what is the difference between Microsoft Office 2003 and Microsoft XP?

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I have to buy a course book. My PC uses Vista but the PCs on the course use 2003 and XP. Is XP the update version of 2003?
thanks

Windows XP and Vista are your operating systems...erm, what make your pc work in the way it does and look the way it does on the screen.

Microsoft Office is a collection of programmes (Word/Excel/Outlook/etc) that can be used with either of these operating systems.

You're pc probably came with Microsoft Works but you could get Microsoft Office to put on your machine if that would make life simpler for you.

I would recommend software4students if you are studying or have and school/college age children as it is much cheaper.

Sorry - I'm not very good at explaining, but basically you are not comparing like for like - one is an operating system and one is a programme.

A bit more fluff that hopefully might prove useful and not too confusing.....

There is a newer version of Office out there, Office 2007, which is the one that you can buy now.

As a default Office 2007 will make documents that Office 2003 has a hard time opening, although it can be set to save them in an "Office 2003 style".

Office 2007 also "feels" very different from Office 2003, they changed the look of it an awful lot.

So a course and book on "Office 2003" may not seem to be that helpful for "Office 2007". That said once you dive beneath the surface and realise that "instead of clicking X I click Y and then click Z" there's a lot of commonality in how things are done.

thanks - that clarifies that I should get the book for 'Microsoft Office 2003'.

but I still dont understand why there is a book for XP and a different one for 2003?
Would the XP one be valid for different versions of 'Office'?

www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0435577824/ref=ord_cart_shr?_encoding=UTF8&m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE

www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/043545580X/ref=ord_cart_shr?_encoding=UTF8&m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE

I see why there's the confusion now, one of those books is called "Learning to Pass ECDL 4.0 for Office XP".

"Office XP" is the version of Office that came before "Office 2003".

"Office XP" really isn't very common, so when people say XP you usually presume that they mean "Windows XP".

So buy the book for "Office 2003" and forget the "Office XP" one.

Thanks - it is confusing isn't it!

Microsoft have an amazing ability to make the simple complicated

yes! am a bit worried about starting this course...computers tend to stop working when I go near them...i hope they have insurance!

I think Office XP was very short lived - the earliest laptops we got in schools (via the govt 'Laptops for Teachers' scheme) had Office 2000, then we got a couple with Office XP, then it switched to 2003. Both the laptops with Office XP are bust now, but iirc it was very similar to 2003. 2007 is much more of a leap, though I am getting to like it better - still annoys me that you can't easily group clipart/images in a Word document, as that's what I spend a lot of time doing when making stuff for school.