It’s no doubt that the two most used office applications all over the world is the 2003 Office Professional and the Microsoft Office 2007. Although the later is considered to be a newer version, many still choose to stay with the 2003 Office Professional because of its features. Besides it is really hard to let go of something that you are used to.

The sad thing is eventually you really have to let go of the 2003 Office Professional. Like all the older Microsoft office versions, this version will one day reached the end of the line when Microsoft stops giving even extended support for it. But until then, using the 2003 Office Professional edition is still a good choice especially for those who have learned to love it.

Let’s take a close look and compare what these two Office applications offer in terms of their components:

The 2003 Office Professional has the following office applications:

• Word
• Excel
• Outlook
• PowerPoint
• Publisher
• Access
• Infopath- only available through volume licensing.

On the other hand the Microsoft Office 2007 has the following applications:

• Office Word 2007
• Office Excel 2007
• PowerPoint 2007
• Outlook 2007
• Business Contact Manager
• Office Publisher 2007
• Office Access 2007
• Office InfoPath 2007
• Office Groove 2007
• Office OneNote 2007
• Office Communicator 2007
• Integrated Enterprise Content Management
• Integrated Electronic Forms
• Advance Information Rights Management and Policy Capabilities

The Microsoft Office 2007 may have a lot of office application and may seem like its more advanced than the 2003 Office Professional but if you think about it, do you really need all of these applications or would you rather stick with the basics of and get just what you need. The 2003 Office Professional does not take as much memory and computer space than the 2007 Office and although basic, it almost have everything that you need for simple computer applications.

On the other hand, the Microsoft 2007 as compared to the 2003 Office Professional offers more flexibility and gives the user more chance to explore the many activities on a computer. For more advanced users, they will find the numerous applications as an answer to what they had been looking for since they don’t have to buy other third party programs and applications if it has a counterpart in the Microsoft Office 2007 version.

So depending on how you plan to use these applications the 2003 Office Professional offers a no frills applications. With the many programs that are with the Office 2007, there is a lot of things that you have to get used too. This is probably the biggest hindrance on why many Windows operating system computer owners choose the 2003 Office Professional over the Office 2007. Simple things are still better and definitely more manageable. But then again technology is all about changes, so adapting to the changes is also one factor that we should keep in mind.

The computer industry and the software industry are fast changing. However no matter how fast changing these industries are, there are still some people and businesses that use 2000 Microsoft Office as their primary office application on their computer. The most common reason of an ongoing use of 2000 Microsoft Office is because most of the users are not willing to pay extra for the cost of upgrading.

Upgrading the 2000 Microsoft Office can be quite costly and with the hard economy, saving money in all ways had been the priority of many. One other reason why businesses are hesitant to let go of it is because of the tedious task of file transfer and the organization of their database system. Since they will be upgrading the 2000 Microsoft Office into a higher version, the database, files and systems that they keep on the 2000 Office application would be affected.

Some business systems are even designed around the applications of the 2000 Microsoft Office. Backing up their system and files would require time and some businesses and individuals who rely so much on their outdated office system can’t afford to a lot the time that is required in the upgrade.

The 2000 Microsoft Office system was created by Windows and a successor of the Microsoft 97. The 2000 Office was triggered as a response for the software to be Y2K compliant. It has five suites and they are:

• The Standard suite which has the Word 2000, Excel 2000, Outlook 2000 and PowerPoint 2000.
• The Small Business Suite which has the Word 2000, Excel 2000, Outlook 2000 and Publisher 2000.
• The Professional suite which has the Word 2000, Excel 2000, Outlook 2000, PowerPoint 2000 and the Publisher 2000.
• The Premium suite which has the Word 2000, Excel 2000, Outlook 2000, PowerPoint 2000 and the Publisher 2000.
• The Developer suite which has the Word 2000, Excel 2000, Outlook 2000, PowerPoint 2000 and the Publisher 2000.

Sadly as of June 14, 2009, Windows had totally stopped support of the 2000 Microsoft Office. Although the mainstream support was stopped since the mid of 2004, Microsoft still continued extended support that includes critical updates, fixes and patches for the 2000 Microsoft Office until June 14, 2009.

This only means and reiterates the need to upgrade the 2000 Microsoft Office into a higher version. However it does not mean that you will not be able to use the applications on the 2000 Microsoft Office. But beware because more bugs will be able to penetrate the system as well as the security system had become more vulnerable for this office suite since it will not be getting patches that helps the 2000 Office run properly on the computer.

So for those who still have and uses the 2000 Microsoft Office on their computers and systems, the only logical choice to keep up with the fast changing technology and to stay away from further issues in the future is to upgrade it to a higher version.