New computer has no optical drive, how to load Office 2003

Clay L wrote:
When I bought new laptops last summer I made sure I got ones with optical drives.
For two reasons:
I have a lot of legacy programs that install from DVDs or CDs.

Downloading software with file sizes of 2 GB or more is a problem if you don't have a fast Internet connection. I don't. Even 100 or 200 MB takes quite a while. Also it uses a lot of data bytes.

I have a Verizon 3G aircard and it took 6 hours or so download Office 2013 Home and Student. I didn't realize when I bought it that what I assumed was a DVD was actually a scrape off card with a key number. The program had to be downloaded from a Microsoft web site.

More and more Laptops are NOT being offered with optical drives. This is due to several factors..

One is COST, manufacturer cuts off $40 in materials and some time in labor. Helps keep the manufacturer in the black.. Consumer gets a laptop a few bucks cheaper and they feel they got a great deal.

Two is SIZE, everyone wants the smallest and most lightweight PCs so trimming a bit of weight and size helps.

Three, less software is being delivered via physical media, future holds less and less physical delivery and more "cloud" type stuff. This allows the software vendors to track and crack down on piracy issues..

deltamaster wrote:
I used to install Open Office.org when I was building and rebuilding machines.

I found out just recently that it no longer exists for download as it was sold off or something like that.

Now I guess there are two off-shoots.

One is Apache Open office and the other is Libre.

I see here that some of you have used Libre.

Can anyone who has compared the two versions comment on them in comparison.

I recently installed Apache on a machine and it looked like the original but when I opened a document originally written on WORD it did not format properly. As I recall I never had that problem with Open Office.

Open Office STILL EXISTS and is STILL AVAILABLE AS A FREE DOWNLOAD.

Older versions were developed by Oracle, that has changed to Apache software. No big deal, at least it is STILL available and being developed..

You can find the latest Open Office Version

HERE

By the way, this IS the reason I will never "depend" on the cloud or any other Internet software delivery as sole means for retrieving and reloading my software..

Download the software then MAKE A BACKUP COPY on CD, DVD, External HD so you will always have it in the future...

When I bought new laptops last summer I made sure I got ones with optical drives.
For two reasons:
I have a lot of legacy programs that install from DVDs or CDs.

Downloading software with file sizes of 2 GB or more is a problem if you don't have a fast Internet connection. I don't. Even 100 or 200 MB takes quite a while. Also it uses a lot of data bytes.

I have a Verizon 3G aircard and it took 6 hours or so download Office 2013 Home and Student. I didn't realize when I bought it that what I assumed was a DVD was actually a scrape off card with a key number. The program had to be downloaded from a Microsoft web site.

sremsing wrote:
2003 is the oldest version that will work on windows 8.

Office 2003 worked on our laptops with Win 7 64 bit but would not install and work properly on our new laptops with Win 8 64 bit.

Hank MI wrote:
We have 2 11" Acer laptops with no optical drives. I share the dvd drive in the desktop to install software. It's a no brainer, simple and free.

Please explain how you "share" the dvd drive for those of us that are somewhat computer illiterate.
Thanks....

We have 2 11" Acer laptops with no optical drives. I share the dvd drive in the desktop to install software. It's a no brainer, simple and free.

deltamaster wrote:
Oh. Forgot to mention that one of my favorite features with Open Office was that it would save the documents in Adobe acrobat (PDF)format

You can install "PDFCreator" and make PDFs in almost any program. It installs as a printer. Its a free program. There are several other similar programs.

Google "libreoffice vs openoffice". You will find several comparisons.

Oh. Forgot to mention that one of my favorite features with Open Office was that it would save the documents in Adobe acrobat (PDF)format