Warning about Office 2007 "Try-Before-You-Buy"

"Microsoft marketing the trail version of Office 2007 as 'try-before-you-buy.' But there is a catch, once you 'try' a Microsoft 'upgrade' you can not easily go back, because your files will be replaced by new versions that you need the new software to read."

At this moment Microsoft is shipping limited-use copies of Office 2007 with PCs in a try-before-you-buy scheme to seed the market with its latest suite and drive Windows server and client software sales. The company has revealed its Office Ready PC Program, where partners pre install images of Office 2007 on new machines and allow end-users to purchase the full suite through a product activation key after a 60-day trial.

The author of the posting writes about the difficulties he met when his brother-in-law decided to try a trial of Office 2003, and trying to uninstall the trial. He warns the same could happen again.