For home working purposes, Mrs Rock needs a copy. Microsoft want £90 for the upgrade from Word 2000. I could get the full office 2007 suite for that!!!
Anyone know of a good value software retailer. I’m not having a great deal of luck on google.
Ta

Find a tame student (or teacher, or pretty much anyone connected with education) and get them to buy the student edition for you.

p.s. office 2007 is many many times better and takes 5 minutes to get used to, not tried 2010 yet.

true – student copy of office 2010 is £40 and it’s excellent.

Thanks but it has to be 2003 version for compatabilty.

bugger that – google “open office” it’s free and fully compatible.

carbon337 – Member
bugger that – google “open office” it’s free and fully compatible.

Why does it have to be 2003 for compatibility? You know 2010 opens older docs and can save as 97-2003 version too?

Beyond that, I’d be tempted to look on ebay or amazon’s ‘buy used’, and go with the most legit looking offering.

Thanks but it has to be 2003 version for compatabilty.

Why? You can read and write 2003 compatible docs from 2007.

I don’t know why. The typing agency Mrs Rock is going to start working for demand it.

p.s. office 2007 is many many times better and takes 5 minutes to get used to, not tried 2010 yet.

– Totally disagree. Excel 2007 removed a whole lot of functionality and the stupid “ribbon” monstrosity has me tearing my hair out on a regular basis. Huge price to pay for some pretty conditional formatting and a sumifs function (the only improvements I am aware of).

I don’t get the facepalm for OpenOffice. Works fine for me, and even has more useability than MS Office – not yet found the maximum number of nested equations in a cell with OO: MS has a fit with more than 16.

You might find genuine licences on e-bay. I’ve certailnly heard of people buying photo shop that way

The typing agency Mrs Rock is going to start working for demand it.

Surely they’re demanding files in Office 2003 format, not the tool she uses to generate those? A typing agency presumably being interested in the words, and not particularly after any fancy formatting which might translate across incorrectly (though if it really is just typed words they’re after I’m bemused at any requirement beyond .txt).

Just after a seller, not advice on challenging the it requirements of a new employer.

Just trying to help – if they’re not supplying the IT, then presumably they’re not actually checking over her shoulder to see what she’s using, just interested in the format of what she sends them. Of course it’s far easier for them to say “use W2003” than “supply documents in W2003 format” which could easily be misinterpreted. I’ve edited files originally generated on W2003 on my W2007 installation before re-opening them on W2003 and it’s completely seamless – if they don’t check over her shoulder and don’t want her to do something obscure where there’s some strange difference they’ll never know.

Though if you want to spend more on W2003 despite the fact something available cheaper can do exactly the same job, feel free. As to an answer to the question you’re asking, I doubt anywhere sells it cheap, as there’s no demand outside companies using it for legacy reasons.

The Flying Ox – Member
I don’t get the facepalm for OpenOffice. Works fine for me, and even has more useability than MS Office – not yet found the maximum number of nested equations in a cell with OO: MS has a fit with more than 16.

Because the OP asked got a specific version for compatibility, and somebody suggested a program which is nowhere near 100% compatible.
In your own post you’ve already mentioned one potential problem. How well does oo.o work with vba these days as another example?

it’s useful program no doubt, but why it has to get suggested even when clearly not relevant is being me. It’s like when somebody asks something about virus checkers for windows and some clever dick goes “lol get linux noob”.

This might fit the bill. Maybe worth a punt at £40?

Usual ebay warnings apply of course…

link

+1 for open office. Feels like Office 2003 and can save docs in that 2003 word profile. We use it at home for everything and the compatibility is not an issue.

SOS for r see comment earlier. It’s something to do with the dictation upload console and how the templates are opened in word.

2003??? Just get OpenOffice for free. Office 2007 and OpenOffice will output .doc files compatible with office 1997-2003. Saying ‘use word 2003’ is like saying ‘no LASER printing, get going with that hot metal’.

I can’t imagine custom written templates/ VBA macros will work in OpenOffice and even trying to get them to work properly in 2007/2010 can be a grade A PITA.

Have a look on eBay – £90 or so will get a copy, usually with a stick of RAM or something to statisfy MS / eBay OEM software rules

I can get the upgrade from MS legit for around £90. Looks like that might be the way to go.