Office 2003 Licensing and System Requirements

The Microsoft Office System is available in a range of editions, as well as individual programs, designed to let you build the right collection of applications to fit the needs of your organization. Complete information on the different editions of Microsoft Office is available on the Microsoft Office Web site at http://www.microsoft.com/office/.

Volume licensing programs

To acquire Microsoft Office, most organizations take advantage of Microsoft’s volume licensing programs. Volume licensing offers low administration cost, easy license management, and great opportunities for keeping your software current through the Microsoft Software Assurance program. By acquiring a 2003 license, you are granted permission to legally copy and redistribute a particular edition of Microsoft Office within your organization.

Volume license customers can bypass the mandatory activation process by using the Volume License Key (VLK) assigned to their organization. Using a VLK means that individual users in a large organization can install Office without having to enter a product key (which is available only on the back of a retail CD case) and without having to activate the product.

Licensees are eligible for a range of extra services, upgrades, and other benefits, depending upon the terms of their agreements. Different licensing programs are available, based upon your requirements and the size of your organization. For more information, see the Microsoft Licensing Web site at http://www.microsoft.com/licensing/ or contact your software reseller.

Note

The Microsoft Office 2003 Resource Kit tools have been primarily designed to serve the deployment scenarios found in organizations using volume licensing programs. For this reason, you cannot use Microsoft Office 2003 Resource Kit tools, such as the Custom Installation Wizard, with a 2003 retail edition of Microsoft Office, nor can you run Setup in administrative mode to create an administrative installation point with retail packaged products. In addition, all retail editions require product activation and do not include the bypass capability supported by licensed editions.

Microsoft Office as a client on Windows Terminal Services

The terminal services technology of Microsoft Windows 2000 Server and Microsoft Windows Server™ 2003 can deliver the Windows desktop, as well as Microsoft Office 2003, to virtually any desktop computing device, including those that cannot run Windows. When a user runs Office 2003 through Windows Terminal Services, all of the application execution takes place on the server—only the keyboard, mouse, and display information are transmitted over the network to the client computer.

If you elect to deploy Office 2003 as a client on a Windows Terminal Services–enabled computer, you will need to acquire one license for each client computer that makes use of the Microsoft Office System. For more information about Office 2003 licensing on Windows Terminal Services, see the Microsoft Terminal Services License Basics white paper available from the Microsoft Licensing Web site at http://www.microsoft.com/licensing/downloads/terminal_services.doc.

Office 2003 system requirements

All Microsoft Office editions in the 2003 release have approximately the same minimum system requirements.

Item	Minimum requirements
Processor	Pentium 233 MHz or higher processor; Pentium III recommended.
Operating system	Microsoft Windows 2000 Service Pack 3 or later, or Windows XP or later (recommended).
Memory	64 MB RAM (minimum);128 MB RAM (recommended).
Monitor	Super VGA (800 x 600) or higher resolution with 256 colors.
Disk drive	CD-ROM drive.
Pointing device	Microsoft Mouse, Microsoft IntelliMouse , or compatible pointing device.

Disk space requirements Hard disk space usage varies depending on the configuration; custom installation choices may require more or less hard disk space. The following table lists the disk space requirements for standard configurations of the products.

Office Professional with InfoPath (includes Publisher)	450 MB
Office Professional (includes Publisher)	420 MB
Office Basic	220 MB
Office Small Business	380 MB
Office Standard	260 MB
Office Personal (Japanese only on Japanese operating system)	380 MB
Word	150 MB
Excel	150 MB
Outlook	150 MB
PowerPoint	150 MB
Access	180 MB
OneNote	100 MB
InfoPath	100 MB
Publisher	250 MB
FrontPage	180 MB

A local installation source requires approximately 2 GB of hard disk space during the installation; the local installation source that remains on users' computers requires as much as 240 MB of hard disk space beyond that required for Office.

Note

None of the Microsoft Office editions in the 2003 release run on the Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition, Windows 98, or Windows NT operating systems. If any client computers are currently running one of these operating systems, you must upgrade the operating system before installing Microsoft Office.

Additional requirements

Certain programs in the Microsoft Office System require additional items or services:

• Speech recognition requires a Pentium II 400 MHz or higher processor.

• Microsoft Office InfoPath™ 2003 requires Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 or later. If your organization is running Windows 2000 Service Pack 3, you must upgrade to Internet Explorer 6.0 before users can start InfoPath. For more information, see the Microsoft Internet Explorer Web site at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/default.asp.

• Handwritten notes in Microsoft Office OneNote 2003 require Tablet PC pen input for capturing digital ink. Digital ink enables features such as numbering handwritten notes, converting handwritten notes to text, and searching handwritten notes.

• Advanced collaboration features in Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 may require Microsoft Exchange Server 2003.

• Internet functionality requires separate dial-up or broadband Internet access.

• Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2003 broadcasts require a Windows Media Encoder–compatible video camera for broadcasts including video; Microsoft Exchange 2000 Chat Service to enable chats during live broadcasts; and Microsoft Windows Media Server to enable multicasts of live broadcasts to more than 10 audience members.

• Microsoft Office Access 2003 requires the Microsoft Jet 4.0 Service Pack 7 update. This service pack includes an updated sandbox mode that allows Microsoft Office Access 2003 to block potentially unsafe expressions. Some features in Office Access 2003 will not function properly if you do not install Microsoft Jet 4.0 Service Pack 7. To download the latest version of Jet 4.0, see the Microsoft Windows Update Web site at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/default.asp/.