I assume the following problem is confined to small organisations, it would appear there is no remedy.

We have 13 computers and a server in our office, soon to be 14 computers as I understand we are to be given a secondhand laptop but that is by the by. The problem is the software, because we are not a huge office when we need a dozen licences for a piece of software it means having a dozen disks. A couple of weeks ago I bought Adobe Acrobat 6.0 Professional - a lovely piece of software, so lovely in fact that I thought it would be nice for our advisers to have it too. We are going virtually 'paperless' in a few months and Acrobat could solve one of my problems of creating smallish files from scanned documents - and it will. Today I contacted the company who supplied my copy of Actobat 6.0 Professional at a really competative price to ask how much for 7 more licences, said I don't need disks only to be told that we would HAVE to have the disks and manuals. My office is already overcrowded, now I need to accommodate 8 Acrobats. Sheesh. All I will save on is the postage and packing.

I thought you could get 'corporate licences' where one disk and a licence number is used to install the program on a certain number of computers ...or is that just a Microsoft thing? Maybe Adobe have something like that but you'd have to approach them directly to find out.

Apart from that, you could set up an 'Adobe manual' stall outside your office and start selling them off. Best hang on to the disks though

We have a great box of Windows disks, all unopened, one for each computer. I think you are right about Microsoft though, I am sure we only have one copy of Office 2003 but licences for all machines. Pity it couldn't be installed on them all as most have Windows 98 and it won't work, that means we have the licences for one product but use another, Office 2000.

I have to say the pricing on the Acrobat was fantastic, but then we are a charity so get it as a special price. £126 for the full boxed edition of 6.0 Professional, not an upgrade.