Word 2003 and 2007 on same computer

[PT]

I've always used the Office 2003 programs. But recently, I decided to
switch Outlook to the 2007 version. In the process. Office 2007 also
installed the 2007 versions of Excel, Word, etc.

So now I have both Excel 2003, and Excel 2007 on my Windows 7 home
premium computer.

I don’t care at all for the ribbon and other features of Word or Excel
2007. But now my opening an old Word or Excel file brings up 2007
Word or Excel

I know there’s a setting to create an association between .XLS, .DOC
etc.. and a particular program, in this case Excel 2003. I tried to
make the change using Ctrl Panel. But the Office 12 (2007) programs
seem “locked” and won’t change.

Is there any way to make the change so the default programs ore Office
11 (2003)?

 

[Jay Freedman]

Yes, there is a way.

First, create a restore point, and use regedit.exe to back up the key
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office and all its contents
according to the instructions at
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/Back-up-the-registry
(the same instructions work for Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7).

In regedit.exe, go to the key
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Word\Options.
Right-click the blank area on the right, and click New > DWORD Value.
Type in the name NoReReg . Then double-click that name and enter the
value 1.

Repeat the same steps in the key
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Word\Options. Then
close regedit.

These two entries will prevent each version of Word from changing the
registry on each startup to make itself "the" Word program on the
computer.

Finally, click Start menu > Run and enter
"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\winword.exe" /r
including the quotes. Click OK. This causes Word 2003 to reregister
itself as the handler for .doc files.

To reregister Excel 2003, click Start menu > Run and enter
"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\excel.exe" /o

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the
newsgroup so all may benefit.

 

[Jay Freedman]

And I should have mentioned, before going into all that detail, that
you don't have to keep Word 2007 and Excel 2007 if you aren't going to
use them.

Rerun the Office 2007 setup program from the Control Panel, choose the
"Add or remove features" option, and tell it to remove Word and Excel,
keeping only Outlook 2007. The next time you run the Office 2003
programs, they'll take a couple of minutes to reregister themselves.

 

[Gordon]

Rerun the Office 2007 setup program from the Control Panel, choose the
"Add or remove features" option, and tell it to remove Word and Excel,
keeping only Outlook 2007. The next time you run the Office 2003
programs, they'll take a couple of minutes to reregister themselves.

Except if the OP does that there won't be any integration between Outlook
and other Office modules - so if the OP does mailmerges for example he won't
be able to.

 

[Marsh]

What ever you decide, you will love or hate your choice,
I remember using WordPerfect 5, and then 6 and Lotus 1-2-3
and then I was forced to switch to Office 97. I bitched and moaned for
months but eventually got used to not having my Reveal Codes (I did a lot of
technical writing).
After 11 years of Word 97, 2002,2003, Version 2007 was thrust upon me. Once
again, I bitched and moaned for months but eventually got used to not having
my Toolbars and Menus. I have actually gotten to like the Ribbon. The XML
compatiblity built in will be valuable, unless you just type letters and
memos.