The notice follows a dust-up earlier this month over new security settings in Office 2003 SP3 that blocked access to a swathe of older file formats. After users complained on the company’s support forums, and a software rival asked why its files were being barred, Microsoft apologised and posted work-arounds to make it easier for users to unblock the formats.<\/p>\n
Microsoft announced that it would add Office 2003 SP3 to its Microsoft Update listings beginning on February 27. Microsoft Update, a companion service to Windows Update, downloads patches and other fixes for the operating system as well as a number of the company’s applications, notably Office.<\/p>\n
"Those customers who have not already installed SP3 and that have chosen to receive updates automatically will start to receive the service pack as early as February 27," a Microsoft spokeswoman says. "But the distribution through Microsoft Update is a gradual process, and so not every customer will see the service pack on February 27."<\/p>\n
Microsoft Update and Windows Update take their instructions from the client PC’s Automatic Updates settings; those let users specify whether updates will be automatically downloaded and installed, downloaded but not installed, or not downloaded.<\/p>\n
Users who do not wish to automatically upgrade their copies of Office 2003 must set Automatic Updates to the second or third option above.<\/p>\n
Microsoft’s Office and Update teams say that the warning is in keeping with a policy that debuted with Office 2007 SP1, when the company promised that it would give users a 30-day warning before turning on an automatic service-pack update.<\/p>\n
In December, Reed Shaffner, worldwide product manager for Office, promised that Microsoft would not use Microsoft Update to deliver Office 2007’s SP1 for at least three months, perhaps longer.<\/p>\n