computer illiterate needs assistance

[cptkirk]

hey guys,

bought a new laptop a few months ago and started with the 90 day trial of microsoft office 2007 and i have a lot of files (word) saved on it

now that the trial had run out i can still open and read the files but i cannot alter them at all

now if i get a 2003 microsoft version, will these convert over?

if not then what are my options?

my business computer is 200 or 2003 so i do need to get an earlier version as i can't do any stuff at work which is what it's for

thanks

 

[Cleavy]

download OpenOffice

 

[cptkirk]

doing it right now

do i just get office 2003 after that?

 

[Cleavy]

doing it right now

do i just get office 2003 after that?

no, use instead of. can still save in word format if required.

 

[cptkirk]

good job mate

so i just save the 2007 microsoft files as openoffice files and that will work on my work computer 2003?

 

[Conan Troutman]

If you are still considering getting office...

If I remember right, there is an addon (I think? it may have maybe a different free program) for 2003 which will allow you to open (or convert) 2007 docx files. I can't remember the details too well sorry mate, but I've had to do it before myself (a client gave me a 2007 file which I couldn't open), and I remember being able to do it.

take a look at this link (says down the bottom what doesn't convert across properly):
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word/HA100444731033.aspx

Don't know if that's what I did (it was a couple of years ago), I were using Office on a Mac too, which may have been different. I seem to remember having to open a separate program to convert it, unless it was office launching a separate program??

With your 07 trial version, are you still able to choose 'save as', or is that disabled too? If you can, you'd be able to save them as Word 97-2003 format in there. That's what I usually do when doing work stuff at home (I got 2007 at home a while after the docx file from the client). I believe you can set up 2007 to always save in the older format by default too, although I haven't done this myself.

Yeah, so if buying Office, and if there's not much difference in price with 03 and 07 (I have no idea), then you shouldn't have a problem with 07 at home, and an older version at work, by using 'save as > Word 97-2003 Document'.

But yeah, you may be able to bypass buying either Office using OpenOffice - I don't know.

 

[CF]

microsoft are currently offering their new office 2010 version as a beta form for free. I have been using it and it is terrific.

http://www.microsoft.com/office/2010/en/default.aspx

 

[cptkirk]

thanks boys

i had the trial version so i can't alter the files at all with either text or saving to somewhere else or in a different form

i've gone with the openoffice and see how it goes

 

[100action]

microsoft are currently offering their new office 2010 version as a beta form for free. I have been using it and it is terrific.

http://www.microsoft.com/office/2010/en/default.aspx

can the beta be used forever, or will it terminate?

 

[Jabso]

can the beta be used forever, or will it terminate?

Beta is close to the final version but given to users for testing out potential bugs. Once the full version comes out (or even before that) the beta trial will finish.

I have word 2003 and don't have many problems with word 2007 documents. If you install it windows auto update should update it so it can open those documents. In fact if you try to open it with 2003 it might say you need to download this update, which you should do.

Openoffice is pretty good and you can still save stuff as .doc.

 

[Gibbsy]

I use Word 2007 but have it in "Compatibility Mode" so it automatically saves a .doc rather than a .docx
Better to be on the safe side when transferring files to other computers.