Office 2007 Pro

[Ryan Ward]

I'm not sure if this is the right place for this, but, I didn't get any responses elsewhere. I am trying to take this opportunity with the big fat drop in rankings I took recently to put together a system that will create a more scalable solution to handle leads for the short term and long term so that I can focus more time on marketing and other real estate and service related items.

I will continue to use the REW drip email system as now that I know how to use it, it works great! I get at least 1 "unsubscribe" a week. Anyways, I know it needs work but that's on my end not REW.

However, I need something that will hold a customer database and the reviews I have read seem pretty decent at this point plus I like the idea of keeping it all in one place.

It looks like it can be had for under $300. I will want to make a decision about a program over the weekend.

Any thoughts?

[DCVegas]

Maybe you might find it worthwhile to try out OpenOffice - the open source version of office (hence the name :P). It's free and offers the same features as MS Office. I use both and find them to be about the same - however, OpenOffice wins on price - free!

http://www.openoffice.org/

[EFS Webmaster]

Try PROPHET CRM. They offer a free trial which I am using now. The product website can be seen here: www.avidian.com

Check out the thread here which covers a few other solutions: http://www.realestatewebmasters.com/...?t=9984&page=3

[Dan Connolly]

I am interested also to hear about Office 2007. I am using Office 2003 with Business Contact Manager and am liking it better than Top Producer, but it has some quirks. I may download the 60 day free trial version of 07. Being able to synch workgroup computers is an impt. upgrade.

I'm also wanting to eliminate paper "while you were out messages" and do it all within a contact management software. Office 03 won't do it easily with notes. I am hoping 07 has added that.

[Ryan Ward]

I am fooling around with the 2007 - testing it out online, before I download the trial... I like the idea of being able to use something I already know how to use.

Just looking for some feedback from current users. Anyone?

[David Abernathy]

Ryan - did you decide on Office 2007?

I am going through the same process...anyone else with feedback?

THanks

[JimOlenbush]

I bought all new computers for the office and they have Vista and Office Pro 07. Everything looks a little different - confusing the first few days. That's about it. There may be some powerful new features, but I haven't had time to find them. The Aero Glass theme looks awesome, but it does not help us sell more homes.

[Eric Blackwell]

Spot on Jim...

I am the technologist for an office of 117 agents. We have a couple of boxes with Vista and Office 2007 and I'm testing to figure out when / if to do a roll out. As of yet, we are NOT in a hurry. I don;t see anything here that enhances the return on the investment.

It needs to sell more houses or make something REALLY easy to justify the expense and productivity loss of retraining. We will probably roll out the new gear in December simply because the REALTORS will have more time to get used to it before going into heavy duty "battle mode".

JMO

Best;

Eric

[Ryan Ward]

Sorry I haven't gotten back to this post.

I bought the Small Business Edition. Some good new tools for Word - graphs are a little easier and their are more choices for the look and feel of the graphs. Outlook opens EXTREMELY slow even after defragging twice. The database for the business contact manger seems to be the problem. I have not used it yet, mostly because I think I might need to actually read the manual... It is very customizable and looks to be a solid tool with more ease of use because all programs can now communicate with each other much better.

There are a few problems as I have found with Word...They have changed some of the rules for the way HTML is handled so if you have stationary with buttons linking to your website they may not work right in the new Outlook. That was a royal pain to get to work in the new and old versions for email. You cannot create spcae between to buttons using "hspace". I actually gave up and simply use 2 signatures - 1 for new messages and one for replies. It was very frustating.

Publisher appears to work the same with a slightly different look and feel and they claim that you can email the newletters easier because it is integrated with Outlook. They do not translate at a high enough quality to use for a professional - at least I can't figure out how to make it work yet.

All in all, if you are sort of a novice like myself, I might say wait unless you have quite a bit of time to learn it.

The contact manager appears to be useful, but, you have to get it set up and I just haven't been able to go through the learning process yet.

Haven't had a reason to use excel except for Word graphs but Word appears to have quite a few new graphic templates and is easier to make documents look pretty.

All-in-all it is probably a better program than I am a user. That, I would say, is not a compliment to the program.

Office has worked a certain way for a long time and some of the changes have moved tools to completely new places and until you relearn where everything is, you are likely to be very frustrated.

[RESteve]

Thanks for the review, Ryan!