from Executive Software Team Jump Executive Software>@@@ 20,000 Microsoft Partners and Customers have just been shipped the first
Beta of Microsoft Office 2000, and this version of Microsoft's office
suite dives headlong into the future. It will affect the way all
businesses based in Microsoft software conduct their day-to-day
activities, from the front office to the IS department.
The most major enhancement to the entire suite is the ability to work
with documents from Office applications - Excel, Word, Access,
PowerPoint, and all others - either in their native formats or in HTML,
through a browser. This allows documents and files to be created,
shared, collaborated with, and saved to the Web. It eliminates the need
for a Webmaster to go through the sometimes painful steps of translating
a document or Web page addition from its native format into HTML. This
feature works in all applications, even Excel spreadsheets and
PowerPoint presentations. Conversely, a user can also open a document
from the Web, work with it in a native Office application, and either
re-save it to the Web or in its native format.
Additionally, Office 2000 makes possible on-line meetings WHILE sharing
or marking up documents, adding comments, and making changes.
The high-end version of Office 2000 will include FrontPage, Microsoft's
Web-authoring software. FrontPage contains many of the same menus,
toolbars, and editing tools as other Office applications, so any
learning curve will be a short one. This will allow a total Web
solution for small businesses, departments, or anyone who needs it.
From the IS standpoint, Office 2000 presents some great time-savers.
Its install-on-demand feature allows various office features to be
installed, or not, depending on what the IS department decides, and
allows certain features to be installed only to certain users or groups
of users. The suite can be stored on a server and accessed from a local
machine, or stored locally, or have certain features loaded only if they
are accessed.
All-in-all, Office 2000 is a giant step toward Microsoft's vision of
Web-centric computing, and proves to be a very exciting release.
To read more about Office 2000, check out these reviews: