How to upgrade from Office 2003 to Office 365 ?

[sandwedger]

Initially I was going to go from 2003 to 2013 on the same desktop, until I found out about the licensing situation. Is there a clear-cut way to go to 365 without losing my pst file data? If I am stuck with going to 2013 before going to 365, do I have to uninstall 2003 first?

 

[macropod]

You can indeed install both versions of Office on the same system, without any licensing implications.

Regarding Outlook, you can only have one version at a time (unlike the other Office apps) because of the way Outlook works, so you'll have to choose whether to remain with Outlook 2003 (and its PST file) or upgrade to Outlook 2013, with the consequential PST conversion. Of course, if you make a backup of your PST file, you'll still have the data as of that date available should you decide to revert to Outlook 2003 at a later time. AFAIK, though, there's no conversion path from Outlook 2013 back to Outlook 2003's PST file, so any later data wouldn't be accessible (unless you're using, say a gmail account, in which case you can re-download it from there).

Cheers
Paul Edstein
[MS MVP - Word]

 

[sandwedger]

The licensing issue I am referring to is the one of non-transferability. My old 2003 has been installed on several different computers as they died off, but 2013 is a one-time shot. When this desktop becomes landfill, I won't be able to transfer it to the next computer, or so I understand. Since computers last about as long as a light bulb, and mine is already over three years old, I am loath to stack a pile of money on what is a funeral pyre waiting to light up.

 

[strongm]

Microsoft changed the rules for Office 2013 back in 2013:

https://blogs.office.com/2013/03/06/office-2013-now-transferable/

 

[sandwedger]

That changes everything, for the better !!! Thanks!