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General discussion

Office 2003 Questions

Sep 26, 2007 3:45AM PDT

I just bought a copy of XP Home for my new computer and bought Office 2003 along with it. I'm wondering what to do for updates and service packs and all that. I know that there's an SP3 out for it and I'm wondering how much that does. If you go to the website, it lists all the programs that are included in Office 03 and then if you click on them, they take you to another page with specific updates for specific programs in the suite. Does the SP3 include all updates from SP1 and SP2 and incorperate all the individual updates for each program? Sorry if I'm not being clear here, I'm just basically wondering, if I download and install SP3, will I have all the updates for all the programs?

Thanks in advance,

Matt

Discussion is locked

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Sharing what I learned.
Sep 26, 2007 4:10AM PDT

1. Uninstall any trace of Office 2007 from that machine before you start the Office 2003 install.

2. I have no issues with SP3. Some claim it broke their macros. But you can go back and do over so for me it's a non issue. Besides I like to run with macros disabled for safety.

Bob

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SP3 is for Office 2003
Sep 28, 2007 8:24AM PDT

The SP3 you mentioned is for Office 2003, not for Windows XP. There is no (there will be no (??!) SP3 for WinXP.

Will the install of SP3 give you all the upgrades for all the programs?
Yes - UP TO THAT TIME. Any fixes after the release of SP3 will not be included.

Does the use of SP3 negate the need for installing any of the prior SPs?
Usually. But if you install a prior SP and whatever included updates are already installed is the computer, will not additionally be installed with a later SP. The SP packages attempt to be 'smart' and only install the needed updates. If an update is already installed it will skip past it.

(That's one of the reasons you see a message something like the install of SP2 on WinXP will be from 100 to 250MB. But if you happen to look at the WinXP SP2 CD the files there use about 450MB of the disk. The CD (a better way of installing the SP2) has all the possible updates - at that time - for all the versions of XP. Most of which you will not need.)

OH! last point. Since the release of WinXP SP2 there have been no less than 83 updates! Microsoft, if you are reading this, PLEASE make a SP3 for WinXP!! It really sucks in installing/re-installing XP on a PC, and going out to the Updates page and finding out what MORE has yet to be done (multiple checks have to be done, as some updates require more updates).