hello
i still use office 2003 with classic buttons. i don't see any real need to upgrade and the ribbon interface looks difficult to use and learn. all file formats now have x as in .docx but i d/l a m$ converter.

is there compelling reason to upgrade to say office 2013 w/ribbon? does ribbons slow things down when using a c2duo w/5400rpm hard drive over office 2003?

Office 2010/2013 is definitely bulkier so it may take longer to load. However, I have gotten used to the ribbon after using it increasingly over the past few years. It is in fact a time saver in many respects for Excel, although I continue to have trouble with some advanced functions in Word and there's the mess with dealing with classic .mdb files in Access 2010/2013.

If you deal with enough data in Excel, I'd say it's worth it. For MS Access/Word, not necessarily as much.

ok - what about ppt visio onenote?

There is a simple answer: Office 2003 is not supported under Win7. If i remember correctly, 2003 cannot be installed under W7.

If you dislike the ribbons search for some shareware replacing the ribbons with a more classic menu.

So come April 2014 Office 2003 can only be used under Vista. Using W XP after April is not an Option. Imho using Vista isn't an Option because Win7 or 8 are better.

My parents have two W7 computers with Office 2003 installed. I used an updated ISO with Service Packs and Updates added for installation, dunno if that makes any difference.

Office 2003 works fine under Windows 7, with or without service packs.

I used Office 2007 for two years at work (3+ hours a day) and here are my comments:

*I still couldn't find certain formatting options for charts and such without pixel hunting
*The buttons on the ribbons change based on window size, screen resolution, etc. So just because you know where a button WAS...
*They no longer show hotkeys for any action. So good luck ever becoming an efficient user if you don't already know them and don't care to make flash cards.

2003 all the way

For me office 2010 is the best, i just love the docx format, saves so much space to work with huge excel files. I want to give a try to new 365, but idk, dont seem worth it to me.

You are completly right, i got mixed up. Office 2003 is known for problems when teamed up with Exchange2010, that's the reason our customers did away with Office2003.

As long as you do not have an Exchange2010 in your net, Office2003 should work fine with Win7.