MS Word 2003 vs MS Word 2007

I am thinking of getting a laptop which will have Windows 7 and MS Office 2007 on it. I have a desktop with Windows XP and MS Office 2003. I have many documents which I continually work on in Word 2003 and must continue to work on with the desktop (Word 2003 if possible).

What problems, glitches, etc, can I expect if I upload a document from the desktop to the laptop, work on it in Word 2007, and then download it back to the desktop which has Word 2003?

Thank you for your time and attention to this.
Mike

 

You can use the Office Compatibility Pack or save as an Word 2003 document on the laptop.

 

The biggest problem you'll have is that the user interface for Word 2007 is totally different. Virtually every command you commonly use is located in a different place than it is in 2003 or in a few cases, no longer exists. It will be very frustrating for a while. I've had 2007 for 6 months or so and still hate it.

 

It does take some getting used to, (and I came to Office 2007 kicking and screaming), but I have to admit, once I got used to it and after I made a MAJOR customization, I really like it a lot. The main customization I made helped me to access and use many of the 2003 tools that I'm used to. What I did was to customize the QuickAccess Toolbar (that's just below the Ribbon) to add all of the links/icons to the QuickAccess Toolbar that I had located in my 2003 Toolbars. In that way, I could quickly access all of the tools I need + use frequently. In addition, I always keep my Ribbon minimized, so that it doesn't take up so much room on the screen. The combination of the two really helps making Office 2007 more user friendly for me. There are tons of other customizations -- you just have to be patient and try to learn your way around. Also, here's a website that has not only the Ribbon Customizer that Halo provided above, but also has the Toolbar Toggle that brings the Office 2003 Toolbars to your Office 2007: http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Customization/CustomizeRibbon.htm