Office 2007 v Office 2003 - which is better?

abisnail75

Think that functionality must have passed me by but will look out for it when I get my new laptop.

Laptop I'm going to get only comes with XP Media Centre though hence part of the reason why it's a good deal.

Problem is, I need Outlook, Powerpoint, Excel and Word which 2003 does as a nice student package with 3 licenses but you can't get this from what I can tell with 2007 as you have to go for a bigger version - they've dropped Outlook for OneNote(?) or something and you can only put it on one machine.

Also would you recommend an OEM version or the retail version?

Thanks for your help.

abisnail75

Stephen_Leak wrote: »

Desktop gadgets are a Vista thing.

In which case I'll just have to dream then...

nickj_2

try open office which has all the stuff office has but is free and is compatible with ms
i've downloaded it for my daughter and she has no probs using it

abisnail75

Thanks, have heard good things about Open Office but know the MS programmes really well now and record my own macros to put on my toolbars and know all the short cuts too.

IS this possible in Open Office?

alanrowell

Just use 2003, the look & feel is like 2000 - and with 2007 around it's a hell of a lot cheaper.

If you have the disks you could try installing 2000 on the new computer - I'm running 2000 under XP with no problems at all

superscaper

Stephen_Leak wrote: »

Desktop gadgets are a Vista thing.

But you've been able to get desktop gadgets for XP for ages? Gadgets are pretty much just standalone mini applications. You can get the same thing with widgets the only difference being you need an engine to run the widgets, such as DesktopX, Yahoo widgets, kapsules. Difference between gadgets and widgets isn't a completely firm definition but it's good rule of thumb. DesktopX Pro allows users to create standalone gadgets, and as I said they've been available for XP for a long time. The only real difference is that Vista's gadgets are Microsoft's own. But I don't think there's anything special that can't already be done on XP in terms of gadgets/widgets.

abisnail75

superscaper wrote: »

But you've been able to get desktop gadgets for XP for ages? Gadgets are pretty much just standalone mini applications. You can get the same thing with widgets the only difference being you need an engine to run the widgets, such as DesktopX, Yahoo widgets, kapsules. Difference between gadgets and widgets isn't a completely firm definition but it's good rule of thumb. DesktopX Pro allows users to create standalone gadgets, and as I said they've been available for XP for a long time. The only real difference is that Vista's gadgets are Microsoft's own. But I don't think there's anything special that can't already be done on XP in terms of gadgets/widgets.

Thanks for explaining this Superscraper. Think this functionality has just passed me by!

Am really really torn between the 2 versions.

Can get Student edition of 2003 for £100 with computer which means I get free delivery worth £10 so it will cost me £90 and I can put in on the desktop too as it has 3 licenses.

Have found plenty of boxed academic versions of Office basic 2007 (same bundle of programmes) with 2 licenses though on ebay for £122.50 inc VAT and delivery. Is it worth paying the extra cash when I'll only be running XP Media Centre?

So confused now with all the options I don't know what to do.

Can anyone help? THanks