# Microsoft Office Word 2007



## mrstayto (21 Feb 2008)

Hi guys,

My uncle bought a laptop recently with Word 2007 on it. Its totally different to the older Word programs that most people are used to. Is there any way of changing the view so it looks more like Word 2003?

He's attending a computer class (complete beginner) and they're being taught on Word 2003 so hes totally confused by the new one. 

Failing that, what are the chances that we could send it back to Dell and swop it for the old Word? (I advised him to buy Word at the time, I didn't realize that the new one would be completely different)

Thanks in anticipation!


----------



## hansov (21 Feb 2008)

Are you sure it was Word and not Works?


----------



## sam h (21 Feb 2008)

I can't believe someone is teaching such an old version of Word .....it would make more sense to get them to upgrade their teaching materials to the latest version than have a class full trying to downgrade.  Once you get used to Word, it's all pretty much the same...

Dell won't be able to change it as they will only load on current versions


----------



## mathepac (21 Feb 2008)

It may be possible to buy Word 2003 off the net, but Ithere's no guarantee its a legal copy or whether it will work concurrently with your uncle's Word 2007 installation.

Try a search with "Word+2003" in the search criteria.

Is there an option in Word 2007 preferences to preserve the look and feel of older versions of the software?


----------



## seriams (21 Feb 2008)

Sounds to me like you have microsoft works too. If it was on the laptop when you purchased it, it is most likely works. A pain if you type something in works and want to print it from another pc with word - possible but annoyimg.


----------



## Morgause (21 Feb 2008)

I would say that it is definitely Word that the man has, and not Works.  Just got Office 2007 myself and it looks completely different to the previous version.  I consider myself quite computer literate and I'm having difficulties with Office 2007 myself!


----------



## mrstayto (21 Feb 2008)

Yup, its definitely Word, not Works. He may be being taught on a more recent version than Word 2003, he doesn't know, but he says it has the usual toolbar - File, Edit, View, Insert, Format, Tools etc - and not the toolbar thats on Word 2007.

I only used Word 2007 for 5 minutes to see what the problem is and its totally different to the usual word. (It took me most of that time to even figure out where the "save" button was....)

Thanks!


----------



## RMCF (21 Feb 2008)

Morgause said:


> I would say that it is definitely Word that the man has, and not Works.  Just got Office 2007 myself and it looks completely different to the previous version.  I consider myself quite computer literate and I'm having difficulties with Office 2007 myself!



Yeah same for me too.

Its definitely Word and not Works.

I have been using Word 2003 daily and when I recently had to format my HDD I could only get Word 2007.

Its so different. I too consider myself very computer literate, and it takes me ages to do anything in the new Word 2007!! 

Its not a slight change from 03 - its MASSIVE.

The menu systems are totally alien to anybody who has been using Microsoft software for years. 1st time I used it it took me about 5mins to find the SAVE AS option !!

And the big pain was when I saved a file and took it to work it would not be recognised. Word 2007 by default saves files in .docx format which Word 2003 doesn't recognise.

You need to go into the menus and set the SAVE default option to Word 2003 - which defeats the purpose of using Word 2007. 

But to answer the OP, I don't think it would make sense for MS to allow you to make Word 2007 look like Word 2003 at the press of a button.


----------



## ClubMan (21 Feb 2008)

Just making Word 2007 look like Word 2003 (if that's even possible) may not be enough:


> Word 2007 formatting breaks the ability for users to send files to earlier versioned Word users on the Macintosh or Windows (version 2004 on the Mac, 2003 on Windows). Some third-party converters have become available to assist with this, but for most, simply saving Word 2007 files with the 'Save As' command and selecting Word 2003 format creates a compatible file. Office 2008 for the Mac will acquire (restore) the cross-platform capability with the .docx format, but older version users on either platform will remain at a disadvantage.


----------



## RMCF (21 Feb 2008)

Yesterday I saved a file in Word 2007 as a 2003 document (ie .doc instead of .docx) and took it to an older PC and it has inserted a couple of blank lines in it which weren't in the original.

So although it does save it in a format that can be read, I am not 100% sure that it will save it EXACTLY as it looks in Word 2007.

I just wonder why MS made the package look SO different. Doesn't make sense.


----------



## SunshineSupe (21 Feb 2008)

Agreed.  

We just got Microsoft Office 2007 and it has taken a bit of getting used to.  It's fine now and is really capable of a great deal.  

Why Microsoft made it so different, I have no idea!


----------



## mathepac (21 Feb 2008)

SunshineSupe said:


> ...Why Microsoft made it so different, I have no idea!


Why Microsoft make anything at all and why people continue buying and trying to use their products, I have no idea.


----------



## nai (21 Feb 2008)

pretty much every laptop/pc you buy now comes with a 90 day free trial of Office 2007 - i've bought dell and toshiba laptops, dell desktops recently and all have this eval version pre-installed....


----------



## z103 (21 Feb 2008)

Why have Microsoft done this?

Well it's been said that Microsoft's biggest competitor is... Microsoft itself! They need to keep selling software to make money, but everyone is happy with the software they have. I have no particular desire to update my Word, I don't even know what version it is. It does word processing just fine, and has all the features I need etc.. This is most unfortunate for Microsoft, so they 'encourage' people to upgrade by releasing new versions that are not backwards compatible.

So the short answer is that Microsoft have done this to make money.


----------



## swordshead (22 Feb 2008)

I just checked mine..im on Word 2000 ...afraid to go anywhere near 2007 now!


----------



## ClubMan (22 Feb 2008)

sam h said:


> I can't believe someone is teaching such an old version of Word


Lots of companies still standardise on _Office 2003_.


----------



## rgfuller (22 Feb 2008)

There are a number of free online training sessions for Word 2007 thanks to MS:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-ca/training/CR100654561033.aspx


----------



## noname (24 Feb 2008)

I recently downloaded open office on my brothers laptop, & am very impressed, I only had a quick look at it but it seems very similar to the traditional word.

www.*openoffice*.org/

oh - it's free


----------



## Hurling Fan (18 Aug 2008)

Still on the subject of Microsoft Office Word 2007, I recently used a free trial of the above which has now expired but unfortunately saved a document in Word 2007 and now can't access it in my own version of Word 2003.  Is there anyway of reformatting without purchasing Office 2007 or re-typing it.

Thanks.


----------



## messyleo (18 Aug 2008)

You can download a compatibility pack (google office 2007 compatability pack or similar) from microsoft which will allow you to open docx files in office 2003. Then you can save it as a doc file.


----------



## Hurling Fan (18 Aug 2008)

Thanks for quick reply Gravitygirl.  Is there a charge for the compatibility pack?  This is what Microsoft led me to when I tried to open doc but didn't want to download it (as only have dialup) if there was a charge at the end of it.  The website doesn't seem to state either way about paying for the compatibility pack.


----------



## redstar (18 Aug 2008)

You could download a copy of OpenOffice. This should open and save doc files. Its free.
(its is the open source, free version of Staroffice)

http://www.openoffice.org/


----------



## bigjoe_dub (18 Aug 2008)

no charge for the compatibility pack.


----------



## nolo77 (18 Aug 2008)

You think Word 2007 is bad! You should try Excel 2007 - Almost unfathomable!


----------



## aircobra19 (18 Aug 2008)

sam h said:


> I can't believe someone is teaching such an old version of Word .....it would make more sense to get them to upgrade their teaching materials to the latest version than have a class full trying to downgrade. Once you get used to Word, it's all pretty much the same...
> 
> Dell won't be able to change it as they will only load on current versions


 
I'd say the majority of people and companies are still using 2003. 

Word/Office 2007 is very different. I'm using it, but still finding it hard to find my way around.


----------



## blade39 (19 Aug 2008)

Recently for my Dads office I purchased some laptops from Dell, We purchased Office 2007 Ultimate as Dell had no 2003 Office to sell us!!! 

What ever happened to choice?

However I was able to ask specifically for Windows XP Professional Operating System as Vista was just too much hassle retraining staff who are used to xp and i prefer this OS. I think its getting harder to do this also with some PC Manufacturers.

In my opinion if I had another choice besides microsoft as an OS I would use them however the monopoly they have with manufacturers is powerful.
Why dont Microsoft roll out these new OS more slowly give  3-5 Year time frame? Example it took 4 years for the new Office to be developed,
 the same as Vista then give it time to develop a life of its own and iron out any issues?


----------



## Satan's Bed (19 Aug 2008)

Check out the link below to install software and get the old 2003 menu format

http://www.addintools.com/english/menuoffice/

There is a free 15 day trial - after that it's $29.95.


S.B.


----------



## Markjbloggs (21 Aug 2008)

I will shortly be upgrading from Excel 2000 to Excel 2007, both on XP based systems.  Is it possible to also install the 2000 version without deleting the 2007 version?  The lack of backwards compatibilty is mind-boggling and I do not want to get caught out.


----------



## aircobra19 (21 Aug 2008)

Well you can have 2003 and 2007 on the same machine. I had that for a while.


----------



## miselemeas (21 Aug 2008)

leghorn said:


> Why have Microsoft done this?
> 
> Well it's been said that Microsoft's biggest competitor is... Microsoft itself! They need to keep selling software to make money, but everyone is happy with the software they have. I have no particular desire to update my Word, I don't even know what version it is. It does word processing just fine, and has all the features I need etc.. This is most unfortunate for Microsoft, so they 'encourage' people to upgrade by releasing new versions that are not backwards compatible.
> 
> So the short answer is that Microsoft have done this to make money.



That's it in a nutshell leghorn - its all about generating more and more income for Microsoft.

See [broken link removed]


----------



## Markjbloggs (21 Aug 2008)

miselemeas said:


> That's it in a nutshell leghorn - its all about generating more and more income for Microsoft.
> 
> See [broken link removed]



I just had a look at Excel 2007 on my son's laptop - This post will be deleted if not edited immediately wept, it's incomprehensible!!!!

I had been planning on an Office 2000 to Office 2007 upgrade - based on the itwire.com article above, I am now thinking an upgrade to 2003 would make more sense.


----------



## aircobra19 (21 Aug 2008)

I use VBA and macro's a fair bit so thats why I use Office. If I didn't I'd switch to Open Office. Pretty much the same thing for 90% of people.


----------

