Microsoft Office Suites

I think they updated that one wizard in Office 2003, and in Office 2000, they made Binder an option instead of a requirement, and in Office 97 they e-mail enabled everything so you could launch outlook express from word, excel, etc... and Office 95 they added the option to NOT run macros that ate your computer, and Office 4.2 well, that was were they got the marketing idea.

Office 2003 is much more stable than the older version because it will only run on XP or 2000. It doesn't have all that junk code for the other operating systems.

If windows95, do A [then crash]
If windows98, do B [then crash]
If windowsME, do C [then crash]

If you have an exchange 2003 server, you get some nice new features like HTTP over RPC which I really like.

Supposedly the newer office verisons are more secure, too.

I can't answer this question... because Office 4.2 was 12 years ago... and my brain doesn't remember what features it had... I know when Office 95 came out, it was cool... I just don't remember WHY...

Remember MS BOB?

I have not noticed much difference in regards to functionality.

I worked on contract for a local hospital during a massive rollout process. This was only half a year ago. We were still rolling out boxes with Office 97 on XP, the only piece of office software that we needed to upgrade across the board was Outlook. We had to provide newer versions of Word and Excel to certain departments who's function included label making and other more advanced tasks.

There are huge differences in the Office product from 2000 to 2002 to XP to 2003. The latest version of Office 2003 for instance will support RPC over HTTP which will enable the user to use his or her full Outlook client over the web rather than use OWA. That's just for starters. A lot of the improvements in Office from XP to 2003 have to do with security enhancements.
The other applications in the suite are affected but not to the extent as Outlook has been. One of the newer features that began in 2000 and got improved with successive versions is the ability of any office application to save to a web format. So say for instance you have a address list in excel. In older versions of Office that person would either share that information by emailing it to a group of users or share the spread sheet in a network share. Now I don't need to go into the problems with either of these scenarios. In the newer versions of Office the user can create the spread sheet and save it to the web where everyone can access it for reference and the document will be stored in one place and will always be fresh. There are others but that is a few of them.
Now with that said I am appalled at the cost of the software. I tell small clients with a limited budget and few users to use Sun Microsystems OpenOffice suite. It is a good alternative and the price can't be beat!

"Have any of you found improvements or additional features in the various successive MS Office suites, which have enabled you to do things that you could not previously do, or made certain tasks easier?"

There are soooo many new things that get in my way when I am trying to find the things I use and they have enabled me to be forgiven for swearing at work while using Office and made it a lot easier to attract the sympathy of my fellow office workers when I overshoot a deadline. :)

The only worthwhile improvement I'm aware of was upping the number of rows in Excel from 16K in '97 to 65K in 2000. Everything else has been bloat since '97. If I had to recommend a user thoroughly learn a single desktop application, it would be Excel. As it stands most of the users I've encountered use Excel as if it were a square ruled piece of paper and a calculator.

There have been many features added to the Office suite, but the core functions remain the same as ever.
- There is better graphics display support, and a greater range of graphics types are allowed.
- Powerpoint has many new ways of introducing, displaying, and exiting a show
- Excel has changed the least, but does have greater support for external data sources.

Functionally though Word remains a basic word processor, Excel still does spreadsheets well, and Powerpoint does displays well. There are still as many competitors as there were 10 years ago.
According to some surveys most users only use 60% of the features anyway, and the other features are really for those people that have specific needs.

since I haven't looked at m$ orifice since 97.

used Corel Office suite, open office suite, Star Office suite, KOffice. and I prefer Corel Office even over open office.
but since Corel doesn't make thier apps for linux any more I use open office as the best available

I've used at least 4 different versions of Office over the years. As memory serves me, the big differences were features and true program integration. Professional 4.3 seemed more to me a packaging of different programs than a true integrated program. The changes that I remember most are usually cosmetic, although there were functional changes too.

Office 4.3 had a photo editing program, but it wasn't called Photo Editor until Office 97. Upgrading to Office 2000 removed the Photo Editor program (which upset me because I used it alot!). I only installed Office XP for a day before reformatting. However, Office XP perfected the full integration that was hinted at in earlier versions. For corporate information sharing, Office XP, combined with the full MS server family, would be the ticket. From the demonstrations I have seen, if it will really do what is advertised, then it is a pretty awesome product. One Note did impress me.

The problem as I see it is that if you aren't running the SYSTEM (i.e., all MS stuff) then its kind of overkill. After all, most people still only use computers to type on.

One constant need for myself and my cohorts has been Access. In 2003 it is more refined and allows POC to be delivered quicker and easier.

Until another office suite includes an Access competitor there will be nowhere to go.

One area where I don't think Office is a good as it used to be is the help files. In Office 4.2 the help files did not assume you had taken classes or had training on how to use the programs. They were simple, straightforward, and walked you through a task instead of just giving hints. Very good for somebody trying to pick it up on their own.

Actually, there are things I can do with Office 97 that I cannot do with Office 2003.

Microsoft did a serious purge on the graphics format import capabilities with Office 2003.

I've yet to find a way to import a DXF file into Word.

With Office 97, it was part of the conversion filters available on the CD.

To me, it looks like Microsoft is trying to force us to add Visio to our list of required applications.

Chas