Office '03 vs '07: Which is Better for an Undergrad?

[sid_galt]

I am an undergrad.

I am getting Office '03 Pro at 55$ and Office '07 Pro Plus at 100$ through my Uni.

Which one would you guys recommend?

 

[scorpa]

I really like the setup of the new microsoft office 2007, but the only problem is that you cannot share files with someone who still has 03 and most people still have 03 :(. So if you do a lot of file sharing then maybe stick with 03 but if not definitely go for 07.

 

[CRGreathouse]

Of course you can save files in 2003 format in Office 2007, and there is a free tool from MS that let's people convert 2007 format into 2003 if they have only 2003.

I prefer Office 2007 myself, between those two, but I don't know that it's worth the extra $45 -- probably, but not certainly. Of course I also use OpenOffice, which is $55 less than Office 2003 and can also save in Office 2003 format.

 

[robphy]

As someone comfortable with Office 97 and 2003 [and currently uncomfortable with the few times I used Office 2007 with its new layout], I'd suggest Office 2003 (as I have suggested to several colleagues recently).

 

[Kurdt]

Are you sure you can't share files with someone using 03? I have 03 and a friend of mine transferred an 07 word document to me and it worked fine.

 

[ranger]

Are you sure you can't share files with someone using 03? I have 03 and a friend of mine transferred an 07 word document to me and it worked fine.

Maybe your friend saved it as Word 03 format. I've never tried to open a 07 document in 03, though.

I am an undergrad.

I am getting Office '03 Pro at 55$ and Office '07 Pro Plus at 100$ through my Uni.

Which one would you guys recommend?

Stick with Office 2003. I doubt you'll need any of the extra features that 07 has. The only thing that you'll miss out if you stick with 03 is the UI that 07 has and that's about it. You're an undergrad, save your money for something better. You will also have a chance at better user support [from your peers] with any version prior to 07. Hey, you don't even have to buy 2003, just download Open Office.

 

[EugP]

I recently installed Office 2007 and personally I think it's great. But it really depends what you use it for. I'm an EE student, so I put in a lot of equations into my reports. Word 2007 has a very comfortable way of entering equations. More specifically, you can type in: x^2 + 2y^3 + 1, and it will convert it to $$x^2 + 2y^3 + 1$$. It may not seem like anything amazing, but it actually saves a lot of time.

It's also untrue that people who don't have Office 2007, can't view your files. One of the option under Save As, is Save As Word 97-2003 Document. The same goes for all other Office programs.

Overall, I would go with Office 2007.

 

[dtsormpa]

I would also recommend the '07 version. As far as compatibility goes, if you have a '03 .doc file and open it in the '07, you'll see on the title bar "Compatibility Mode" or something like that (I have the greek version and don't know if this will be shown in other languages). You can open '03 files with '07 apps, and you can open '07 files with '03 apps. I think there are two ways for this: either choose save as and then Office 97 - 2003 document, or from the Word settings you can choose the appropriate compatibility options. It's actually quite easy. I find 2007 to be more accesible as far as workflow is concerned...