Dumb question for Microsoft mavens from cheapskate

Parent Cafe
1

<p>I need to install Microsoft Word on an infrequently used desktop PC running Windows XP (fully updated). I truly need only Word for this computer, not the remaining Office components, and so don’t want to spring for the full suite. I’m also very comfortable with Word 2000 (cue old fogey music), and have no desire to familiarize myself with any of the succeeding versions, whose bells and whistles aren’t needed for my limited purposes. So the dumb question–is there any reason why I shouldn’t spend a mere $35 (including shipping!) for a new (unopened original packaging) copy of Word 2000 that I can get from a very highly rated Ebay seller (who is selling a bunch of them)? Any cautions in installing? Any updates I will need? This seems to be a no-brainer, but I thought I ought to check. (I suppose I could just email DS, but I’m sure I would just FEEL the eyeroll from three states away, plus I like to maintain the illusion of competence.)</p>

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<p>Check the sellers reviews before buying. It sounds fine to me.</p>

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<p>Your danger is the security vulnerabilities. An unopened box will not have all of the updates and patches. If I am not mistaken, Microsoft quite supporting this version and security flaws may not be all closed. I will leave it to more expert folks to elaborate. But if this computer is not connected to the internet often you may be OK.
Here is the update site.
<a href=“http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/resultsForProduct.aspx?displaylang=en&productID=617c4d62-4061-4107-8d46-2a22fc6fa202&nr=10&sortCriteria=Popularity&sortOrder=Ascending&stype=ss_sd[/url]”>http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/resultsForProduct.aspx?displaylang=en&productID=617c4d62-4061-4107-8d46-2a22fc6fa202&nr=10&sortCriteria=Popularity&sortOrder=Ascending&stype=ss_sd&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

4

<p>Since this is an infrequently used PC, why not try Open Office? (Check it out oat openoffice.org). It’s free, and I’ve heard it works well. A friend of mine uses it on a spare PC at home, and according to him the only drawback is that you can’t use OO files on Microsoft Office and vice versa.</p>

5

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<p>This is partially incorrect. Yes, you cannot open Open Office files in Microsoft Office. However you can open Microsoft Office files in Open Office. This is one of the best features about the program. I personally enjoy using Open Office because I can save a document as several different file extensions. Everything from older versions of Word docs to even pdfs. And, of course, Open Office’s own file type (odt).</p>

<p>Open Office is great for the person on a budget. I use it on my laptop while my desktop runs Microsoft Office.</p>

6

<p>You can use Open Office to save documents in a variety of formats including Microsoft Word (various versions). My son has a discounted student edition of Microsoft Office (theultimatesteal.com). I have Office 2000 on an old computer at work. For everything else, I use Open Office (Oracle).</p>

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<p>You can save Open Office files as doc’s and then they are completely compatible with Microsoft Office. I’ve only once had a problem - it was opening a complicated spreadsheet and it was missing some info in Open Office.</p>

<p>I was a happy user of Open Office for years because my lap top came with some version of Office that expired after a few months and I didn’t feel like spending the money on Microsoft.</p>

8

<p>You’re fine with the Office 2000 version. Open Office works too. </p>

<p>But $35 is a lot of money for ten-year-old software. Don’t you have any friends who upgrade regularly and would give you their old stuff?</p>