Office Upgrade

[kodakjack]

I have Office 2003 and it lacks PDF features and other things I'd like to have. I am buying a 2010 version and the person I'm buying it from recommends uninstalling the 2003 version, backing up my data files as well as temporarily suspending Microsoft Security Solutions during install. I'm not sure how to temporarily stop Security Solutions. Anything else I should be aware of to make this painless? I am not as big an Office user as I used to be, so, it's more for convenience than constant use. An upgrade as opposed to Office 365 or something brand new isn't necessarily called for or justified. Thanks.

 

[fireberd]

You don't need to suspend the Microsoft Security. Years ago it was standard to stop antivirus and other programs as they would interfere. Not the case, usually, now.

Uninstalling Office 2003 (I still have it on my Win 7 system) should not delete files in My Documents. I guess you can back them up just in case.

When I upgraded my Win 8.1 to Win 10, I uninstalled Office 2003 and it did not delete any of my documents associated with MS Office.

I installed the free Libre Office, which is compatible to MS Office and what I use with Win 10 and it will export as a PDF.
Home | LibreOffice - Free Office Suite - Fun Project - Fantastic People

 

[kodakjack]

I already bought it and was surprised to get it for a decent price. If you look on Ebay, you'd think t was the hottest thing since sliced bread!!

 

[Ranger4]

Be careful of buying software on ebay, it often has very doubtful origins & can be pirated copies or a copy that is already in use. You may have problems getting it activated if it is.

Good luck & get back if you have any problems.

 

[kodakjack]

Well, if it sounds too good to be true, it almost always is! The guy selling the software talked a good deal, but, it was something he'd gotten from a tech friend, blah, blah, blah! So, I'm back looking again. I know there are cautions about Ebay, but where else do you go and not pay a small fortune just for a little convenience? Open Office does not handle PDF's back and forth, according to what I see. There is Office Pro, Office Home and Student, Office Home and Business, etc. I would like to be able to deal with docx. xlsx, PDF's back and forth, etc. Besides that, Office 2003 isn't supported anymore. Any suggestions are appreciated.

 

[Ranger4]

Selecting an Office program is difficult these days, unless you know exactly what you want.

MS Office Pro has features the others don't have & it includes Access which is their database program.
Office 365 is a subscription type program & you pay a certain monthly fee, depending on what options you have selected.
Office Home & Business is fairly self describing & is intended for small business owners who want & use if for home use as well.
Office Home & Student is also fairly self descriptive.

Have a look at a Microsoft Office website & read through all the versions & work out which one goes closest to your needs, then check out their prices & then see if some of your local stores carry it & at what price. You can download Office direct from MS after providing a means to pay for it.

From what you have said it seems that you will need Excel & Word mainly, but as you have Office 2003, you should also know what other programs you require.

As fireberd has suggested you should be able to uninstall office 2003 without losing existing created files, but certainly back them up first.
You will need to convert Office 2003 files to the new version of Office as the file dot suffix has changed.

 

[whs]

I would go for Libre Office. It is free and can do everything that Windows Office does.

 

[kodakjack]

Well, I asked about Home and Business as opposed to Home and Student because it really isn't obvious what the differences would be. Both versions are going to have the same programs, so, maybe there are suttleties that apply to each. The Pro version is usually cheaper on Ebay if that makes any sense.
Libre Office isn't as popular as others, so, I'll have to see if it handles PDF's and other things I'd like.

 

[strollin]

... I would like to be able to deal with docx. xlsx, PDF's back and forth, etc. Besides that, Office 2003 isn't supported anymore. Any suggestions are appreciated.

I'm not sure what you mean when you say you want to deal with these types of files "back and forth". Whether you choose Office or LibreOffice, they work about the same. For instance both can save or publish a document as a pdf but you won't be able to edit that pdf. That's not really a big deal since you can edit the original document and then save it again as a pdf.

Either can read or write your old .doc files that were created with Office 2003. You will not need to convert those files in any way. As long as you keep them as .doc files then they will still be usable with Office 2003. It's the same with .xls files.

Both can work with the newer .docx or .xlsx files as well. LibreOffice has it's own file formats as well but you don't need to use those formats if you wish to maintain the ability to exchange files with other Office users.

I have successfully purchased software from Ebay but you need to make sure you buy only from those sellers with very high feedback ratings.

Personally, if I didn't already have Office, I would use LibreOffice.

 

[whs]

That is a good summary of the situation. The only few Libre Office restrictions I am aware of are in the PowerPoint/Impress area.

 

[kodakjack]

I guess I didn't explain myself clearly. If someone sends me a PDF file, I'd like to be able to edit that file (add or change things) and then send it back to them as a PDF. I was thinking that I could change from the original PDF to Word, make changes, save it as a PDF again and send it along. I guess there are PDF editors, but that doesn't help me with my older version of Office situation. It would be nice to be able to update to something newer and be able to deal with PDF's I may get from someone too. I thought the newer versions of Office allowed you to do that and that's why I started looking at newer versions to upgrade to.
When I was speaking of going back and forth, I was referring specifically to PDF's.
If I go for Libre Office, do I have to uninstall Office? They are completely separate and won't interfere with each other, right? I could always have both until I'm happy with Libre Office maybe.

 

[whs]

This may be handy for you;

PDF-to-WORD Conversion

 

[strollin]

According to this link, Word 2013 & 2016 have a built-in converter that will convert a pdf to a Word document so it can then be edited. https://support.office.com/en-us/ar...-in-Word-b2d1d729-6b79-499a-bcdb-233379c2f63a

Since a pdf is actually an image file, the LibreOffice Draw module can be used to edit a pdf. How to Edit, Save and Work with PDFs in LibreOffice and OpenOffice

LibreOffice and MS Office can co-exist on the same machine. If you wanted to, you could set Office 2003 as the default program for .doc and .xls files and setup LibreOffice as the default program for .docx and .xlsx files.

 

[kodakjack]

I tried a PDF editor and it was sketchy at best. I guess it's because it's working with a graphic instead of true text. Then, it wanted you to provide an email address for the saved version to be sent to! I guess that puts you on a list that can be sold to a zillion scammers with valuable offers!! Even working with that editor, you more or less had to erase what you wanted to replace and then type in the new text, but the size and location weren't the same and it looked awful. Maybe the file emailed back would be straightened out.
That brings me back to my original thought of killing two birds with one stone by updating to a newer Office. I say that because I get conflicting information on whether LibreOffice would do what I want to do. I'm still confused. Maybe I'll download Libre and, if I don't like it, I can always uninstall it. Thanks.