office 2003 or 2007?

[Guest]

I have to transfer files from my old laptop (essentially all office 2003
files) and I have a few questions. First, which is better for Vista Home
premium office 2003 or 2007? Will it be easier if I install office 2003? And
what is the best way to go about the transfer? I want to ensure everything
goes as smoothly as possible
Thanks!

 

[Chad Harris]

IMHO, both work well with Vista. The bottom line is that Vista will support
or work with Office 2000. I haven't seen reports of Office '97 but I've
seen plenty of reports of Office 2000 working on Vista. You will be fine
transferring Office 2003 to Vista or installing it on Vista. As far as the
edition, it makes no difference and Office 2000 on up to 2007 works fine on
Vista.

I've personally used Office 2003 and Office 2007 on many builds of Vista. I
recommend your getting Office 2007 if it's feasible for your budget or
business because I do believe that the revamps will alllow you to use more
features easily and enough new features justify it.

If you go to you can see many demos and test drives, or you can download a
trial of Office 2007 that last for 60 days. MSFT has many webcasts demoing
the features of Office 2007 and its 27 related apps if you go to their
webcast sites:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/products/default.aspx

http://www.microsoft.com/office/greattips/2007tips/default.mspx

http://www.microsoft.com/events/webcasts/timeframeerror.mspx

CH

 

[JW]

Doesn't the OP Have to reinstall 2003 on his new computer since just
transferrring the program and data files does not get the required registry
entries established?

 

[Guest]

Thanks Chad! The 60 day trial of office 2007 came with the laptop and I plan
on getting the full version. What type of prep work should I do prior to
moving the files over? From what I've read so far (and quite possibly
misunderstood), it seems I need to install a file transfer wizard from Vista
on XP as well as the file converter for the 2003 files I need. Is there
anything else or a particular order it should be done in? Thanks for being so
helpful!

 

[Chad Harris]

"Doesn't the OP Have to reinstall 2003 on his new computer since just
transferrring the program and data files does not get the required registry
entries established?"

Good point by JW. I haven't used the Windows Easy Transfer methods , but I
would not try to transfer the program Office, but would absolutely reinstall
Office. You may be able to use the Transfer wizard to transfer your
documents though or another pc to pc software to do that or you could back
them up of course and then install them onto the Vista box. I know that
when I copied all of my programs from one drive to another, hundreds of them
made the move successfully, but about 15 did not and Office was one of them,
although I used Detect and Repair at the time (it was Office 2003) to fix
it, but it soon did not work well, and I ended up uninstalling and
reinstalling it. So may someone who has used Easy Transfer might want to
comment.

BTW you can access info on it by typing Easy Tranfer or even just Transfer
into help and support and you can see the Wizard by typing Transfer into
Vista's search, and there are a variety of ways to use this.

I would definitely install any Office version onto Vista period. I should
have made that clear.

Prep Work--I want you to type Easy Transfer into Vista Help and Support on
your start menu or you can read here--again I find people are not taking
advantage of the great information in Vista Help from the Start menu (it's
also on the web):

http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/windows/en-us/search.aspx?=&qu=Easy+Transfer

http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/Help/9e2347fc-43af-4ff9-8e33-0002b9d449561033.mspx

http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/Help/96d5d811-6d52-4dff-b39b-76c64a131dfe1033.mspx

This is how to install the ET Wiz on XP as well. You can get this done a
number of ways, and a DVD will probably be more convenient for you than
buying a cable, but take your choice.

Enjoy and make use of Help and Support. It is substantial with
comprehensive help--it is not light weight--it's every bit a Vista
"reference book" of sorts that comes with Vista.

So again, you can use the Easy Transfer Wizard to transfer what is listed in
the references but I would definitely simply install Office unless you
didn't get or lost an Office CD.

Good luck,

CH

 

[Chad Harris]

Also Troubleshoot your Transfer Problems:

http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/Help/96d5d811-6d52-4dff-b39b-76c64a131dfe1033.mspx

CH

 

[Chad Harris]

You will want to know about a new download from MSFT--Windows Easy Transfer
*Companion:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...eb-4e37-4be0-adfc-786786e73e50&DisplayLang=en

Windows Easy Transfer Companion enables you to automatically transfer your
most important programs from your Windows XP-based PC to your new Windows
Vista-based PC. The software will move more than 100 of the most popular
programs, as well as many others that you may have installed. You have
complete control over selecting which programs to transfer, so only the
programs you care about will move. The software will alert you if some
programs may not be able to transfer, or may not transfer with high
confidence. Most security software is not able to transfer due to technical
reasons.

Easy Transfer Companion is designed to be used in addition to Windows Easy
Transfer—which is part of Windows Vista and automatically transfers your
data and settings. Connecting your two computers can be done with either an
Easy Transfer Cable (available online, from retailers, and from PC
manufacturers), or a home or small business network. If using an Easy
Transfer Cable, you must first install Windows Easy Transfer on your Windows
XP-based PC. By using Easy Transfer and Easy Transfer Companion you will be
able to quickly and easily setup your new PC with all the data, settings,
and programs that matter to you, so you can be productive on your new PC
right away.

Easy Transfer Companion only transfers programs from a Windows XP-based PC
to a Windows Vista-based PC. Easy Transfer Companion is currently in Beta,
and only available for the US market

CH

 

[Chad Harris]

Why not post this in the Vista general group? It's not a setup question.

CH