Over recent months, some users have been grumbling that they cannot open documents (Word, Excel etc) from other Office users. On closer inspection the sender of the document was using Office 2007, whilst the recipient was using MS Office 2003, XP…or even older. (more…)

Microsoft has released a Service Pack 3 (SP3) for Microsoft Office 2003. Office 2003 SP3 adds some evolutionary fixes and additions in security for Office 2003. Microsoft also says “it further hardens the Office suite against potential attacks and other security threats” .

The Service Pack also includes fixes that have been previously released as separate updates for Office 2003.

Some of the changes in Service Pack 3 modify the behaviour of Office 2003, including changes that disable some features by default and increase control for computer administrators. Changes include:

• Office 2003 can no longer open or save certain file formats. For more information
• MAPI forms do not run in public folders and user folders. For more information
• Office 2003 can now be configured to allow or deny specific COM components
• Some COM components with unusual characteristics may not function as expected
• Changes have been made to the behavior of Microsoft Office Document Imaging
• Attachments with the .gadget extension can no longer be opened in Outlook
• Access add-ins can no longer be configured for use by all users
• The Fast Save setting in Microsoft Office Word has been removed
• Documents saved in certain formats no longer contain the version number of Office
• Certain macros in older Excel file formats have increased security

Click here to download Office SP3 now

Just a bootnote
Make sure you close all programs (Office ones at least) before you start the install process, standard restart is also needed after the installation.