Microsoft KB Archive/167985

= OFF: Running Multiple Versions of Microsoft Office =

PSS ID Number: 167985

Article Last Modified on 5/23/2003

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The information in this article applies to:


 * Microsoft Office 97 for Windows
 * Microsoft Office for Windows 95 7.0
 * Microsoft Office for Windows 95 7.0a
 * Microsoft Office for Windows 4.2
 * Microsoft Office for Windows 4.2c
 * Microsoft Office for Windows 4.3

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This article was previously published under Q167985



SUMMARY
Although Microsoft does not recommend it, it is possible to install and use more than one version of Microsoft Office on a single computer. For example, you can install and use both Microsoft Office 97 and Microsoft Office 7.0 on the same computer.

This article describes the problems you may encounter when you do this and offers advice about preventing different versions of Office from conflicting with each other.



Order of Installation
If you want to install and use more than one version of Microsoft Office on a single computer, you must install the versions of Microsoft Office in ASCENDING order. For example, if you want to use both Microsoft Office 4.x and Microsoft Office 97 on the same computer, you must install Microsoft Office 4.x FIRST. This step is necessary because of the way registry keys, shared programs, and other settings are managed for each version of Microsoft Office and for the programs that are included with each version of Microsoft Office.

The remainder of this article assumes that you installed the versions of Microsoft Office in the correct (ascending) order.

Using the Office Shortcut Bar When Office 7.0 and 97 Are Installed
When these two versions of Microsoft Office are both installed on the same computer, the Microsoft Office 97 Shortcut Bar includes buttons from the Microsoft Office 7.0 Shortcut Bar. Several of the buttons on the Microsoft Office 7.0 Shortcut Bar were renamed in Microsoft Office 97; as a result, the shortcut bar may contain duplicate buttons that are functionally identical.

When both Microsoft Office 7.0 and Microsoft Office 97 are installed, the shortcut bar may contain the following buttons.

  Button                       Added By   -

Start a New Document        Microsoft Office 7.0 Open a Document             Microsoft Office 7.0 Send a Message              Microsoft Office 7.0 Make an Appointment         Microsoft Office 7.0 Add a Task                  Microsoft Office 7.0 Add a Contact               Microsoft Office 7.0 Microsoft Bookshelf '95     Microsoft Office 7.0 Getting Results Book        Microsoft Office 7.0 Office Compatible           Microsoft Office 7.0 Answer Wizard               Microsoft Office 7.0 New Office Document          Microsoft Office 97 Open Office Document         Microsoft Office 97 Microsoft Bookshelf Basics   Microsoft Office 97 New Note                     Microsoft Office 97 New Message                  Microsoft Office 97 New Journal Entry            Microsoft Office 97 Microsoft Outlook            Microsoft Office 97 New Appointment              Microsoft Office 97 New Task                     Microsoft Office 97 New Contact                  Microsoft Office 97

The duplicate buttons are listed in the following table.

  Button                Duplicate --

Start a New Document New Office Document Open a Document      Open Office Document Send a Message       New Message Make an Appointment  New Appointment Add a Task           New Task Add a Contact        New Contact

For more information, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

158888 OFF97: Extra Buttons Appear on Office Shortcut Bar After Setup

Shortcuts on the Start Menu
Microsoft Office 7.0 and Microsoft Office 97 use the same shortcuts on the Start menu to start programs. Because of this behavior, when you install Microsoft Office 97, the Setup program overwrites the shortcuts for Microsoft Office 7.0 programs. The following shortcuts are affected:

  Microsoft Access Microsoft Binder Microsoft Excel Microsoft PowerPoint Microsoft Word

If you rename the Microsoft Office 7.0 shortcuts before you install Microsoft Office 97, you can use the shortcuts for both sets of programs on the Start menu. To avoid confusion, Microsoft suggests that you add the words "95" or "7.0" to each renamed shortcut.

You can also move the Microsoft Office 7.0 shortcuts to a subfolder on the Start menu. For more information, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

156817 OFF97: Setup Overwrites Office 95 Start Menu Items

Microsoft Office Binder Inserts Microsoft Office 97 Documents
When Microsoft Office 7.0 and Microsoft Office 97 are installed on the same computer, the Add Section dialog box in Microsoft Office Binder displays document types for the most recently installed version of Microsoft Office. As a result, when you insert a section, a Microsoft Office 97 document type is used.

This behavior may cause problems when you try to share a Binder file with users who use Microsoft Office 7.0.

Double-Clicking Files in Windows Explorer
When you double-click a Microsoft Office document in Windows Explorer, the following rules apply:
 * If a version of the program in which the document was created is running, the document is opened in that version of the program.


 * If no version of the program in which the document was created is running, the document is opened in the version of the program that you most recently installed UNLESS you started a version of the program installed with Microsoft Office 4.x (Microsoft Excel 5.x, Microsoft Word 6.x for Windows, Microsoft PowerPoint 4.x, or Microsoft Access 2.x) since you installed the last version of Microsoft Office.

To reassociate documents with the programs included with a particular version of Microsoft Office, run the Microsoft Office Setup program with the /y and /r switches. Doing this registers the file associations for the version of Microsoft Office. For more information, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

166692 XL: Running Multiple Versions of Microsoft Excel

Inserting Microsoft Office OLE Objects into Other Programs
If you install multiple versions of Microsoft Office on the same computer and you insert a Microsoft Office object (for example, a Microsoft Excel worksheet object) into another program (for example, Microsoft Word), the newest version of the program is used when you insert the object. This may cause problems if you share the container file (the Microsoft Word document that contains the Microsoft Excel worksheet object) with users who are not using Microsoft Office 97.

Shared Applications
If you installed the versions of Microsoft Office in the correct (ascending) order, you should not experience any problems when you use shared programs, such as Equation Editor and Clip Gallery. Note that the Object dialog box may display more than one entry for each shared program; this behavior occurs because multiple versions of the shared program may be installed on the computer.

Related Articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base
For additional information about the behavior of multiple versions of Microsoft Office programs on a single computer, please see the following articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

159333 ACC: Running Current & Earlier Access Versions Simultaneously

163998 ACC97: Issues When You Install MS Access 95 After MS Access 97

163628 ACC97: Blank DB Icon Missing in Access 95 After Installing 97

159793 ACC: "Can't Load Mspdox35.dll" Error Installing MS Access 95

141275 How to Open a File with Other Than Associated Program

166692 XL: Running Multiple Versions of Microsoft Excel

163154 WD: Problems Running Multiple Versions of Word on Same Computer

157808 WD: Can Use Only Latest Version of Word to Insert OLE Objects

157088 WD97: Limitations of Converting Document from Word 97 to Word 6

158428 IA: GP Fault Opening HTML File w/ Graphics After Installing Word

Additional query words: OFF97 OFF95 OFF4 OFF43 OFF42 Concurrent

Keywords: kbhowto kbinterop KB167985

Technology: kbOffice420 kbOffice420c kbOffice430 kbOffice95 kbOffice95a kbOffice95Search kbOffice97 kbOffice97Search kbOfficeSearch kbZNotKeyword3

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