The Suite |
System requirements: Windows 95 or NT® version 3.51 Service Pack 5 or later. RAM: According to Microsoft, at least 8 megabytes of memory is needed to run applications individually (12 megabytes for Access); more memory may be required to run additional applications simultaneously. If you're running NT Workstation, it takes 16 megabytes to run each application individually. Hard disk space: The Professional Edition occupies 73 to 191 megabytes of disk space. The Standard Edition uses 60 to 167 megabytes. I wrote this article in Word 97 on a Pentium 100 with 32 megs of RAM, often with several applications open at the same time, and experienced no performance problems.
Note: Office 97 actually comes in four flavors: Standard Edition, Professional Edition, Developer Edition, or Small Business Financial Manager Edition. The Professional Edition differs from the Standard Edition in that the former does not include Microsoft Access.
The Office Assistant: A new, additional form of help that Microsoft calls the Office Assistant and a slew of Internet related features top the list of Office 97 enhancements. The Office Assistant is an animated helper that appears in a small floating window in each Office program. The Office Assistant is not just a cutesy interface to old-style Windows Help. It actually collects data on the way you work and offers pop-up suggestions tailored to the task at hand.
Lots Of Tools To Make Life Easier For Internet And Intranet Users: All the major Office 97 applications provide support for viewing and exporting HTML documents. Office documents and Web pages can be connected with hyperlinks, whether the documents are on a local hard drive, an intranet, or the Internet. With Web FindFast, Office 97 provides full-text indexing and searching of Office and HTML documents on a company network. In just a few minutes you can create an acceptable HTML (Web page) with Word 7 and the Web Wizard including text werap, tables and links. Ditto for PowerPoint, Excel and Access plus some refinements. Now, a novice can "publish" web pages. I would like Microsoft to add an application independent document creation program such as Envoy and some Java capability…maybe vs. 7.1?
More Sophisticated Drawing Tools: Office 97 features a much richer set of drawing tools than any of its predecessors, including bezier curves and an expanded library of Auto-shapes.
Backward Compatibility: Word 97 opens documents created in prior versions of Word but the reverse is not true; however, users of Word 7.0 can obtain a viewer for 97 files from Microsoft. By default, the grammar and spell-checkers run simultaneously. The Office Assistant enhances both functions with pop-up explanations of grammatical errors, together with suggested changes.
Easier Table Editing And Creation: Although one can create and edit a table using the methods available in previous versions of Word, the Draw Table option makes creating a table almost as intuitive as working with paper, pencil and straightedge.
A Few More Additions And Improvements: Insert Text Box is now easily accessible instead of being buried in the Drawing Toolbar, which wasn't even turned on by default in Word 7.0. While on the subject of toolbars, I wish to mention one annoyance: At 640 x 480 on a fifteen inch monitor, the Zoom Box is not visible with the Standard Toolbar in the default position right under the menu.
Backward Compatibility: The file format of Excel 97 differs from its predecessors; however, Excel 97 workbooks can be saved in a dual format that permits users of Excel 5.0 and 7.0 to view them. According to Microsoft, most macros created in Excel for Windows 95 should be useable in Excel 97.
Some New Features And Enhancements: The user can now refer directly to row and column labels in formulas without going through the tedious and confusing process of defining named ranges. Several new chart types have also been added.
Formula AutoCorrect automatically identifies and suggests (via the Office Assistant) corrections for 15 of the most common formula errors, such as typing 6B instead of B6 as a cell reference.
Page Break Preview permits the user to choose several ranges and determine what data prints on which page just by clicking and dragging with the mouse, a marked improvement over previous methods of manipulating print ranges.
With a new feature called Track Changes enabled, Excel will highlight changes to a worksheet and insert a record of the action as a Cell Note.
Backward Compatibility: Users of PowerPoint 97 can save files in a dual format that is readable in PowerPoint 7.0.
Some New Features: The Office 97 version of PowerPoint sports more new features and improvements than can be mentioned here. AutoSave is here at last. Users wishing to insert slides from another presentation into the current one can locate slides easily with the Slide Finder, which provides a visual preview of several slides at once. Another notable enhancement is the ability to insert attractive action buttons that link to other slides or presentations. Viewers won't have to look at that ugly, boring embedded object button anymore.
Schedule+ Incorporated into Outlook: Microsoft Outlook includes the main features of Schedule+ and reads old Schedule+ files, but is now a more robust desktop information manager with integrated e-mail, journal entries, notes, and additional views for Calendar, Contacts, and Tasks.
Backward Compatibility: For information on compatibility with prior versions of Access, see http://www.microsoft.com/office/. New features make it easy to import, export and connect to data on the Internet or a company intranet. This version permits users to create hyperlinks to other documents stored either locally or on the Web. Objects in the same database can even be linked to each other with hyperlinks instead of Visual Basic code, offering the user a performance benefit.
For more information on the other editions and in-depth descriptions of all aspects of Office 97, point your browser at http://www.microsoft.com/office/ or call 800-426-9400 or 206/882-8080.
A. M. Schaer is a HAL-PC member who teaches Microsoft Word and Excel on a contract basis for Wall and Associates. She can be reached by email at schaer@hal-pc.org.
NOTE: If you use Word 97 "Save As 6.0/95" option, your document file will not be saved in the exact format you are expecting. It will "save as" a form of .RTF and it will be invisible to users of versions prior to Word 97. If you have an imbedded OLE object, it will remain in Word 7 format no matter how you "save as…". Although Microsoft will eventually provide a correct filter, if you are using a prior version, go to http://www.microsoft.com/word/freestuff/converters /wrd97cnv.htm [not .html] or on your Office 97 CD under the "Valupack" subdirectory (Wrd97cnv) for a usable conversion filter. Editor
Lotus has finally delivered on a suite of programs that use the Windows 95 features and are truly integrated with each other. 1-2-3 is the last of the products Lotus has brought up to the new standards and it has been worth the wait. If you are unfamiliar with Lotus SmartSuite, it is a suite of programs that include: 1-2-3, Word Pro, Approach, Freelance Graphics, Organizer and ScreenCam all coordinated through the SmartCenter.
In order to use SmartSuite 97, you will need a powerful Windows 95 compatible machine. You should close all Windows programs and shut down all anti-virus protection programs before trying to install. Other than that little sidetracking of my installation, everything else went very smoothly and the program is extremely easy to install as the installation procedure "holds your hand" all the way, especially when you use the default installation. I was impressed with how easy this whole procedure went and how well it worked.
The strong points of Lotus SmartSuite include the team computing features as well as its total dedication to integration among programs in the Suite. Lotus has long been known for their attention to Networking and use of files by more than one person. The newest version of 1-2-3, the spreadsheet program, has been brought up to the standards set by the other programs in the suite. The team features include such things as TeamMail, TeamReview, TeamConsolidate, TeamShow, Team Security and Notes/FX.
Lotus has added Internet features with all the programs in the suite and it is quite easy to publish your work to the 'Net right from within any of the programs. Special Internet tool bars help make the process easy to accomplish. There are links to useful sites directly from the SmartCenter tool bar. Speaking of the SmartCenter tool bar which stays on the screen all the time, it is a big improvement from the previous version which I deleted right after it was installed years ago. For example, you can keep an address/phone list ready for instant reference or you can have instant access to a dictionary or thesaurus that allows you to type in a word and get a definition or similar words right away. The Internet section gives you a wide variety of connecting options to choose from.
SmartSuite has added many new SmartMaster templates. They help a new user get started using any of the programs much faster and easier by offering templates for many of the common types of work projects. For instance, the Word Pro word processor program allows the user to set up a fax or memo very quickly and only the text information need be added. The user's name, company name and other pertinent information is automatically entered before the user even gets started. 1-2-3 also has many useful templates for common spreadsheet functions, like loan amortization or creating an invoice. Approach, the relational database program, allows you to choose to create a new database with help from the templates or from dialog boxes which help guide you through the entire procedure. Once the database is set up and data is entered, creating reports to show the summary results from the data in the database couldn't be easier with the report templates and help dialogs. There are InfoBoxes which can be popped up with a right mouse button click that are context sensitive and allow the user to easily make changes to the appearance of the data.
1-2-3 has added the most new features, since it is the program that had not been updated in a couple of years or so. This new generation of the spreadsheet program includes Team features, outlining capabilities, HTML publishing, full OLE support, the AutoTotal features that detects the word Total and automatically sums, the InfoBox for one-stop formatting, and other common Lotus user interface tools. This new version of 1-2-3 has a new file format, so if the file is to be used by someone with an older copy of 1-2-3, you will need to save it to the prior version, which is very easy to do with the File/Save As menu options. The same is true with Word Pro and Freelance Graphics and the other programs' file formats, too.
Lotus has a suite-wide programming language called LotusScript which is an object-oriented programming language which is BASIC compatible and can be easily integrated with Visual Basic programs. The programming language allows more advanced users to create custom business solutions and applications that go beyond the normal projects that are already easy to do with the basic programs.
Organizer, which is already a well known and liked time management/calendar/address/phone book program, has several new features which make it even better and easier to use. The calendar is more graphically manipulated and there is now support for TAPI dialing, animation, sounds, and symbols that make Organizer fun to use. The notepad section now allows rich text formatting and container capabilities that let you link and embed OLE objects. There was already the ability to do group updating and scheduling which makes this an invaluable program for a group of people in an office who need to work together on projects.
ScreenCam is a unique program which allows the user to create screen shows which will show the contents of your screen (while recording is being done) and the cursor movements along with added sound. This is a great way to create a help program for other users.
Freelance Graphics is even easier and more useful with the addition of a greater selection of tool bars and tabbed windows, allowing the user to jump from the current page to the page sorter view or to the outline view. It is great for a total beginner to get started. The advanced user will be able to create complicated presentations easily and quickly, too. Users can quickly create charts and graphs.
The manual for the entire SmartSuite is only about 1-1/2 inches thick. This follows the trend of putting help "on-line". I am not happy with this approach…I personally do not agree with this philosophy. I like to have a book in front of me for reference purposes.
Additional help is available free from Lotus Customer Support (toll free call) for 60 days. There are other support options such as the fax back support, on-line support at their Web site and a BBS service which includes a full text support library of technical notes and information. CompuServe has a Lotus forum or you can purchase a subscription to the Lotus Knowledge Base (on CD) or use the Pay Per Incident.
Lotus is offering SmartSuite at a special user group price to members for only $146. The offer is good through May 31, 1997 and to take advantage of this, call 800-888-4830 and refer to sku# 293186.
Betty Brooks, a HAL-PC member, is the Sysop on America Online's HAL-PC forum. All the HAL-PC Magazine articles can be read on-line in this forum as well as many other interesting features available for users. Use keyword halpc to find the forum.
Please see the December 1996 issue of the HAL-PC Magazine. For more info go to http://www.corel.com.ca. Editor
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