What Does it Mean?

What Prompted this Decision?

Conversion Tools Documentation

Other Support Resources

• Effective at the start of Fall term, 2002, all student labs will be updated to Windows XP and students will not have access to the Corel Suite.
• Faculty and staff with an existing PC using Windows 95 or Windows 98 operating system will continue to have access to Corel throughout 2002-03.
• Faculty who need students to be able to open documents in labs may want to convert those documents before distributing them to students. Otherwise, the students will be using Microsoft Office to open Corel documents that might result in formatting changes.

With the installation of Windows XP in all student labs this summer and for new PC workstations that come with Windows XP, the Corel suite will not be available. Unless upgraded to a new PC, current users will have the next year to convert their documents to the Microsoft Office platform.

To assist users with making the conversion, the Faculty & Staff Help Desk has scheduled sessions to help individuals learn new software (please see the Fall 2002 Training Schedule). You also can visit www.sou.edu/it/howtodocs/corelconversion for instructions and information on how to convert Corel documents. We have also purchased 5 licenses of Conversions Plus 6.0, a software conversion utility to assist in converting Quattro Pro spreadsheets. One copy of Conversions Plus will be installed at the Faculty & Staff Help Desk, one in the Main Computer Lab, and three copies will be available for short-term checkout (please call the Faculty & Staff Help Desk at 2-6900 to check out a copy of Conversion Plus).

To make the transition as painless as possible, we will be programming Windows XP to open WordPerfect documents in Word automatically. This may result in some formatting issues for complex documents. Individuals experiencing problems or needing additional assistance with conversion should contact the Faculty & Staff Help Desk at 2-6900.

In preparing for the implementation of the new Windows XP operating system, we have been faced with making decisions about which software products we should support. Maintaining multiple software suites is expensive due both to the direct cost of software licensure and to the time required to train IT staff to support, troubleshoot, and resolve file compatibility problems associated with both platforms. In recent years, more and more faculty and staff have switched to Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access). Students generally prefer Office, as it is the software most will need to know for their jobs after graduation. To continue existing support levels for Corel would require additional investment for software upgrades and staff training.

During the past year, we discussed the Corel issue and its implications extensively within IT, and I consulted across campus over a number of months last year culminating in focused discussions with Business Affairs Council and the Academic Information Forum. The question was, “In an era of budget cuts and declining resources, should we try to maintain software that is used by a declining number of users, but preferred strongly by some?” As you might imagine, there were lively discussions and many were unhappy with the prospects of having to learn a different system. Others resent the Microsoft hegemony and do not like to see our dependence on their products.

Yet in the end, almost everyone agreed that in this period of difficult financial choices, conversion to a single software platform makes sense, especially if we are talking about having to cut elsewhere to maintain multiple software suites. Clearly, what we are trying to accomplish by this decision is to put in place a supportable system in the face of declining resources. Most every feature in Quattro Pro or WordPerfect can be replicated in Excel or Word. There are also ways to alleviate some of the more annoying aspects of Word that some users have found to be problematic in the past.
Please do not call the Faculty & Staff Help Desk if you have concerns with the decision to phase out Corel. This is my responsibility; please contact me, Kevin Talbert, to discuss this decision and any concerns you may have.