Parallels 5 / Windows 7

To whomever can help, sorry for the dumb question but I am relatively new to macs (and love them) and need some help. I have installed Parallels 5 on my macbook pro to enable me to run windows 7 (for work). I have installed parallels as instructed by parallels and then installed windows 7 through it. I now need to install Office 2010 home and business, the problem I have is that I have read a number of posts saying that it is better to install windows 7 on bootcamp first (and I guess Office 2010 as well) and then install parallels after. Can someone advise on this before I mess up any further and could you also educate this idiot (me) on why this is best and how to do it. My concern now is if I uninstall windows and try to put on Bootcamp (if this is right thing to do) how will that affect my registration of windows 7. Many many thanks to whoever can help

You don't need to use Boot Camp if all you need Windows 7 for is Office 2010. Just press on with Parallels 5, it works real well and should run Office 2010 just like a real Windows machine. Don't forget to install the Parallels 5 tools.

And yes, if you were to use Boot Camp to run Windows 7, it would have to be activated again. However, unless you need to run graphic intensive applications or games in Windows, Parallels 5 should be fine for just about everything else.

Regards.

Hey thanks chscag, I am sure I have installed Parallel tools although I would not know what that does for me.

I now have an issue with MS office, I went to use MS Outlook for my gmail account and half way through set up I came out to check settings on the net, now it wont let me back in to Outlook unless I create a pst file but it wont let me do that unless I set the file priorities which I cant find out how to do.

Wish I was more technical and not as thick as I feel at minute, not sure if its possible to set up outlook in parallels or whether options need changing in setup?

Thanks for all your help again.
Rich