In Microsoft Project 2000 and Microsoft Project 2002, you can open a project created in Microsoft Office Project 2003 and save it with any changes you make, and then open it again in 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 when you open a project created in Microsoft Office Project 2003 in Microsoft Project 2000 or Microsoft Project 2002.

When you reopen the project in Microsoft Office Project 2003, all information will be displayed again. The project will retain all of the Microsoft Project 2000 or Microsoft Project 2002 information as long as you don't save the project with a new name. When you save the project with a different name, all Microsoft Project 2000 and Microsoft Project 2002 items are discarded.

Note  Due to the addition of new features in Microsoft Office Project 2003, it cannot save projects to Microsoft Project Server 2002 without first making some minor modifications to the database. To install scripts to upgrade your Microsoft Project Server 2002 database, go to the download center on TechNet.

Note  Microsoft does not supply a converter for Microsoft Project 98 that would allow you to open a file created in a later version of Project. One solution: 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 need to save it to the Microsoft Project 98 file format first.

If you want to open a later version file in Microsoft Project 98 and the creator cannot save it in Microsoft Project 98 format, you can obtain a copy of the trial version of Microsoft Office Project Standard 2003. Note that you may want to install the trial version on a separate computer from the one on which you have installed Microsoft Project 98. To download the trial version from the Microsoft Office System trial software page, see the link located in the See Also list (visible only when you are connected to the Internet).

Microsoft Office Project 2003 supports the consolidation of Microsoft Project 2000, Microsoft Project 2002, and Microsoft Project 98 files, where files of both file formats are inserted into a master project. However, you should not use a project created in Microsoft Project 98 as a resource pool for your Microsoft Office Project 2003 projects.