Office upgrade problem

I have Win 8.1 OS and have been using MS Office 2003 for the last 18 months 'but,' little quirks are popping
up. So I am upgrading to Office 2010...
here's my dilemma/question:
Can I just install it without doing anything else, or should I uninstall vs. 2003, should I back-up Outlook or what???
If I install 2010, will it automatically merge into or over 2003 or what??
I'm concerned about losing my email data and Word files!
Thanks ahead of time.

I'm concerned about losing my email data and Word files!

Click to expand...

Understand the concern ... the, back up the files before you do the install. For Outlook, I think all you have to save is the ".pst" files; for Word, the ".docx" files (and any .dotx files you may have).

I did this a few years back and, from what I recall, I ended up with two installations of Office -- and while that generally does not present a problem, I believe it did with Outlook (that's back when I used Outlook daily).