Updated: 2007-06-28

The 2007 Microsoft Office system is a major release that offers many improvements and new features in response to customer needs. Changes such as the new file format and new Setup architecture require careful planning and preparation before upgrading. Your migration planning will include evaluating the files in your environment, identifying potential conversion issues, and reviewing migration considerations for each program within 2007 Office system.

The Office Migration Planning Manager (OMPM) enables you to examine the files in your environment and decide whether to archive them, convert them in bulk with the Office File Converter available in OMPM, or convert them manually. You will also determine the approach to upgrade and migration within your organization.

Planning a migration to the 2007 Office system includes the following:

  1. Review top migration issues. For more information, see Review migration issues for the 2007 Office system.

  2. Review differences between the 2007 Office system and Office 2003. For more information, see Differences in the 2007 Office system. Many of these issues are detected by the OMPM Office File Scanner. Others might require a difference in user behavior, or might require changes in custom solutions.

  3. Review file format changes. For quick information about file format changes, see FAQ: File format. For more in-depth information about the new file formats, see File format reference for the 2007 Office system.

  4. Review collaboration issues for the 2007 Office system. For more information, see Collaborating with previous versions of Office and other programs.

  5. Assess your environment with OMPM. This involves the following steps:

    1. Install and configure OMPM File Scanner.

    2. Distribute OMPM File Scanner.

    3. Prepare a SQL database for OMPM.

    4. Import OMPM log files into the database.

    5. Analyze reports from OMPM.

  6. Plan an approach to migration. For more information, see Determining the best migration strategy.

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This topic is included in the following downloadable book for easier reading and printing:

See the full list of available books at Office Resource Kit information.