Office 2003 Editions Frequently Asked Questions

Office 2003 Editions mark the most significant version of Office ever released. Office 2003 Editions address productivity challenges in large and small businesses and give you better visibility into business information. You can gain deeper insights, make better decisions and take more effective action to make your business more productive and successful. Office 2003 Editions have improved in four areas: information management and control, business processes, communication and collaboration and personal productivity. Read the Office 2003 Editions overview.

Office 2003 Editions programs include many significant changes, including:

Microsoft Office has evolved from a suite of personal productivity products to a more comprehensive and integrated system. Building on the familiar tools that many people already know, the Microsoft Office System is a collection of multiple programs, servers, services and solutions that offers you a set of tools for effective teaming, process management, intelligent use of information and personal impact. Each product plays an important role in the Microsoft Office System.

At the core of the Microsoft Office System are Office 2003 Editions - such as Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2003 - which deliver the core desktop productivity tools. New features in these programs help enhance how you can work with coworkers, partners and customers and how organisations capture and use information.

Office 2003 Editions are available in several languages. Learn about the support for multiple languages in Office 2003 Editions (US).

Find Office 2003 Editions pricing and licensing information.

Yes. Find more information about getting Office Professional Edition 2003 trial software (US).

Office 2003 Editions include:

For more information, including what products are in each edition, compare Office 2003 Editions (US).

No. Microsoft offers the Microsoft Office System products independently, giving you the freedom to choose the programs, servers, services and solutions that best meet your needs.

The suggested retail prices for Office Professional Edition 2003 and Office Standard Edition 2003 licences are identical to the reduced pricing announced for Office XP Professional and Office XP Standard in May 2003.

You can upgrade most Office 2003 Editions and Office 2003 Editions programs. Find the upgrade requirements and qualifications on the How to Buy pages for these programs and Office 2003 Editions:

Note  There is no upgrade path for Office Student and Teacher Edition 2003, InfoPath™ 2003 or Outlook 2003.

Yes. A promotional step-up offering is available through Microsoft Volume Licensing until 1 September, 2004. It allows customers who have Office Standard Edition 2003 under an active maintenance agreement to migrate their licences to Office Professional Enterprise Edition 2003. For more information on the Microsoft Office Step-Up licence, please read a brief about Office 2003 Editions licensing transitions and promotions.

As per previous versions of Office, Volume Licence customers receive some extra management and deployment tools that are useful when rolling out Office on multiple desktops. Additionally, Office Professional Enterprise Edition 2003, which is only available through Volume Licensing programmes, includes Microsoft Office InfoPath 2003.

OEMs can provide the following Office 2003 Editions:

Microsoft makes Office 2003 Editions available online or on CD for Volume Licensing customers or those with Software Assurance (SA) agreements. You choose how to get the software and how to deploy it.

If you purchase a computer pre-installed with Office Professional Edition 2003 or Office Small Business Edition 2003, you have 90 days to obtain an SA agreement from an authorised Volume Licensing programme reseller.

SA agreements are obtained through Volume Licence agreements whether it's through an OEM or other Volume Licence reseller.

OEM customers with SA agreements receive the same enhanced benefits as Volume Licensing customers. These benefits include: new version rights; Home Use Program, which allows installation of Office on employees' home computers; eLearning or self-paced online training; Employee Purchase Programme; training vouchers; Microsoft TechNet Online Concierge Chat; and other benefits.

No. The SA agreement is only available within 90 days if you purchase a computer with Office Professional Edition 2003 or Office Small Business Edition 2003 pre-installed.

Microsoft currently offers SA for the Windows client operating system and server products that are sold pre-installed through the OEM channel. By extending the SA offering to Office, OEM customers now have consistent coverage for all their core business software.

Microsoft expanded the number of editions with the 2003 release of Office to distinguish between products and expand offerings, functionality and value for many different types of customer. Volume Licensing and SA customers receive upgrade options or promotions that are relevant to the current edition they have under agreement.

Customers do have the option to do a test-drive or adopt the new editions since we differentiated the products. For example, Office Standard Edition 2003 Volume Licensing customers can try Office Professional Edition 2003 programs that they have licences for or they can take advantage of a step-up promotion to permanently adopt the Office Professional Edition 2003 programs and simply pay the difference.

Volume Licensing customers can "step up," or upgrade, to an Office Professional Edition 2003 licence and the advanced capabilities of Office Professional Edition 2003 if Office Standard Edition 2003 doesn't suit their needs.

To step up, you can simply pay the difference between your original Office Standard Edition 2003 licence and the Office Professional Edition 2003 licence and then make future SA agreement payments at the professional level, rather than the standard level.

If you have an SA agreement for Office Standard Edition 2003, for example, you can take advantage of the advanced capabilities of Word 2003, Excel 2003, Outlook 2003 and PowerPoint 2003 in Office Professional Edition 2003. You simply choose whether to use Office Standard Edition 2003 programs (Word 2003, Excel 2003, Outlook 2003 and PowerPoint 2003) or the professional versions of these programs.

You must have an active SA agreement for Office Standard Edition 2003 when you purchase the Step-Up licence. Once you purchase the Step-Up licence, you can have full support for Office Professional Edition 2003. When it's time to renew your SA agreement, you can renew your agreement for Office Professional Edition 2003.

See the system requirements for Office 2003 Editions.

Office 2003 Editions require Microsoft Windows XP or Microsoft Windows 2000 Service Pack 3 (SP3). Using these operating systems can enhance security and reliability and many businesses already have them. Businesses can plan for software upgrades by reviewing Microsoft product life-cycle policies.

Yes. You need to activate the software by providing your country/region name and product identification number, but you don't have to provide any personal information (such as a name or telephone number). Learn more about product activation (US).

Yes. Since document formats in Office 2003 Editions are the same as those in Office XP, Office 2000 and Office 97, they are compatible with those versions.

Specifically:

You can install one copy of Office Professional Edition 2003, Office Small Business Edition 2003 and Office Standard Edition 2003 on your main computer and another on your laptop computer for your exclusive, but non-concurrent use. To install a version of these Office 2003 Editions on more than these two computers, you must obtain another licence for the program. You can install Office Student and Teacher Edition 2003 on up to three computers in your household if a household member is qualified. You can work with Office 2003 Editions at your desk and when mobile. Note  Licences for the 2003 release of Office acquired pre-installed on new computers are single-computer licences that cannot be transferred or installed on another computer.

Microsoft already offers Partners great resources for building their businesses with customer productivity solutions - such as the Microsoft Certified Partner Programme and Microsoft Gold Certified Partner Programme, product beta releases, "go-to-market" campaigns and the Microsoft Office Solution Accelerators (US). For the Microsoft Office System, including Office 2003 Editions, Microsoft has added new initiatives to help Partners maximise opportunities to create customer productivity solutions using the Microsoft Office System.

The new initiatives include:

Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003 provides an end-to-end solution that connects employees to relevant information, programs, people and teams. It acts as a main hub for Office 2003 Editions desktops, making it simple and powerful for employees throughout the organisation to get information, work together and make smarter, faster business decisions.

Using the combined collaboration features in Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003 and Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services organisations can help their employees create and manage rich, easy-to-build websites to work together on documents, projects and tasks. These sites can be organised, discovered and used throughout the organisation. Features such as document versioning, approval workflow, check in and check out, document profiling and publishing can help improve information flow. You can also personalise and customise intranet and extranet sites using advanced user-profiling capabilities.

Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 works closely with Outlook 2003 to provide employees with a secure end-to-end messaging solution that is available anywhere, anytime and on any device. Furthermore, Exchange 2003 is the highest quality, most secure release of Exchange to date and provides IT professionals with a superior messaging infrastructure at a low total cost of ownership.

Microsoft Windows Server 2003 is the foundation for an integrated infrastructure. By adding the power of smart clients and collaborative servers, you get easier, more secure and reliable access to your own and shared information, including team documents. The result is documented productivity increases that are already saving millions of dollars annually for businesses and governments worldwide.

For example, Windows Server 2003 and Windows SharePoint Services together can help teams collaborate through team collaboration sites. Similarly, Microsoft Windows Rights Management Services (RMS) for Windows Server 2003 enables you to implement information rights management (IRM) technologies introduced in Office 2003 Editions. IRM can help prevent sensitive documents and email messages from being forwarded, edited or copied by unauthorised individuals.

Extensible Markup Language (XML) enables developers to create solutions that incorporate information from a variety of sources into Word 2003, Excel 2003 and Access 2003 files. Programs in Office 2003 Editions can automate virtually any task involved with creating files such as reports, spreadsheets or forms. Use Office Professional Edition 2003 to customise schemas and task panes to integrate with other programs or XML data sources.

Office 2003 Editions provide new and improved features for accessibility. General accessibility features include:

In addition, Word 2003 includes keyboard shortcuts for customisation options and tips for working more efficiently. For Access 2003, developers and users who create and modify Microsoft SQL Server queries can now control the font size of the text in the SQL Server window.

Learn more about Microsoft accessibility guidelines.

Visit Office Downloads to find software updates, downloads, add-ins, templates, service releases, online services and other downloads.

Use a viewer (or readers) to read - and sometimes print - a file if you do not have the program installed on your computer. Visit Office Downloads to search for and download viewers for the following programs:

Yes. Find more information about support for Office products at each Office product home page. For example, for support for Word, visit the Word home page. Get more information about support for Office products.

See the previous versions section for product information, downloads and support options.

Visit Microsoft Mactopia for Macintosh products and support information.

Visit the Office home page for more information about Office programs.

Microsoft Works is targeted at home users who want a basic, task-based tool. The Works suite includes templates designed for personal use, such as cards, invitations, flyers and home budgets. In contrast, Office offers productivity and collaboration tools for use in businesses and home offices. Learn more about Works products.

To obtain a replacement CD-ROM or manual, contact Microsoft Supplemental and Replacement Parts at 0870 6010100; Microsoft may ask you to fax a copy of the store receipt.

If you received Office pre-installed or distributed by an OEM, you must contact the OEM for a replacement.

If you acquired Office through the Volume Licensing programme (including an Open Licence or a Select Licence), contact the Microsoft Worldwide Fulfilment Office. Learn more about how to replace lost, broken or missing Microsoft software or hardware.