Office 2003: Who still uses it?

I got a free copy of Office 2003 Professional way back in the day. I haven't bothered to upgrade since then because I hate the ribbons and the redone menus.

And everywhereI go, offices still prefer .Doc over .Docx.

Since there is a compatibility pack for the suite I see no reason to upgrade

Who else uses it?

 

I have 2000 on my old XP machines, and the local school district still uses 2003.

 

Still using Office 2003 on Windows machines. Can't stand the ribbons! On Linux machines, been enjoying OpenOffice.org 3.2, no problem.

 

2010 FTW. A few copies of 2003 lurks in places.

 

How much do you like it? I've seen it in action and I eventually will have to upgrade. I don't like having to relearn software so I'm just delaying the inevitable

 

2003 is in a lot of places........

And you can set 2007 to default save in .doc if you want to.

 

Moved to Office 2007 / 2010 before working with many previous version' of Office, since 2000... and I never had a problem with the ribbon or whatever. I actually like it and was fine with it in like a couple of hour' maximum, spent trying to figure out where everything was and such.... nothing in terms of difficulty.

Anyway, some of the lab PC' are on 2003 though.. and people seem to be just as fine there.. but there is a big move being made on all PC' to get in 2010 or 2007.

Cheers.

 

My work is stuck running 2003 on Windows XP, even on new hardware. I have 2010 at home. I prefer 2010 hands down. It will take all of a day to get used to the changes, then you start finding the new features and how to use the ribbon effectively.

 

I use 2003 at work and 2007 at home.
There is no reason to spend the money to upgrade unless you just want to. 2003 works fine.

 

Oh, by a large margin. I actually need some of the new features that Excel brings to the table, but apart from that the general usability of Outlook and the inclusion of Onenote (the bomb with a convertible) in the non-student versions are major highlights for me. Word - I don't care so much about.

 

All you youngsters with 03 and 00... I'm still running Office 97

 

Somewhere in the attic is my old copy of Wordperfect I used on my Zeos Pentara back in 1997.

 

I run 2003 on my old desktops, and install 2003 on my families computers, they aren't having my 2010! I think it still runs fine.

 

Rockin' Office 2003 and 2007.

Have a huge doc with macros in it that work best in 2003. Haven't had time to convert it to PDF with bookmark menu yet.

Love the ribbon of 2007 though. And OneNote 2007 I find better than 2010. You can customize the menu and button locations in OneNote 2007 - top/left/bottom. Comes in real handy on a tablet to be able to have menus and buttons all around.

And then there's the issue of upgrading to 2010. It ain't free and I can't justify the extra coin for so little improvement over 2007.

 

I'm still using Office 2003 at home, and use Office 2010 at work. I'm almost tempted to upgrade to 2010 at home.

 

Use 2003 for work, and wish I had at least 2007 because I sure could use the extra space in Excel.

2007 at home, which will be 2010 on a R3 whenever that comes to land.

 

I still use 2003 and so do most businesses.

Some of our templates/macros had issues on 2007.

 

I thought you would mention wordstar

 

wordstar?!?! how about pc-write?

 

I still have a mechanical typewriter and a bound dictionary.

 

but do you write with a pointed stick and red pigments made from the blood of ancient and extinct animals?

 

a lot of the computer labs at my university still uses 2003. Only a few uses 2007.

 

I moved away from 2003 a while back. I was given a free copy of 2007 Pro. But when I saw and used 2010, I loved it and got that installed on all my machines. I love 2010.

 

.....back to the original subject, O2010 makes it a lot easier to edit/manage the ribbon back and menu structure than O2007 does. There is a small pile of third-party editors for the ribbon bar as well.

That alone is worth the transition to O2010.

 

I use MS Office 2003 Professional too. It's nice and simple. I basically only use Word and sometimes Excel. Sometimes Powerpoint but I've been using Google Docs for that more recently. I didn't like 2007 when it came out and it still confuses me when I have to use it on a school computer. But 2010 does look pretty awesome although I probably wouldn't upgrade since 2003 works fine for me (and I can install it as my times as I want).

 

dropped 2003 the day i could get 2007. dropped 2007 the day i could get 2010. both have massive improvements in usability, some nice new features, and in generel clean up with all the evolved mess that was till (and in cluding) office2003. not just in the ui. both the ui and f.e. the file format was cluttered.

 

still running 2000 pro at home and multi user 2000 at hospital.
after upgrading to windows 7 on my old home computer the disc is damaged so cant reload 2000 on that so went for free open office in the end and its as good.

 

I still use MS Office 2003 Professional for my daily work, though I am considering switching over some point to Office 2010. I have a MSDN subscription so I could obtain Office 2010 easily but I just haven't been brave (or had the time) to learn the new interface yet!

 

@hearst555...really...there is nothing much to learn...will take you a max of maybe a day or so to get your feel around Office 2010. As "daveperman" says above, 2010 seems to have a massive improvement in utility.

 

You paid to upgrade from 2007 to 2010?

 

Well, it was mentioned some had it at work which I assume they don't have to pay for.

Perhaps, as a student, if you got the "Professional Academic" for $79, but I wouldn't think the "transition" from 2007 to 2010 would be worth paying $499 for the same program.

Your discretionary income may vary.

 

no one pays retail, except for those without imagination.

There is a large number of msft discounts available from professional associations, schools, and at-work programs.

I don't think I've ever paid more than $30- for an OS license from msft nor more than $50- for a license to Office.

I did once pay $200 for a Visio license but that was before msft bought them.

 

technet ftw

 

I switched to Open Office unless your dealing with something worse than plain 2007 files its great and styled about the same. I agree that 2007 just made me wanna puke.

 

i puke when i see openoffice (after i puked several times while its loading..). but if it's good enough for you, nice for you. i would actually even prefer google docs to openoffice, and i hate webapps

 

LOL .

 

there are always options. but sometimes, retail is a good option (like the home & students licencees. 100$, 3 pc's)

 

well, one could share a technet account with friends/family. maybe one gets a chance to a cheap oem version (does office have oem licenses? never actually looked at it, i just know it from windows).

then there are lots of shady options, of course. (interesting tidbit: oga, the office online license check gets removed in one of the next updates, microsoft won't use it anymore).

there should be cheaper online-options, too, but they're not available here in switzerland. i guess they aren't in estonia, just as well. but one should be able to use it for cheap, but only activate the features on-the-go as needed.

i don't got into detail with shady and illegal options, of course. (shady means actually using a legal license, but maybe not within the terms of use: using the college license of a friend who doesn't use office, for example).


or just use the demo, and extend? (does this work for office? no clue)

 

technet is at least free for the whole family (and documented by microsoft for this). question is, who is part of your family.. but obviously, it's very quickly shady.

well i heard about the online things while it was in beta. from what i see on wiki, it evolved into Office Starter, an ad supported free office with restricted features that can be preinstalled by the oem.

and, of course, the webapps.

 

I used Office XP for the longest time, then I got Office 2007 from my job before I left over a year ago for something like $29 or $39 So I use that. I downloaded 2010 from TechNet but haven't used it yet.

 

I have been folowing this thread with some interest. I use MS Office 2003 and hate the changes they made to the later versions. On my wifes 6 month old HP laptop I installed Open Office as she does not use Office applications but ocasionaly wants to open an ofice document. I have only looked at it briefly but looks like a set of programs I could get used to. Best part the suite of programs is FREE.

 

Just to comment on .docx

Smaller files due to a more optimized filetype (heck, technically just a zip file) - and also more efficient.

Additionally, .docx files look the same on every computer - do .doc files do that on Office 2003? They didn't always in older versions of Word...

 

I still use Office 2000.

I am not joking.

 

Try the 2010 trial

In my eyes the 2007 step was a huge improvement over the old office structure.

 

yeah, quite disapointing. they planned to make the whole office available with ads, and you can pay to disable the ads. well, so much for what was planned, and what came out of it.

no. realistically, for most not much of a problem (but i don't like it myself)

 

I have 2010 Pro Plus on my netbook (got it for $10 for being in the Army, pretty sweet deal) but all my other PCs still run 2000.

...I kinda like 2000 a lot more

 

Ah OK.

Well, in the end, your choice.

I can't quite see why - but your choice- You've tried

 

The ribbons really annoy me. It's like they changed it just to change it. It's identical functionality, but with a completely alien interface.

 

I actually think that's a brilliant change because it gives you all options in an easier layout, especially in Word.

 

Yeah, what Detlev said... Unless your one of them people who just hate change, and won't change for the better, then sure. Though it's personal preference.