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Microsoft Office 2003 Service Pack 3

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Microsoft® Office 2003 Service Pack 3 (SP3) represents a major evolution in security for Office 2003. It further hardens the Office suite against potential attacks and other security threats. This service pack also includes fixes that have been previously released as separate updates for Office 2003.

"Microsoft Office 2003 Service Pack 3 is the culmination of several years of improvements to the product suite … It makes it easier to work with the Windows Vista operating system, exchange files with people who use the 2007 Microsoft Office system, and interact with servers in the 2007 release. SP3 also minimizes the issues that previously caused distractions," a white paper released along with the service pack says.

http://download.microsoft.com/download/7/7/8/778493c2-ace3-44c5-8bc3-d102da80e0f6/Office2003SP3-KB923618-FullFile-ENU.exe



SP3 also enhances security by including recent, individually released patches. It includes new features and tools - such as MOICE (Microsoft Office Isolated Conversion Environment) and File Block - which were developed as part of the 2007 Microsoft Office system. These two security tools, released separately earlier this year, reduce the threat of malware concealed within Microsoft Office documents, the paper says.

MOICE allows users to open Microsoft Office documents from unknown senders with relative safety. It uses the converters in the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 file formats to convert binary format files into the newer Office Open XML format, it says.