Hello,

Works is not the same as Office. It is a crappy junior version which does nothing for your situation. Actually I am surprised your laptop did not come with Works, they all seem to have it these days. Works files are not compatible with Office, unless you convert them (and who wants to hassle with that?).



You needed to buy Office97 or something else equally cheap and easily found. I bet if you ask around your friends will have an old Office version you can install. THEN you use the UPGRADE version to install 2003. Without an existing installation it cannot continue. (That's why it's called an upgrade version)

I do IT support for a living and would have explained all this to you if you called me for a one-hour consultation. In my case I probably would have installed the 97 version for you too (it's not supported any longer so it's not an issue). I am not overly surprised this happens, however, being that everyone assumes you already have Office when you buy an upgrade version -- no one thought twice about it, I'm sure. Do you have an IT consultant available? I charge $45-up per hour and am plenty experienced, so don't let someone try to tell you it's worth $75 or more for their advice. This is Windows 101 stuff, and if someone tries to gouge you you should let them know you're not ignorant of how easy this is.