Office 2003 Mainstream Support Ends April 2009

Along with Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 SP1, Microsoft is ending mainstream (free) support for Office 2003 on April 14, 2009. Full details.

Strange when you consider WinXP Home is still being pre-loaded on most new netbooks. I would think also that Access 2003 is still the version of choice for Office developers.

Office 2003 Developer Content on MSDN

Microsoft MSDN staffer, Erika Ehrli in her Adventures in Office Development and .NET blog has published a very useful image map of all the Office 2003 Developer content on the MDSN portal in this post: Where in the World is all the Office 2003 Developer Content?.

This is a screenshot of the image map:

Office 2003 Document: Office 2003 Service Pack 3 White Paper

This white paper discusses the benefits of deploying Microsoft Office 2003 Service Pack 3 (SP3) before upgrading to the 2007 Microsoft Office system, and details improvements to security and user experience.

Download Office 2003 Service Pack 3 (SP3)

Download Office 2003 Service Pack 3 (SP3). SP3 includes updated security and previously released hotfixes.

Some of the changes in Service Pack 3 modify the behavior 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, see Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 938810.
• MAPI forms do not run in public folders and user folders. For more information, see Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 938816.
• Office 2003 can now be configured to allow or deny specific COM components. For more information, see Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 938815.
• Some COM components with unusual characteristics may not function as expected. For more information, see Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 938814.
• Changes have been made to the behavior of Microsoft Office Document Imaging. For more information, see Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 938813.
• Attachments with the .gadget extension can no longer be opened in Outlook. For more information, see Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 938811.
• Access add-ins can no longer be configured for use by all users. For more information, see Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 938809.
• The Fast Save setting in Microsoft Office Word has been removed. For more information, see Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 938808.
• Documents saved in certain formats no longer contain the version number of Office. For more information, see Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 938807.
• Certain macros in older Excel file formats have increased security. For more information, see Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 938806.

Known issues after you install Office 2003 SP3:

• After you install a Microsoft Office service pack, you are prompted unexpectedly to restart the computer. For more information about this issue, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: 905726 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/905726/) You are unexpectedly prompted to restart the computer after you install an Office service pack or an Office update
• After you install Office 2003 SP3, an add-in, ActiveX control, or COM add-in may not work as expected in an Office 2003 program. For more information about this issue, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: 938814 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/938814/) The functionality of an add-in, an ActiveX control, or a COM add-in is reduced, or the functionality is blocked after you install Office 2003 Service Pack 3
• After you install Office 2003 SP3, you may receive an error message when you try to create a new MAPI form in Outlook 2003. For more information about this issue, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: 938816 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/938816/) Error message when you try to create a new MAPI form in Outlook 2003: "contact the administrator"
• After you install Office 2003 SP3, attachments that contain the .gadget extension cannot be opened in Outlook 2003. For more information about this issue, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: 938811 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/938811/) Attachments that contain the .gadget extension cannot be opened in Outlook 2003 after you install Office 2003 Service Pack 3
• After you install Office 2003 SP3, the Fast Saves feature does not work as expected in Word 2003. For more information about this issue, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: 938808 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/938808/) The Fast Saves feature in Word 2003 no longer functions after you install Office 2003 Service Pack 3
• After you install Office 2003 SP3, the Microsoft Office Document Imaging program may not work as expected. For more information about this issue, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: 938813 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/938813/) You may experience issues when you run the Microsoft Office Document Imaging program after you install Office 2003 Service Pack 3
• After you install Office 2003 SP3, you may receive an error message when you try to open or to save a file. For more information about this issue, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: 941636 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/941636/) You receive an error message when you try to open a file or to save a file after you install Office 2003 Service Pack 3
• After you install Office 2003 SP3, you cannot open some Microsoft Excel workbooks that contain Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) macros. For more information about this issue, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: 938806 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/938806/) You cannot open Microsoft Excel 5.0/95 Workbook files that contain Visual Basic for Applications macros in Excel 2003 after you install Office 2003 Service Pack 3
• After you install Office 2003 SP3, the version number of Office is no longer saved in the properties of the document as expected. For more information about this issue, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: 938807 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/938807/) Office files that are saved in certain formats no longer contain the version number of Office after you install Office 2003 Service Pack 3

Microsoft Office 2003 Service Pack 3 Available Tomorrow

Office 2003 SP3, promising improved security and enhanced compatibility with Windows Vista, Office 2007, Internet Explorer 7 and Windows SharePoint Services, will be available tomorrow (September 18, 2007). Source

New Office Developer Resources

From Microsoft:

Office 2003: Overview of Developer Technologies A white paper that presents an overview of developer technologies and tools to help enable solution developers to build custom solutions for Microsoft Office 2003 Editions.

Office 2007: Developer Posters Download these posters to learn more about the new features of and enhancements to the 2007 Microsoft Office System.

Goodbye to Office 2003
Microsoft has announced that after June 30, 2007, OEM Office 2003 will no longer be available from Microsoft. Some authorized OEM distributors may have some remaining inventory left for a short time after June 30th; however,Microsoft will no longer be shipping OEM Office 2003 to them. More

Office 2003 SP3 to provide Office 2007 Security Features

Microsoft plans to make some of the security improvements and features built into Office 2007 available for Office 2003, a company representative said Thursday. Service Pack 3 for Office 2003 will be focused on security. Joshua Edwards, a technical product manager for Office at Microsoft said: "We're not going to take everything, but we will take as much as we can."

Microsoft hasn't yet set a release date for the Office 2003 update, which like other service packs will be available as a free upgrade.

More from Source: news.com.com

Office 2003 and 2007:
MSDN Technical Articles, How-To Content, and Code Samples

MSDN have researched the MSDN Library – Office Solutions Development Node and pulled tons of useful links and categorized them by content type. MSDN will update these pages as more content is published.

These are all new resources pages that compile links to articles, code samples, and how-to articles for Office 2007:

• Code Samples 2007
• Technical Articles 2007
• Tools and Utilities 2007
• How-To Center Home Page:
  
  • How Do I ... in 2007 Office System Programs
    
  • How Do I ... in 2007 Office System Services
  • How Do I ... in 2007 Office System Servers
  • How Do I ... in Tools and Technologies

They have also built some resource pages for Office 2003:

• Code Samples 2003
• Technical Articles 2003
• Tools and Utilities 2003

Source: Erika Ehrli's MSDN Blog - Adventures in Office Development and .NET