Microsoft Word 2003 [OLD VERSION]

Another thing about the interface is that it meshes nicely with Windows XP themes. It will take a soft blue color when paired with Windows XP's default theme. All of the bars will be blue. This is nice on the eyes. The same goes with silver - everthing will match.

As for upgrading to 2003 from older versions... this is a tough call. If you have Word XP, I would be hard pressed to tell you to upgrade. Even Word 2000 does a fine job. I don't know if there are enough new bells and whistles in this to warrant upgrading. If you like to have the newest of everything however, this is the best word processor out there for PCs.

For those of you on a tight budget, thers is hope. As good as Microsoft Office products are, there is a FREE alternative. You may want to give OpenOffice 1.1 a download. It is completely free and open source, and most importantly, compatible with Microsoft documents (word, excel, etc).


Justified Upgrade for some, but not all   November 8, 2003
J. Turner (Houston, Texas United States)
32 out of 33 found this review helpful

Word 2003 is more powerful than ever. Unfortunately, most of the new features are aimed primarily towards large business. As a result, many end-users simply won't need them (or be able to use them). The users who will benefit most from upgrading are corporate users or users purchasing bundles with new PCs.

Pros:

Instant Messaging support is now integrated with Office applications. However, only MSN messenger is used. Users who predominantly use Yahoo, trillian, jabber, or ICQ will not find any utility in this feature, without signing up for a messenger account.

The user interface has changed for the better, and matches the Windows XP interface better. Personally, I like it. Also, fonts are rendered better, and consequently documents will look better on laptops (no more jagged edges).

The Reading Layout feature splits the text into a two column format for easier reading (think newspaper).

If you have Microsoft Server and SharePoint services installed on your network, you can share and track changes to word documents. Nice feature, but requires a significant investment on server software.

When typing an hypertext link, word no longer reformats the font of the URL.

Cons:

Product activation, which requires network access.

All of the Office applications now have a blended help system that first checks help files online first, before getting local help files.

XML is useless for end users. Programmers who use Word to write XML will find that Word no longer tries to autocorrect much of the XML, but you will still have the annoying red underline on many of your XML tags because the spellchecker flags them as misspelled.

Still, I think it makes a worthy upgrade for 97/2000 users, but XP users will find the expense difficult to justify. More specifically, if you are an end user without a lot of Microsoft back end software installed on your network (Windows 2000/2003 Server, SharePoint services, etc.) I would think very carefully before upgrading.


GREAT PROGRAM, BUT YOU CAN GET IT CHEAPER   July 1, 2006
Greg (Lafayette Hill, PA United States)
19 out of 19 found this review helpful

Microsoft Word 2003 is a great word processing program, but I would strongly recommend the Student and Teacher edition. The Student and Teacher edition contains Word along with Exel, Powerpoint, and Outlook for about $120 AND you can install it on up to three separate computers.


Still THE Best   September 21, 2008
John N. Schear (Roanoke, Virginia United States)
I was an original Wordperfect user. Microsoft suggested that for the price of a Wordperfect registration page they would give me a copy of a brand new product called Word. Sure why not. Any thing free is better than paying. But, this was one fantastic deal. I liked the first version so well that I upgraded everytime through version 3. What I like most about this software is if you are the casual user, you can use it. If you are really smart ( a caterogy that eludes me ) you can do wonders with this massive program. When it comes time for a new computer setup it will be time for a new Office setup including the full version of Word et al.


Excellent Product   July 1, 2005
John M (Florida)
2 out of 6 found this review helpful

This is my first time using any MS Office Product. I found the installation to be a breeze. Product is working flawlessly. My wife really enjoys the spell checker. Recommend this to all as a step up from WordPad.
John M