Back to Microsoft (sort of)

9 days ago I wrote about creating a virtual office with all kinds of freeware. One of my recommendations was Open Office as a replacement for Microsoft office. I've been using it all month and have recently come up with both a problem and a solution.


Problem.... my office uses Microsoft Office including Word, Excel and Powerpoint. The documents that I created in Open Office, my co-workers could not open with Microsoft Office. The software my co-workers are using is Microsoft Office 2003.

Solution.... Install Microsoft Office 2003, (which I already had a couple of genuine copies of), on my new Laptop which is loaded with the Vista Operating System. I double checked to see if this would create any compatibility problems since their is now an Office 2007 suite that Microsoft is pushing (and they included trial versions of on my laptop). Then, in order to get Microsoft Office 2003 to become the default program, I uninstalled both the trial version of Microsoft Office 2007 and Open Office. I do like Open Office, it's just that I needed the compatibility with co-workers.

I did NOT install Microsoft Outlook, I'm staying with Thunderbird.

Talking to a web developer friend of mine yesterday... he mentioned that Office 2007 uses different file extensions than Office 2003 and some of his friends were having compatibility issues with Office 2007.

So, in order to create and share documents with co-workers, I still am able to do it without spending any more money, due to already having the Office 2003 software that I could install, at zero additional cost.

Compatibility is one of the biggest issues involving technology. Sony's Beta version of the Video Tape Recorder was superior to the VHS format, but they created a monopoly and that in effect killed the format. A similar battle is going on now in the DVD market with Blu-ray taking on HD DVD.