By Expert Mark Hardy, Senior Consultant, CompuCom

When you are planning the compatibility assessment and testing for your Windows 7 migration, don’t overlook Microsoft Office add-ins and documents. Even automated compatibility assessment tools used for Windows 7 planning may not flag issues with an add-in if the compatibility issue lies in Microsoft Office 2010, not Windows 7.

To begin your add-in compatibility assessment, you will need an inventory of Office add-ins in use in your organization. Microsoft has provided a free tool for that purpose: the Office Environment Assessment Tool (OEAT). OEAT is deployed to production user PCs in the enterprise to identify installed Office add-ins, including add-in name, vendor and file names. Once results are returned, OEAT will create a report of add-ins as well as an assessment of compatibility. Use this report to plan and prioritize your Office add-in compatibility testing.

Plan your migration to Office 2010 by first making sure that your users can share documents during the migration. Office 2010 uses the new Office XML document format standards, which users of Office 2003 and older may not be able to open. Before you deploy the first copy of Office 2010, make sure that you have deployed the free Office Compatibility Pack to all your users, which allows users of the older suite versions to open, edit, print and save to the new file formats.

An often overlooked risk in upgrading the Microsoft Office suite standard in your enterprise is the risk of document and macro incompatibilities. There are several potential document-related risks when upgrading to Office 2010, including:

• Deprecated MS Word feature – Version snapshots. Word 2003 and older includes a feature that allows users to keep version snapshots of the document within the same file. Word 2010 does not include this feature and, more significantly, it does not support the feature even when opening an older document in compatibility mode. If a user edits a document and then saves it, previous versions will be permanently lost.
  
  
• Deprecated PowerPoint feature – Send for review. PowerPoint 2003 and older includes a feature that saves a hidden baseline copy of the slide deck and allows reviewers to enter review comments. If the file is edited and saved in PowerPoint 2010, the baseline copy is lost.
  
  
• Macro and VBA compatibility issues. Office 2010 applications may not execute the embedded macros and VBA code correctly without modification. Because macros are most often developed by the user community, enterprise IT departments are seldom aware of the use and business-critical nature of macros in the Office environment.
  
  
• Microsoft Access. Access databases present a significant challenge during an Office update for a number of reasons. Macro and VBA code used in Access forms may need updating before it will work with Access 2010. Linked databases will need to be modified when the database formats are upgraded to the new Access 2010 format. And multiple-user Access database solutions are common, requiring a plan to coordinate the update of the Office suite among all users of a business-critical Access database.