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Missing the Office shortcut bar

There is no Office Shortcut Bar in Office 2003 – and your choices aren’t very good.

I get at least one message a week from someone who’s upgraded to Office 2003, and discovered that they can’t use the Office Shortcut Bar. Alas, there is no Office Shortcut Bar in Office 2003 – and your choices aren’t very good.

You can install two copies of Office – presumably Office XP and Office 2003 – but you have to start by installing Office XP, and then install Office 2003 (KB article). Microsoft says the combination is stable, but then again Microsoft said that Windows ME and the original version of Office XP were stable.

If you do run both versions of Office simultaneously, you can use the Office XP Shortcut Bar with Office 2003. BUT…. the Office 2003 icons look weird on the Office XP Shortcut Bar (KB article).

Microsoft is well aware of the problem, and has no intentions of releasing any new versions of OSB. Their intent – and I can understand it! – is to get people to use the Start menu and/or the Quick Launch Toolbar (KB article).

Your best bet is to take a closer look at Windows’ Start menu and the Quick Launch Toolbar (particularly with the ability to put folders on the Quick Launch Toolbar). If you can’t make do with the features built into Windows, you’re outta luck.

 

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