Is word 2003 more stable than word xp

[AnnieMS]

I have word xp sp3 on a thinkpad x41 w/ winxp sp3 & 1.5 GB RAM. Networked to 1 win 2k & 1 win xp computer both w/ word 2003.

I've been troubleshooting the thinkpad since day 1 for slow performance and explorer/journal crashes. It went back to lenovo and came back more stable and slightly less slow.

When I first installed word xp on the thinkpad it behaved like word 97-word 2003 has on all my computers - win2k & winxp. After x amount of time being open on certain days when working w/ several documents or a large document it crashed. But until it decided to crash it handled graphics ok.

Then it started crashing if I went to group objects or edit a wmf pic even when it was the first and only app opened after booting into windows. Performance troubleshooting of the thinkpad was interrupted by imminent hdd failure and I've now replaced the hdd, reinstalled and updated winxp tab ed & word, but word is behaving exactly like it did before the hdd replacement.

I use word's customization features extensively - my normal.dot has a lot of macros, my toolbars are extensively customized [i'm careful to backup normal.dot] - and I do have some 10-15 MB docs [Word limit 32 MB]. I was thinking of trying word 2003 on the tablet, and if it seemed to handle graphics and crash less of purchasing a license. I was surprised how $$ word 2003 still is in my preliminary searches. I thought of trying Office 97, but it's not compatible w/ 2003 and all my word docs have to be able to be opened, edited & saved on all three computers.

Does anyone have any opinions on whether word 2003 is better than word xp or better than word xp on win xp?

[AnnieMS]

I finally got tired of word xp crashing and tried word 2003 on the thinkpad. Figuring out what updates to install in what order wasn't fun, but so far it hasn't crashed in the circumstances that caused word xp to crash - I inserted graphics and edited a wmf file.

I should now try word xp on the dell desktop to see if it's more stable on another machine and on winxp sp2, but alas the dell isn't booting up and isn't likely to for awhile.

[gamehead200]

In my experience, Office 2003 has been more stable than Office XP (Word included) - the only other difference from what I can remember is that Office 2003 has a "prettier" GUI.

I wouldn't have bothered with the updates had it been me installing it... Or I would have just installed SP3 and left it as is. I don't use Office as much as I used to anymore...

[AnnieMS]

Thanks gamehead200,

I'm getting tempted to skip the security updates, that's for sure.

What I should do next time I have to do a reformat/reinstall of the OS is install Word before updating winxp sp2 and see how word xp runs in winxp without any updates. Then update winxp to sp 3 and see how word xp runs on it w/out updating word. Then update word.