Others say...

"Good Product"
It really has evolved. But how far really depends on your needs. Was using Microsoft 97 products before upgrading to 2003. It was my opinion that Word Processing was certainly a mature product. Additionally, even Word 97 is full of features I don't ever use. Didn't really think that Office 2003 had much to offer - but was offered a special price, so I bit. Excellent product. I especially like the web integration of the applications (though some may argue that this is simply Bookshelf dressed-up and adopted for the web). Even non-office Microsoft products integrate fantastically, such as MapPoint. Regarding someone's comments on Star Office, I have not used it. But I have tried its open source cousin Open Office on at least three occasions. It is on par with 97 suite or maybe 2000. It is a solid product. But the Microsoft suite is about 1.5 generations ahead. I'm willing to pay for products that are better. The marketplace will judge -- yes, the beauty of capitalism.

The bottom line - need should be the driver (at least in my world). If price is a concern try Open Office or Star Office. You can also pick-up a previous version of MS Office cheap (97 is a good one). If you believe you need the best suite available, then chose the current MS Office Suite. I haven't seen any better.

"STOP! Seriously Consider Star Office 8 Instead!"
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.




"Good fit"
I'm a longterm MS Office user. The Small Business Edition is a perfect fit for my applications. 2003 is a very stable platform.

"Don't even think about upgrading"
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.

"Great Software for Business or Home!"
As the owner of a quickly growing business I need a software that will provide all of the word processing capabilities with the graphics capabilities and Microsoft Office SMALL BUSINESS 2003 does all those jobs very well with Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Business Contact Manager AND Publisher which allows me to do my communications, my record keeping, my client contact management, my presentations AND my own business cards and letterhead and brochures and flyers that look GREAT! I am very happy with this since I do not need Access as a database it saves me money.