What's New in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2003? Polishing the Productivity Trio Patricia Fusco
WinPlanet isn't the only site to check out Microsoft Office 2003 Small Business Edition in advance of the latter's autumn launch. According to SmallBusinessComputing.com editor Patricia Fusco, those old dogs Word, Excel, and PowerPoint have learned some nifty new tricks. Here are capsule versions of her close looks at Microsoft's updated word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation package -- Ed.
Word 2003
The first time you launch any Office 2003 application you'll notice that the risk of unfamiliarity with the programs is nearly nil. Upon reviewing the most recent beta release of the Microsoft Office System, we found the user interface has been fine-tuned with glitzy new icons and a subtle splash of color, but the heart of Microsoft's productivity suite remains very familiar.
The 2003 version of Word makes it easier than ever to read documents on a computer, without without the need to print them on paper. Word 2003 automatically optimizes its display for the screen size and resolution you're using. Also, a new Reading Layout view improves the overall reading experience.
The latter allows users to view two pages at once and flip through other pages in the same way you'd flip through a book. According to Microsoft, the experience of flipping one or two pages at a time rather than scrolling not only simulates the experience of reading a book, but reduces eyestrain by making it easier for a user's eyes to track the text. You can even highlight portions of the document and add comments, without switching out of Reading Layout view.
Word 2003 also provides improved features for creating foreign-language documents and working in a multilanguage environment. The mail-merge function has been updated to help you choose the correct greeting format based on a recipient's gender, if the language requires it, and to format addresses based on the geographical region of the recipient.
Excel 2003
In another new view for Office, Excel 2003 can compare side-by-side spreadsheets. Scrolling is mirrored between the two, so you'll see the same section of each worksheet at the same time, making it easy to, say, compare the differences between forecast and actual budgets.
Conditional formatting lets you make certain values jump out when the conditions are right, so you can quickly see what you're looking for in a large mass of data. If you want to look at inventory items that sold fewer than 25 units, for instance, this feature lets you make those underachievers stand out in bold, red type.
The level of assistance offered by both Word and Excel 2003 is impressive. Not that Clippy or Links the Cat have been replaced; you can still activate these animated Office Assistants to nag you about saving files and such, though they're turned off by default. But what's really helpful is the ability to search for assistance: A small text box in the upper right corner of both applications allows you to type in what sort of help you need, summoning a dialog box with a slew of options -- one of which will likely answer your question.
On the minus side, neither Word nor Excel 2003 allows you to convert text to faxes or Acrobat PDF files. And Office 2003 Small Business Edition lacks the sophisticated XML support found in the pricey Professional Edition, though in truth we doubt that many small offices are aching to create their own XML schemas for handling documents.
PowerPoint 2003
If you've attended any type of business expo or sales presentation over the past five years, chances are you've witnessed a PowerPoint presentation. The 2003 edition of Microsoft's slide-show solution offers enhanced multimedia support; users can save presentations to a CD for distribution and add streaming audio and video to their shows.
The biggest enhancement is probably PowerPoint's updated viewer. Besides supporting the latest file formats, the runtime viewer -- which runs on Windows 98 or later, though Office 2003 itself requires Windows 2000 SP3 or Windows XP -- offers high-fidelity output including support for PowerPoint XP and 2003 animations and multimedia. You can view and play full-screen movies within PowerPoint 2003 presentations, and supported media formats -- if Windows Media Player 8 or 9 is installed -- include ASX, WMX, M3U, WVX, WAX, and WMA.
A new Research pane offers a wide variety of reference information and expanded resources, assuming you have an Internet connection, as well as access to the Office thesaurus. The new "Package for CD" output option makes it easier to distribute presentations, including supporting and linked files and the updated viewer, on disc; Windows XP is required to burn CDs directly from PowerPoint, but Win 2000 users can package one or more presentations to a folder and then use third-party CD software to save them to CD.
For more details, including Office 2003 Small Business Edition's compatibility with the SharePoint collaboration and information rights management (IRM) features of the Professional Edition, see Patricia Fusco's complete SmallBusinessComputing.com previews of Word and Excel 2003 and PowerPoint 2003.
