Office 2003 - Do You Need It
by Jerry Marino
(The Marino
Group)
Should you upgrade to the new version of Microsoft Office 2003™?
I'm one of those "gotta-have-the-latest-software-version" kind of guys. So when the new Microsoft Office™ 2003 came out, of course I had to have it. It helped that I sat through a Microsoft Office Launch event…and they sent me a full version of Office 2003 Professional. But after using it for a while I think it would have been worth the upgrade even if I had to pay for it.
What do I like about the new Office? So far I've been working in Outlook™ and Word™ with an occasional venture into Excel. I'm experimenting with add-ons like SharePoint websites, OneNote™ and InfoPath™. Even though I haven't discovered all the neat things these programs can do, I find immediate benefits that I think are great improvements over the previous version. But what about you? Should you upgrade? Here's my take. I'll list the highlights and then cover more details in future articles.
Included in Office 2003 are Word, Excel, Outlook, Access, PowerPoint and Publisher. OneNote is a separate program that allows you to share notes across programs and InfoPath helps control document versions and digital rights. FrontPage and Visio are standalone programs that integrate with Office but must be purchased separately.
FrontPage has been upgraded to be more a "business class" web editor with an easier to use interface and functionality for important standard web features like cascading style sheets and XML data driven sites. As before, FrontPage is easier to use and requires much less of a learning curve that other web editors like DreamWeaver so it is a great tool for teachers, students, and small businesses.
The new Office programs improve collaboration and enhance your ability to share documents. You should find it easier to share, review or edit documents with others. In addition, I'm experimenting with a SharePoint web site-which is a shared online network with users you designate. Employing one allows much greater collaboration, document sharing and communication by using the Internet as your network connection. To take full advantage though, all users need Office 2003. These are great productivity and information sharing tools, especially for a small business like mine without a dedicated IT department or even an IT budget!
The new "views" in Outlook and Word have improved my productivity. In addition to Outlook's Task Pane there is now a Reading Pane; Word has a Reading Layout. Both add significant functionality to these two programs that I use regularly.
The new Outlook is very effective in how it handles email and spam. I like how it filters spam and how it lets me preview mail coming in. By setting its spam filtering settings you can designate incoming emails to go directly to the junk mail folder. This saves me a lot of time because a quick review of that folder allows me to scan and en mass delete my spam. In addition, the headers of incoming emails that will make it to the Inbox show up in a neat little box in the lower corner of the screen. If they are important you can read them immediately. If not just let them go into the Inbox and read them later. If they are spam you can delete them immediately. Very slick.
I'm also giving up my stand alone contact manager and using Outlook for my calendar and to-do's. I just purchased Reminder Manager , an add-in that let's me consolidate all my reminders and tasks in one view. I'll let you know how that's working as I use it more.
One of the new Office functions I'm really interested in using is the XML capability that Word and Excel have. These programs can save information in a native XML format and then can manipulate the data so it can be searched or presented in different formats using Word or Excel or any program that can process industry standard XML. This is especially helpful in presenting information to different user groups by using the the same data table but presenting it in different versions: a student manual, a teacher manual, user edition, etc. You can save your data in its native XML format and then distribute it in different versions. The caveat is that to experience the full power you need Office Professional Edition 2003, not the small business or educational version, for all these capabilities.
XML processing allows much greater functionality and as Microsoft says "more advanced information creation, capture, exchange, and reuse." Read better distribution of your material, whether its within your organization or across the Internet.
In conclusion, Office 2003 is an important upgrade for any user that does more than simple information processing. If you want to leverage your efforts as you work on an information team by exchanging information or using your information in different versions and formats, Office 2003 is for you.
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