MS Office 2003 Basic

MisterEd · Jul 29, 2024

OpenOffice is not actively supported anymore. Most people that used to use it now use LibreOffice instead.

I normally use Microsoft Office that I paid for but on a couple of computers I use FreeOffice. I like it better than even LibreOffice. It is easier to deal with.

FreeOffice

FreeOffice: The best free alternative to Microsoft Office

FreeOffice, the best free alternative to Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) for Windows, Mac and Linux

www.freeoffice.com

FreeOffice installs three standalone programs TextMaker, PlanMaker, and Presentations.

TextMaker - comparable to Word
PlanMaker - comparable to Excel
Presentations - comparable to PowerPoint

The current versions of OpenOffice, LibreOffice, and FreeOffice have their own non-standard format but can also read/write the modern Microsoft format such as is .docx, xlsx, and .pptx.

All of these programs have another interesting feature. You can switch between the menu interface like Office 2003 and the ribbon interface like Office 2007 and newer.

Some people prefer the menu interface but I like the ribbon interface.

BTW, I have many versions of Office including:

Office 95
Office 97
Office 2003 Professional
Office 2003 Student and Teacher
Office 2007 Professional
Office 2007 Standard
Office 2010 University (same as Pro)
Office 2019 Professional Plus
Office 2021 Professional Plus

I still use many of these versions on my computers. I still use Office 2003 Professional on my computer with Windows XP Professional on it.

SlicEnDicE · Jul 29, 2024

I am fairly certain that these people who complain about O365 and it's UI are using the suite completely wrong in the first place, with focus on content editing/formating rather than content creation/writing.

Using World the intended way you only have to focus on typing and adding in possible images and Word handles the rest, making you very efficient.

pparks1 · Jul 29, 2024

I love my Office 365. 6 users, each gets 1TB of disk space on OneDrive. I can install the full office suite to however many PC's, Mac's, whatever I might have. With my 30% work discount being a Microsoft Enterprise customer, it costs me $69 a year. $69 a year for 6TB of cloud space....for me is a no-brainer. Office is just the icing on the cake. No licensing issues, always on the latest version. For me, 100% worth it.

Berton · Jul 30, 2024

So far have no issue with Microsoft 365 that came on a new cheapo Notebook from last Dec. Haven't had a chance yet to work with Office 365 but from I've been reading there's some difference between them but maybe not much for practical uses.

cereberus · Jul 30, 2024

win11ADM said:
I think you did not get my point. I am saying that big corporates use government intervention to protect their intrests. In my opinion that isn't free market, far from it, in fact it is the opposite. It don't matter wheter it is big tech or gov. If you believe in liberty you do not let anyone control you and make sure to feel responsible for your actions at all times. MS Office 2003 respects your liberty, MS 365 does not. If we, ofcourse decide ourselves to give up our liberty, in exchange for comfort and so called 'needed security' then that's our fault, not Microsofts. I just find it absurd how people say they believe in capitalism and then rely on Google, Apple and Microsoft to regulate their lives, while these companies function much like modern USSR ministeries.

What a load of codswallop.

ArthurDent · Jul 30, 2024

jimbo45 said:
The obvious way is to run it in a Virtual Machine -- Install Win7, or win 10 as a VM and then install office 2003 on the Guest.

Depending on what you do with Office there's not a huge amount of improvements after Office 2010 (IMHO) -- apart from EXCEL if you are a power user and some other "collaborative" projects. Typical Word docs and power point slides haven't changed much in Donkeys years. Security improvements have been made too but if you run your Virtual Machine through a "proxy server" for internet access you can get the security to be essentially controlled by the host.

You might find either Office 2007 or Office 2010 better bets if you can source those --Office 2010 will actually install and run on W11 (better to choose the 64 bit version when installing on W11). You might find some old LEGAL copies out there for literally nothing.

Cheers
jimbo

Totally agree with you there - 2010 was a sort of pinnacle. Regarding Word (bib) it STILL doesn't handle tables at all well - even in the 2016 & 2019 versions!!

O365 is a no-no for me, I'd rather pay once and "own" * the software rather than pay an annual ~~rent~~ subscription!
(* and yes, I know that I don't actually own my copy of the software).

Art

jimbo45 · Jul 30, 2024

ArthurDent said:
Totally agree with you there - 2010 was a sort of pinnacle. Regarding Word (bib) it STILL doesn't handle tables at all well - even in the 2016 & 2019 versions!!

O365 is a no-no for me, I'd rather pay once and "own" * the software rather than pay an annual ~~rent~~ subscription!
(* and yes, I know that I don't actually own my copy of the software).

Art

For tables in word - you might (again depends on what you are doing) be better off using EXCEL to create the table and import that into word.

I use EXCEL quite a lot for getting data from remote MariaDB/MySQL type databases (install the ODBC driver if doing that though) with MsQuery.

E.g from the Test classic models database on the MySql site - works for mariadb too which is what I use mainly.

And the query into EXCEL

cheers
jimbo

TraderGary · Jul 30, 2024

pparks1 said:
I love my Office 365. 6 users, each gets 1TB of disk space on OneDrive. I can install the full office suite to however many PC's, Mac's, whatever I might have. With my 30% work discount being a Microsoft Enterprise customer, it costs me $69 a year. $69 a year for 6TB of cloud space....for me is a no-brainer. Office is just the icing on the cake. No licensing issues, always on the latest version. For me, 100% worth it.

i too love my Office 365. I've been a sole proprietor working from my home for over 20 years. I'm a very heavy Microsoft Office user and my included 1 Terabyte of cloud OneDrive is key to my 321 secure backup strategy. For me its 100% worth the small annual subscription price!

ArthurDent · Jul 30, 2024

win11ADM said:
It has to do with it in the sense that big tech forces people to constantly upgrade software that is largely working perfectly. They create problems where there were none and then people have to put money on the table again to solve these problems. I think that is questionable. It is questionable that big tech controls the market in so much that they can take away people's ability to operate their systems in the way they want it. And the reason they can do it has to do with the way how gov protects property. In a truly free market their should not be any government intervention. It should be perfectly fine to crack windows software so that people can use it the way they want it, just like when I buy a table I can put an extra leg, or take one away, paint it and resell it.

So true.

Digressing slightly, I have an iPad Mini (dating from 2013) yet all the latest updates (most of which are forced on me) don't work with anything less than iOS 14 (the Mini won't update past iOS 12.5.7)

This increasingly renders the iPad potentially useless.

Take an example. The BBC News App requires an update, why, I don't know as the site was working fine before the update - I could read the news stories and watch the video clips. Now, it needs iOS 15 as a minimum (I get a message that I can download the latest compatible version - but that doesn't install but takes me back to saying that I can download the latest compatible version again).

Why? What is so different about iOS 15 tht makes it essential that I use it instead of iOS12 to look at the news?

If it was a banking app and required the higher OS for security reasons but to simply read and view news reports?!

However, if I go to the BBC News website via Safari, it all works as it should. I can view news stories and videos without a problem.

Why should I bin a perfectly good & working iPad Mini and be forced to buy a new one just so that the usual apps BBC News, Met Office, etc) work again?

/rant

Art

Edwin · Jul 30, 2024

Office 2019 Pro Plus ~ 25 bucks!
Can't beat it! What are you waiting for!?

SlicEnDicE · Jul 30, 2024

Edwin said:
Office 2019 Pro Plus ~ 25 bucks!
Can't beat it! What are you waiting for!?

Oh...bucks...I read that as bugs and was waiting for 3 more to reveal itself. :zany:

Edwin · Jul 30, 2024

Edwin said:
Office 2019 Pro Plus ~ 25 bucks!

I'm thinkin of scooping a few copies for gifts!!!

TryingHard · Aug 28, 2024

win11ADM said:
Hi. You are not alone! I was using MS Office 2003 until I upgraded from Windows 7 to 11, and my Word started freezing. Then I bought MS Office 2016, but I do not find it a very good program. It just shows how market powers do not always cause innovation. Or it shows how our capitalism isn't true capitalism, as large corporate use government force to protect their 'copy rights', blocking innovation? I do not think any office after 2003 was better than MS Office 2003 and imo 365 is technically a good application but it takes away one's sovereignty, so I do not want to use that.

In fact I am searching how I can run MS Office 2003 smoothly on Windows 11, if anyone can tell me I would be happy because it pains me to use Office 2016 tbh.

Yes you are not alone. I used Office 2003 SP3 on my W10 machine mainly because of the familiarity with it's interface and absence of the then unfamiliar ribbon. It did have some compatibility problems.
On my new W11 machine I moved to office 2010.
Just to experiment I may install Office 2003 in a VM in W11.

TryingHard · Aug 28, 2024

Edwin said:
I'm thinkin of scooping a few copies for gifts!!!

How safe is the website sharewareonsale? Is it legit and safe?
MS Office is not really "shareware".
I got a

NoScript XSS Warning

when I tried to checkout in Firefox.

50ShadesOfDirt · Aug 28, 2024

One of the advantages of virtualization is that you can continue to run the software, using licenses you've already paid for, from many years past.

+1 to jimbo's suggestion: a VM running a copy of winXP or win7, office 2003, and the relevant updates from those time periods, and you are good.

The host OS, win11 in OP's case, will provide the modern OS features, updates, security, etc., and a reasonable type-2 virtualization package of free VMware or Virtualbox, and your old licenses can be resurrected.

It's how I run my system(s), and I can test (or run in a production fashion) any OS & application combination.

And, yes, it does bypass the need for endless upgrade cycles, if you don't need the latest app- or cloud- feature, along with all the soul-draining privacy or update problems that are part and parcel of these cycles ...

Edwin · Aug 28, 2024

TryingHard said:
How safe is the website sharewareonsale? Is it legit and safe?

Check this one, it's sponsored...

Microsoft Office Professional 2021 for Windows: Lifetime License | StackSocial

<p>Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Publisher & Access: All Microsoft Essentials to Get It All Done!</p>

www.stacksocial.com

TraderGary · Aug 28, 2024

@Edwin, sponsored by whom? Microsoft? Yeah, sure!

Edwin · Aug 28, 2024

TraderGary said:
sponsored by whom?

By John, I believe, or at least promoted!

OAT · Aug 28, 2024

Edwin said:
By John, I believe, or at least promoted!

That is the site where I got my MS 2021 version 2 years ago.

TraderGary · Aug 28, 2024

Have you ever wondered how they can sell Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2021 so rock bottom cheap and still appear legitimate?

MS Office 2003 Basic

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