Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2003 Upgrade [OLD VERSION]

by Microsoft

Product Features

• Analyze and manage business information using Access databases
• Exchange data with other systems using enhanced XML technology
• Control information sharing rules with enhanced IRM technology
• Easy-to-use wizards to create e-mail newsletters and printed marketing materials
• More than 20 preformatted business reports

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 11.5 x 9.7 x 2.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S. and to APO/FPO addresses. For APO/FPO shipments, please check with the manufacturer regarding warranty and support issues.
• ASIN: B0000BX73E
• Item model number: 269-06752
• Date first available at Amazon.com: September 12, 2003
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (43 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #992 in Software (See Top 100 in Software)

Product Description

Amazon.com

Microsoft Office 2003 (Professional Edition) represents a major upgrade to previous versions of the world's most popular suite of software applications. Office 2003 includes new and familiar products, features, and functionality that can help organizations and their employees connect to coworkers, information, and business processes quickly and effectively.

The new Reading Layout view in Word 2003 makes it easier to read documents online.

View and organize information in Outlook 2003 for more ease of use. View larger.

View customized XML templates in Excel 2003. View larger.

The Research task pane helps you access online references without leaving PowerPoint 2003. View larger.

Reveal object dependencies and help check for errors in an Access 2003 task pane. View larger.

Advances in intranet collaboration through integration with the collaboration and information-sharing portal, Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003, enable employees to access and share information both internally and externally. Support for information rights management (IRM) and industry-standard Extensible Markup Language (XML) provide a platform on which to quickly build cost-effective solutions that can have an immediate impact in your business and productivity.

Seamlessly Connect People with Processes
Office 2003 is designed specifically to streamline communication and collaboration between internal and external team members using the desktop productivity programs that many people rely on every day. The "Document Workspaces" feature, for instance, enable teams to modify, access, and save documents in a central location. In addition, the "Shared Workspace" task pane displays tasks, related documents, links, and member lists that notify you when your team members are online.

When you share documents with Office 2003, you have control over what gets changed. You can choose permission settings and allow co-authors to alter only the sections or formatting that you choose. Office 2003 also helps protect your documents from being unintentionally changed by using formatting and editing restrictions. Simply set permission controls on entire documents or portions of a document to prevent modifications or reformatting. You can also improve the efficiency of your meetings with "Meeting Workspaces," which offer a centralized location for sharing agendas, visual resources, and other documentation. And instant messaging (IM), which can be displayed in most programs in Office 2003 applications, lets you know when your team members are online.

Broader .XML Support
One of the most significant upgrades that's included in Office 2003 is broader XML support. Microsoft Office Word 2003, Microsoft Office Excel 2003, and Microsoft Office Access 2003 each offer XML schemas you can customize for using data, smart documents, and programmable task panes.

With these improvements, you can manipulate, analyze, and format data from your most critical business systems and can customize documents and task panes so that they integrate with XML data sources and outside programs. The enhancements also reduce development time with XML. With Excel 2003, for instance, you can use the visual mapping tool to connect a user-specified XML schema to fields in your spreadsheet, and customize smart tags to bring relevant business information directly into your work. (Access 2003, Outlook 2003, and PowerPoint 2003 each support third-party and customized smart tags.)

The Leading Suite of Applications
Included with Office 2003 Professional edition is Access 2003, Excel 2003, Outlook 2003 with Business Contact Manager, PowerPoint 2003, Publisher 2003, and Word 2003.

Access 2003 provides a powerful set of tools that are sophisticated enough for professional developers, yet easy to learn for new users. With Access 2003, you can create or use powerful database solutions that make organizing, accessing, and sharing information easier than ever. Excel 2003 enables you to turn data into information with powerful tools to analyze, communicate, and share results. Excel 2003 can help you work better in teams, and help protect and control access to your work. In addition, you can work with XML data to make it easier to connect to business processes.

Outlook 2003 provides an integrated solution for managing and organizing e-mail messages, schedules, tasks, notes, contacts, and other information. Outlook 2003 delivers innovations you can use to manage your communications, organize your work, and work better with others -- all from a single location. Outlook 2003 with Business Contact Manager Update is designed to help small businesses manage customer information and sales opportunities within Outlook 2003. The update includes new capabilities for sharing customer information within a PC network, as well as support for synchronizing business contacts with a Microsoft Windows Mobile-based Pocket PC.

PowerPoint 2003 includes new tools to help you create, present, and collaborate on presentations that have more impact. Keeping in touch and communicating with customers is essential for any business. A complete business publishing and marketing materials solution, Publisher 2003 can help you reach out to customers. With Publisher 2003, it's easier than ever to design, create, and publish professional marketing and communication materials in-house. And with Word 2003, the latest version of the best-selling word processor, you can create impressive-looking documents faster than ever before and help you collaborate more efficiently with others.

Product Description

Microsoft Office 2003 Professional, the hotly anticipated successor to Microsoft Office XP, brings even more enabling power to this cornerstone of productivity that helps users connect to the right people, information and processes throughout the world of business and ideas. A host of innovations make it easier for people to take effective action and get better results!

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

57 of 57 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very nice...but worth the price?, September 20, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2003 Upgrade [OLD VERSION] (CD-ROM)

The beta version arrived at my house, was installed, and had lots of bells and whistles. Fancy colors, buttons, etc. However, I am not sure that the changes are worth the kind of cash proposed by Microsoft's suggested retail price. Word, Access and Excel are basically the same programs as XP, Powerpoint has a few nicer features (it always has had nice features), and Outlook does have some data management not previously available. As a small business operator, I have found it much easier to track business contacts, emails, etc. I also have a FrontPage designed website. The new FrontPage has a nifty "split" screen which allows you to look at your HTML coding along with the actual published page, both at the same time. The new FrontPage also makes general HTML tagging, coding, and changing much more user friendly. However, it suffers from the traditional Microsoft misery; namely, the online help is virtually useless. This is also true for Publisher. You will spend lots of frustrating moments with both of those programs.

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125 of 133 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely great!, September 18, 2003

By 

"residency" (Cupertino, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2003 Upgrade [OLD VERSION] (CD-ROM)

I have been using office since 1992 and frankly I was getting a little tired of the same look and feel. Well, after win xp came out I knew it was only a matter of time before Microsoft made office look and feel more lively.

Well, as soon as the beta version became available in June I purchased my copy of the 2003 Office and the whole bundle of the other products. I was a little reluctant to use the beta version for safety and stability reasons but I have to say that except for FrontPage 2003, ALL other software is 100% stable as a beta version. This only goes to show that the product really was programmed well.

Not a lot of change in the word and excel except for a few new things. However, outlook now looks fantastic and is incredibly productive. What a wonderful change... The look and feel of outlook is finally modernized and it is very useful in the office. I am CEO of a small company and we always struggled to keep a good track of our customers. With outlook 2003' contact manager that is now a snap. For example, every time you send an email to a client that you have previously registered in outlook as a customer, the email automatically becomes attached to that account. So, tomorrow you can just go the customers account and you will see all the emails they sent you and the ones you sent them all in one place. I love that!
PowerPoint has also gotten nicer. Many more transitions and themes. All around PowerPoint has always been a good piece of software and you can't fix something if it ain't broken.
Access looks great too. I think outlook and access both got a lot of things changed. I must say we use mysql for our company but if you are an access person, you will like the changes.
All and all I would absolutely recommend a change if you have a 2000 or older version of office. BUT if you are happy with your office xp now, really don't waste your money in this poor economy.
Hope this helps!

30 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Much, much better, August 15, 2004

By 

Zack Sheppard (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2003 Upgrade [OLD VERSION] (CD-ROM)

Let me tell you, I've used every version of Office that's been released since 1995, and this edition is by far the best one yet.
I was quite dissapointed with Office XP, luckily lots of problems have been fixed in this new version. First of all, all the programs that come with office load MUCH faster. It use to take nearly a minute to open word or excel, now they open in under 30 seconds.
Also, they have reintroduced Publisher as part of the main packages. Publisher, since I am a student who makes lots of paper creative design projects, was one of the most useful programs on my computer before the upgrade to Office XP. I was devastated when Microsoft pulled it from Office. I suppose I wasn't alone because it's back and better than before.
Along the same lines, Outlook has received it's first major update since 2000. In fact, it is now easy enough to use that I actually have picked it over Outlook Express (a personal first).
Overall, I must say that Office 2003 makes Office XP look like a train wreck of a program. I must recommend Office 2003 to anyone who uses Office of any edition, but especially to those who use XP because they have no idea how much they're missing.
Welcome to the future of Office.