Word 2003 after April 2014?

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As with so many other things, support for Word 2003 comes to an end in April 2014, meaning among other things no more security updates. (I use Excel 2003 occasionally, but most of my work is in Word.)

over the years I’ve had occasion to use both Word 2007 and Word 2010 and found that neither added any value in terms of the kind of work I do; on the other hand, they did seem to add a lot of bloat and confusion (yes, I mean the Ribbon).

All else being equal, I’d rather stick with 2003. I’m comfortable with it, and it just works. Why fix what’s not broken?

So I wonder if anyone here who’s wiser than I am can tell me whether the absence of security updates will represent a serious risk. Do I need to bite the bullet and upgrade? Or move to one of the (free) Office clones?

Thoughts, anyone?

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Have you tried the Office clones? They may suffice, especially impressed with LibreOffice I was. But otherwise heck no, not a serious risk because what that version was/is capable of is much less interconnected with Internet capabilities so any security vectors are extremely limited and if you download that file compatibility pack for earlier versions of Office you can still work with the docx files or do what I do; since LibreOffice is compatible with those formats and free, use that as well for those activities Word 2003 is not suited for.

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I help many retired folk with their computing needs and have found the biggest problem with those on Office 2003 is handling .docx and .xlsx files. Most have the compatibility pack installed but that doesn’t always work opening email attachments directly, no problem if they remember to save them first. Lately I have switched most of them to Libre Office 4 because they found it difficult to justify spending GBP90+,(USD150) for the current version. Libre Office looks like Office 2003 but can handle all the formats like Office 2013. A few users I also changed over from XP to Linux at the same time so they could eke out a few more years out of their 256MB or 512MB PC without getting into setting tar motion.
My personal opinion is to choose between amortizing the cost of updating to the current version with the relearning required or updating to one of the free options, my choice Libre Office 4. Staying with Office 2003 with the compatibility pack is not a good option, not because of security issues, but file compatibility issues.

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I have Office 2010 and 2007 in addition to 2003, but use Word and Excel 2003. I drive the 2003 and previous versions mostly with the keyboard, mousing only when necessary. I hate the ribbon and despite claims that many of the previous word keyboard shortcuts can still be used, I must be using a different set, because there are many that aren’t the same. Also I have as yet to find a few features in the newer versions that are easily menu selected with keyboard shortcuts in 2003, despite various help, forum and other references.

Unfortunately several places that I worked at had the newer versions, which made for slower editing.

I have upgraded to Outlook 2010 because “only one version of Outlook can be installed”, i.e. if you install a newer version of Outlook, the old one will not be usable.

BTW: There is still a bug in Word 2010 that has persisted since the days of Win 3.1 and possibly before: especially with revision tracking on [track changes] Word would eventually scramble a document such that page up/down would go in circular loops in the middle of the document, and other navigation might also be affected. I have had this happen in documents as small as 17 pages, but usually occurred with technical documents of 40 pages and up that usually included TOC, index and Header levels modified for MIL SPEC documentation. Because of this I always saved the document with a name that included yymmdd possibly with hh, hhm, or increasing alphabetic suffix after the date. That way when the document corruption was discovered, I could usually go back a version or two or more to recover the majority of the document. The worst case was having to go back several days with many edits. Many times I would have to select all, copy, and paste to a new document, and then set up the page header/footers and other formatting, and then recover or reenter the changes.

Don’t get me started on UIs. I use Vista’s Classic start menu which places my most used utilities a Windows key and letter or repeated letter away. Beats the newer UIs hands down.

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“no problem if they remember to save them first”

On my Vista Home Premium 64 bit sytem with Office Pro 2003 I am unable to open either .xlss or .docx files even if I save them first.
Most of these are downloaded from Google Docs so that may have something to do with the problem.

Does anyone know of a program or web site to convert these formats to ones readable by Office 2003? I have tried several but they do not work well.

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Do I need to bite the bullet and upgrade? Or move to one of the (free) Office clones?

That all depends on how you use Office. If you don’t download documents from the internet and don’t get them as attachments from others you shouldn’t have much to worry about. If you set your macro security to High you also shouldn’t have much to worry about. IMHO. Also make sure you’re running a good AV program or two. HTH :cheers:

May the Forces of good computing be with you!

RG

PowerShell & VBA Rule!
Computer Specs

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If you don’t download documents from the internet and don’t get them as attachments from others you shouldn’t have much to worry about.

Even if you do, as long as you are scanning the individual file with a good A-V program before opening, not a problem. Updates should have set good limits on macros by now.

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I still use Office 2000 which includes Word & Excel 2000 without any problems, so I don’t think you will have any problems with Word 2013.
— Install the Microsoft Office Compatibility pack if you haven’t done so already, make sure all your Microsoft updates are always up tp date and ensure your AV program(s) and maintenance program(s) also up to date & always in order

HP EliteBook 8540w laptop Windows 10 Pro (x64)

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Thanks to all for the comments.

LibreOffice – my worry with these clones has always been that they might not be 100% true to Word in terms of formatting etc. in some arcane way, though I confess I haven’t actually tried the software with the kinds of documents I work with (which aren’t terribly complicated), so I have no real basis for the concern.

Occasionally a colleague or other organization will send me a protected Word document with fields to fill out and such. I’m less worried about security in these cases and more with compatibility. These still tend to be doc format rather than docx, but I imagine that at some point Word 2003 may not be able to read new files for some reason. Do the Office clones work in doc or docx format?

Finally, I’m glad to be reminded that (a) any security issue is likely to be with macros, which I don’t tend to use, and (b) that my security software ought to catch bad files in the first place with their scans.

Again, thanks for the insights everyone.

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Do the Office clones work in doc or docx format?

Yes, as well as their own format. Usually all they lack is the great depth of features that MS Office has that most non-enterprise user don’t need.

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This is probably not an issue for you, but just something you should be aware of: Even with the Compatibility Pack, Word 2003 can’t open .dotx or .dotm templates. Not only can’t you base documents on those templates, you can’t even open them to take a look at what they contain. If someone sends you one, you’ll have to ask them to save it in .dot format, if they can do that without losing their function (for example, if they’ve used content controls).

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That’s correct the compatibility pack won’t help you with someone who sends a file with advanced templates, such as .dotx, dotm, dot.xls (I can’t recall them automatically right now but I think you get the idea).
— Those users are the ones who will need the compatibility program to work with your 2003 files plus you should ask them to to a save as something like Word this: Save As Word 97-2003 (*.doc) Excel: Save As Excel 97-2003 Workbook
— You could also install the Reader. You won’t be able to edit anything but you will be able to read what is sent to you

On your 2003, even though I had mentioned the compatibility pack in a prior post, I should have said it probably isn’t really necessary for you but I still would do that just in case who knows what scenario will benefit you on having done so
— In my case I have done so for my 2000 even though I shouldn’t have had to

BTW, I volunteer at a non-profit organization in which we have to interact with about 300 volunteers as well as applicable organizations and we have to interact with all versions of Microsoft Office programs
— We’ve had many people using office programs other than Microsoft and they always present some issues
— But to each his own
Oh yes for those who are concerned about the cost of Microsoft Office programs, yes they are not cheap unless they are used for quite a few years. On my Office 2000 program I paid about $100 10 years ago, so that averages out to $10.00 per year and I think thats a pretty good rate of return
— The other day I installed Office 2013 on someones brand new Windows 8 computer. She paid $150.00 for it if she keeps that computer for 10 years which I don’t see why she won’t be able to; that’s $15.00 a year

Bottom line for you is; yes, you will be able to continue using your 2003 program

HP EliteBook 8540w laptop Windows 10 Pro (x64)

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We are still running word 97
no problems

we had expected ms to change the file formats so that we would be forced to use a newer version
but so far we do not have a problem

but then we are not importing and editing other peoples documents
we create them and they seem to work with other pcs okay

your biggest risk is that you have to read a newer version of word’s document format and would not be able to do it

As with so many other things, support for Word 2003 comes to an end in April 2014, meaning among other things no more security updates. (I use Excel 2003 occasionally, but most of my work is in Word.)

over the years I’ve had occasion to use both Word 2007 and Word 2010 and found that neither added any value in terms of the kind of work I do; on the other hand, they did seem to add a lot of bloat and confusion (yes, I mean the Ribbon).

All else being equal, I’d rather stick with 2003. I’m comfortable with it, and it just works. Why fix what’s not broken?

So I wonder if anyone here who’s wiser than I am can tell me whether the absence of security updates will represent a serious risk. Do I need to bite the bullet and upgrade? Or move to one of the (free) Office clones?

Thoughts, anyone?

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Windows 7 & 8 cannot run word 97. It is the operating system that will force office upgrades. Win XP cannot run Office 2013.

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Windows 7 & 8 cannot run word 97. It is the operating system that will force office upgrades. Win XP cannot run Office 2013.

I was able to run word 97, on My desktop Win 7 Pro 32-bit, but Not my laptop Win7 Pro 64-bit.
So I upgraded to cheap word 2003, and the 2007 compatibility pack…
I don’t use it’s Outlook email, have KIS2013 AV, so I’m Not too concerned.

BTW- I was able to Right click on the CD/Open/setup.exe…, and install it on All of my computers (also passed MS Security Check).

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Windows 7 & 8 cannot run word 97. It is the operating system that will force office upgrades. Win XP cannot run Office 2013.

Oh dear. So when (or if) I ungrade to Win8, I will need to either find a Office 2003 copy or use LibreOffice. Good to know. Sadly I despise M$ help with document formatting, the Ribbon, etc of later versions. I really liked WinWord 2 and haven’t enjoyed the improvements since. But I rarely need obscure functions nor VBA. I do need to exchange documents so the compatibility pack has been helpful over the years.

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Virtually all the keyboard shortcuts from Office 2003 still work in Office 2007 and 2010. And MS has made it very easy to hide the ribbon, either temporarily or permanently, if you don’t like it.

That said, I am also a fan of LibreOffice.

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A few points from a long-time Office user, but a non-professional. I have been using Office since before it was “Office”. The original Microsoft “Office” application was called Edlin and came on a 5 1/4″ floppy with the OS. I currently use Office XP (aka Office 2000 I believe) in combination with Office 2010. (Office 2007 was one of Microsoft’s biggest blunders.) Office 2003 had begun the practice of making things so complicated that it was losing it’s usefulness to a home user. This is why I have stuck with Office XP for this long. I do 95% of my Office work in this application and use Office 2010 only when XP does not accept a certain format. Even with Office 2010 I save all files, ALL FILES, in the non-x’d format (.doc, not .docx etc.) If I receive a .docx file, I convert it to a .doc before I even read it. Office 2010 performs this function. If you are proficient with Office 2003, you would be happier with that rather than any of the free office applications that claim perfect compatibility with Office – just doesn’t happen! Office 2010 in combination with Office 2003 will give you complete compatibility with office documents from way-back-when to current. If you like Office 2003, you will find yourself continuing to use that as your primary office application if you follow my recommendations here.

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Have you looked at Navigator Utilities ( http://www.navigatorutilities.com/ ) available for both Word and Excel that provides the menus from Office 2003 that many of us are comfortable with in Office 2010.

I have them installed for over 2 years with no problems.

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Have you looked at Navigator Utilities ( http://www.navigatorutilities.com/ ) available for both Word and Excel that provides the menus from Office 2003 that many of us are comfortable with in Office 2010.

I have them installed for over 2 years with no problems.

I looked at the Good Navigator Utilities cnet user reviews, and they appear to be for Power Users…
This review pretty much sums it up (free to try 60days, and $50 to buy)-

“”AWESOME Add-In. But ‘Annual ‘ License Fees are too high”
October 19, 2009 |

Version: Navigator Utilities 3.23

Pros

Easy to use and very powerful and intuitive. Job well done!! It worked as described and is a great tool for auditing, moving to sheets within a workbook, modifying range names and other goodies.

Cons

Way too costly for the ‘annual’ license!!!!

You have to pay over and over and over again EVERY year. And, it’s not cheap! Students are $25/Yr, Home Users $50/Yr, and Business users are $200/Yr.

I gave 2 stars due to license cost.

Summary

Great program, but, way to costly for the license.

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Yes the full set of utilities is a bit pricy, but you can get the toolbars for FREE which I believe would address the original poster’s concerns

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I find I’m satisfied with Google Doc, Spreadsheet and Presentation. They are basic, and lack many of the “bells and whistles” but will open .docx and other newer formats (usually any fancy formatting is lost, thought the basic information is there).
Just depends on how much you need, how much patience learning the new “ropes”, and how much you can afford. If I needed more capability, I’d use LibreOffice in Linux.

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Libre Office is not 100% compatible with MS Office. One incompatibility I have personally found is with Powerpoint files. I tried to open one or more created in MS Office (not sure which version), and they didn’t contain all the info when I opened them in Libre Office.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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I still have Word 97 installed but use it just to check for compatibility of something I prepare in Word 2010. I use Word 2003 if I want to customize toolbars (seldom). It will continue to work until MS comes up with an operating system to close it out. I also have Word 2013 installed on one computer to make sure of compatibility but not for production work.

I took a long time coming up to speed on the Ribbon Interface. I actually like it now because I know how to customize it and do. However, it was a steep learning curve. If you can get Office 2010 to use for those files that cannot be opened in 2003 I would recommend doing so.

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Install the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint File Formats — this will allow you to work on xlsx and docx files with Office 2003.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=3

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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I find Ubit Menu indispensable for Office 2007/2010/2013. It adds a tab at the top with Office 2003 type menus, and is free for home use.

Running software which accesses the internet and/or files downloaded from the internet but is no longer updated by the manufacturer is risky. Quibbling about that is staying in denial because one doesn’t want to pay for a new version. I can understand wanting to stay in denial, since Microsoft have effectively tripled the price for Office installed from optical media by only selling disks with single licenses now instead of the old 3-license Home-and-Student version.

Virus checkers don’t detect all viruses or variants.

Hackers are working constantly to find security holes in net-accessing software of any popularity, and from April 2014, the popular Office 2003 will no longer be patched. The likelihood of it staying secure for much longer after that is minimal (I’d say ‘zero.’). Office 2000 would already be very insecure. And who doesn’t need to regularly open .doc/.docx/.rtf or Excel files downloaded from the internet or sent in e-mails?

Not throwing money away pointlessly means for me leaving old versions of office on no-longer-supported operating systems, but avoiding accessing the internet with those systems completely. For instance, my XP computer and the old Office on it. On the Windows 7 computers I use for internet access, I use only supported versions of Office.

But if you must stay with Microsoft Office and go the cheaper and dangerous route by keeping the old version on a Win7 machine, you could run regular Secunia PSI scans. As far as I know, programs it finds to be unsafe have links to security advisories even if they’re no-longer-supported versions, so you should run Secunia every week (or more frequently to be safer) and wade through the technical advisories in detail to check your old Office is still safe. Which it won’t be for long, so why not save yourself that wasted effort and replace Office with freeware or buy a new version now. Then it’ll be in place, configured, tested and ready come April.

Asus N53SM & N53SN 64-bit laptops (Win7 Pro & Win10 Pro 64-bit multiboots), venerable HP Pavilion t760 32-bit desktop (XP & Win7 Pro multiboot), Oracle VirtualBox VM's: XP & Win7 32-bit, XP Mode, aged Samsung Galaxy S4, Samsung Galaxy Tab A 2019s (8" & 10.1"), Blu-ray burners, digital cameras, ext. HDDs (latest 5TB!), AnyDVD, Easeus ToDo Backup Home, Waterfox, more. Me: Aussie card-carrying Windows geek.

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