Today Microsoft released the latest version of Service Pack for MS Office 2003.This service pack is hardly of 117.7 Mb but Microsoft says it to be an important update to  Microsoft Office 2003 Service pack 2 so everyone using Ms Office 2003 must download and update it.

Microsoft Office 2003 Service Pack 3 is the culmination of several years of improvements in the product suite,” the company said in a Microsoft white paper issued upon the service pack’s release. “SP3 improves the productivity and user experience of home and office users, strengthens defenses against malicious software, and helps IT administrators comply with regulations and protect confidential information.

Microsoft® Office 2003 Service Pack 3 (SP3) represents a major evolution in security for Office 2003. It further hardens the Office suite against potential attacks and other security threats. This service pack also includes fixes that have been previously released as separate updates for Office 2003.

Go here to read what has changed overall.

Download links for Office 2003 Service Pack 3:
Excel Viewer
Office (complete package)
Office MUI Pack
Office Proofing Tools
OneNote
Outlook Live
Project

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A third service pack for Office 2003, promising improved security and enhanced compatibility with Windows Vista, Office 2007, Internet Explorer 7 and Windows SharePoint Services, will be available starting tomorrow (September 18), Microsoft officials say.

You can learn about and download Office 2003 SP3 from Microsoft’s Office Update or Microsoft Update pages, or just navigate directly to the free download. (These links aren’t live as of this writing, and the Microsoft spokesman who e-mailed me late today didn’t know exactly when they’d go live, but 6 a.m. PDT was his best guess. But don’t complain to me if they don’t work then–just give it a few hours.)

The download will be 120MB for the U.S. version and “no larger than 140MB” for other languages, the spokesman wrote. Office 2003 customers who use Microsoft’s AutoUpdate feature will be notified of SP3’s availability “over the next few weeks,” the spokesman wrote.

SP3 appears to address a variety of generally minor annoyances and bugs across the suite. Some examples:

With the update installed, if an Office 2003 user packages a PowerPoint presentation created in Office 2007, and the presentation is then re-opened in Office 2007, data

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Microsoft today announced The Ultimate Steal, a limited-time promotion for college students starting today in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and starting Sept. 20 in Spain, Italy and France. PressPass spoke with Alan Yates, general manager of Microsoft’s World Wide Education division, to discuss how the company has responded to student feedback and provided an easy way for students to acquire Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007.

PressPass: The Ultimate Steal sounds like a great deal. What are the specifics?

Yates: We definitely think it’s a great deal. It gives students easier access to our premium productivity suite Office Ultimate 2007, which includes tools they’ll be able to put to good use in their studies such as Office Groove 2007 and Office OneNote 2007.

Beginning Sept. 12, Microsoft will launch a special Web-based promotion exclusively for students called The Ultimate Steal. Students who are actively enrolled at eligible educational institutions will be able to acquire Office Ultimate 2007 via the Web at the low student price of US$59.95. Calling this promotion “The Ultimate Steal” is spot on when you consider that this is a savings of over 90 percent of the retail price of Office Ultimate 2007. The

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Microsoft’s Macintosh Business Unit used its company blog to post information on a new feature that users will see in the upcoming release of Office 2008 for Mac. Referred to as “Out of Office,” the feature has been a mainstay on the Windows side for some time.
The “Out of Office” feature allows users to set up an automated message that responds to all incoming emails. This is especially handy if you’ll be on a plane or otherwise unable to answer your email for a specified period of time.
The setup assistant gives you control over several aspects of the message including what will be sent in the body of the email; the start and end date/time you will be out of the office; and whether to send your reply to Address Book contacts only.
Entourage communicates with Exchange 2007 server through Web services to implement “Out of Office.”

News Source: PC World

Today Microsoft released the latest version of Microsoft Office Outlook connector.  With Microsoft Office Outlook Connector Beta, you can use Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 or Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 to access and manage your Microsoft Windows Live Hotmail or Microsoft Office Live Mail accounts, including e-mail messages and contacts for free!.

Outlook Connector Beta enables you to use your Live Hotmail accounts within Outlook:

• Read and send your Office Live Mail/Windows Live Hotmail e-mail messages.
• Manage your Live Mail Contacts.
• Use advanced options for blocking junk e-mail messages.
• Manage multiple e-mail accounts in one place.

With a paid subscription, Outlook Connector Beta enables these additional features:
• Manage, share, and synchronize your Windows Live Calendar in Outlook.
• Access your Tasks and Notes. For download link just visit the Microsoft’s Latest Releases section.

PowerPoint 2007 viewer FREE:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=048dc840-14e1-467d-8dca-19d2a8fd7485&DisplayLang=en

Visio 2007 viewer FREE:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=D88E4542-B174-4198-AE31-6884E9EDD524&displaylang=en

In order to view word 2007 (docx) and excel 2007 (xlsx) files you need the following 3 things:

1) the word 2003 viewer here:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=95E24C87-8732-48D5-8689-AB826E7B8FDF&displaylang=en

2) the excel 2003 viewer here:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=c8378bf4-996c-4569-b547-75edbd03aaf0&DisplayLang=en

3) the office compatibility pack here:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=941b3470-3ae9-4aee-8f43-c6bb74cd1466&DisplayLang=en

There is no word 2007 viewer or excel 2007 viewers yet, read about this here:

Compatibility Pack for the Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats
To reduce file size, improve reliability, and enhance integration with external sources, Microsoft has added new file formats to Word 2007, Excel 2007, and PowerPoint 2007. To help ensure that you can open files in these new formats, Microsoft has developed a Compatibility Pack for the Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats. By installing the Compatibility Pack after you install the Word Viewer 2003, you can view documents that are saved in the following new document formats:

• Microsoft Office Word 2007 document (.docx)
• Microsoft Office Word 2007 macro-enabled document (.docm)

Note: When you use the Word Viewer 2003 to view files that are saved in these formats, you will see a

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