Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2003 review:4 stars (Only if you're serious) - I have been using Microsoft Office for at least 10 years, pretty much day in and day out at work. Some computer geek in a store convinced me that Open Office on my home computer would do everthing for me that MS did, and it was free. Well, I'm all about "free," so I gave it a shot. Maybe if all you do is type letters and balance your checkbook, Open Office will do the trick. But if you are a serious office product user, Open Office does not touch the functionality of MS. And believe me, I WANTED it to work. I had $500 riding on it! But I finally gave in. Yep, they've got me. I hated to drop the cash, but there's no real competition. So I guess it depends upon how much functionality you really need. I will probably load Open Office onto the other computers for "incidental" use, but I doubt I will ever wean off of MS.1 stars (Simply Awful) - Office 2003 is quite simply the worst pile of bloated crapware I have ever had the misfortune of installing on my computer. Its slow, costs too much, eats up way too much precious hard drive space, and is difficult and unintuitive to use. Absolutely the worst experience I personally have ever had with "productivity" software. Do yourself a favor, go to openoffice.org, download their suite and use it. You won't be disappointed. Sometimes, I truly wish there were a "zero star" option from Amazon in rating a product. If anything deserves it, this garbage does.4 stars (Dear XMLers...) - I am primarily an Excel user; this review is intended for those who primarily use Excel...

If you work with a development team that has the ability to produce XML files, and you want to get away from using gigantic flat databases for references, Office 2003 is your solution. Copying and pasting will be no longer necessary; just query a URL. It's proven to be an indispensible tool for us.

So, if you're in the serious business of producing reports, and you have a development staff that can produce dynamic XML pages, this is the product for you. With the previous version, you could Web Query; XML provides so many more possibilities --especially if you're coding. The code is much simpler.

Other than that, the program is not much different from 2002. Many other features that people want were still not implemented, such as extending the columns beyond 256 and the rows beyond 65K+. Word still has the same ole quirks (you know what they are if work with it often), and Access is just about the same. For the latter two programs, the only noticeable difference is the 'feel,' or the look of them.
Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2003 Features:
Office Suite (Suites)
Bundle (Bundles)
Computer software (programs)
CD
Easy-to-use wizards to create e-mail newsletters and printed marketing materials
More than 20 preformatted business reports
Analyze and manage business information using Access databases
Exchange data with other systems using enhanced XML technology
Control information sharing rules with enhanced IRM technology

Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2003 is the CD-ROM version. The full version can be purchased by clicking on the "CLICK HERE TO ORDER" button below for around 419.99USD.