Microsoft Office Drops Support For Older File Formats

With Service Pack 3 for MS Office 2003...word to the warning...some of your older documents may not open..check with your administrator if the service pack has been applied and documents will not open...BD

You might not have noticed it yet, but the recent service pack 3 release for Microsoft Office 2003 contains a hidden "feature" — it disables support for older Microsoft Office formats. If you've got any old Word, Excel, 1-2-3, Quattro, or Corel Draw documents hanging around your hard drive you'll need to delve into the Windows Registry to open them.
A note posted to the Microsoft Support Center says that “by default, these file formats are blocked because they are less secure,” and goes on to warn that “they may pose a risk to you.”