Microsoft Office 2003 Service Pack 3 for Multilingual User Interface Pack provides the latest updates to Office 2003 Multilingual User Interface Pack.

Microsoft Office 2003 (Professional Edition) represents a major upgrade to previous versions of the world's most popular suite of software applications. Office 2003 includes new and familiar products, features, and functionality that can help organizations and their employees connect to coworkers, information, and business processes quickly and effectively.

The new Reading Layout view in Word 2003 makes it easier to read documents online.

View and organize information in Outlook 2003 for more ease of use. View larger.

View customized XML templates in Excel 2003. View larger.

The Research task pane helps you access online references without leaving PowerPoint 2003. View larger.

Reveal object dependencies and help check for errors in an Access 2003 task pane. View larger. Advances in intranet collaboration through integration with the collaboration and information-sharing portal, Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003, enable employees to access and share information both internally and externally. Support for information rights management (IRM) and industry-standard Extensible Markup Language (XML) provide a platform on which to quickly build cost-effective solutions that can have an immediate impact in your business and productivity.

Seamlessly Connect People with Processes
Office 2003 is designed specifically to streamline communication and collaboration between internal and external team members using the desktop productivity programs that many people rely on every day. The "Document Workspaces" feature, for instance, enable teams to modify, access, and save documents in a central location. In addition, the "Shared Workspace" task pane displays tasks, related documents, links, and member lists that notify you when your team members are online.

When you share documents with Office 2003, you have control over what gets changed. You can choose permission settings and allow co-authors to alter only the sections or formatting that you choose. Office 2003 also helps protect your documents from being unintentionally changed by using formatting and editing restrictions. Simply set permission controls on entire documents or portions of a document to prevent modifications or reformatting. You can also improve the efficiency of your meetings with "Meeting Workspaces," which offer a centralized location for sharing agendas, visual resources, and other documentation. And instant messaging (IM), which can be displayed in most programs in Office 2003 applications, lets you know when your team members are online.

Broader .XML Support
One of the most significant upgrades that's included in Office 2003 is broader XML support. Microsoft Office Word 2003, Microsoft Office Excel 2003, and Microsoft Office Access 2003 each offer XML schemas you can customize for using data, smart documents, and programmable task panes.

With these improvements, you can manipulate, analyze, and format data from your most critical business systems and can customize documents and task panes so that they integrate with XML data sources and outside programs. The enhancements also reduce development time with XML. With Excel 2003, for instance, you can use the visual mapping tool to connect a user-specified XML schema to fields in your spreadsheet, and customize smart tags to bring relevant business information directly into your work. (Access 2003, Outlook 2003, and PowerPoint 2003 each support third-party and customized smart tags.)

The Leading Suite of Applications
Included with Office 2003 Professional edition is Access 2003, Excel 2003, Outlook 2003 with Business Contact Manager, PowerPoint 2003, Publisher 2003, and Word 2003.