Are Office 2003 applications compatible with earlier Off applicati

[SeeksResolution]

Hello:

On my PC, I installed the XP Home Edition OS with Works 6.0 & Word 2000.

Being a university student, I can purchase Office 2003 Professional for a
mere pittance.

Are the Office 2003 Professional applications compatible with the software
already on my computer? May I load on my computer just a given application,
like PPT 2003 or Excel 2003?

Thanks for your assistance.

Regards,
SeeksResolution

 

[Rae Drysdale]

They are exactly the same as the expensive versions. You won't need 2000 or
Works for that matter. But remember that in January a new office 2007 will be
released.

 

[Beth Melton]

Word, Excel and PowerPoint in Office 2003 uses the same file format as
their Office 2000 applications so yes they are compatible. While you
can load just Excel and PowerPoint you could also either: install Word
2003 and leave the Word 2000 installation or remove Word 2000 and
install Word 2003 instead.

The pros and cons:

Cons: Both Word 2000 and Word 2003 will require updates to both
applications. Also note, if you only install Excel and PPT from Office
2003 then you'll still encounter the need to update both applications.

Microsoft doesn't recommend installing more than one version of the
same application. The primary issue is waiting on the Windows
Installer when you switch between versions. Another issue you could
encounter is the Office Assistant. If you use it and show/hide it
regularly then you'll likely end up encountering an error in the
assistant which requires repairing the installation. If you don't use
it then there's nothing to worry about.

Pros: I suspect Word 2000 is integrated in your Works Suite and I'm
not sure if it will recognize Word 2003. But if you aren't using Works
template and such then it may not even matter.

Note that are a few minor issues from having software from different
versions of Office installed so if you don't feel as though you are
technically savvy, then I recommend using all of the applications from
Office 2003.

Also, I don't know what the university is selling Office 2003 for but
you also qualify for the Student and Teacher's edition which may be
cheaper, around $150:
http://www.microsoft.com/office/editions/howtobuy/student.mspx

Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email can not be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Office 2007 Preview Site:
http://www.microsoft.com/office/preview/default.mspx
Office 2007 Community Articles/Tutorials:
http://www.microsoft.com/office/preview/community/article_archive.mspx

TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/

 

[SeeksResolution]

Yes, it sounds like a good idea to delete Word 2000 and install Word 2003.
Should I save all the Word 2000 ducuments to a CD so that they are off the
computer when I delete Word 2000?

In this case, when I use Word 2003 to open a document formatted in Word
2000, will the document's Word 2000 format be updated it to the Word 2003
format?

Thanks again.

SeeksResolution

 

[Rae Drysdale]

When installing 2003 you should get the option to remove 2000 at the same
time. 2003 will open your 2000 documents, but if copying to CD will give you
peace of mind, go ahead.

 

[Beth Melton]

I believe Rae answered your first question so regards to what will
happen when you open a Word 2000 document in Word 2003:

They share the same file format so an upgrade doesn't take place.
However there are some behaviors that changed between the versions so
even though the file formats are the same there could be some
compatibility issues with how the file is displayed. In light of that,
when you open a Word 2000 document in Word 2003 it will be opened
using Word 2000 compatibility options. If you want to change the
compatibility options to Word 2003 go to Tools/Options/Compatibility.

However there isn't a need to do this unless you want to use some of
the new behaviors in your document. To get an idea of the behaviors
I'm referring to and the changes between versions, change the
recommend options to another version and note the options that are
selected/deselected. They're fairly minor so you may never see a
difference. I don't change the compatibility options unless I see a
need to change them.

Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email can not be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Office 2007 Preview Site:
http://www.microsoft.com/office/preview/default.mspx
Office 2007 Community Articles/Tutorials:
http://www.microsoft.com/office/preview/community/article_archive.mspx

TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/

 

[Opinicus]

Should I save all the Word 2000 ducuments to a CD so that they are off the
computer when I delete Word 2000?

Installing/uninstalling Office programs will have absolutely no effect on
your data (documents) because they're kept in completely different
locations. That said, it's always a good idea to make (several) backups of
your work and keep the copies in different places.

BTW: If you're burning documents to CD, don't use the rewritable kind, which
can't be read by some machines. For backups I use pen/pocket drives and
memory sticks almost exclusively now.

 

[SeeksResolution]

Thank you. Will let you know how this software transition works out.

 

[SeeksResolution]

Thanks. I will let you know how this matter works out.