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Microsoft Office 2000 Premium Edition
by By Les Johnson—TCS Member Lt3@flash.net March 2000 TCS Journal of Tucson Compuer Society www.aztcs.org - March 18, 2000 at 03:00:53:
Microsoft Office 2000 Premium Edition has so many applications included and has so much capability, it is hard for me to imagine that any one user could use all the applications or use more than a small percentage of the features built into each application. The Premium offering is new with Office 2000, having more applications included than are included in the Professional edition available previously. (The Professional edition is still available for.)The Premium edition includes these eight Microsoft products:
Word—word processor
Excel—spreadsheet program
Outlook—information manager
PowerPoint—presentation manager
Access—database program
Publisher—newsletter, brochures, etc.
FrontPage—web page creator
PhotoDraw—graphics processor
Small Business Tools—Customer Manager, Financial Manager, Direct Mail Manager, Business Planner
I am reviewing Microsoft Office 2000 because its installation on another person’s computer, where Office 2000 replaced Office 97, “messed up” the person’s system. I’m not sure just how the system was “messed up,” but armed with that information I installed Office 2000 on a machine with a fresh install of Windows 98 (first edition) and no previous Office product installed. Office 2000 installed flawlessly, including the installation of Internet Explorer 5.0. I installed Office 2000 on my E: drive (I reserve my C: drive for things directly related to operating Window 98.)
Word
An improvement was noted in how a figure’s caption is implemented, but there is still no way to group a caption with a figure so they can be moved together within a document, and still have the caption show up in the Table of Figures.
Excel
While I am sure there have been some refinements in Excel, I personally didn’t notice anything specific to mention.
Outlook
When Outlook first appeared on the scene, as a follow-on to Scheduler and Scheduler Plus, I tried it. For various reasons I didn’t like it, yet I had clients who thought it was great. I guess it depends on one’s needs.
Improvements have been made to follow-on versions. This 2000 version is the best yet, but I still can’t say I am fond of it. I think it is better than previous versions, and it does seem to be better than other Personal Information Managers I have tried. I think my problem is that Outlook is very much in control of the data and does things the way it wants to, rather than the way I might prefer. Now with viruses like BubbleBoy that spreads itself to the world by sending itself to others using the address book in Outlook, I have further reservations. Try it. If you like, by all means, use it.
Powerpoint
Now here are some great improvements! I tried PowerPoint in a much earlier version and found it cumbersome to use, time consuming, and generally a pain. I had to keep jumping back and forth to different screens for individual slide development, slide organ-ization, and testing. The testing could only be accomplished by running the slide show from beginning to end. After much labor it was possible to produce a presentation that could be run from beginning to end, but you’d better not want to reverse the presentation to see a previous slide, because you couldn’t. Invariably, someone in the audience would want to do just that. Not fun!
Later versions have improved, but not to the extent that this 2000 version has. It is now possible to quickly develop and test a simple and effective presentation. Slides can be developed and viewed in a group, and slide organization and control can be accomplished at the same time on the same screen.
Testing is much easier too. A presentation can be started and stopped anywhere in its course. I can even back up a slide or two. I am beginning to use PowerPoint in ways I never thought possible. Try it. I think you’ll like it.
Access
Access 2000 has improved, and if you intend to use only your database in Access 2000, you are in good shape. On the other hand, if your need is to use a database with earlier versions of Access, you have a problem. Access 2000 can read a database created in an earlier version with no effect on the database, but once Access 2000 takes any action in that database, the database is changed in a way that makes it impossible for earlier versions of Access to use the database. This may have been necessary to improve Access, but I am really disappointed.
Publisher
Publisher 2000 is a high-end product suitable for the creation of newsletters, brochures, and the like. I have not used Publisher in the past, so cannot draw a comparison. There has always been a rather steep learning curve for any high-end publishing application, and earlier versions of Publisher were no exception. It is my understanding that Publisher 2000 has lessened the steepness of the learning curve and made Publisher easier to use, but I cannot speak from personal experience.
Frontpage
I am not a creator of Web Sites or Web Pages, and have not used a product like FrontPage, either in the past or present. Therefore I have no opinion to express on the application.
Photodraw
As a graphics processor, PhotoDraw can be used to acquire electronic images of graphics such as photographs from a file, scanner, or digital camera, then touch them up or alter the images to give a better or different look.
PhotoDraw can do most of the things other high end products of this nature can do. It is suitable for most user needs. However, there are some competing programs on the market that have even more features.
Small Business Tools
Small Business Tools is a collection of four programs designed to aid a small business from origin to day-to-day operations.
Business Planner has two wizards. One wizard helps develop a Business Plan covering the choosing of a type and structure for the business, set-up an operating structure, establish a legal structure, set-up a financial structure, and establish a marketing approach. The other wizard helps to set up a marketing campaign as well as marketing and advertising materials.
Customer Manager is a specialized Access database that helps keep track of dealings with customers including contacts, sales follow-up, and promotions.
Financial Planner uses specialized Excel spreadsheets, based on information from the accounting software used, to create various financial reports to help guide the progress of the business.
Direct Mail Manager does just what its title suggests by making use of the business’s address list(s). It even checks for duplicates and spelling errors.
Now for the “Gotcha.” The toolbar selections for whichever document the user closes last are the toolbars that are going to be selected the next time the application is opened and a new document created. If you would like an application to always open with a certain set of toolbars visible, here is a procedure that works. Open a blank document before you change any toolbar selections, minimize the blank document window, and then close it last when closing the application.
Clipboard
A major addition to Office, and a feature I really like, is the ability to put up to 12 clips on the clipboard at one time. This way a user can collect several different snippets of information from various sources before inserting them into a document, spreadsheet, etc. Since this feature is fully available only when working within Office, it is interesting the way the clipboard has been implemented with other Windows applications where only a single clip can be placed on or retrieved from the clipboard.
The user works with the various clips through a new clipboard-toolbar where tip windows show about the first 50 characters of each clip as the mouse pointer is placed over the clip. If the clip is a graphic, the tip shows the item number of the clip when placed on the clipboard. If a graphic is mixed with text, the text is shown. Icons further identify the clips by showing their origin, e.g., Word, Excel, Outlook, etc.
Unfortunately, the toolbar is more like a square than a bar, and cannot be changed in shape as other toolbars can. Also, when placed in the toolbar areas at the top, bottom, or sides of an application’s window, only the icons in the top line of the clipboard are shown, and not the icons for any of the clips. This means that when actually pasting from the clipboard, the toolbar may be on top of the document and in the way. There is room for improvement here.
While this clipboard feature is fully integrated between Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, and Access, it is only partially implemented in FrontPage, Publisher, and PhotoDraw where the toolbar is not available for display or clip selection. As far as I can tell, the multi-clip clipboard is not available in the Small Business Tools.
When a 13th clip is added to an already full clipboard—one already containing 12 clips—the user is warned that the addition of the clip will cause the first clip to be deleted. This is a good warning, particularly when the toolbar is not turned on (being viewed). And, gratefully, the warning only appears the first time this happens so the user doesn’t have to keep acknowledging the warning as more clips are collected.
Clips cannot be individually deleted from this multi-clip clipboard. More room for improvement! It is possible, however, to clear the entire clipboard through an icon on the toolbar.
It took some time to determine exactly how this multi-clip clipboard functions with other applications, but I suggest strongly that the power-user spend time investigating this area to keep from being frustrated. There are a few peculiarities. I look forward to when this multi-clip feature will be added to Windows and available with all Windows applications.
On-screen Help
Office 95 brought forth the Answer Wizard. The usefulness of on-screen help improved. Natural phrases could now be used to find the help needed. Also, the Help-window stayed on the screen while the user attempted to follow the instructions given. A How do I option, where available, would demonstrate the steps required to accomplish the task in question. When the help provided was descriptive/illustrative text, the Help-window would remain open and on top so that the user could refer to it while attempting the operation. Unfortunately, the Help-window was also often in the way (on top of the document where one is trying to work).
With Office 97 came the Office Assistant, any of a number of animated objects that replaced the Answer Wizard. The classic Office Assistant is the animated Paperclip. Unfortunately, the Office Assistance and the help window were still in the way. I really hated the Office Assistant until I discovered that the assistant could help me find information better than the Help Index.
Instead of the How Do I feature, a Show Me button appeared with the descriptive information on the subject in question. A definite improvement! In some cases, e.g. Word Count, the Show Me button actually executed the function. In other cases, e.g. italic, the mouse pointer is moved to the appropriate toolbar button. Performing the act by using the Menu Bar was regrettably not explained or shown in either of the above examples.
It was now possible to select whether or not the help window should be on top or behind the document being worked on. The Office Assistant, on the other hand, remained on top where it would be accessible and sometimes in the way.
Office 2000 has added several animated objects to the Office Assistant feature. The Paperclip animation has been improved, and my favorite, a mischievous cat, has been added. I again had distaste for the Office Assistant because it insisted on showing itself every time I opened an Office application instead of just when I wanted it. I got tired of hiding it. After some searching, I found out how the keep to Office Assistant from appearing when unwanted, without doing away with the Assistant altogether. By the way, information on how to do this was not in Help.
Now, for what I consider a big improvement. The Help-window is handled differently. Now when the Help-window comes up it locates itself in a full-height vertical window on the right side of the screen using about 20%-25% of the screen. (The width is adjustable.) If the Help-window would cover any part of the application’s window, the application’s window is moved to the left of the screen with the application-window’s width reduced to fit within the space not occupied by the Help-window. This is great! Now the user can work with the document while viewing the help information without Help covering the work area. Not only that, but the Office Assistant moves out of the way most of the time. (Microsoft needs to do a little more work on this feature.) When the Help-window is closed, the application’s window goes back to its initial state.
Now for the bad news. While testing the capabilities and features of the Office Assistant and the Help-window, all of a sudden the Help-window started going to the left side of the screen instead of the right side, with the application shoved over to the right. I still don’t know exactly what I did that caused this to happen, but that is immaterial to this discussion. In my efforts to drag the Help-window back over to the right side of the screen, the Help-window reverted to the way it functioned in Office 95 and 97, covering up part of my document. Arrrg! Not only that, but the option to keep the help window on top, as in previous versions of Office, is no longer available. In addition, the Office Assistant stopped getting out of the way.
I spent the next couple of hours trying to figure out what I had done and, more important, how to get the operation of the Help-window back to the way it started out, without reinstalling Office. Help didn’t offer a clue about what had happened or what to do about it. Neither did my reference books.
Finally after opening, closing, and trying to reinitialize, then pulling, poking, and dragging things about on the screen, I found the answer. The solution turned out to be exceedingly simple once I discovered it, and I offer it here in case any readers have a similar experience. All you have to do is simply left click on the title bar of the Help window and then drag the window like any other window. Move it to either the far left or far right on the screen. It will re-establish its initial conditions and everything will snap back into place.
On a 19" monitor running at 1280 x 1024 resolution, there is room for the Help window in addition to the application’s window, but on a smaller monitor running at a lesser resolution, it may be desirable to drag the Help window onto the application’s window. The resulting operation will then be similar to earlier versions of Office.
Also, many of the Show Me buttons have been removed from Help in the various applications. Probably just as well. I didn’t find them particularly helpful.
The Office Assistant is available in Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, Access, and Publisher. The Office Assistant is not available in FrontPage, PhotoDraw, or Small Business Tools.
When the Office Assistant is not available or has been turned off, an additional panel occurs in the Help-window, to the left of the information panel. This selection panel contains the familiar tabs for Contents, Answer Wizard, and Index, along with associated information. The selection panel will cause some of the application’s window to be covered up, but can be conveniently opened and closed by buttons at the top of the Help-window. The selection panel should be closed after the topic has been chosen and the desired information is displayed in the information panel. Then, the Help-window will be as described above.
Full Screen
One of the frustrating things I had to deal with when changing from DOS to Windows several years ago is that Windows takes up much of the screen for controls and fancy design, leaving less of the document visible. Since Office 95 (and maybe before) Office has had a feature called Full Screen that displays as much of the document as possible without distracting screen elements, such as unwanted toolbars and scroll bars.
Each version of Office has improved this feature and now the small two-button toolbar that is always present when using the Full Screen feature to allow the user to return to a normal window, also lets the user select the toolbars to be used in this mode.
When working with more than one document in the same application with Full Screen turned on, the effectiveness of the feature was mitigated because any toolbar activated with one document was present when working on all other documents.
I really like the Full Screen feature and now, coupled with the way multiple documents are handled, the feature is even better. Read on.
Multiple Documents
In previous editions of Office, when opening more than one document in an application, each document was in a sub-window within the application’s main window. In Office 2000, each document opens a separate instance of the application’s main window. However, the documents are still all tied together through the application, and it is still possible to move from one document to another by choosing it from the Windows menu. Better than that is that each document shows up in the Task Bar, so it is possible to move from document to document by making a Task Bar selection.
An advantage of this separate document arrangement is that the toolbars needed for each document can be individually selected, including the toolbars selected when a document is viewed Full Screen. An application’s option selections, on the other hand, apply to all documents.
Pricing—Microsoft Office 2000 Platinum Edition lists for $799, with an upgrade price of $449. The street price is only slightly less.
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