IT administrators can download a group policies template from the Microsoft site to return formats from the dead, but individual users or smaller shops must instead edit the Windows registry, a daunting task that even Microsoft warns against. Word 2003 with SP3, in fact, blocks a staggering 24 former formats, according to Microsoft, including the default word processing file format for Office 2004 for Mac, the currently available edition of Microsoft's application suite for Mac OS X. They may pose a risk to you,' according to the document.Īmong the blocked files are older Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint formats, as well as older formats used by Lotus 1-2-3 and Corel Corp.'s Quattro Pro - a pair of ancient and aging spreadsheets - and Corel Draw, an illustration program.

'These file formats are blocked because they are less secure. Like Tarpara, the document claimed that the file blocking was done for security reasons. Microsoft has posted a document to its support database that includes a Windows registry hack that returns full file format access to Office 2003. Finally completely uninstalled Word 2003 and reinstalled (because you cannot just uninstall SP3) and the problem is fixed.' A user identified as 'dberwanger' complained that he called Microsoft's support desk, but was told it would cost $250 to 'fix a problem with SP3 that they created.

Microsoft office 2003 sp3