Here is the deal. I teach computers at a middle school(just got moved to their Thursday). Anyway, my school is using Office 2003 still(on OS X), while I have Office 2007 at home(Windows XP).
The different operating systems does not bother me, but the different kinds of Word and PowerPoint kind of do. I need to be able to accurately tell the kids what to click and what menu to find things in.
When I installed Office 2007 at home, it kind of “upgraded” my old 2003 version, or replaced it, anyway.
I don’t want to downgrade only to 2003, either. I want to install both and have them separate.
First, you need to make sure you install your secondary application (2003, I assume) in its own folder. Next, you need to go to your folder options and set all of the Office file types to open with the primary application (2007).
To open a file in 2003, you’d then need to open the application first, and open the document from there.
Nitpick: If it’s on OS X, it’s Office 2004. The Office for Mac versions are one year off from the Windows versions.
Why this is important: As Aestivalis alludes to, not everything is exactly the same. Most of the menu contents are the same, but the shortcuts are definitely not – even allowing for the ctrl/command switch. (In Excel 2003, F2 lets you edit a cell. In Excel 2004, you have to press Enter. In Office 2003, Ctrl+H is Replace. In Office 2004, Command+H hides the application (like all Mac apps); Command+Shift+H is Replace. I’m sure there are others…)
Until you have the same versions in both places, you’ll still need to double check.
I don’t use Office for Mac extensively, but I’ve never noticed disappearing toolbars. There may be something in the preferences?
In Windows, you should mostly be OK running them side-by-side. As previously mentioned, Outlook will not work this way.
And if you have VBA code, there will be problems, especially in Access.
Theoretically, you can first install whichever version you don’t need to run code. Then install the version for which you have code, to overwrite the conflicting libraries with the proper version.
However, this does not always work. We’ve had to only install one version of Access for some of our users so that old code would work. And, obviously, it doesn’t let you run macros properly in both versions.
I had to upgrade to Windows 7, so that I could run Office 2010 while running Office 2003 in the XP VM.
