A review of Microsoft Office 2003 ( Professional Edition) and OneNote 2003 by: Kurt von Behrmann Composed: March 17, 2004
Web Site: www.microsoft.com
OneNote 2003 Price: $ 199.00
Office Professional 2003 Price: $ 499.00
The new Outlook. Sporting a more Windows XP look, as have all of the various parts of the new office have, this is the most radically revised version of Outlook to date. The professional version of Office ships with a business contact manager that integrates into Outlook 2003. It offers a way to keep track of business contacts, sales and other related information.
OneNote 2003
This has to be the ultimate way to turn sticky notes into digital information you will want to keep around. With the ability to store scraps of information, this is the kind of productivity tool students, teachers and end users may need the most.
What It Does:
An office suite that is used in every major office in the United States and beyond. The defacto standard for word processing, business presentations and anything else connected to corporate communication. Also a first choice for many writers due to the very able Word. One time Wordperfect dominated the business application landscape. Their domination in office software changed when Microsoft became very aggressive with Word and began to give it an extra edge.
THE REVIEW
Whenever a new version of Office comes out, there is always interest. Considering this is the premier choice of office software for nearly every major company in the world, each release impacts just how the business world operates. For those involved in the working world, familiarity with office is no longer an option. It is a job requirement. Having thoroughly unseated the competition, and sporting a tight integration with Windows XP, the new office brings with it a set of features and configurations that may have more to offer the business world than home users.
Shipping in an assortment of configurations to fit vastly different niches, the choices are intriguing, and puzzling. There is the small business edition, teacher student model and the Professional edition. It all makes sense. The logic starts to becoming confusing when you see what applications where selected for inclusion and those omitted.
One particularly winning new program, OneNote, is not bundled with any of the suites. An excellent application for home users, teachers and students, why this application did not make the cut is intriguing. Much like Front Page, Project and Visio, though all these applications are part of the Office 2003 system, none are included with any of the office suites.
The merit that OneNote has is that it is a great place to store random notes. It is an ingenious solution to organizing bits of information easily, simply and elegantly. For all types of computer users, I see some distinct advantages to OneNote. Why it was not included with the other applications in the set is a mystery since it is such a great added feature to Office.
Another program that is obviously not a part of the suites and must be purchased separately is the excellent FrontPage. Microsoft’s solution to web creation has recently gained added clout, power and importance. Supported by Xara, both new versions Menu Maker and Webstyle work with it, why this excellent program is not a part of the Office set up is intriguing as well.
What is included with the Full Professional Version, which ranks as my favorite of all the new flavors, is Publisher 2003. This program takes the role occupied by Adobe Pagemaker as the choice for those that want to design a nice page, but have neither the time, skills, interest or patience for full version desktop publishing ala Adobe. For those moments when you need to rush out a newsletter or other document, this is the best easy way to go.
Included with Professional are the usual suspects which includes; Word 2003, Excel 2003, Power Point 2003, Info Path 2003, Front Page 2003 and Access 2003. All of the programs have been given the Windows XP Graphical User Interface Make Over. Glowing buttons, a more aesthetically pleasing interface, the cosmetic changes are a welcome relief from the industrial drab feel the suite wore like a poorly designed dress. The refinements are appealing.
Greater emphasis is place on XML, which has more interest for the future and business users than your average end user. Having long been included with Corel’s WordPerfect, the only major rival to Office, XML is taken as a tool for greater collaboration and portability. This increased importance given to XML is really for business and will have limited appeal to the casual office user.
Like many new applications, Office 2003 demands product activation. While the install remains consistent with past versions, there is little backward compatibility. Office 2003 demands either Windows 2000 or Windows XP. The program will not install on 98, ME, NT or any flavor in those operating systems.
The biggest change in the programs that make up
this set is with Outlook. Organized and clean, this new version
features an intelligent organizer that places email in categories based
on when they arrived. Also new is a spam blocker and an over all
cleaner interface. While the program will be familiar to most users,
the improvements made here make it a worthwhile upgrade.
The new redesigned contact list features a new look and greater configurability than before. It is easy on the eyes, and now even more practical. What has always been a great email client is now even better. The program also integrates well with the new Norton Anti Virus and Norton Spam Killer.
Summation
As a standard, Office will have across the board appeal to business users, writers and assorted pros. The changes and alterations with the programs that comprise this suite are discreet, with the notable exception being the vastly reworked Outlook. As more new versions of existing applications aim for being more evolutionary that revolutionary, the focus for many is on refinements. The consolidation of the good features with an emphasis on productivity and business concerns, these appear to be the primary direction of this office suite.
For your average user some of the new elements may have limited appeal. With Word 2003, the new Reading Layout view, this displays pages as if the user were reading a book, and you can edit from this view as well, maybe the most anticipated. Anyone familiar with past versions of Office will not feel left out in the cold with the 2003 model.
The big questions for users is updating. For businesses that depend on the application, much like a new version of Photoshop, updating is a mute point. The core audience for whom Office is intended will do so. The big question is for home users.
Given greater integration with Windows XP, the new functionality of Outlook, there is much to suggest upgrading. For students, office workers and the pros, upgrading is automatic. For the average end user you must weigh how important interaction with other office users is, and of course having XP. If you are not running Xp, and you are happy with what you have, skipping this upgrade is not an issue. For everyone else, upgrading has advantage and the first is being interoperable with everyone else in business.
Requirements:
PC with Pentium 233 MHz or higher
Windows 2000 with Pack 3 or later or Microsoft Windows XP
128 MB of RAM or above recommended
400 MB of available hard-disk space
(recommended) requires an additional 290 MB of available hard-disk space for some extras
SuperVGA (800 x 600) or higher