How to install both MS Office 2003 and MS Office 2013 on the same system

He wants to open Word 2013 whenever he feels like it.
He does not want Word 2013 to automatically open .docx files.
He wants Word 2003 to automatically open .docx files.

I hope that reg search/replace worked for him to accomplish that, but I just wanted to make it clear that there is a way to insert both Word 2003 custom icons and Word 2003 menus into Word 2007-2013...


Freeware portion of RibbonCustomizer software can be used to get the classic menus installed: View attachment RibbonCustomizer.zip

After installing RibbonCustomizer, go to the View Ribbon >
Customize Ribbon (click on its drop down menu, not on its icon) > Customization Schemes >
to get the Classic User Interface enabled

[Classic UI feature can be used indefinitely, without selecting to try the shareware portion of the program so you don't have to select 'Evaluate RibbonCustomizer Professional'. Note that RibbonCustomizer may delay Word Startup Time a little.]


• To import a Ribbon consisting of a template from Word 2003 or earlier, simply copy the Normal.dot file from Word 2003 to the Word STARTUP folder, by default
C:\Users\[user name]\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Word\STARTUP\

This will result in Add-Ins ribbon loading at startup. However, it may contain unwanted Menu and Toolbar items as well. To make a custom Normal.dot file with just the templates in Word 2003 or earlier:
1. Start Word 2003 > Tools > Customize... > Toolbars TAB > New > Make toolbar available: Document1 > OK > Place items inside the newly created toolbar.

2. Save the file as a .doc file (in case it's also needed later) but then File > Save As... > Save As Type: Document Template (*.dot) > Save

3. Copy the .dot file to MS Office 2007/2010/2013 folder C:\Users\[user name]\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Word\STARTUP\

4. You may have to re-create in Word 2007/2010/2013 any macros you saved, but Classic Template shortcuts for them should then work.

• To import a Ribbon consisting of a template from the previous version of Excel, convert the old templates into an *.xla Add-In using Excel 2003 or earlier: Tools > Customize... > Toolbars TAB > Attach... > Select and Copy custom toolbars > OK > Close
File > Save As ... > Save as type: Microsoft Office Excel Add-In (*.xla) > Save the file then copy it to
C:\Users\[user name]\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Excel\XLSTART\
or
[...]\Microsoft Office\Office15\XLSTART

Start Excel 2007/2010/2013, which would then show the custom toolbars under the Add-Ins Ribbon. ExcelXX.xlb containing the Add-In information will also be created in C:\Users\[user name]\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Excel\

For fun, I figured out how to successfully install both Office 2003 and Office 2016 on the same system.
I edited post#1 with instructions on how I did it.

I also successfully tested that it does not matter which version of office you install first and which second.
But if you deviate from instructions in any way, it doesn't work and so reading the instructions carefully is the only way to get this to work...
Experimenting with other approaches will not result in success, believe me I tested a lot of them.
But what I posted does work if implemented carefully.

Now if you can just get all the principals, teachers, parents and grandparents to implement all this . . .

Things have changed since this thread started.
People have gone mobile and free phone apps today open .docx files

This is just for fun now