[SIMS] Office 2010 compatibility?

[DrCheese]

I totally understand the business reasons why Capita don't support it yet, but as I said in my first post they would not get away with waiting so long if there was actual competition in the market.
Myself, I'm not fussed given that we are sticking with 2007 for the moment.

[ZeroHour]

Office 2010 is virtually identical to 2007 so I really don't see why it takes 40 weeks+ to get round to setting up a test environment.

No sadly it is actually quite a lot different API wise and MS removed certain features that only really applied to those who integrate it with software and those parts will need recoding. Behind the scenes, for software devs there are quite a few changes tbh.

[vikpaw]

We started out with SIMS this year and had Office 2010 and Windows 7 to contend with too. We've already had funnies in anything that uses Word automation. Late Letters don't get up the right list of events. Now, after struggling uphill all term and finally rushing to knock up some student reports using Assessment/ Individual Reports it just crashes SIMS all the time. So you guys are telling me that
a) Windows 2010 wasn't supported until the Autumn release so I was probably doomed from the start.
b) Office 2010 is still not supported and has known incompatibilities (Is it adopted in Autumn release - I can see no reference in Release Notes?). So I'm still indefinitely stuffed.
Is there any way round to get some reports out for kids?

I had thought that late letters was a problem because some users reported it didn't work and when i tried it also gave errors. however i've found some workstations where it does work. i managed to run a late letters report as a domain admin account and as a normal account on two workstations. one of these workstations is also able to run a photo report that i designed based on the default rtf report. usually i get an "Error: object not found" error during the processing in Word stage, but this one user on a particular PC can run it fine. The built-in administrator account can also run it fine, so i'm still investigating possible permissions issues and issues with having a local profile as opposed to roaming.

It might pay dividends to test with admin account or different profiles/permissions. Your mileage may vary but things here are a little borked for some users.

[zag]

Just seen the Spring Beta has been released with....

OFFICE 2010 support!!!

Only 273 days after I created this thread

[Mr.Ben]

But without Office 2003 Support - I've been informed that Capita will only support the last 2 versions of Office....

[localzuk]

But without Office 2003 Support - I've been informed that Capita will only support the last 2 versions of Office....

This makes me nervous... Any documented proof of this?

[zag]

I'm pretty sure office 2003 will be supported for a while yet for all you dinosaurs

[resin1]

Ah - nows that interesting. Does this mean that exported marksheets from AM7 will no longer be type XML Spreadsheet 2003 and templates for individual reports will no longer be limited to pre - 2007 formatting restrictions?

Sorry to those who are still on Office 2003, but if the above is correct, that's wonderful news as far as I'm concerned :-)

[vikpaw]

Surely we're looking at a situation where existing templates and reports may no longer function. That is pretty scary.
Any comment Phil? Or someone with a heads up?

[enjay]

Response from our account manager at Capita:

In regards to you enquiry, SIMS will be supporting office 2003 in the spring release and we have no plans to remove this functionality at any point in the future. I will do my best to keep you updated with any changes I hear in regards to this issue.

[vikpaw]

Response from our account manager at Capita:

I'd love to say my mind was at ease, but we know that the response from helpdesk can be inconsistent, it certainly was with regards to server OS compatibility.
You'd think that any changes that needed to be made would be backwards compatible with the older versions of office, at least for quite a while, until primaries catch up.

[enjay]

This isn't a response from the script-readers on the helpdesk, it is from our account manager.

[GREED]

Here is a plain and simple question for everyone: Will you move to Office 20xx onward from 2003, and if so when? This is not a bash any anyone/any reason because I completely understand the reason why (compatibility etc) but 2003 being 7 year old software, will stalwarts ever move to the newer versions?

PS This is generally, not specifically because of compatibility with SIMS.

[enjay]

This particularly "stalwart" will move when he can afford to either re-license or take out a Schools Agreement - right now, other more pressing demands are taking budgets.

[GREED]

This particularly "stalwart" will move when he can afford to either re-license or take out a Schools Agreement - right now, other more pressing demands are taking budgets.

I am honestly interested in opinions on this, both positive and negative.