Hi

Some weeks ago my nephew got a new computer and he gave me his computer. I had an old computer with Win98.

The one hegave me is much better then my oldie. It has Win2000 Pro and had Office 2003. I tranaferred most of my stuff to the better computer.

After about 4 days all my files got locked. A message kept popping up saying (not exactly the words) that I cannot have Office 2003 on this computer.
I think that meant that I had to get Office and pay for it. I believe its not cheap.

So for the past few weeks I've been placing my notes etc etc in Notepad. I also been looking in my files in Wordpad. I cannot carry on like this and I cannot afford Office 2003.

Is there some way to get around this problem so I can use / work in my files like when I was on Win98. This computer that I have know HAD Win98 cause its still showing in Control panel. I also have the Win98 disc.

Please, can you offer advice. Thanks.

Bill.

Did your old computer have office on it? If so you can uninstall the 2003 and install the old office program.
Otherwise you can download Openoffice its free and it will read word documents. It is the alternative to MS Office and does most of the things Office does. Best of all it's free.

Also, if you want to stay with Microsoft, their Works package is a budget version of Office designed for home users rather than businesses with more cash to throw around. The interface is similar to what you are used to and all the basic options are there but there is also a task-based view that you can use to load up a document, spreadsheet or database using one of the many templates that are included. Newer versions of Works are compatible with files created in Office such as Word DOC documents (which will open in Microsoft Works Word Processor) and Excel XLS spreadsheets (which will open in Microsoft Works Spreadsheet).

I've never tried OpenOffice but it definitely sounds like a bargain! If you decide to try that but don't like it, Microsoft Works should be second on your shopping list

Hi

Thanks to both of you

I downloaded OpenOffice. Took a fair while, over 45 minutes.

BTW, I had already removed Office 2003.

Have to tell you that this comp that my nephew gave me was used in a business. He is a land surveyor, so it had heaps of stuff that meant nothing to me. I cleaned up a lot of it.
I'm an elderly guy and not very clued up on these machines. What I've noticed after I downloaded OpenOffice is that like you said it DID have Office installed but I never woke up to it.

I think the program that I have downloaded is an upgrade to to one that I think was in the computer. Anyway, I'm quite pleased and like you said its Free !

There a few new bits that I need to get used to.

Appreciate your help.

OpenOffice lets you do much which Office 2003-XP will not. You can customize the speed of loading up of each tool and opening/closing of the software itself aswell to ~1/30th of a second.