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Microsoft Office Word Viewer Still supported?

Anonymous
2012-11-07T00:13:05+00:00

Hi,

I'm using Microsoft Office Word Viewer 2003. It works well.

But now the problem is that I'm told that Microsoft Office Word Viewer 2003 is End of life.

That means I can not receive any security patches for word viewer any more. I googled, But I find out there is no Microsoft Office Word Viewer 2007/2010.

What Should I do now? Is Microsoft Office Word Viewer 2003 still supported by Microsoft?

Thanks

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

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  1. Suzanne S Barnhill 277.1K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2012-11-08T02:56:06+00:00

    The current version, regardless of name, will view documents created in any version of Word, provided you also install the Compatibility Pack. It is not specifically a Word 2007 or 2010 viewer because it does require the addition of the Compatibility Pack to work.

    If by "end of life" you  mean that no further updates will be issued for it, then possibly that is the case, but since this "latest version" was released in 2012, it should be pretty up-to-date.

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  1. Anonymous
    2012-11-07T19:14:39+00:00

    Dear Suzanne

    Thanks for reply me.

    I followed the download link. (http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=4)

    Which is the latest Word Viewer.

    But It turned out that the latest version is still "Word Viewer 2003". The title of the installation windows is called "Microsoft Word viewer 2003" . After installation. It shows that " Microsoft Word viewer 2003 installation finished".

    WORDVIEW.EXE file version is   11.0.8169.0.

    So I guess The latest version of Word viewer is still Word viewer 2003 which is End of life.

    Am  I correct?

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  2. Suzanne S Barnhill 277.1K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2012-11-07T13:26:33+00:00

    Did you read the description of the download? "This download is a replacement for Word Viewer 2003 and all previous Word Viewer versions." It clearly states that:

    The Word Viewer, together with the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint File Formats, allows you open Word documents saved in the following formats:

    • Word Document (.docx)
    • Word Macro-Enabled Document (.docm)
    • Rich Text Format (.rtf)
    • Text (.txt)
    • Web Page formats (.htm, .html, .mht, .mhtml)
    • WordPerfect 5.x (.wpd)
    • WordPerfect 6.x (.doc, .wpd)
    • Works 6.0 (.wps)
    • Works 7.0 (.wps)
    • XML (.xml)

    Note also that the KB article I cited ( "How to obtain the latest Word Viewer," dated April 26, 2012) clearly states:

    APPLIES TO

    • Microsoft Word 2010
    • Microsoft Office Word 2007
    • Microsoft Word 2002
    • Microsoft Word 2000

    (not sure why Word 2003 is omitted).

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  3. Anonymous
    2012-11-07T00:44:26+00:00

    Dear Suzanne S. Barnhill

    Thanks for your reply.

    For link http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=4

    Is it still Microsoft Office Word Viewer 2003?

    If It is. then it should be end of life too.

    Cause I read it from MS KB

    http://support.microsoft.com/kb/979860

    " The following is a list of the discontinued Office viewers:

    • Word Viewer 97/2002
    • Word Viewer 2003"

    Thanks

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  4. Suzanne S Barnhill 277.1K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2012-11-07T00:37:51+00:00

    There actually is an updated viewer (which turns up in the first two hits if you google for "Microsoft Word viewer"); see "How to obtain the latest Word Viewer." The actual download is at http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=4.

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