Backwards Compatability from Office 2003

[rpoole]

Not sure where to put this post so here is as good as
any.

we are trying to decide on an upgrade to 2003 (mainly
because we are using Sharepoint 2003 and it needs Office
2003) but I have heard rumours that the backwards
compatability is not very good. So what I want to know is
if we upgrade to Office 2003 will people still be able to
read, open and edit documents in say Word 2002 or 2000?

What are the main compatability issues with Office 2003?
A website to read would be just as easy.

Any help greatly appreciated
Cheers

 

[Eric Lawrence [MSFT]]

I'm not aware of any serious backward compatibility issues in Office2003--
can you point me to any of these claims?

--
Thanks,

Eric Lawrence
Program Manager
Assistance and Worldwide Services

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

 

[Guest]

My boss had problems: if you save a 2003 doc as 2002 if
there are pictures in the document they come out upside
down.

We have also have problems with Visio 2003 graphics in
earlier versions of Word. They do not print at all or
come out scrambled.

All documentation I have read say there is no problem
with backwards compatability but most of those were
advertising the upgrade or hadn't been fully tested. Am
just trying to get more of an idea what to do. Are there
only little glitches like graphics or will we have a more
serious problem if only the people using Sharepoint
upgrade to 2003 and the rest of the company stay with
2000 or 2002.

Cheers
Bec

 

[Rob Schneider]

What if:

In Word 2003, save as Word 2003 document, then open in Word 2002 (XP).
No conversion should be necessary.

Visio is really not part of Office ... but often printing problems is
more associated with the printer drivers (which controls most aspects of
printing and print preview). Check for updates with printer
manufacturer, or try another printer.

Hope this is useful to you. Let us know.

rms

 

[Guest]

ok will ask my boss to try that with his upside down
pictures.

But Visio problem still exists. Been onto Visio lists and
seems as if it is a common problem that is being blamed
on HP. It is not a driver problem as we can print Visio
2002 but just not Visio 2003 pictures embedded in Word
documents. It actually doesn't matter if it is embedded
in Word 2002 and 2003. Have been working on this problem
all day and not coming up with a fix. Still left with
problem of unprintable Visio graphics in Word documents.

Let me know if you think of anything else.

Cheers

 

[Rob Schneider]

Yes, I think it is a HP problem that does not work when Visio 2003
pictures are embedded in Word. Hopefully HP will provide an updated
driver which overcomes the bugs which become apparent with Word 2003 and
Visio. Sometimes they don't bother and unless you have influence with
them, you're stuck.

Try printing to a completely different printer (different Hardware and
different drivers). Another thing to do would be to print your
Word/Visios into an Adobe PDF file with Adobe Acrobat. This then is a
test of "something completely different" which may help prove the case
it's a problem with the HP printer driver ... it also may give you a
workaround by giving you a PDF file which may print ok on that flawed HP
printer.

Hope this is useful to you. Let us know.

rms

 

[Eric Lawrence [MSFT]]

There's been one patch to Office2003 for image-handling. Also is OfficeXP
up-to-date with Service Pack2?

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;312838

--
Thanks,

Eric Lawrence
Program Manager
Assistance and Worldwide Services

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

 

[Scott McDonald]

Actually here we love Outlook 2003 but hate the rest of office 2003 as it's
backwards compatibility REALLY SUCKS. create a document in word 2003 then
edit in word 2000 then can't view it again in word 2003. Emailing from
within word, excel (whatever, including all versions 2k, 2k2 AND 2003)
doesn't work.

They made it look really cool and did an incredible job with
Outlook/Exchange connectivity and just royally screwed up everything else.