Hello James,

If you still have your Office 2003 package and it will run in Vista (I don't know if it will as I refuse to "downgrade" to Vista and more recent Windows and Office versions), then don't change over to a more recent version of Office - the menus are stuffed and the ribbons are chockers with icons so it take up a lot of screen space. You won't be able to find most of the things you are familiar with.

What is worse, the file extensions are now different, and you cannot open a .xlsx file in Office 2003. You can Save As, in Office 2007+, to an Excel 95-2003 format, but this requires a few steps/several clicks each time and is a pain in the whatsit. You will have to educate anyone sending you files created in the new versions to SaveAs in .xls or .doc formats for you

If Office 2003 won't run on Vista, consider switching to OpenOffice (www.openoffice.org) for a free and open-source version of MS Office which has all the bells and whistles, including a spreadsheet, a database, a word processor, a presentation package and so on.

If is under constant development, the users can submit suggestions or code for modifications (you can browse these on-line and download any you want) and it is very easy to use.

Office 2003 Basic will not provide you with Access and some other packages. I refuse to use Internet Explorer, Outlook, Outlook Express &c, so I can't tell you if they are part of the Basic version, but they probably are. If you do some Googling or other surfing/searching on-line, this should provide you with the answer as to what you get with each package.

Office 2003 Pro will provide Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint, IE, Outlook Express (at the very least).

You might find copies for sale cheaply on-line or through discount/clearance sales. Some PC shops and traders, including PC Swap Meets, will have copies lurking on their shelves or tables they will be happy to sell at a reasonable price.

If you find any options to buy Office 2003 Pro, XP Pro, XP Pro Media Centre or similar software that you want, be aware that you may have trouble registering it if Windows no longer supports it. (They no longer support Office 2000). Make sure you get the full version, complete with registration card (if originally supplied), books (ditto), CD, box and everything, and make a back-up copy of the CD and record the registration code on it. [If you computer crashes and/or your installation disk is damaged or lost and you have to re-install, by having the code stored elsewhere, you can easily type it back in].

Good luck.

Heather.