Microsoft Professional/Good Deal????

At first, I had no idea what you were talking about with "Microsoft Professional" as I had never heard of such a thing, but then you mentioned the Office apps... You're talking about Microsoft Office 2007 Professional, I believe.

Some schools (like mine, DeVry University) require Office, and (at least my school has) recently switched to the Office 2007 ".docx" format and requires that assignments are submitted using that format (I personally think it's stupid, as I'd much rather use OpenOffice).

That computer, including Office 2007 Professional, is a good deal. The 3 year warranty could very well come in handy, and the system has pretty good specs as well. I'd be inclined to say go for it.

Access is a database application that comes with the Office package. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Access

What Fenuxx means when he is referring to the "docx" format is that Office 2007 introduced some new formats, which are collectively called Office Open XML formats, which use the docx, xlsx, and pptx extensions. The old formats used to be called doc, xls, and ppt. Due to misguided and uninformed use of Office 2007, many people simply saved their documents in these formats and sent them to other people, many running Office 2003 or earlier, who could not read these new formats. Much confusion ensued.

I personally think Office is a bunch of BS. OpenOffice is just as good nowadays, and it is free. I would highly recommend OpenOffice over any other office suite today. It can export to PDF, which is what most of my professors recommend. I've never heard of a school that requires Office for its students to submit assignments in only the docx format, and all professors I know would allow/desire pdfs, even the computer illiterate ones. In any case, bostonfan05, I think you should check with your professors. Many professors won't know the difference between the new Microsoft formats, the old Microsoft formats, and PDF, so just ask them they will accept PDFs.

If you still want Office, take a look into student pricing. There is no way it should be costing you $400 at an educational institution. I can get Office for $40 at my school, and I'm sure even as a third party unaffiliated student you can get a price around that from a third party vendor. Even the Office Home and Student edition ranges from $70-$150 online. Do some extra Googling.

With regards to conversion to and from docx there are a couple options: Look at NOVELL's OpenOffice.OpenXML Translator. It is a plugin for OpenOffice that aims to allow OpenOffice to open and read the new Microsoft formats.

Also, take a look at the Microsoft Office Compatability Pack. It is a standalone program that does not require Office to be installed. It will convert to and from the older and newer Microsoft formats. If you desire to run Linux, Wine seems to be able to run the Word and Excel converters, but not the Powerpoint Converter. See Winehq.

Additionally, Abiword (another open source word processor) will open docx files.

Finally, check http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Docx#Application_support and http://www.openxmlcommunity.org/applications.aspx for other applications.

My recommendation is you get OpenOffice and the Microsoft Office Compatability Pack and the Microsoft Office Viewers. Why? OpenOffice is free. To edit docx, xlsx, pptx files, convert them using the Office Compatability Pack. To view the files in their native format, use the Viewers. There is no need to pay $400 for an office suite.

FWIW: Open Office can open/view/edit .docx files just fine as it ships. I don't see an option for saving in that format, but I have opened and edited .docx files from friends with no problems.

also, if you own an older version of microsoft office, there should be a downloadable 'compatibility update' package that takes care of opening and viewing docx and other 2007 format files.

I just use a copy of office 2002/xp which I downloaded a while back....works great for my student needs and I didn't have to pay $300.

If you insist on emptying your wallet to microsh*t, colleges often have student discounts.