Office 2000 vs Office 2003

I'm looking to put all my users on to the same version of
office... currently have 97,2000, 2002 & 2003 !!

I've only used office 97 so if anyone has any comments /
advice about which I should go for I'd be grateful.

The thinking is to go with 2000 as its an older
product.... but I do have 4 new PC's with Office 2003
loaded on them.

Is 2003 stable and secure enough yet? The needs are basic
office admin stuff and well as some vba add ins I've
created. Licences aren't an issue as will spend to sort
it all out

Any help would be wonderful.

Thanks.
M.

From what I've seen, Office 2003 is stable. It appears that Microsoft did
more "bug fixing" than adding features when they went from XP (aka. 2002) to
2003, but there are some new features added in both 2002 and 2003. Also, for
Access, the default file format for 2000, 2002, and 2003 is the 2000 file
format. There is also a 2002/2003 file format support by the 2 newer
versions.

The help files are much better in your 97 version, so you may want to keep a
copy of it around and loaded so that you can use them. The 2003 help files
are much better than the 2000 and 2002 help files, but the interface to get
to the help is a pain. It defaults to an online help in the applications
(but not in the VBA editor), which allows Microsoft to keep the topics up to
date and corrected, but is slow and the search engine running it is
definitely NOT "Google". In the VBA editor, if you go Help|Microsoft Visual
Basic Help, you will get an interface similar to the old help, but still
missing a couple of features.

--
Wayne Morgan
Microsoft Access MVP


"Mart" wrote in message
...
I'm looking to put all my users on to the same version of
office... currently have 97,2000, 2002 & 2003 !!

I've only used office 97 so if anyone has any comments /
advice about which I should go for I'd be grateful.

The thinking is to go with 2000 as its an older
product.... but I do have 4 new PC's with Office 2003
loaded on them.

Is 2003 stable and secure enough yet? The needs are basic
office admin stuff and well as some vba add ins I've
created. Licences aren't an issue as will spend to sort
it all out

Any help would be wonderful.

Thanks.
M.

Thanks very much for that
M.
-----Original Message-----
From what I've seen, Office 2003 is stable. It appears
that Microsoft did
more "bug fixing" than adding features when they went
from XP (aka. 2002) to
2003, but there are some new features added in both 2002
and 2003. Also, for
Access, the default file format for 2000, 2002, and 2003
is the 2000 file
format. There is also a 2002/2003 file format support by
the 2 newer
versions.

The help files are much better in your 97 version, so
you may want to keep a
copy of it around and loaded so that you can use them.
The 2003 help files
are much better than the 2000 and 2002 help files, but
the interface to get
to the help is a pain. It defaults to an online help in
the applications
(but not in the VBA editor), which allows Microsoft to
keep the topics up to
date and corrected, but is slow and the search engine
running it is
definitely NOT "Google". In the VBA editor, if you go
Help|Microsoft Visual
Basic Help, you will get an interface similar to the old
help, but still
missing a couple of features.

--
Wayne Morgan
Microsoft Access MVP


"Mart" wrote in
message
...
I'm looking to put all my users on to the same version
of
office... currently have 97,2000, 2002 & 2003 !!

I've only used office 97 so if anyone has any
comments /
advice about which I should go for I'd be grateful.

The thinking is to go with 2000 as its an older
product.... but I do have 4 new PC's with Office 2003
loaded on them.

Is 2003 stable and secure enough yet? The needs are
basic
office admin stuff and well as some vba add ins I've
created. Licences aren't an issue as will spend to sort
it all out

Any help would be wonderful.

Thanks.
M.




.

"Mart" wrote

The thinking is to go with 2000 as its an older
product.... but I do have 4 new PC's with
Office 2003 loaded on them.

Access 2000 was, arguably, the buggiest-ever release of Access. It has had
three Service Releases and there are still unresolved issues. To top it off,
it is out of service, now, so you can't expect any more fixes.

Many of those issues were resolved in Access 2002, and more were resolved in
Access 2003.

I cannot imagine that you would want to _start_ using an out-of-service
product -- one for which you can't expect full support, even for fee, from
Microsoft.

As Wayne said, Access 2003 seems stable (though with any product this
complex, don't ever expect any release to be completely bug-free).

Larry Linson
Microsoft Access MVP