Office 2003 vs Office 2007

I use Office 2000 on my home computer and have used, quite a bit, Office 2003 on the uni computers.

I now have a laptop and want MS Office. I have tried OpenOffice.org and did not like it - IMO, it is like a wolf in sheep's clothing as it may look the same as MS Office but doesn't have the same functionality.

The choice is between Office 2003 Student/Teacher edition and Office Home & Student 2007 edition as I can get them for the same price basically (about three dollars difference). If there was a huge price difference, the decision would be easy it is not.

I recently bought a new laptop and got a downgrade to XP because I was wary of Vista (have a license for Vista to use in a few yrs time when SP1 comes out)

I have looked at Office 2007 and know about the ribbon format. Would it be stupid to buy 2003 when 2007 runs well? Does 2007 run well? I have heard that other people have trouble opening 2007 word files but I just have to save the docs in a 'lower/older' format of doc right?

Advice/Suggestions please

 

Definitely Office 2007. The new features are much better than the minor upgrades that Office 2003 had over 2000. Images are handled much nicer (more design options), PowerPoint is significantly improved, etc.

 

I have Office 97, lol. It still works!

I wonder if I can still get an "upgrade" to office 2007, from Office 97

 

Get 2007 for sure. There is a lot of new stuff in 2007 that seems to actually be useful. Unless 2003 was half the price of 2007, I see no reason to get the older version.

Also I have not seen any undo nightmares in 2007 yet, so thats a good thing. In 2003 I had a couple of instances where after clicking undo on a large change, the app would not revert to the proper state.

 

2007 ftw. The zoom bar is pretty fun.

 

The people who have 2007 need to remember not so many people have it so remember to save it as 97-03 word docs. I keep forgetting.

 

well 2003 is still very nice and if it's a lot cheaper, definitely get it. 2007 is filled with a ton of features which aren't necessary, but still nice and fun to use. The ribbon is amazing once you get the hang of it (it replaces the file edit format etc). Powerpoint and excel have more great looking templates and you can customize a lot. I got office 2007 for free and it worked out great so I can recommend it too. The only problem I've had with it is that the formatting paragraphs in Word is a pain in da ass. I can't explain what I really mean except that indenting and starting a new paragraph + double spacing = annoying. With Office 2003 at school, this wasn't an issue.

 

I like office 2007 a lot. There have been some very useful changes and additions compared to office 03.

 

to open office 2007 files on older pcs with older versions, yes u only need to save in the older file format (.doc) as opposed to the 07 format (.docx). Simple.

 

I hate 2k7's interface. I use openoffice though so you can ignore me

 

I prefer the interface of 2003 to 2007.

 

that's what a lot of people say. You just need to get use to 2007's to like it because it works a lot better and you can do things much faster (believe it or not).

 

How does a UI change help me type faster?

 

what I mean is that you can format things faster

 

No problems with Office 2007 yet.

I'm not sure how many people are willing to download the compatibility pack, but so far I've just been sending people .docx's, and nobody's said anything.

 

I just wish you could customize the floating toolbar. The mini one that pops up when you highlight things. I would really like to put in a double-space/single-space switch.

 

office 2k7 took ALOT of getting used to. I've used just about everything since word perfect for MS DOS. Office 97, 2000,Xp and 2003 did not have ANY learning curve what so ever. I was able to pop open word/excel and crunch away.

Office 2007 is a whole new monster. After a few hours of tinkering though, I fell in love. I agree with the zoom bar comment.

 

I know, just giving ya crap

I dislike 2k7 because of the real estate the toolbars take up. Less giant buttons and more space for typing, please. I'm sure it's all customizable but the stock layout is just gaudy, IMHO.

 

I have 2003, im overly satisfied with it.

 

The last time I felt a new version was as ineffectual as Office 2007 was way back when IBM rebranded PROFS as OfficeVision.

 

What's that gramps?

 

Eh? Could someone get me a new battery for my hearing aid and pacemaker?

 

lol!

At least you've got a sense of humor about it

I sometimes feel old at 25, although I'm sure that doesn't make you feel any better

 

Why would I need to feel better about having survived this long? As far as I have been able to determine, it is much better than the alternative.

 

Office 2007 all the way. Using it since beta 2 and it's wonderfull. Even has an included translator (including japanese!!!lol ). If you are at college/university you can get the Pro version for $165 versus $350

 

I haven't yet gotten used to 2007 and I long for the more streamlined days of 2003

 

yeah 2003 was very streamlined. good word. i like 2003 a lot more than 2007. 2007 feels bloated.

 

Office 2007 is a lot better, especially if you do a lot of typing in word processing programs with different types of documents and formats. Don't listen to the people who say 2007 isn't better.

The hitch to it is if it will run smooth on your computer because time will actually be lost instead of gained. I suggest if you have any dual core like a core 2 duo or amd x2, and 1GB preferably 2GB or RAM, definitely get office 2007, there's not reason not to. Everyone will have to make the switch to the ribbons sooner or later. I don't imagine people will still be using XP and office 2003 because of their ignorance to not adjust to the new. I admit vista has its problems but who cares, any OS will when it first comes out. And i admit office 2007 is bloated but don't say its not better than 2003, just don't get it if your system can't run it smooth.

 

interesting. office 2003 is better and office 2007 isn't... uhh... not better... so they are both better...

i meant the interface was bloated. microsoft has this tactic of making things seem current by moving everything around. it seems to work, even if there isn't any thought behind the moves.

they both run perfectly. neither are very computer intensive at all. its a typing program. you don't need a dual core cpu, you don't need 2 gigs of ram, and you don't need an 8800gtx.

 

whoa my fault i meant 2007

 

who said anything about an 8800gtx? And i said definitely if you have a dual core, maybe if you have a singly core. I have run 2007 on a P4, 1GB Ram and it doesn't run that smooth and i will be downgrading to 2003 soon. The feature set isn't worth the performance hit this computer takes.

 

i thought that 2007 seemed bloated at first too, but that ends up being ok. All I'm saying that you really have to use it for a bit before you can see the improvements over 2003. I like 2003 just as much though because I know how to do everything that version already.

 

I also hate the Office 2007 interface. Sticking to 2003 and seriously looking at Open Office for the next upgrade since MSFT doesn't let you run Office 2003 x86 on Vista x64

 

It seems as if the only place the code monkeys are permitted to exhibit any creativity or initiative is in the user interface, therefore every new version has a new and improved user interface, which may or may not actually be improved and in reality only exacerbates the user's perceptions of their experience and hinders the discovery of any possible actual improvements in the product.

 

What's the improvement on the Excell side?

 

Wait. What? Seriously? Link?

 

I'm pretty sure I can attest that Office 2003 works on Vista x64. It's working for me right now.

I love Office O7. I have it on my work laptop, and the interface is much improved. It is extremely customizable. I believe MS wanted to minimize (read: eliminate) the use of menus. People like icons, lol. Aside from the ribbon interface, the fade-in toolbar (also customizable) when highlighting text is awesome.

Outlook, the other Office program I use extensively, was cleaned up a lot.

 

You can't customize the mini toolbar. If you can, let me know.

 

multi-threaded calculations, excellent filters, user defined functions, and better conditional formatting.

 

About the docx format, you can change the default format to plain old doc (somewhere) in the settings. That's the first thing I do after installing 2007.

 

I love the Office 2007 interface. It really is easier to get access to options, and the options themselves are more interactive. If you can get 2003 and 2007 at the same price, it's no contest...go 2007 all the way.

That having been said, I changed my settings in 2007 to save in 2003 format by default, for the sake of compatibility with other systems.

 

I love the fact that they took out a program I never used (Outlook) and added a program that I will use quite a bit (OneNote)

Others who prefer Outlook as their email client may not feel this way. 2007 is very different...I'll give it that...but I really like it. I'm in the same boat as you, OpenOffice just doesn't do it for me. Maybe I'm a sucker, but I work a lot with PowerPoint and OpenOffice's version of PowerPoint was simply not my thing.

edit
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for clarification (see below >.>) I'm talking about the Home & Student Edition of 2007

 

I prefer Office 2007 to Office 2003. The interface does take some getting used to, but once I got the hang of it, I preferred it to that of 2003. I like both 2003 and 2007, but given the choice of either at a similar price, I would definitely go for 2007.

 

outlook is a very important piece of software. you probably purchased the student version which doesnt include it.

 

Just FYI, but Office 2003 can read .doc x formats (created by O2007) after an update from Microsoft is downloaded. The first time I tried to do that Office 2003 automatically checked for the update and just asked me if I wanted to install it.

 

Yes, I guess I should have clarified a bit further >.> I believe it's included in all other versions of the suite though.

 

Office 07 definitely has that cool factor. I use a black background with white font now to type. Its definitely a head turner.

 

If you have Office 2003 and you try to open an Office 2007 file...it will prompt you to download the MS converter....if you click yes it takes you to the download page (27meg?)...and then you can open them. Some formating wont work but for the most part it works well.

Office 2007 is "THE" upgrade compared to Vista over XP. Office 2007 is light years ahead of Office 2003. Powerpoint 2007....is all that and a bag of chips.