From: IT Steering
From: IT Steering Committee
June 22, 2007
To: Vice-Presidents, AAU Heads, Executive Directors, …
Subject: Office Productivity Software Standards (OPSS) Project Update and Support Considerations
In the Winter semester of 2005, the IT Steering Committee commissioned a task force to examine the compatibility between Office Productivity applications on campus. A wide variety of applications and a large number of versions were being used causing file format issues on various platforms of personal computers (people using Macintosh computers could not read WordPerfect files) and support problems of the applications. At the end of June 2005, the task force presented a report that recommended that the Microsoft Office Suite be implemented as the Standard Office Suite at the University of Windsor. The project implemented a three year plan. (See the links in Appendix A for the Project report and Phase Timelines).
On Monday, April 16, 2007 the OPSS Project Committee met to review the progress of the project. The committee looked at the outcomes of Phase I, and the current Phase ll (see attached Appendix A) as well as the proposals for Phase lll which begins on July 1st, 2007. The committee recommended continuing the planned direction for Phase lll (July 1, 2007 - June 30, 2008) including the following planned actions:
1. July 1, 2007 - Termination of all new Corel Office Suite installations at start of year three in compliance with Corel Office campus agreement.
• This means that people who have WordPerfect installed on their computers may continue to use WordPerfect; however, installation of the software will discontinue on July 1st this year. The IT Services Helpdesk will continue to provide support for WordPerfect until June 30, 2008.
• All editable files should be sent in Microsoft Word format and non-editable documents should be sent in PDF (Portable Document Format). This will ensure all individuals receiving the document, regardless of the platform of computing they are using will be able to read and act on the document.
• Assistance in archiving of WordPerfect documents is available and ongoing through June 30, 2008.
2. June 30, 2008 - Discontinue IT Services HelpDesk support for all Corel Office Suites and associated applications at the conclusion of year three of the implementation plan.
• Communication is ongoing through our Insight publication, the Daily News, Computer Literacy Skills training, IT Leaders and directed contact to our users to relay this information.
3. Continuation of directed Microsoft Office Training
• Workshops will continue to be offered through the Computer Literacy Skills program of IT Services to provide education on how to use Microsoft Office 2003 and Office 2007. Previews of Office 2007 are being offered this intersession and full courses for Office 2007 will begin in Fall 2007.
• Communication and ongoing training is continuing for targeted departments that have been typically WordPerfect users.
We ask that you support these recommendations:
· Send out all Read-Only documents from your office in PDF format for readability and security reasons.
· If your department still uses WordPerfect, sign up for training and contact the Helpdesk with assistance moving to the Microsoft Office platform.
Anyone with questions or comments can direct them to the IT Services Helpdesk at x-4440, or the OPSS task force chairperson, Mical Palumbo ().
Appendix A – Year Two OPSS Committee review of Project Phase I and Phase II
The Office Productivity Software Standards Project Committee met in April, 2007 for a Year Two review of the progress of the OPSS Project. The OPSS Project Committee determined that we have moved through Phase l (July 1, 2005 - June 30, 2006) successfully. The following has been accomplished:
1. Provided licensing for WordPerfect users allowing for the installation of more current versions of this product to aid in a better method of file conversion to Microsoft Word file formats.
2. Offered directed Microsoft Word Training to the campus - An OPSS week (February 2006) offered various workshops to assist people in moving to Microsoft Word. Departments who typically used WordPerfect as their word processor of choice were contacted and offered training as well. Ongoing Microsoft Word workshops were (and are still currently) offered in each academic session for all faculty, staff and students at no charge.
3. Communicated on an ongoing basis to encourage users to attend workshops through Daily News, CLS Website, Email, IT Leaders, and direct telephone contact.
Phase ll Current Phase (July 1, 2006 - June 30, 2007) was determined successful. The following was accomplished:
1. Provided a 2nd and final year of WordPerfect for installation across campus.
2. The majority of the campus is delivering electronic writable correspondence in Microsoft Word format.
3. The majority of the campus is delivering electronic readable correspondence in Portable Document Format (PDF). To support this PDF Creator was made available on the UWin Software Depot as a free download. Adobe Acrobat Writer has been provided to the campus as a PDF writer tool under a reduced price agreement as part of a province wide software consortium.
4. IT Services is continuing directed training as above in Phase l. Another OPSS week was offered in February 2007 and was well attended by people who had been traditionally WordPerfect users. Ongoing Microsoft Office workshops were (and are still currently) offered in each academic session for all faculty, staff and students at no charge.
5. Communicated on an ongoing basis to encourage users to attend through Daily News, Computer Literacy Series Website, Email, IT Leaders and direct telephone contact.
6. IT Services started to offer directed Office 2007 Training through our Computer Literacy Program on June 1, 2007.
For more information on the OPSS Project and Phase Timelines (Insight Article Winter 2007), please view the following:
OPSS Project Team Report
Insight Article Winter 2007
Insight Article Spring 2007