Office 97 question

[Tony Vella]

I have been using Office Pro 97 (Word and Excel) on a Vista machine for
about two years and everything seems to work fine -- the two programs do
everything I want them to do. A neighbour just mentioned that I should
upgrade to at least Office Pro 2003 because I cannot "really" rely on OP97
with Vista. Admittedly it does not take much to confuse this old geezer but
now I am confused. I thought this group would be the perfect place to ask
for opinions and advice. Thanks in advance.

[fc42]

Tony,

I'm sorry that I don't know the answer to your question (although my usual
philosophy is - if it's working for you DON"T fix it!)

You might want to also ask your question in microsoft.public.office.misc.
It seems to be a much more active group than this one. Good luck.
--
fc42
Just a hitchhiker on the Information Superhighway.

Post by Tony Vella
I have been using Office Pro 97 (Word and Excel) on a Vista machine for
about two years and everything seems to work fine -- the two programs do
everything I want them to do. A neighbour just mentioned that I should
upgrade to at least Office Pro 2003 because I cannot "really" rely on OP97
with Vista. Admittedly it does not take much to confuse this old geezer
but now I am confused. I thought this group would be the perfect place to
ask for opinions and advice. Thanks in advance.
--
Tony Vella
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada -- http://www.amedialuz.ca/

[RobertVA]

Post by Tony Vella
I have been using Office Pro 97 (Word and Excel) on a Vista machine for
about two years and everything seems to work fine -- the two programs do
everything I want them to do. A neighbour just mentioned that I should
upgrade to at least Office Pro 2003 because I cannot "really" rely on
OP97 with Vista. Admittedly it does not take much to confuse this old
geezer but now I am confused. I thought this group would be the
perfect place to ask for opinions and advice. Thanks in advance.

Microsoft and its retailer would LOVE to receive the couple of hundred
dollars you would pay purchasing a newer version!

[kraut3852]

On Wed, 15 Jul 2009 01:32:45 -0400, RobertVA

Post by RobertVA

Post by Tony Vella
I have been using Office Pro 97 (Word and Excel) on a Vista machine for
about two years and everything seems to work fine -- the two programs do
everything I want them to do. A neighbour just mentioned that I should
upgrade to at least Office Pro 2003 because I cannot "really" rely on
OP97 with Vista. Admittedly it does not take much to confuse this old
geezer but now I am confused. I thought this group would be the
perfect place to ask for opinions and advice. Thanks in advance.

Microsoft and its retailer would LOVE to receive the couple of hundred
dollars you would pay purchasing a newer version!

If it works and does what you want why upgrade?? They always will be
people that think "newer and bigger" is better.

My 98 box died so I just upgraded to a new system with XP and when I
asked about Office 97 I got the same feedback.

Like you I use Word and Excel and am not a "power user" so why spend
the big bucks for something I do not need?!?! I stayed with 97 and
have had no pronlems.

[James Button]

I have recently stopped running 97 as my last client using it had to get
a new machine, and upgraded to 2007 on that system.

As far as I am aware the primary concerns were:
difficulties in reading files from his associates systems using later
versions.
Some VBA differences that needed to be addressed in macros (I produced
them on a 2K system before that organisation became a client)

Lack of security in that I believe MS have ceased producing fixes for
Office 97 components.

My recommendation

Either stick with 97 and accept the possible problems.
Consider your (the) re-education required for the latest version -
ribbon etc, but with the extra features, functionality etc.

Then - either go for 2003 for the same 'user environment' as 97.

Get 2010 - Beta free for almost a year, then you'll have to buy a copy
And can decide then if you want to convert all the 2010 files to 2003,
Assuming that you have not kept the applications working in 2003
compatibility mode.

You may, at that time have some difficulty finding a copy of Office 2003
Can you make do with the Student version - relatively cheap, or will you
need the Pro, or an even more expensive version.

There are also facilities to help you run 2007 (and probably 2010) with
the old menu and shortcut key mode, and/or learn the new 2007/2010 mode
as MS is very unlikely to go back to the old (pre 2007) user
environment.

JimB