Will word 2003 clash with word 2007?

[removing all headers and footers]

I have Office and Word 2003 operating on my desktop.

Can I also install Word 2007 on the same computer, and run the two programs
independently? --- or will the two clash and overlap with each other? thanks

 

[Jay Freedman]

I have Office and Word 2003 operating on my desktop.

Can I also install Word 2007 on the same computer, and run the two programs
independently? --- or will the two clash and overlap with each other? thanks

You can indeed run both versions simultaneously. The Office 2007 installer will
allow you the choice of whether or not to replace the 2003 version, and you can
tell it not to replace but to leave 2003 in place. (You can only run one version
of Outlook.)

Because both versions use some of the same registry entries, this kind of setup
will cause either version to try to run the Office setup after the other one has
run (to repair the "broken" entries). There is a solution for this, however.

If you're running on Windows XP, download
http://www.gmayor.com/Zips/NoReReg.zip, unpack it, and double-click the .reg
file it contains. If you want to know what it's doing, read
http://www.gmayor.com/Toolbars_in_word_2007.htm.

If you're running Windows Vista, there is a similar registry change, but I don't
know of a .reg file to make the change easy.

 

[Terry Farrell]

And because you can only use one version of Outlook, go for Outlook 2007: it
really is a big improvement over OL2003.

 

[Stan Brown]

Sat, 08 Mar 2008 21:12:00 -0500 from Jay Freedman

Because both versions use some of the same registry entries, this
kind of setup will cause either version to try to run the Office
setup after the other one has run (to repair the "broken" entries).
There is a solution for this, however.

Hmm -- it doesn't seem to work that way for me. I set up a Word 2003
shortcut in my Send To foilder, as suggested here. When I send a
document to Word 2003, and later close Word, I get "changes have been
made that effect the global template Normal.dot" (which is false),
but no viisble attempt to run Office setup.

 

[Stan Brown]

Sun, 09 Mar 2008 11:53:15 -0400 from Jay Freedman

While I wouldn't rule out the possibility that this message is due
to having two versions of Word on the computer (i.e., I've heard of
much stranger things), it's more likely to be due to an add-in.
Beth Melton discusses this at
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/assistance/HA011514521033.aspx.

It could be an add-in, but in that case it's one that appeared on my
computer a the same time I installed Word and Excel 2007. I did not
get the message before installing Office 2007, and I began getting it
the very first time I ran Word 2003 after installing Office 2007.

I've been running both 2003 and 2007 on the same computer for many
months and haven't seen the message, so it certainly isn't a
necessary result of the setup.

I believe you. There seem to be a lot of dark corners here.

As I mentioned, unlike Graham I do *not* get any indication that Word
2003 is trying to re-run Office install.

 

[Jay Freedman]

Sat, 08 Mar 2008 21:12:00 -0500 from Jay Freedman


Hmm -- it doesn't seem to work that way for me. I set up a Word 2003
shortcut in my Send To foilder, as suggested here. When I send a
document to Word 2003, and later close Word, I get "changes have been
made that effect the global template Normal.dot" (which is false),
but no viisble attempt to run Office setup.

While I wouldn't rule out the possibility that this message is due to having two
versions of Word on the computer (i.e., I've heard of much stranger things),
it's more likely to be due to an add-in. Beth Melton discusses this at
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/assistance/HA011514521033.aspx.

I've been running both 2003 and 2007 on the same computer for many months and
haven't seen the message, so it certainly isn't a necessary result of the setup.