Best Office Version for Win 98 and XT

Question

I need advice on MS Office for different operating systems.

We just purchased an Dell Inspiron 1100 laptop, which comes loaded with
Windows XP. I would like to install MS Office on this laptop, so that
it can share Word, Excel & Powerpoint files with our two desktops. The first of
these is a Dell Dimension XPS T500 (Pentium III; 128 MB RAM ) running Windows 98 2nd Ed. The other is an older desktop: Circa 1996 Dell Dimension XPS P200S (Pentium; 64 MB RAM) running Windows 98.

So I see a couple options: (1) upgrade the two desktops to Windows 2000 and install Office 2003 on all three computers. Will it even be possible to do such an upgrade on the P200S?
Or, (2) get hold of an Office 98 installation disk and install that on the new Inspiron.

Does anyone have advice for me?

Many thanks!

Mary G · Answer

Office 2003 is backwards compatible, so you'll be fine with Office 2003 on the new computer and the old versions on the others. Read up on compatiblity at the Office site. You also cannot upgrade the really old computers to XP and it's not advisable to try upgrade to W2k either. It would require too many upgrades and is not worth the expense. Office 2003 has Product Activation and retail versions can be installed on only one desktop and one laptop. You cannot install it on 3 computers unless you buy extra licenses or extra copies.

RM02131 · Answer

Mary, Thanks very much for your comments.  Sounds like a good solution.

rickmktg · Answer

@Mary G wrote:
Office 2003 has Product Activation and retail versions can be installed on only one desktop and one laptop. You cannot install it on 3 computers unless you buy extra licenses or extra copies.

Unless you buy Office 2003 for Students and Teachers which is good for three machines.

RM02131 · Answer

Rick,

Thanks for the input. With Mary's information, I probably will only install Office 2003 on the laptop, and perhaps on the newer desktop. But I will look into an academic purchase if I decide to do 'em all.

Thanks everyone for taking the time to answer my question!!

Productivity Software

Best Office Version for Win 98 and XT

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