Product Description

Microsoft Office Word 2003 the latest version of the best-selling word processor takes customer experience and feedback to deliver innovations you can use to create impressive-looking documents and help you work better together.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1283 in Software
• Brand: Microsoft
• Model: 059-04263
• Released on: 2003-10-21
• Platforms: Windows 2000, Windows XP
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: 2.50" h x 9.75" w x 11.50" l, .70 pounds

Amazon.co.uk Review
Microsoft's Office Word 2003 is stuffed with features for creating and editing documents, from simple letters to books and manuals. Word is a mature product, so as you would expect most things are easy to use and work well. Basic features include on-the-fly spelling and grammar checking, quick table insert, rich formatting and paragraph styles, multiple columns, indexing, and extensive drawing tools and text effects. Macros are well catered for, from simple Record Macro to full programming using Visual Basic for Applications. Track Changes lets you see how a document has been edited by different team members. There are also more exotic features such as auto-summarise, which creates an automatic précis for busy executives, and Translate, which uses an Internet service to provide integrated language translation.

The 2003 version of Word retains the familiar look and feel while adding some interesting features. The excellent Reading View is optimised for onscreen reading, reducing toolbar clutter and using ClearType technology. There is deep XML support in Word, powerful but mainly of interest to developers, making it easier to create and read Word documents programmatically, or to provide document templates that include custom tags. Information Rights Management lets you restrict document access to specified individuals, giving either full or just read-only rights. To use this feature requires a Rights Management Server and possibly a subscription, while recipients need either Word or a Word viewer, so it's not great for users of other word processors. Fortunately document permissions are turned off by default.

Office Word 2003 is good, but not perfect. It is not the best choice for documents hundreds of pages long, and its scheme for numbering paragraphs is over-complex. You can use Word for web editing, but a dedicated web editor is better, while advanced page layout is better done with desktop publishing software. It is for general use that Office Word 2003 shines, superbly combining ease of use with rich features. --Tim Anderson

Manufacturer's Description
Work together better. Save Microsoft Office Word 2003 documents to shared workspaces where other team members can get the latest version, check the documents in or out, or even save task lists, related documents, links, and member lists. Shared workspaces require Microsoft Windows Server 2003 running Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services.
Control distribution of sensitive documents. Help protect your company assets by preventing recipients from forwarding, copying, or printing important documents by using information rights management (IRM) functionality. You can even specify an expiration date for the message, after which it cannot be viewed or changed. IRM functionality requires Windows Server 2003 running Microsoft Windows Rights Management Services (RMS).
Collaborate with confidence. Designate certain sections of your document to be modified by specific people to better protect how your document is modified and reduce the number of conflicting comments you receive. You can even prevent reviewers from making changes unless they turn revision marks on, or you can make the entire document read-only with key portions that can be modified only by specific.
Go mobile. If you own and use a Tablet PC, you can annotate Word documents using a pen input devicein your own handwriting. You can annotate documents for personal use, such as taking notes, or to send to others.
Create organizational solutions with XML. Microsoft Office Word 2003 supports both the Extensible Markup Language (XML) file format and custom schemas, providing the basis for building solutions to business problems such as data reporting, publishing, and submitting data to business processes. Note In all Microsoft Office 2003 Editions, Microsoft Office Word 2003 documents can be saved in a native XML file format which can be manipulated and searched using any program that can process industry standard XML.
Interact with business systems. Save and open XML files in Microsoft Office Word 2003 to integrate with key business data in your organization. Developers can build solutions that use XML to interact with business systems through a task pane in Word.

Read with greater comfort. The new Reading Layout view makes it easier to read documents. It optimizes the document for reading on the screen, including larger text, shorter lines, and pages that exactly fit your screen. Microsoft ClearType produces letter shapes that are easier to read. You can also access specific pages quickly through the thumbnail view.

Improved Features
Customize functionality with enhanced smart tags. Smart tags in Microsoft Office Word 2003 are more flexible. Associate smart tags with specific content and have the appropriate smart tag appear when you point to the associated words.
Find facts quickly. Stay in Word to do your research. The Research task pane can bring electronic dictionaries, thesauruses, and online research sites into Word so that you can quickly find information and incorporate it into your documents. Some functionality in the Research task pane requires a connection to the Internet.
Get a head start on your work. Take advantage of resources on Microsoft Office Onlineincluding professionally designed templates, add-ins, and online trainingthat you can access in Word. Using Office Online requires a connection to the Internet.
Communicate instantly with others. No need to leave Word to find out if an instant messaging (IM) contact is onlineyou can access IM and even initiate IM conversations in Microsoft Office Word 2003.
Find the help you need. From the Getting Started and Help task panes, you can access Assistance on Office Online. It provides help and assistance articles that are updated regularly from requests and issues of other users. Some functionality in these task panes requires a connection to the Internet.

Customer Reviews

2003
Yes I know there is a newer version out there but I like the older icon driven version.

2007 seems a lot more complex than 2003 office was perfect it start to get like Micheal Jackson (too many face lifts) they Mircosoft people should leave be the latest if really bad if you want the best Word 2003 will give you certain things but not evereything.

Try both and decide but if you have this keep it and don't upgrade.