Office 2003 and Server-Side Automation

[jhein]

Hello,

I have a client that is wondering if MS Office 2003 can be installed and run on a server (this product seems to have exactly what they need, only it needs be installed on a server). I know MS has discouraged this practice in the past with previous versions of Office, but I have heard this may not be the case with the newest version of Office (2003). Has anyone had any experience or heard any pros/cons as to having Office 2003 set up on a server?

Thanks!

 

[chiph]

I think it depends on what they need to do.

If they just need to create some word/excel docs on the fly, then they can use the new XML capabilities of Office 2003 to do this, and only a single license is required (AFAIK) in order to get access to the WordML and ExcelML XSD files which define a document/spreadsheet.

Chip H.


If you want to get the best response to a question, please check out FAQ222-2244 first

 

[jhein]

I should be a little more clear. The possible path they want to take is to have Office installed on a server, so that when they are out in the field, they can fill out word forms pertaining to their inspections. Once they get back into the office they want to hook up to the network and have a process that will download these forms to server and on the server, particular information will be parsed out of the forms and put into xml. I know Office 2003 has exactly what they are looking for, but my question is, can they install Office 2003 on the server or do they even need to? I guess with Office 2003 on their laptops, they can save these forms as xml and send these xml files back to the server to be processed accordingly.