Does anyone here have a favorite version of MS Office? Me personally, my favorite is Office 2003. I love the design, the simplicity and layout, and especially the little book and pen animation at the bottom.

However, using a older version of Word feels so much more useful and important than anything else. When I want to write, I pull out a chromebook, RDP into a windows XP vm running on a PVE server, and fire up 2003. I like
it because there are no distractions, the welcoming colors of XP, and all
the rest of the charm of XP and Office 2003. Most importantly though, it's distraction free, which creates a wonderful writing environment.

So for you, what's your favorite version of Office, and feel free to
share your writing routine. Im curious! And if you don't use Office, feel
free to share whatever it is you use! Im super curious about you guys.

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On Thu, 2 Jul 2026 00:54:56 -0700
"Nook8081" (VERT/PROTOWEB) <VERT/PROTOWEB!Nook8081@endofthelinebbs.com>
wrote:

Does anyone here have a favorite version of MS Office? Me
personally, my favorite is Office 2003. I love the design, the
simplicity and layout, and especially the little book and pen
animation at the bottom.

However, using a older version of Word feels so much more useful
and important than anything else. When I want to write, I pull out a chromebook, RDP into a windows XP vm running on a PVE server, and
fire up 2003. I like it because there are no distractions, the
welcoming colors of XP, and all the rest of the charm of XP and
Office 2003. Most importantly though, it's distraction free, which
creates a wonderful writing environment.

So for you, what's your favorite version of Office, and feel free
to share your writing routine. Im curious! And if you don't use
Office, feel free to share whatever it is you use! Im super curious
about you guys.

I hated the "ribbon" when it was introduced, but it helped make things
easier in the end. Access to everything I needed right there, once I
figured where it was.

Pretty much the same as switching from Windows 3.11 to Windows 95. I
liked my little boxes and what's with this stupid task bar at the
bottom!

It's interesting how we adapt. I wonder what would happen if we put
Windows 3.11 in front of AI and told it to make UI improvments, what
it'd come up with.
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Re: Favorite version of Office?
By: Nook8081 to DOVE-Net.General on Thu Jul 02 2026 12:54 am

Does anyone here have a favorite version of MS Office? Me personally, my favorite is Office 2003. I love the design, the simplicity and layout, and especially the little book and pen animation at the bottom.

Over here i'm using microsoft word 2002 copyright 2001. It's my
favorite version.
Aka office xp.

If i need to do anything special i use an open source editor.

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Re: Re: Favorite version of Office?
By: nelgin to Nook8081 on Thu Jul 02 2026 11:48 am

Pretty much the same as switching from Windows 3.11 to Windows 95. I liked my little boxes and what's with this stupid task bar at the bottom!

When Windows 95 came out, I actually liked the change right away. I thought the task bar was a convenient way to access the running programs, and I liked the Start menu. Also I liked the Windows 95 desktop and not having to use Program Manager anymore (which I always thought was a bit klunky). Overall I thought the Windows 95 UI was nicer than the Windows 3.1x UI.

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On 02 Jul 2026, Nook8081 said the following...

Does anyone here have a favorite version of MS Office? Me
personally, my favorite is Office 2003. I love the design, the
simplicity and layout, and especially the little book and pen animation at the bottom. However, using a older version of Word feels so much

for me it's the lack of the ribbon interface that keeps me using the old versions. they still desperately hold onto that stuff even into Windows 11.. and for just about every program i've ever used that offers various icon push buttons and other attempts at ease of use, i turn them off if i can.

i'm glad a lot of things are functionally complete. i have a Windows 7 machine i used to print goofy monthly calendars with clipart and stuff, type documents, maybe burn DVDs or whatever.. nothing will break with a new version because i'll never install a new version. but i don't need to because i can do everything i want.

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