new patches—including security patches—for the software will be provided. This is part of the normal software life cycle, offering five years of Mainstream Support followed by five more years of Extended Support. Microsoft helps you to switch to the current program version, Office 2010, with several measures.
Oliver Gronau, Director Business Group Information Worker at Microsoft Germany, responsible for the Office business in Germany, recommends:
The end of support for Office XP tells companies and end users that it is urgent to exchange their old software that is no longer maintained nor patched, for the current 2010 version. Therefore, we offer our customers extensive help for migrating to Office 2010.
The end of support for Office XP tells companies and end users that it is urgent to exchange their old software that is no longer maintained nor patched, for the current 2010 version. Therefore, we offer our customers extensive help for migrating to Office 2010.For example, numerous special trainings are available for both private and business users, showcasing the migration and the new features in Office 2010. Interactive reference handbooks show where and how to find the commands in Office 2010. “Thus, users can specifically get used to the efficient user interface in Office 2010 and learn how to use the new features perfectly. This enables them to work more productively in short time,” Gronau underlines.
Enhanced productivity with Office 2010
A good example for the enhanced productivity is the Ribbon toolbar, merging all important Office 2010 tools and commands into a useful toolbar. According to a study conducted by Forrester Research on behalf of Microsoft, the Ribbon helps users to make better use or the features available in Word, Excel & Co: More than 60% of the asked users stated that their productivity has increased remarkably with Office 2010. Thus, the speed increase is 18%, compared to Office 2007. Surely this value is even higher for older Office versions, like Office XP. 81.4% of all users think that Office 2010 is simple to use.
You can find more information regarding the end of Office XP’s Extended Support in the Office Sustained Engineering blog.