Yesterday afternoon, I found a stand full of copies of Office 2003 Standard Edition labeled as "Military Appreciation Edition" at the Ft. Gordon (GA) PX. (For those that don't know, the PX -- or BX on Air Force Bases -- is the military equivalent to Wal-Mart: a store that sells just about everything.) The price for this "Military Appreciation Edition" was $59.95 -- and since I bought it on post, tax-free. Thinking that this was too good to be true, I tried asking a sales clerk if the Office MAE was a standalone or update version -- I confused her so much that I had to show her the MAE box and a box of the Std. Upgrade version to help her understand my question better. (There was another custormer, a self-proclaimed "computer expert," who was so confused with my question that he thought I asked if I could use the Office MAE to update Windows XP....)
Long story short: Has anyone here heard of a "Military Appreciation Edition" of Microsoft Office? And is it a full version of the Standard Edition software or an upgrade?
I tried going online and searching for information about the MAE (specifically, as compared to just Office in general), but my search results came back empty. I also tried Microsoft's website but it didn't mention anything about the MAE. My search at AAFES, the military's online store for the PX/BX, came up empty as well. And nobody that I know knew anything about a "Military Appreciation Edition."
I was going to "experiment" by uninstalling Office on my laptop and reinstalling it using the MAE version, but I had too much work to do (and I didn't want to do it after uninstalling, reinstalling, and then patching Office again, which would have taken a few hours). I bought two copies (I'd figured that, at that price, the MAE would have been sold out by Friday), and I opened one of them up for a comparison with a retail version of Office SE that I purchased earlier. (I'll post pictures sometime this weekend....)
What I found so far was amazing: taken out of the box, the MAE disc and case looked the same as any other SE disc and case. I popped both discs into my laptop and each disc ran the same setup routine (which should be the same, considering that I haven't uninstalled Office yet...). I'll still have to do the dry run (if I could only remember which access key went with which version...), but so far I think that it may be an acutal version of Office Standard Edition at a (heavily) reduced price.
So, does anybody know anything about this "Military Appreciation Edition?" Like I said before, it sounded too good to be true... but so far, I think it is. I'll probably try the "experiment" sometime this weekend, but does anyone know anything that could help me out?
Long story short: Has anyone here heard of a "Military Appreciation Edition" of Microsoft Office? And is it a full version of the Standard Edition software or an upgrade?
I tried going online and searching for information about the MAE (specifically, as compared to just Office in general), but my search results came back empty. I also tried Microsoft's website but it didn't mention anything about the MAE. My search at AAFES, the military's online store for the PX/BX, came up empty as well. And nobody that I know knew anything about a "Military Appreciation Edition."
I was going to "experiment" by uninstalling Office on my laptop and reinstalling it using the MAE version, but I had too much work to do (and I didn't want to do it after uninstalling, reinstalling, and then patching Office again, which would have taken a few hours). I bought two copies (I'd figured that, at that price, the MAE would have been sold out by Friday), and I opened one of them up for a comparison with a retail version of Office SE that I purchased earlier. (I'll post pictures sometime this weekend....)
What I found so far was amazing: taken out of the box, the MAE disc and case looked the same as any other SE disc and case. I popped both discs into my laptop and each disc ran the same setup routine (which should be the same, considering that I haven't uninstalled Office yet...). I'll still have to do the dry run (if I could only remember which access key went with which version...), but so far I think that it may be an acutal version of Office Standard Edition at a (heavily) reduced price.
So, does anybody know anything about this "Military Appreciation Edition?" Like I said before, it sounded too good to be true... but so far, I think it is. I'll probably try the "experiment" sometime this weekend, but does anyone know anything that could help me out?