Office programs on different hard drives

[Sportsman]

I have two HDD in my system.

HDD C is my boot drive with Win 7 Home Premium 64bit and MS Office 2013

HDD E is an old drive with a lot of archived stuff on it including Powerpoint presentations that I did in MS Office 2003

If I open one of these old presentations it opens in 2013. Some I would like to open in 2003

Is there any way that I can keep 2013 on drive C and load 2003 on drive E so that I can open / edit my old presentations in 2003?

[kirisute]

during install choose "custom" install...then direct the installer to your chosen second drive location: ie: e:\office 2003

this will install office 2003 at that location. you should then be able to open powerpoint 2003 from that location and open your old presentation in it.

[Steve Burke]

I expect Kiri or one of the other experts will be able to tell you an easy way to do so.

 

However we too have Office 2003 and the problem is that security updates for it are being discontinued in April. We've therefore been testing replacements without going to the expense of MS Office 2013.

 

We've tried several packages (including Open Office and Libre Office), but our favourite is Kingsoft Office. It's had excellent reviews (see for instance http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/10-things/10-reasons-why-kingsoft-office-is-better-than-the-competition/) . There's also a very popular version for Android that Peggy's been trying.

 

So far we've had no compatibility problems at all. We've even been able to send Kingsoft Office 2003 docs from PC to Android, edit them, and then return them to the PC or indeed vice versa. Kingsoft Office also has switchable versions with menus or ribbons. The former looks very similar to Office 2003, the latter apparently to Office 2013. It also has some useful features that even MS Office 2013 doesn't have. Here's a link to the free version (there's also an inexpensive paid for version with a few extra features): http://www.kingsoftstore.com/.

 

We also have some Publisher 2003 files. The Kingsoft package can't cope with editing these - indeed I couldn't find a program that does. However I found 2 free conversion services from Publisher to MS Word. This is the one that Peggy used successfully: http://www.pdfconverter.com/resources/blog/how-to-view-and-edit-publisher-files-on-windows-without-ms-office.

[Sportsman]

Thanks Kiri

I'll try that

 

Steve

I have Libre Office and it is fine for most things.

The only reason I have MS office TBH is Powerpoint. The free version is just too basic.

Having said that, I am struggling with 2013 and might just revert back to 2003.

Most of my day to day work in DTP or Word Processing I used to do in Publisher but had nothing but problems. Now I use Serif Page Plus and it is briiliant

http://www.serif.com/pageplus/ppx6/?mc=SERPPCFRI&gclid=CP610KS2tbwCFfLHtAodN0YAQg

It does everything that Publisher does and more.

X 6 is on offer at the moment as they have just introduced X7. Well worth a look as a Publisher replacement

I don't know

[Steve Burke]

Thanks, Dave.

 

We don't need Powerpoint ourselves although there is a presentation program in the Kingsoft suite.

 

Peggy's used Serif Page Plus in the past. However, other than a few templates for ads we no longer have any need for desk top publishing. What little westill do need looks as though it's in the Kingsoft word processor, that has a few more DTP options than MS Word.

 

I've just got to investigate whether the Kingsoft package would be suitable for me as well as Peggy or whether I need to buy MS Office in one form or another. I'll need to synchronise my PC with my yet to be bought smartphone. I'll also have to decide whether to go for an Android or a Windows phone.

Edited February 5, 2014 by Steve Burke

[kirisute]

You want decent presentations?

Try this:

http://prezi.com

Never looked at PowerPoint again after I discovered prezi!

[Sportsman]

I have done a few Prezis and I like it for my own presentations.

I also do training presentations to go with my books for use by other people and for that it has to be Powerpoint, at least at the moment.

I would prefer to use Keynote but for my customers to use it you have to convert it to Powerpoint anyway which sort of make it pointless.

[Sportsman]

Kiri

I have just loaded Powerpoint 2003 onto my E drive and it works great.

Thanks again.

[kirisute]

No probs: it's a common thing to do when upgrading clients to new office versions. I usually install the newer version but keep the old version in place to aid transition.

For reference all software can be installed like that, just change install location to different folders.