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CNET reviews new Microsoft Office System 2003
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espr-@e-scape.net
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Oct 25, 2003 14:36 PDT
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The upshot in brief, with a few parenthetical comments:
- It runs on Windows 2000 or XP only, needs 260MB to 590MB
of hard disk space to install, and can be installed on two
computers; three for academic editions.
- It requires "phone home to Microsoft" activation:
CNET's reviewer found activation painless. [But reactivation is
required after a crash and users of the process with earlier
software sometimes had trouble with it.]
"Microsoft Word 2003, Microsoft Excel 2003, and Microsoft PowerPoint 2003 remain the heart and soul of Office System. While this trio offers some interesting new twists, none makes a compelling case for upgrading."
[Some editors may find the minor changes to Word worth it.
I can't help wondering why it took a whole decade.]
- Word (and Excel) will finally do side-by-side document comparisons.
Word's Print Preview has become "Reading Mode" which lets you
edit in full WYSIWYG.
- PowerPoint makes burning slide-shows to CD easier. It includes
a Viewer application so that the CDs can be used on "any
Windows PC". [Add "...recent and powerful enough to run the Viewer"
and note that, not surprisingly, users of Macs and open-source boxes
are left out in the cold.]
- "Microsoft Outlook 2003 has gotten a total makeover." It includes a
new look, a primitive spam filter, desktop alerts, the ability to
do threading [see below for details] and *finally* doesn't
automatically download and show "inline" graphics in spam.
- Publisher is included with Small Business and Professional versions
and has been improved; Front Page, which supports XML, Flash
and dynamic templates, is extra.
"One final productivity note: Microsoft OneNote 2003, a nifty note-taking application that's a member of the Microsoft Office System, is missing from all bundled editions of Office. OneNote, which keeps track of random notes, phone numbers, and ideas--perfect for tablet PC use--is overpriced at $99. Were it a part of the Student and Teacher or Standard editions of Office, we might recommend that everyone upgrade to Office System."
- Research Library works across all applications and steers users to
MS's dictionary, thesaurus, Encarta, etc. and fee-charging
third parties ("partners") like Factiva News and WorldLingo. It
can also be used with XML to provide corporate information within a
network. [Neither of these is really needed by the average user.]
- Microsoft is implementing its
"new Information Rights Management (IRM) technology that lets creators of Office documents and Outlook e-mail messages determine who gets permission to edit a file, forward e-mail, or pass along an Office file attachment."
To be able to set permissions, you'll need Office System Professional, Windows Server 2003, and a high-end system.
"Fortunately, all other editions of Office System's applications will view and edit IRM-locked files if permission is given."
[Which is to say that users of earlier versions of Office or other
companies' software will **not** be able to use those files. This
is being glossed over in the PR but admitted by the developers.
You just might forgive me for concluding this is part of a
deliberate strategy to undermine competitors by forcing people to
switch to Windows and Office if they need access to certain
publications or the ability to work with Microsoft's customers.
Note, too, that the "Permissions" process requires that the user
sign up for a Passport account and let the software "phone home"
to a Microsoft server for authorization before opening a file:
this is liable to be inconvenient for people with dial-up access
rather than an always-open broadband connection.]
And, yes, the "smart tags" code deactivated in the last release is
bask.
Not a M$ customer but always eager to know what they're up to,
Judyth
---
CNET's Review:
Contents: Microsoft Office System
1. Introduction
http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-3513_7-5092597-1.html?tag=review
2. Setup & installation http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-3513_7-5092597-2.html?tag=review
3. Communication tools http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-3513_7-5092597-3.html?tag=review
4. Productivity tools
http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-3513_7-5092597-4.html?tag=review
5. Collaboration tools
http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-3513_7-5092597-5.html?tag=review
6. Service and support
http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-3513_7-5092597-6.html?tag=review
Extract from "Communication tools"
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As far as we're concerned, Outlook's junk e-mail filter is perhaps the most important new feature. Unfortunately, Outlook didn't trap every piece of junk mail in our tests. (Third-party products from Norton and McAfee do a much better job, stopping between 90 and 95 percent, while Outlook 2003 nabbed only 80 to 85 percent.) Still, Outlook puts forth a good effort.
Additional new Outlook tools group messages and replies into conversational threads, quick-flag messages for later follow-up, and customize views to show, for example, all messages from the last week or all those with attachments from John Doe.
Want more? Outlook now displays small desktop alerts as new mail arrives that show the sender, the subject, and a small slice of text. The alerts then allow you to open the message on the desktop, flag it, or delete it without pulling up the entire Outlook interface. Finally, Outlook no longer automatically downloads images from Web servers--good news for both home and office users, since some spam images eat up Internet bandwidth and sometimes contain rather offensive nudity. No doubt in our minds: Outlook 2003 is the one app in Office we wouldn't want to give up if we had to drop back to an earlier version of the suite.
...
Copyright ©1995-2003 CNET Networks, Inc. All rights reserved.
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Judyth Mermelstein "cogito ergo lego ergo cogito..."
Montreal, QC <espr-@e-scape.net>
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"A word to the wise is sufficient. For others, use more."
"Un mot suffit aux sages; pour les autres, il en faut plus."
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