Question Please Help Me Choose the Most “Autotext Like” version of MS Office

soundtrek

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Oct 11, 2009
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Change is fine when it’s for the better, which is hardly the case these days with most things. We all know that Bill Gates couldn’t care less but countless users besides me have complained that Windows 10 and beyond won’t support Office 2003. Its trim and easy to use banner menu has since been replaced on all Office versions with a bunch of grossly overcrowded “ribbons” bloated with icons that makes you hunt like a bloodhound to find the feature you need.

Worst of all, Word 2003’s ultra quick and perfectly functional Autotext, which I’ve heavily relied on forever, was replaced with something called “parts” that requires more steps to be able to save and/or insert boilerplate text in a document when needed. It’s so convoluted I’ve yet attempted to use it in Office 2019 on my sister’s pc.

Office 2003 was simply perfect for users like me. But Bill Gates is legendary for reinventing the wheel, breaking users perfectly good wheels and thereby forcing us to buy his new one. It’s bad enough that Windows 10-which I’m now forced to “upgrade” to-won’t support Office 2003. But I also read that while Word 2003 may or may not work with or without compatibility mode, Excel 2003 won’t work at all on Windows 10, thus killing off my copy of same. And even if that’s not true it’s also been widely expected that some forthcoming Windows 10 update will eventually kill Office 2003. This in turn forces me to choose among and buy a “newer and improved” version of Office.

So that I can avoid receiving more nasty Microsoft surprises, please help me select which version, among Office 2013, 2016 and 2019 will best meet my needs:

1.) Which Office version has the Word feature that is most like Autotext in Word 2003?

2.) Otherwise, if following these steps fail to reclaim most Autotext functionality https://smallbusiness.chron.com/restore-autotext-microsoft-word-63652.html

then I will likely have to resort to using this software:

https://www.addintools.com/documents/word/where-auto-text.html

https://www.addintools.com/office2010/professionalplus/index.html

https://download.cnet.com/Classic-M...10637184.html?tag=dropDownForm;productListing

In that case, which if any, of the above Office versions are most likely to support this third party software?

3.) In addition to Word, Excel and Powerpoint, do Office 2013, 2016 and 2019 versions all include Access?
If not, how can I open and update my Access files?

4.) If I buy the full version of Office 2013, 2016 or 2019 on disc can I install it on all three of my Windows 10 computers?

5.) Where’s the best place to purchase the best Office version for me on disc?

Thanks.