Can I use Office 2003 or XP on Vista?

[Hack&Lube]

We bought my grandparents a new computer for internet and e-mail but my grandpa gets lots of those silly Powerpoint slideshows with music that old people send to each other all the time.

However, we don't have Office for Vista. Can I install my Office XP or Office 2003 on a Vista machine so he can use Powerpoint?

[bobrick]

If all he needs is to view the powerpoint then you could just install powerpoint viewer 2007 for free
http://www.download.com/PowerPoint-V...-10742145.html

[photon]

Should be no problem, but easier would be to install the powerpoint viewer.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en

EDIT: Beaten to it and with a better version too! Doh.

[Rathji]

Ok, the 2 most recent versions of Office are Office 2003 and Office 2007

Office 2003 saves as, requires a .ppt for power point
Office 2007 can save as, both the old ppt and the newer version .pptx.

To view a .pptx file in an older version of office, you need to download a compatibility pack.

You can also view Powerpoint without office installed, .pptx ( or even .ppt ) by downloading a powerpoint viewer.

Both of these can be obtained from Microsoft's site, if I wasn't 10 mins from a quiz i would find the links for you.

Note: These same concepts apply to .docx files for Office 2007 ( and most likely Ecxel files etc).

If you can't find the patch or the viewer that you need in the next couple hours, I will be able to find them once I get home.

(edit: Beaten twice! They have included the link for the viewer, but if you need help with the compatibility pack , just post)

[Hack&Lube]

The powerpoint viewer will not work for my grandfather because it's bugged in Vista insofar that you cannot open an attachment directly from Microsoft Mail (Vista's Outlook Express). It keeps saying that the application is not installed and it's not associated (even though it is).

My grandpa (no matter how hard I try) cannot remember how to save an attachment to the desktop to view it, he needs to be able to click on it from the e-mail...this makes sense anyway. Unless this has been fixed recentely, as of a month ago, it wasn't and I couldn't get any support from Microsoft or Dell to deal with it.

[photon]

Nice. The evil part of me too wants to say that Microsoft probably made Office XP or Office 2003 "incompatible" with Vista too, but I don't know for sure one way or another.

[Bobblehead]

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/932087

Microsoft Office 2000, Microsoft Office XP, Microsoft Office 2003, and the 2007 Microsoft Office suites are all supported on Windows Vista.

[Rathji]

Sorry for the delay in replying, kinda watching the game. This should do the trick, although there is a chance that it may be plagued by the same bug that you are experiencing.

Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 file formats - Products - Microsoft Office Online

[llama64]

My Wife's laptop is running Vista. I installed Office 2003 without a single problem.

Add in the compatibility pack that Rathji posted and you've got nearly the same thing as Office2007, just no fancy "ribbon".