What Came Before Word 2003?

Microsoft has been producing Word for years , so several versions of the program are floating around. To make things more confusing, there is more than one way to refer to some versions. Table 1.1 lists the most recent versions of Word to help you understand where Word 2003 fits in. You can run all these versions on Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows 2000, and Windows XP. In contrast, Word 2003 only runs on Windows XP and Windows 2000.

Table 1.1. The Recent Incarnations of Microsoft Word

Name	Version	Description
Word 97	Word 8.0	Word 97 was sold separately and as part of Office 97.
Word 2000	Word 9.0	Word 2000 was sold separately and as part of Office 2000.
Word 2002 or Word XP	Word 10	Word 2002 is sold separately and as part of Office XP.

You may work with people who haven't yet upgraded to Word 2003. If you do, you probably will have to open documents created in earlier versions of Word and save documents in a format that older versions of Word will be able to read. In Hour 18, "Collaborating on Documents," you learn how to cope with these situations.