Summary: Various issues are leading people to wonder if Office 2003 will work on Windows Vista. Yes, it will. We'll look at some of the possible problems.
I have Windows Vista now and I cannot open Word documents attached to emails. How can I open them? Is Microsoft Office 2003 compatible with Vista?
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Yes, Microsoft Office 2003 is compatible with Windows Vista.
You didn't say what happens when you try to open a document or what error message is produced, so I'll have to make some wild guesses.
Most of the confusion that I see is actually not about Windows Vista, but rather the file format changes between Office 2003 and Office 2007. The newer version now saves into a file format that can't be read by the old. However there are solutions.
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Here are some of the most common things that might be going wrong:
You don't have Office installed. Some people are surprised to find that Windows Vista doesn't include Microsoft Office. They are two separate products, and if you don't have Office then you'll need to purchase and install it separately.
Your Upgrade to Windows Vista was really a fresh install. If you have Windows XP with Microsoft Office installed, an upgrade to Windows Vista should leave you with Office still installed in Vista. However, if instead you performed an install of Vista instead of an upgrade, then Windows Vista has been installed "from scratch" and you'll need to re-install all of your programs, including Microsoft Office.
You've received a document in Office 2007 format, but you only have Office 2003. This will fail, unless you install the Office Compatibility Pack. This free download adds support for the newer file formats to the older versions of Office. After installing, you'll be able to open these files without completely upgrading to the newer version of Office. (You can also ask the sender of the document to save the document in the older format and resend the document instead.)
The ".doc" file association has somehow been lost. There are two approaches: reinstalling Office should actually fix this for all the file types it supports, or you can repair the file association manually.
It's only email that's broken. One workaround if it's only documents in email that are causing you a problem is instead of opening the document directly from email, save it to a location on your hard drive instead. Then fire up Word and use File, Open... to locate and open the document, or locate the document in Windows Explorer and double click on it.
The bottom line, though, is that Office 2003 and Windows Vista can certainly peacefully co-exist just as Office 2007 can run on Windows XP. Neither requires an update to the other.
Related:
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How can I open Office 2007 files in older versions of Office? Office 2007 introduces a new XML based file format for its documents. There's a download for older versions of office to read and write the new format.
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How do I know which program is used to open a particular type of file? It's not always obvious what program should be used to open certain types of files. There are clues if you know where to look and what to look for.
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This file does not have a program associated with it - what does this mean and what do I do? This file does not have a program associated with it is a common error message when Windows doesn't know what program is used to open a file. I'll look at what that means, and step you can take.
Article C3145 - September 11, 2007
Just bought a Dell Studio 15 with Vista as OS. I installed Office 2003 Professional after receiving the laptop. My problem is that it takes way too long to open a document and then way to long to print it. I didn't have this problem with the same software installed on my wife's Toshiba with Vista. I uninstalled the software and re-installed it but the problem still exists. Any suggestions?
Posted by: John Mills at May 24, 2009 10:04 PMI just purchased a Dell Studio with Vista in it. I don't like Office 2007 so I purchased a copy of office 2003. Now I am having problems with Power Point. Word and Excel are ok but PPT is giving me problems. It freezes all the time and when I save the file it's about 3 times the size it should be.
Posted by: Claudia at May 28, 2009 4:45 PMI do beleive that you have actually used windows vista and office 2003 on it. Office 2003 has serious compatibility issues with the operating system. The programs will randomily crash and create unrecoverable errors in the office file itself. I do not suggest using office 2003 on Windows Vista and not using Windows Vista at all since not even Internet Explorer runs stable on it.
Posted by: Alex at June 3, 2009 8:22 PMLeo,
Posted by: Shelley at June 12, 2009 8:27 AMYou say that all versions of MS Office will work on Vista, but my husband can NOT use Outlook 2000 on Vista. He can use Excel, word, but not Outlook. Lots of stuff on the internet about what to try to do to fix but so far nothing has worked - we put 2 missing dlls into the right directory. Now when you open it, 5 seconds later it just simply closes.
Any ideas?
Hi Leo,
Microsoft excel, along with the other applications, works fine when I first open it up. But when I save the actual document, then re-open it, the microsoft office application hangs and i cannot open it anymore. Can you help me out?
Posted by: Angelo at August 1, 2009 3:38 AMI have microsoft office 2007 on my dell latitude e6500 laptop with windows vista installed. How can i get microsoft office 2003 instead? Or can I get the features of Microsoft office word 2003 on the 2007 edition?
26-Aug-2009
Posted by: Lee at August 25, 2009 3:33 PM
I have been trying to install Office Pro 2003 on my new HP Pavilion with Windows Vista. I get to the "Now installing Office" but it never advances. The CD is good - what can I do?
Posted by: Michele at September 8, 2009 6:48 PMI have been trying to use Office Professional 2003 with my Vista computers. I have no issues with programs since installing updates except for one:
1) Outlook e-mail keeps on hanging up after opening. It does begin running again, but it tales a minute or so.
2)It also stalls when opening replies and while writing e-mails.
FYI - There are nos issues with the calendar or contatcts.
Please help.
Randy
Posted by: Randy at September 12, 2009 2:44 PMHi Leo; thanks for the help.
I have a new laptop, after my old one was killed by a freak ceiling fan accident (fell on it). I downloaded the old laptop on to a portable drive which I can hook-up with a USB cable. The old laptop was Windows XP; the new is Vista. I have already bought MS Office TWICE, I don't want to do it again, and I'm flat broke anyway. My problem is that even by accessing the external drive (windows xp), I can't open MS Office on my laptop and modify files (like my resume). I've paid for two licenses and still can't use the product, I need help.
Much thanks,
J. Smith
03-Oct-2009
Posted by: James Smith at October 2, 2009 3:15 PM
Wow Leo you were told exactly what the problem as by several people and ignored it. Terrific. If you don't know why Office 2003 slows to a crawl when accessing/saving files in Vista then just say so.
You idea of saving the file wherever and then hunting it down to move it to where you really wanted it to go is something but not a real answer to the problem.
Posted by: John at November 11, 2009 10:15 AM