Hi, I, too, have been a nurse (for 23 years) and am acutely aware of the stress of the career. I took a MG course in '92 (one day a week for 6 wks). We didn't have to apply for the course, just sign up. We recieved a very large binder with all the information that was taught to us during the course for our own use and reference guide. We did hands-on things outside so we could do these on our own after the course was over. We did not have to take a test after it was over, and we had to return 50 hours of volunteer time within 2 years to the extension office. That was easy, because they weren't too picky about what we could do. As long as you were helping someone in need with a gardening problem, it was OK. I usually go to an inservice every fall that they have in different areas of the state because I want to, not because I have to. I always go home learning something new every year. We do have to return a few hours back to the ext office every year, but it's not a great deal of time. I enjoy hearing other's problems and solutions. I have met and gotten to know many people from across the state and it's been wonderful to see them every year. Yes, it is basic for people that have a degree in hort or other landscaping areas. But, if you are going into it just for the joy of gardening, then do it. It's great. I judge for the achievement days that we have every year for 4-H and you find some very young kids that really enjoy the challenge of gardening from year to year. No, you can't get a job in landscaping or design after taking this class, but it sure helps if you're trying to do your own yard (like I have been for the last few years). If you're doing it for your own self-worth and to get a little R-and-R, it's worth it. Our state usually has 3 sites in different areas of the state that you can attend, whichever is closer to you (usually one in the west, middle and east part of the state) Here, you can call the ext agent and request that one of the classes be in your area. (It's not guaranteed that it will be there that year, but it is there eventually.)For me, it was worth the trouble of taking the class. It's help me grow as a person and as a gardener! Weze

Thanks Mikie, what I need is Word 07 itself, the Program. I saw this download, but don't think it will do what I need. I need the program itself. I was hoping they offered an upgrade to 03 instead of buying the whole suite. I have Office 03 basic on that machine. I don't use Excel, but do use Outlook and Word. I was looking for a note taking program and MS has one called OneNote, but it needs Word 07 to work. I think it is ridiculous that I purchased 03 a year before they released 07 and I can't upgrade without buying the whole thing. I'll keep looking, Thanks as always, Jane

I've only found two small things so far that MS Office can do that OOo can't, and they are fairly specialized little tricks that most people would never miss. One is that the mail merge in Writer doesn't have a simple way to create a "catalog" listing, and the other is that the spreadsheet in Calc doesn't have the option to label the cells using the "R1C1" convention, which allows certain types of calculations to be formatted more quickly. Most people have no idea what I'm talking about, so most likely it wouldn't be missed. OOo will open and allow you to work with documents created in MS Office. You just have to remember to "save as" one of the Word, Excel or PowerPoint formats if you are going to use them under those programs again. Open Office has a different native format, but gives the option to save in several other formats that are compatible to other programs. I would strongly recommend downloading Open Office and giving it a try. The worst thing that can happen is that you end up buying MS Office down the road, but very likely you'll end up finding it to be just as useful.

I now have the paid version of MS Office but I have worked with Libre Office in the past. It may have changed since I used it a few years ago but I found it almost to be an Office clone. Very easy to work with. There are free versions of Office/Apps available on line. If you haven't seen them...check out what's available at this MS website. If these had been available when I bought my Office version...I would have opted for them rather that spending my hard earned money. :-) The only benefit I seem to have with my paid version is that I have the OEM disk in the event I ever need it. https://products.office.com/en-us/office-online/documents-spreadsheets-presentations-office-online