Office Version

[Eric]

I believe there is an Office 1997, Office 2000, 2002, 2003, 2007, am I
missing any? Was there one for every year?

What's the newest Office that works on XP?

What's the oldest Office that works on Vista?

What's the difference in versions?
MS has the different versions of Office 2007 on their web site (I don't know
what half of those features are).
Is there any place I could find out what is in each year's versions of
Office?

I'm planning to get a new machine with Windows XP and get a copy of Office
for it. I want Word, Excel, Access, and Powerpoint. I don't know what good
Publisher is, or what else any version of Office comes with that I could
possibly use. Should I pick up the oldest cheapest Office Pro I can find on
ebay?

 

[Gyorgy Moldova [MVP]]

inline

I believe there is an Office 1997, Office 2000, 2002, 2003, 2007, am I
missing any? Was there one for every year?

What's the newest Office that works on XP?
2007
What's the oldest Office that works on Vista?
97 was the oldest one I tried.
What's the difference in versions? a lot
MS has the different versions of Office 2007 on their web site (I don't
know what half of those features are).
Is there any place I could find out what is in each year's versions of
Office?

I'm planning to get a new machine with Windows XP and get a copy of Office
for it. I want Word, Excel, Access, and Powerpoint. I don't know what
good Publisher is, or what else any version of Office comes with that I
could possibly use. Should I pick up the oldest cheapest Office Pro I can
find on ebay?

well, each and every new version brought changes, 2007 brought a lot. you
should take a look at newer versions.

 

[Susan Ramlet]

Hi, Eric,

There are / were Office 95, 97, 2000, XP (2002), 2003 and 2007.

The newest that works on XP is 2007.

The oldest that works on Vista is open for debate, but I don't think I'd go
back beyond Office XP. Also, the oldest versions aren't supported any
longer:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;[ln];lifecycle

The difference in the versions is lots of things, depending on the version.
There's no web page that I'm aware of that compares all of them side by
side. Each version allegedly gets more secure and stable, with some new
features added. Depending on what you are hoping to do with it, you may be
fine with Office XP, which is a very nice version (and you could probably
get it relatively inexpensively). But keep in mind that it's two versions
old now, and it will be dropped off the support horizon sooner than the
later versions.

Oldest/cheapest is okay, EXCEPT if you need support.

Hope that helps--

 

[Eric]

well, each and every new version brought changes, 2007 brought a lot. you
should take a look at newer versions.

Ok, so I checked microsoft.com and all I saw was the features comparison
from Office 2007 Basic to Office 2007 Pro to Office 2007 Ultimate, etc.
Where would I find feature comparisons from Office 1997 to 2000 to 2007 etc?

 

[Bob I]

I see no one mentioned Office 3. or 4 that ran on "DOS" or the "Mac
versions" Office 98 and 2004.

 

[Susan Ramlet]

There isn't anything comprehensive like that on Microsoft's site...there
used to be a US article that compared the versions, but I can only find the
UK one, which would probably be close enough. It's for 2003, though:

http://www.microsoft.com/uk/office/editions-compare.mspx

Keep in mind it's biased; it is marketing the features of Office 2003.

 

[Susan Ramlet]

Hee, hee...I was thinking about those, but didn't think they'd be
relevant...I'll bet you can get them cheap, though! Maybe even on 5.25"
floppies...

 

[Peter Foldes]

Or Office 95

 

[Harlan Grove]

I see no one mentioned Office 3. or 4 that ran on "DOS" or the "Mac
versions" Office 98 and 2004.

 

[Harlan Grove]

Meant to say that Office 3 and 4 were for Windows 3.1, not plain DOS.
Distinction necessary because there were plain DOS versions of some
competing packages back then.

 

[LVTravel]

I have Office 4.3 (Word 6.0 etc.) on an XP SP2 computer right now and it
works great. Don't use the Excel or PPT versions but they too are installed
and do run. And as someone else said, you could probably really get it
cheap. It can be really rough attempting to find the proper file names and
folders since this version uses the 8.3 filename and folder naming
convention.

I have also been able to run Word 2.0 for Windows (3.1) on an XP system. It
too, ran pretty good and it was fast on an XP system. All run without
having to use compatibility mode.

 

[Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]]

Office 2003 and 2007 are the only fully supported Office versions out so I would be surprised if Microsoft published feature comparisons for obsolete software.

--
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. All
unsolicited mail sent to my personal account will be deleted without
reading.

After furious head scratching, Eric asked:

| || well, each and every new version brought changes, 2007 brought a
|| lot. you should take a look at newer versions.
||
| Ok, so I checked microsoft.com and all I saw was the features
| comparison from Office 2007 Basic to Office 2007 Pro to Office 2007
| Ultimate, etc. Where would I find feature comparisons from Office
| 1997 to 2000 to 2007 etc?

 

[Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]]

I wouldn't even go back that far - Outlook 2002 has a serious performance issue that is very annoying for its users. Office 2003 and Office 2007 are the only fully supported Office versions on Vista.

--
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. All
unsolicited mail sent to my personal account will be deleted without
reading.

After furious head scratching, Susan Ramlet asked:

| Hi, Eric,
|
| There are / were Office 95, 97, 2000, XP (2002), 2003 and 2007.
|
| The newest that works on XP is 2007.
|
| The oldest that works on Vista is open for debate, but I don't think
| I'd go back beyond Office XP. Also, the oldest versions aren't
| supported any longer:
|
| http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;[ln];lifecycle
|
| The difference in the versions is lots of things, depending on the
| version. There's no web page that I'm aware of that compares all of
| them side by side. Each version allegedly gets more secure and
| stable, with some new features added. Depending on what you are
| hoping to do with it, you may be fine with Office XP, which is a very
| nice version (and you could probably get it relatively
| inexpensively). But keep in mind that it's two versions old now, and
| it will be dropped off the support horizon sooner than the later
| versions.
|
| Oldest/cheapest is okay, EXCEPT if you need support.
|
| Hope that helps--
|
| --
| Please reply to the newsgroup. I cannot respond to private requests
| for help. Besides, then the community doesn't benefit from your
| question!
|
| || I believe there is an Office 1997, Office 2000, 2002, 2003, 2007, am
|| I missing any? Was there one for every year?
||
|| What's the newest Office that works on XP?
||
|| What's the oldest Office that works on Vista?
||
|| What's the difference in versions?
|| MS has the different versions of Office 2007 on their web site (I
|| don't know what half of those features are).
|| Is there any place I could find out what is in each year's versions
|| of Office?
||
|| I'm planning to get a new machine with Windows XP and get a copy of
|| Office for it. I want Word, Excel, Access, and Powerpoint. I don't
|| know what good Publisher is, or what else any version of Office
|| comes with that I could possibly use. Should I pick up the oldest
|| cheapest Office Pro I can find on ebay?

 

[Eric]

"Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]"
Office 2003 and 2007 are the only fully supported Office versions out so I
would be surprised if Microsoft published feature comparisons for obsolete
software.

--
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Well, usually software companies publish a "what's new" paper along with
different revisions of the same program. It seems ridiculous that they
would sell at least 6 different "versions" of the same programs if there's
nothing new. If that were the case, we might as well all be running Office
95 and downloading patches for performance/stability. There really should
be some functional changes if they gave it entirely new names.

 

[Bob I]

Milly mentioned it.

 

[Eric]

Milly mentioned it.

Actually Susan did, but it doesn't answer the question.
Are there functional differences, is there a comparison somewhere, or are
the different releases just the same stuff with minor enhancements for
speed/stability?

From the posts on here, it seems I'll want to just search for any cheap
copy, which should be at least Office 2000 right now for an XP machine.
I run Office 2000 with XP at work now and haven't heard of any reason to get
a newer year's edition.
If they're about the same price I may want the newest edition, but may want
to stick with 2003 if 2007 has bugs.

 

[Bob I]

Actually Susan did, but it doesn't answer the question.
Are there functional differences, is there a comparison somewhere, or are
the different releases just the same stuff with minor enhancements for
speed/stability?

From the posts on here, it seems I'll want to just search for any cheap
copy, which should be at least Office 2000 right now for an XP machine.
I run Office 2000 with XP at work now and haven't heard of any reason to get
a newer year's edition.
If they're about the same price I may want the newest edition, but may want
to stick with 2003 if 2007 has bugs.

My apologies to Susan! Not aware of one that covers ALL of them, and the
ones that do compare features are pretty generic. I suggest you buy the
latest version you are willing to work with. 2007 is considerably
different in the User interface, and the older ones will become
unsupported more quickly.