Microsoft Office Standard Edition 2003 [OLD VERSION]

by Microsoft

Product Features

• Junk e-mail filtering and blocking of unsafe attachments
• Backward compatibility with older versions of Office programs
• Automatic backup and recovery of documents
• Create professional and effective documents using Word
• Access, analyze, and display data with Excel spreadsheets

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• 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: B0000AZJVB
• Item model number: 021-06145
• Date first available at Amazon.com: August 24, 2005
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,384 in Software (See Top 100 in Software)

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

Solve the challenges you and your business face with Microsoft Office 2003. Microsoft Office 2003 is designed to help you improve your productivity and achieve better results. Powerful new functionality behind familiar and easy-to-use applications will let you take on today's demanding business challenges. The new Microsoft Office provides the building blocks for you to create solutions that will help your organization take more effective action. Discover new ways to communicate with others, create and share documents, and utilize information.

Key Features:

• junk e-mail filtering and blocking of unsafe attachments
• backward compatibility with older versions of Office programs
• automatic backup and recovery of documents

Why pick Standard?

More Secure, Manageable E-mail: Get better management of your e-mails with junk e-mail filters for enhanced protection.

Complete Compatibility: Create documents with Microsoft Office Word 2003, Excel 2003, and PowerPoint 2003, which can be read and edited by users of Microsoft Office 97, 2000, or XP. PowerPoint Presentations on Any PC: Burn multimedia PowerPoint presentations—including a free PowerPoint viewer—directly to CD, then show the presentations on any PC, even one without Office.

Microsoft Office 2003 Standard Edition includes:

• Microsoft Word 2003
• Microsoft Outlook 2003
• Microsoft Excel 2003
• Microsoft PowerPoint 2003

Product Description

Microsoft Office 2003, 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! Enhancements include:

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Comprehensively Useful, September 17, 2005

By 

A.Trendl HungarianBookstore.com "What should ... (Glen Ellyn, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

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

There is no other product which compares to the Microsoft Office suite. "Microsoft Office Standard Edition" is the place to get started. And it is the place you'll probably stay.

You do need Word and Excel, and occasionally, PowerPoint. Learn basic word processing and spreadsheet usage. Shine in meetings with PowerPoint.

Do you need to upgrade from XP? Not likely. There are no new features I found impressive after having the XP version for years.

It lacks Access, but most people don't need the database strength of it, and will survive nicely with just Excel.

For e-mailing documents and files to coworkers, you can be confident they'll easily open Office files. There is a good chance they use it themselves.

Outlook is one of those highly underrated, but enormously useful applications to help you organize your contacts, schedule and tasks easily. You can use it as an e-mail reader as well, though that feature has been vulnerable to viruses.

Word is a huge program which can do far more than you'll need, but it will allow you versatility and simplicity that WordPerfect has yet to pull off.

Excel is a basic spreadsheet with incredible math functionality. I don't need most of the math tools, other than minor budgets and such. I find it handy for tracking my poetry submissions; I can see which magazine I sent which piece to when, and how and when they replied.

PowerPoint makes those cool slideshows with the text that can be animated on the screen. With the templates, you can look good without requiring a graphic design degree.

I fully recommend "Microsoft Office Standard Edition." It is the business and home office standard. You need it, it is easy to learn, and the price is right.

Anthony Trendl
editor, HungarianBookstore.com

51 of 64 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Don't even think about upgrading, September 14, 2005

By 

evaluator - See all my reviews

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

You need to get out more. Just the fact that you are looking at this page and are thinking of upgrading your Microsoft Office makes it clear that you have a problem. Don't believe the Microsoft advertisement featuring dinosaurs to announce "Microsoft Office Has Evolved." It hasn't. This is a mature product. It doesn't matter if you use Office 1997, 2000 or 2003. They are all the same. The good, the bad and the ugly. It is all still here. Maybe a few bugs have been fixed. Most haven't, and ther are always new bugs. If Microsoft took the time to really improve the software, that would be one thing. But they don't.

Here is an example. You are in Outlook. You call up a contact and want to send that person a letter. You need to print an envelope, but there is no command to do so. There is no button to click. You can't right click anywhere to print an envelope. I am not making this up. Outlook has been out for almost ten years and multiple upgrades, and Microsoft still hasn't gotten around to implementing functionality to print a single envelope. Your only option (the on-line support confirms this) is to perform a mail merge. This is an elaborate process that is designed for printing thousands of envelopes for a bulk mailing. It involves opening multiple windows and setting all sorts of settings. You have to go through the ENTIRE PROCESS just to print a single envelope! What is more, the mail merge feature has bugs in it. It leaves blank lines in addresses that look atrocious, and it drops country names from addresses. It gives you options as to how you want country names treaed in addresses, but these all do nothing. Whatever option you select, Outlook leaves countries out of addresses when it prints envelopes.

I could go on, but I won't. If you are using Office 2000 or even Office 1997, you aren't missing out on anything. There is absolutely no reason to shell out $300 for new software that does all the same things in all the same ways with mostly the same bugs.

35 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars STOP! Seriously Consider Star Office 8 Instead!, November 29, 2005

By 

Sam I Am (USA) - See all my reviews

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

Before you donate your hard-earned money yet again to Bill Gates' 'Feed the Multi-Billionaire Fund', do yourself and the world a favor and search for 'Star Office 8' on Amazon and read the reviews there. I use MS Office Professional 2003 in the office, and just cannot believe how badly so many businesses and individuals are being ripped off by Microsoft for this BLOAT-ware.

Star Office 8 is under $50 from Amazon and is fully compatible with Microsoft Office, and includes full functionalities of MS Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Visio, and Access. Let me know what MS software I can buy under $100, let alone $50. Hopefully, this is the beginning of the end of the Microsoft Monopoly, and the dawning of the Era of Sanity in computer software.