Yes but most of his customers are not his customers yet (if you get my
drift). He needs to rope them in, so he has to be able to demonstrate he is
cognisant of their market position. This might mean pitching at a market
niche (e.g. Net, or XP up), or at all versions. That is a business decision
that William has to make when he has studied his market.

--

HTH

RP
(remove nothere from the email address if mailing direct)


"STEVE BELL" wrote in message
news:TKize.11103$kh3.3819@trnddc03...
The only versions of Office that you should need are the versions used by
your "customer".
This might also apply to your version of Windows. There are some issues
with forward and backward combatibility...

The important thing is your ability to build applications that will work,
and work well. They should be error free, user friendly, and require
little
knowledge on the part of the user. And they must meet or exceed the
expectations of the customer.

Best of Luck...
--
steveB

Remove "AYN" from email to respond
"William Benson" wrote in message
...
I'm interested in advice without starting a debtate online, so if people
want to just e-mail me answers that's great too. I know most posts are
from users seeking advice and usually that is the case with me but I
have
been in the software market on a limited budget and don't know where to
turn so please bear with me. I want to be better equipped to contribute
here and also be adequately equipped to operate as a freelance
consultant
building Excel and Access applications, so I am asking about the
requisite
"tools of the trade"...

So far I have purchased Office 97 and 2003 Professional, but am missing
2000. Does every self respecting advisor/trainer/developer need 2000?
Also, are the developer toolkits and the Visual Tools (2003) essential
if
I am going to build applications for other people? Is an MSDN
subscription
worth it if all I plan are the aforementioned? Any responses which help
me
sort out my options and neither over-spend not under-prepare are
appreciated.

Bill