• If you have Microsoft Office Project Web Access 2003, you can ask the project manager to publish the project and to give you permission to view the project. You can then view the project in Project Web Access.
• If you don't have Project Web Access, but you can contact the file's creator, that person can distribute the information online.
• If you don't have Project Web Access, and you cannot contact the file's creator, you can obtain a 60-day evaluation copy of Microsoft Office Project Standard 2003.

If you want to open a project file and you have an earlier version of Project than the one with which the file was created, you may be able to open the file. Using Microsoft Project 2000 or Microsoft Project 2002, you can open a project created in Microsoft Office Project 2003, save it with any changes you make, and then open it again using Microsoft Office Project 2003. Note, however, that Microsoft Project 2000 and Microsoft Project 2002 do not include all of the features found in Microsoft Office Project 2003. Therefore, some information might not be displayed if you open the project again using Microsoft Project 2000 or Microsoft Project 2002.

Microsoft does not supply a converter for Microsoft Project 98 or earlier versions that would allow you to open a file created in a later version of Project. If you are attempting to view a file created in a later version of Project, consider the following options:

• If you are using Microsoft Project 98 to work with a project created in Microsoft Project 2000, Microsoft Project 2002, or in Microsoft Office Project 2003, you should ask the file's creator to save the file in the Microsoft Project 98 file format. Note, however, that Microsoft Project 98 does not include all of the features found in the later versions of Project, and information specific to the later versions is not retained when you save the file to Microsoft Project 98 file format.
• If you are using a version earlier than Microsoft Project 98, you will need to contact the file's creator and ask that person to use one of the many available options to distribute the information online, such as saving the file as a Web page.
• If you want to open a later version file using Microsoft Project 98 or earlier, and the creator cannot save it to Microsoft Project 98 file format or distribute it in another way, you can obtain a 60-day evaluation copy of Microsoft Office Project Standard 2003. You should install the evaluation copy on a separate computer from the one on which you have installed your older version of Project.