Windows XP/Office 2007

[Boris Epstein]

Hello all,

We need to prepare a presentation to be run on a Win XP machine
running Office 2007. It appars that XP is a has been (active support
ended in 2009) and Office 2007 has likewise been superceded by Office
2010. We do not have any machines here in the office that run this
combo; what is out best bet as far as emulating it?

I have looked around here in the US and can't even find a way to buy
it...

Thanks for any help.

Boris.

 

[Zaphod Beeblebrox]

Hello all,

We need to prepare a presentation to be run on a Win XP machine
running Office 2007. It appars that XP is a has been (active support
ended in 2009) and Office 2007 has likewise been superceded by
Office
2010. We do not have any machines here in the office that run this
combo; what is out best bet as far as emulating it?

I have looked around here in the US and can't even find a way to buy
it...

As far as XP goes, that really shouldn't enter into the equation -
Office should run just fine regardless of version on XP, same as it
does in Vista or Windows 7.

As I recall, Office 2010 can save in a format compatible with Office
2007 - presumably you are using Power Point? If so, there are viewers
available for various versions of PowerPoint that should confirm that
they work OK.

Also, you might consider asking in a Microsoft Office newsgroup, I
suspect they will have a more definitive answer.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Hello all,

We need to prepare a presentation to be run on a Win XP machine
running Office 2007. It appars that XP is a has been (active support
ended in 2009) and Office 2007 has likewise been superceded by Office
2010. We do not have any machines here in the office that run this
combo; what is out best bet as far as emulating it?

I have looked around here in the US and can't even find a way to buy
it...

Sorry, I don't understand your question. Why do you need a Windows XP
machine? You mention Microsoft Office, so I assume you are talking
about a PowerPoint presentation. If so, the version of Windows it runs
under is not an issue.

And similarly, the version of Office (or just PowerPoint) it runs
under is unlikely to be an issue either. Most PowerPoint presentations
should run under almost any version of PowerPoint.

So if in your Office you are running Windows Vista or Windows 7, and
you have Office 2003, 2007, or 2010 (and maybe even Office 2002, aka
Office XP) just prepare your PowerPoint presentation on what you have.
It should run on an XP machine running Office 2007 without a problem.

 

[Paul in Houston TX]

Hello all,

We need to prepare a presentation to be run on a Win XP machine
running Office 2007. It appars that XP is a has been (active support
ended in 2009) and Office 2007 has likewise been superceded by Office
2010. We do not have any machines here in the office that run this
combo; what is out best bet as far as emulating it?

I have looked around here in the US and can't even find a way to buy
it...

Thanks for any help.

Boris.

I do not understand what you are wanting to do.
Are you wanting to buy a brand new computer with XP and Office 2007
pre-installed?

 

[Zaphod Beeblebrox]

Sorry, I don't understand your question. Why do you need a Windows
XP
machine? You mention Microsoft Office, so I assume you are talking
about a PowerPoint presentation. If so, the version of Windows it
runs
under is not an issue.
Agreed.


And similarly, the version of Office (or just PowerPoint) it runs
under is unlikely to be an issue either. Most PowerPoint
presentations
should run under almost any version of PowerPoint.

Not exactly - newer versions of Office, including Power Point, include
functionality and features that are not necessarily
backward-compatible with older versions.

So if in your Office you are running Windows Vista or Windows 7, and
you have Office 2003, 2007, or 2010 (and maybe even Office 2002, aka
Office XP) just prepare your PowerPoint presentation on what you
have.
It should run on an XP machine running Office 2007 without a
problem.

I can't speak directly to 2007 vs. 2010, but in one of the systems I
maintain that was using Office 2003, we had to replace a system and as
a consequence ended up with Office 2010. Naturally, this was the
secretary's PC, who made the Power Point presentations we used. We
quickly found out that we either needed to upgrade to Office 2010 on
the PCs used to show the presentations, or install the Power Point
2010 viewer. Even saving the presentations in 2003 format often
resulted in presentations that were broken in some way or another.

A quick Google search for "powerpoint 2010 compatibility with 2007"
turned up this article, which talks about a couple of potential issues
between those versions:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc179126.aspx#BKMK_Migration,
and there were a number of other hits that talked about problems
others were having.

--
Zaphod

Pan-Galactic Gargle Blaster: A cocktail based on Janx Spirit.
The effect of one is like having your brain smashed out
by a slice of lemon wrapped round a large gold brick.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Not exactly - newer versions of Office, including Power Point, include
functionality and features that are not necessarily
backward-compatible with older versions.

Yes, that's why I said "unlikely" and "should," not "will." But
considering that he wants a presentation that will run on Office 2007,
it doesn't sound likely that he will use any of those newer features.

 

[Zaphod Beeblebrox]

Yes, that's why I said "unlikely" and "should," not "will." But
considering that he wants a presentation that will run on Office
2007,
it doesn't sound likely that he will use any of those newer
features.

My point is that if the OP prepares a presentation under PowerPoint
2010, they have to make sure they don't use anything that won't work
in 2007 - not exactly something Microsoft makes easy. Its not as if
PP will pop up and say "I notice you are using <new nifty feature> -
if you want this presentation to be compatible with <previous
version>, you shouldn't use it." Which is why I suggested the viewer
utility elsethread, and mentioned my troubles with version
compatibility in my reply to your post. Short of developing the
presentation in the desired target version of PP, I don't know of
another way to make sure it will work as intended.

--
Zaphod

Pan-Galactic Gargle Blaster: A cocktail based on Janx Spirit.
The effect of one is like having your brain smashed out
by a slice of lemon wrapped round a large gold brick.

 

[aeroloose]

My point is that if the OP prepares a presentation under PowerPoint
2010, they have to make sure they don't use anything that won't work
in 2007 - not exactly something Microsoft makes easy. Its not as if
PP will pop up and say "I notice you are using<new nifty feature> -
if you want this presentation to be compatible with<previous
version>, you shouldn't use it." Which is why I suggested the viewer
utility elsethread, and mentioned my troubles with version
compatibility in my reply to your post. Short of developing the
presentation in the desired target version of PP, I don't know of
another way to make sure it will work as intended.

Another option for the OP is to install OpenOffice on the
secretarial PC, create an Impress presentation, save it as
2000/XP ppt extension, and it'll run on 2003, 2007 or 2010.
It may lack some bells & whistles, but it'll address the
backwards-compatibility concern.

Aero

 

[Zaphod Beeblebrox]

Another option for the OP is to install OpenOffice on the
secretarial PC, create an Impress presentation, save it as 2000/XP
ppt extension, and it'll run on 2003, 2007 or 2010. It may lack some
bells & whistles, but it'll address the backwards-compatibility
concern.

My experience with cross compatibility between files created in
OpenOffice and Microsoft Office has been less than encouraging.
Generally, a lengthy editing session in Microsoft Office has been
required to get something closely resembling the original intent.

Don't get me wrong, on its own OpenOffice is a reasonably capable
office suite, I just haven't had much luck taking the files it creates
and getting a reasonable result in Microsoft Office.

 

[aeroloose]

My experience with cross compatibility between files created in
OpenOffice and Microsoft Office has been less than encouraging.
Generally, a lengthy editing session in Microsoft Office has been
required to get something closely resembling the original intent.

Don't get me wrong, on its own OpenOffice is a reasonably capable
office suite, I just haven't had much luck taking the files it creates
and getting a reasonable result in Microsoft Office.

I've had decent luck with simple documents (even
spreadsheets). When you start adding animations, macros,
tables of content, transitions, embedded objects, etc., I
agree, it goes south in a hurry. One clumsy workaround
might be to create a basic, low-level Impress presentation,
then tart it up in whichever Office version resides on the
PC of choice.