How do I load Office 97 onto a new XP system?

Years ago I bought MS Office Pro. It was on 3.5 inch diskettes. It does not
require a product ID to load. A few years later, I bought an MS Office Pro
update and it was on CD. Of course it requires a product ID as well as
elegible loaded products, of which my previously loaded MS Office 97
qualifies. Everything has worked fine on my old Win98SE system, including
replacing a crashed harddrive.

I have now bought a new XP Pro driven system and cannot get Office 97 to
load from the diskettes. (I think the decompress algorithems are different
than XP uses). Consequently, I can't get Office 2000 to load.
Unfortunately, I am retired and can't afford to buy the newest version of
Office just to be able to get to and update thousands of saved documents. At
this point I am still forced to use my old computer for MSO work. HELP!

I tried the preloaded MS Works and in comparison, it is a weak imitation of
Office.

Emmett wrote in:

Years ago I bought MS Office Pro. It was on 3.5 inch diskettes. It does
not require a product ID to load. A few years later, I bought an MS
Office Pro update and it was on CD. Of course it requires a product ID
as well as elegible loaded products, of which my previously loaded MS
Office 97 qualifies. Everything has worked fine on my old Win98SE
system, including replacing a crashed harddrive.

I have now bought a new XP Pro driven system and cannot get Office 97 to
load from the diskettes. (I think the decompress algorithems are
different than XP uses). Consequently, I can't get Office 2000 to load.
Unfortunately, I am retired and can't afford to buy the newest version
of Office just to be able to get to and update thousands of saved
documents. At this point I am still forced to use my old computer for
MSO work. HELP!

You shouldn't have to install Office 97, when you install Office 2000 and it
asks for the qualifying product can you insert the Office 97 disk 1 in the
drive and point Office 2000 to it?

I tried the preloaded MS Works and in comparison, it is a weak imitation
of Office.

Agreed but it contains everything that many people need.


--
David R. Norton MVP