Downsizing from Office 2007 to Office 2003

[Keef]

It seems to be the evening for this...

I've just been asked by a friend with a new PC to remove Office 2007 and install Office 2003 instead. 2007 has done away with a couple of features that she uses all the time, and after two weeks of frustration she's about to throw the machine out of the window.

Browsing the web, I find stuff saying that 2003 and 2007 can exist on the same machine? Is that right and is it a good idea? She only uses Word, Publisher and Excel - I converted her to Thunderbird/Firefox years ago.


The machine came with Office 2007 preinstalled. I didn't see any Office 2007 CDs in the box. Can I remove 2007 without the install CD?

Any hints/kinks/suggestions?

Oh - I did remember to tell her to order it with XP Pro, not Vista, so she doesn't have that problem.

[Background Noise]

I tried 2007, it gives the option to retain older versions if required and I kept Word 2003 and installed a few of the 2007 programs so I had both installed at the same time. However I didn't like 2007 and its incompatibilities with 2003 (which is what most of my colleagues use and the one we use at work) so I uninstalled it. Not sure whether installing the older 2003 will give you the option to keep the newer 2007 though. You shouldn't need the discs to uninstall.

[ZH875]

Originally Posted by Keef

Browsing the web, I find stuff saying that 2003 and 2007 can exist on the same machine? Is that right and is it a good idea?

IIRC you can have several different versions of Microsoft Office on a computer, BUT they MUST be installed in chronological order, otherwise strange things happen.

I have had 97, 2000, XP(2002) and 2003 all installed together OK, but my Office 2007 has gone back in its Microsoft Box to stay for a very long time.

[Keef]

Hmmm.

Thanks.

I think I'll try installing 2003 "on top", and if that doesn't work I'll remove 2007 and install 2003.

I recall somewhere, sometime, getting a message about "There is already a newer version..." I think it was when I tried to remove Windows ME and reinstall Win 98.

[whitebeard]

Any chance of letting us know how you get on with that?

Thanks

[Keef]

Will do! I start in about 8 hours from now...

[Keef]

Job done in about ten minutes!

She only wanted Word 2003 but I recommended Excel 2003 as well, since she uses Excel a fair bit. Installation took under five minutes (amazing!)

Word 2003 started immediately, and the clever AutoText utilities she'd written worked straight away.

Starting Word 2007 brought up the "Updating...." screen. Once that had completed, the one-line fix told the machine not to do that any more. *

There are now two toolbar icons for Word and Excel, and they bring up 2003 or 2007 as required.

Easy.


* The one-line fix, to stop MS Office doing an installation update every time the "other" version is started, is this, typed as a RUN command:
reg add HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Word\Options /v NoReReg /t REG_DWORD /d 1

[Saab Dastard]

Keef,

Thanks for sharing that with us, I'm sure that many will find it useful.

the one-line fix told the machine not to do that any more. *

Ah yes, the "s0d off" switch.

SD

[Keef]

PS: A curious thing...

Her new machine came with an Office 2007 CD case, with the hologram and C of A etc - but no CD! There was a label saying that if you bought the backup CD, you could put it in this case. We had a debate about why the CD wasn't included, and decided it was to stop customers selling on the CD.

She asked the shop if they'd like the 2007 CD case back. They offered her a price that she agreed appropriately reflected the value of Office 2007

[tallsandwich]

Microsoft Update & Office Versions

Just watned to add that I had a simliar situation where I wanted to downsize my office install, in this case go back to Office XP from Office 2003. The uninstall of 2003 went fine, but Microsoft Update still tries to offer me patches for both 2003 and XP. Maybe something to watch out for you.

As I use both Office 2003 at work and Office XP at home, I would be able to see if there were any "major" usability advantages in moving to office 2003. I can't see even a reason to leave Office XP, never mind going from 2003 to 2007.

Thanks for the info on this thread.

[Keef]

There is very little difference, as far as I can see, between Office XP and Office 2003.

I upgraded to Office 2003 because folks were sending me stuff in that format, and Office XP couldn't read it. No other reason.

I know they can save in "Office XP format", but try telling that to a non-computer-literate Archdeacon, for example.

[tallsandwich]

try telling that to a non-computer-literate Archdeacon

Priceless

[BEagle]

One thing I don't like about Office 2003 is that they did away with Microsoft Photo Editor (which produced .jpg s) and came up with Microsoft Office Picture Manager, which produces .bmps. Which are an utter pain to send on-line due to file size and have to be 'exported' into .jpg.

I often need to send screen shots to others for work purposes.

So, on my old Office XP machine, I just click F11, open Photo Editor, a quick edit and save, then send it as an attachment.

But with Office 2003, if I use Picture Manager I then have to it 'export it to .jpg, then edit, then send. The simple methods of Photo Editor are much easier to use. If I want to use editing features such as 'Effects', 'Tools', Colour correction, or change the dpi, then I have to edit in Photo Editor, as Uncle Bill's whooshy new Picture Manager doesn't have these features - he expects you to buy Microsoft Digital Image Pro for £50.

Thanks, Bill..... But no thanks.

I cannot see any reason to 'upgrade' from either Windows XP or Office XP Pro, let alone upgrading from Office 2003 to 2007.

I haven't heard many good reports about either Vista or Office 2007 - what 'killer applications' do they allegdly have?

[parabellum]

BEagle

You could try Infran which is free:

http://www.fullandfree.info/software/infran-view-v399/

Or for the complete dogs dinner you could try ACDSEE, my last one cost me about US39.00 which was an upgrade, free version advertised here;

http://www.freedownloadscenter.com/M...ls/ACDSee.html

EDIT: Just noticed that ACDSEE 7.0 is $49.00, PhotoPlus 6.0 appears to be free. Latest version of ACDSEE is version 10.0

[Saab Dastard]

You could just copy photoed.exe to the 2003 PC.

You may also have to copy the dlls:

CHALKCHA.DLL
EMBOSS.DLL
GRAPHICP.DLL
NOTEPAPE.DLL
PHOTOED.CNT
PHOTOED.EXE
PHOTOED.HLP
STAINEDG.DLL
STAMP.DLL
TEXTURIZ.DLL
WATERCOL.DLL

They are all in Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\PhotoEd on an Office XP PC.

Of course you might be in breach of copyright...

SD

[stickyb]

One thing I don't like about Office 2003 is that they did away with Microsoft Photo Editor (which produced .jpg s) and came up with Microsoft Office Picture Manager, which produces .bmps. Which are an utter pain to send on-line due to file size and have to be 'exported' into .jpg.

I must be missing something. I am running Ofice 2003, and when I want to edit a picture, eg a jpg file, right click brings up the option of open with ...Microsoft Office Picture Manager, and that allows all the editing/resizing/cropping that I need for simple stuff. For instance, to to produce a "cut down" version of a multi megapixel photo suitable for emailing only takes a couple of clicks, and it saves jpg directly, don't need to export.

[Mac the Knife]

I think you mean Irfanview

http://www.irfanview.com/

First class free app.

Xnview - http://perso.orange.fr/pierre.g/xnview/enxnview.html - is also good (and free). Runs on Windows, MacOS X, Linux x86, Linux ppc, FreeBSD x86, OpenBSD x86, NetBSD x86, Solaris sparc, Solaris x86, Irix mips, HP-UX, AIX which is a bonus if you run multiple OSes

[parabellum]

It is confusing Mac, They start off talking about Infran View v3.99 and continue to refer to Irfanview! on the link I provided, so its the same thing, I think!