Multiple version compatability

D

David Teich

Someone asked about 2002 on an old thread about 2003 & 2007, but nobody
answered. My question's similar, so I'll ask again.

I have some clients who have moved to 2007, but many who haven't. another
consultant says there are formatting incompatibilities between 2007 and older
versions, so I should stick with the older version (2002) until more clients
upgrade. Therefore, I have two issue:

1) What I'd like to do is have Word/Excel/Powerpoint run w/both 2002 & 2007,
while I stay in Outlook 2002. Can I just buy the Office Home, install it on
my two computers and have the 2002/07 versions run alongside each other?

2) On a related question that's probably sales and not tech support, is
there a simple upgrade from the Home to the Professional when more of my
clients are on 2007, or would I have to by Prof at full price?
 
D

DL

1) I believe you will find Office Home & Student is for none commercial use.

2) Office 2007 has, at least in Word & I assume other docs the facility to
save the format in the 'old version'

3) There are no incompatibilities when sending an email with OL2007

4) You can install Office 2007 alongside your earlier edition (amend your
shortcuts first, eg Word>Word02)

5) Only a single instance of Outlook can be installed
 
L

LVTravel

In addition to what DL said in reference to Home and Student not being for
commercial use (you can't make money with this version) you can run 2002
(XP) and 2007 side by side. When you install 2007 make sure you use the
custom installation and change the folder name to Office-07 or something
similar to keep the new installation from overwriting the old files.

Second would be that the default file format for 2007 should be changed to
make the default format in each of the programs to be .doc, .ppt & .xls
instead of the original default.

Third, in Word, if you switch between the two versions the computer will
always try to install the version of Word you are now starting which causes
a delay in startup. There is a registry fix for this. Click Start, Run,
type Regedit and click OK, in
HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Office/10.0/Word/Options you need to
create a new key. Right click in the right pane and then left click DWORD
Value. Once the editable box appears at the end of the current list type
"NoRereg" in the box (without the quotes). Click outside the box and then
right click on the name you just typed. Click on Modify and type the
numeral 1 and then click OK.

Do the same thing for
HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Office/12.0/Word/Options
 
D

DL

Is it not the case that all Office versions later than 2000 install to
version specific folders eg \Office11, \Office12 etc?
 
D

David Teich

It's #2 that's the issue. Other people tell me the saving doesn't work the
way it should and isn't always compatible.

However, the other info will help me figure out the combo of products to buy.

thanx
 
L

LVTravel

It definitely depends on how you do the install. Just to try what I said, I
installed Office 12 (2007) on a different computer. I did choose the custom
installation and told it not to overwrite the previous installation. It
attempted to install into the default Office directory where I had Office
97. It possibly would have overwritten some of the 97 files. I changed it
to Office-07 and it created the new directory and all is well. Since I
didn't want to attempt this test on a working machine without the change, I
don't know exactly what the outcome would have been. This machine is a
teaching machine and I use it constantly so I couldn't afford a lot of
downtime reloading if something went wrong. It currently has Office 4.3
(Win 3.1 version) Office 97, 2000, 2002, 2003, & 2007 all in separate
folders (directories) setup on install and all function properly. Never did
get a copy of Office 95 to install.

I believe, but I may be wrong, that if you don't specify a new folder, the
media, template and clipart folders would be overwritten during the install.
This way, I know that they won't.
 
B

Beth Melton

That hasn't been my experience. Starting in Office XP, they started using
different "Office Bin" folders. Office XP uses Office10, Office 2003, Office
11, and Office 2007, Office12. If you use the Custom install and specify you
want to keep the previous versions installed then there should be no worries
about overwriting anything*.

My experience has also been to leave the installation folder "as is" if
possible and at the same time I've also found it doesn't hurt to change the
folder name if you're uncertain. :)

More on side-by-side installations can be found in this KB article:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/928091/en-us

*When I first installed Office 2007 I had Word 2 - Office 2003 installed. I
used the Custom install and opted to keep all of my previous versions and
left the default folder names, (I was testing this aspect of the installer -
not trying to take precautions ;-) ), and all of the applications worked
fine. I didn't notice any differences in the templates or clipart. If
anything they were merged in the same folders and not replaced.

Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email cannot be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Coauthor of Word 2007 Inside Out:
http://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/books/9801.aspx#AboutTheBook

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/
 
L

LVTravel

Thanks Beth. As I stated, since this machine is used for production and
teaching, I need it at all times. I used the better-safe-than-sorry route
that you said also worked. Once I get my crashed (motherboard) test machine
back I'm going to see exactly what is and what isn't included or overwritten
in an installation where the folder names aren't changed.

I see you had Word 2 installed. I haven't used Word 2 in a long time, as I
said I have Word 6 from 4.3 installed. Does Word 2.0 work OK in XP (I would
suspect that it would work OK)?
 
B

Beth Melton

Hey, when in doubt always take the better safe than sorry route. :)

Sure, Word 2 worked fine in Windows XP, at least for what I used it for,
mainly reference purposes. (Note if you ever do install it, like Word 6 you
don't want to use the Compatibility Mode or you'll encounter other
problems). I don't recall if it was Word 2 or Word 6 that I needed to create
a fake Share.exe file in order to get it installed, though.

I've since switched to another computer and opted to not install every
version just for the sake of having them installed. <grin>

I did encounter issues with multiple versions so I opted to not take that
route this time. (I can still fire up my old laptop if need be - but it's a
gruesome wait!) I think specifically Word 2000 was the cause of most of the
issues. For example I lost the purple dotted underline for Smart Tags and I
suspect a control in Word 2007 didn't display correctly due to multiple
versions too. There were other minor annoyances I could work around as well,
mainly making sure the correct version of an application was registered as
the current version before using a specific command, working around the
hassle of updating/patching, etc. And there was a minor nuisance for Access
95 (I think) which was caused by installing to another folder - it involved
making some manual changes to the Registry.

Anywhoo, after my experience with multiple installations I did decide that
running so many versions side-by-side was only for those who are willing to
work around a few things. ;-)

Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email cannot be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Coauthor of Word 2007 Inside Out:
http://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/books/9801.aspx#AboutTheBook

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/
 
D

DL

Just to add to what has been said;
I had Office2k installed & installed Office 2003, not as a custom install,
simply default installation.
All ran fine, though I did'nt use word intensively - mainly Access
 
B

Bob Buckland ?:-\)

The imitation share.exe workaround (create a text file and rename it Share.exe and place it in the computer 'path') would have
likely been for Office v4 (Word 6) <g>.

=======
Hey, when in doubt always take the better safe than sorry route. :)

Sure, Word 2 worked fine in Windows XP, at least for what I used it for,
mainly reference purposes. (Note if you ever do install it, like Word 6 you
don't want to use the Compatibility Mode or you'll encounter other
problems). I don't recall if it was Word 2 or Word 6 that I needed to create
a fake Share.exe file in order to get it installed, though.

I've since switched to another computer and opted to not install every
version just for the sake of having them installed. <grin>

I did encounter issues with multiple versions so I opted to not take that
route this time. (I can still fire up my old laptop if need be - but it's a
gruesome wait!) I think specifically Word 2000 was the cause of most of the
issues. For example I lost the purple dotted underline for Smart Tags and I
suspect a control in Word 2007 didn't display correctly due to multiple
versions too. There were other minor annoyances I could work around as well,
mainly making sure the correct version of an application was registered as
the current version before using a specific command, working around the
hassle of updating/patching, etc. And there was a minor nuisance for Access
95 (I think) which was caused by installing to another folder - it involved
making some manual changes to the Registry.

Anywhoo, after my experience with multiple installations I did decide that
running so many versions side-by-side was only for those who are willing to
work around a few things. ;-)

Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email cannot be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton >>
--

Bob Buckland ?:)
MS Office System Products MVP

*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*
 
B

Beth Melton

Thanks, Bob. I should have Googled it before posting - I recall posting
about the fake Share.exe several times a few years ago. ;-)

Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email cannot be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Coauthor of Word 2007 Inside Out:
http://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/books/9801.aspx#AboutTheBook

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/
 
D

David Teich

First, who said I'm "making money" with my consulting? ;-)

Seriously, that's not a concern. I'd be continuing to use 2003 for Outlook
and most of the rest of the Suite. I'd only use the others to downrev
products I get and to get used to it on the home, non-work machine.

Next year, after the 1gb Vista SP comes out, I'll uprev the work version to
Pro and switch over. 'Aint life grand?

Second, thanx for the info on the registry. I'll keep it in mind if I see
the problem.
 
L

LVTravel

Beth & Bob, thanks for the update.

Beth Melton said:
Thanks, Bob. I should have Googled it before posting - I recall posting
about the fake Share.exe several times a few years ago. ;-)

Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email cannot be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Coauthor of Word 2007 Inside Out:
http://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/books/9801.aspx#AboutTheBook

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/
Click to expand...
 
L

LVTravel

David, there was not any original indication of you making money but you did
use the word clients and when most people think of clients and consulting
they think of making money, at least I do. Since these words were used, we,
DL and myself, just wanted you to know about the commercial restrictions so
you weren't in technical violation of the license.

FYI, the Microsoft web site in reference to the instructions for multiple
versions of Word that I gave you is:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/928091/en-us, about half way down, and it
has links at the top for other versions of Word.
 
B

Beth Melton

I think you may have missed the wink ;-) and the quotes around "making
money".

I almost missed them too. :)

Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email cannot be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
 
L

LVTravel

Yep
Beth Melton said:
I think you may have missed the wink ;-) and the quotes around "making
money".

I almost missed them too. :)

Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email cannot be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Click to expand...
 
Top