There are many questions about which versions of Microsoft Project and Microsoft Project server are compatible. Here are the general rules:
- Project 2000 connects to Project Central
- Project 2002 connects to Project Server 2002
- Project Professional 2003 connects to Project Server 2003 and Project Server 2002
- Project Professional 2007 connects to Project Server 2007
No other connections are possible.
Project 2007 was redesigned in a number of ways to make it more efficient and improve performance. These changes included changes to the database schema and to the method that data is transferred. ODBC was abandoned in favor of Web services. This means that compatibility between the two versions was broken completely
One nod that Microsoft made to ease the pain was that they did make it possible to install the 2003 version and 2007 version side by side on the same machine. This applies to both Project Professional and Project Server.
It is important to note that Project 2003 knows nothing about 2007 so you should always install 2003 before you install 2007 or 2003 may overwrite the 2007 installation or do other bad things.
Project 2007 can read from all versions back to Project 98, but can only write back in Proj 2000 or later. It can read from ODBC but not write back to it. This means that any .mpd databases will have to be converted to stand-alone files or stored in Project Server if you want to continue working with them.
Comments (3)
Actually I have a question not a comment. Does MS Project Server 2007 require MS Office 2007 to already be installed on the network? I'm looking into getting our client to use Server 2007 and wondering if they will have to upgrade to Office 2007 before we can even think on getting Server 2007. Any assistance / advice would be greatly appreciated.
Bill Vickers
wvickers@eaglerayinc.com
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No. Project Server 2007 is installed on a server. Servers do not typically require office applications to be installed. They will need Project Professional 2007 to connect to the Project Server, but it can be installed without the rest of Office 2007 and can coexist with Office 2003 and earlier. -JD
Posted by William E. Vickers | October 22, 2008 2:20 PM
Posted on October 22, 2008 14:20
We use project 2003 and are restricted with a government firewall so can not install any converters. If a customer sends me a 2003 file can I open it in 2007?
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Yes, 2007 can open Project 2003 files, but there are sometimes subtle changes in the files due to the different way Project handles things like resource assignments. Should be OK most of the time though. -Jack
Posted by anita doyon | January 7, 2009 11:45 AM
Posted on January 7, 2009 11:45
Hi,
I currently use MS Project 2003 and I am considering upgrading to MS Project 2007 however one of our partner organisations who are leading on the Programme use MS Project 2003, if I use 2007 and submit these plans to be included in the programme will that cause problems?
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It may cause some minor changes in data and formatting. I'd follow the lead of the Programme lead just to avoid potential problems. I think a one time save to 2003 is probably OK, but if you are going to be going back and forth from 2007 to 2003 many times over the life of the project I'd just stick with the same version. -Jack
Posted by Billy | February 12, 2009 2:16 PM
Posted on February 12, 2009 14:16