Microsoft Office 2003: Can You Afford it --
or Afford to be Without it?

Software; Software Review; Product/Service Evaluation
By Scott Parker

THE LOWDOWN: BRIEFLY: The latest version of Microsoft's all-conquering office suite

PROS: XML support and collaboration technology, online resources and services

CONS: Incredibly expensive for home users

PLATFORM: WindowsXP

CONTACTS: www.microsoft.com/

The Office 2003 press launch really was quite impressive. We were told that the latest version of Microsoft's ubiquitous office suite would change the way we work forever, and it all sounded pretty convincing.

So Microsoft knows how to put on a good show--but is it really offering us anything new?

Each of the familiar Office applications has been given a bit of a facelift and there's greater integration between them all, but on the whole the changes are subtle. Word 2003 has an improved reading view and Tablet PC users get support for Digital Ink, so you can add handwritten notes to your documents.

The best new feature is the research pane, which also appears on the Excel spreadsheet and PowerPoint presentation applications. This lets you access reference materials like a thesaurus, dictionary, encyclopaedias and many useful third-party services.

There's a greater focus on using the Internet, and you can access Office Online from within applications to download templates, clip art and add-ons and take advantage of tutorials and help.

Outlook 2003 has seen some more significant changes. The view is split into vertical panes rather than horizontal, and there's more efficient use of the screen space. Emails are grouped automatically to help you find messages easily, and the search facility has thankfully been improved. The most welcome addition is a built-in junk mail filter that attempts to spot those unwanted emails and shuffle them away to a separate folder.

The feature that has grabbed the most attention, however, will be nothing new to Lotus Notes users. Information Rights Management lets you set particular conditions for your email messages and documents. For example, you can prevent people from copying, printing or forwarding a document. You can also set an email to expire at a particular time. It's a useful feature if you deal in sensitive information but only the professional edition lets you assign these rights.

The professional edition also includes the Office Access 2003 application and the Office Publisher 2003 desktop publishing package. As a result, corporate users will get the most out of the pricier version of the new suite.

There's close integration with Microsoft's SharePoint products, encouraging people to communicate better and share information.

For example, rather than send dozens of emails round to organize a meeting, a site could be created on an intranet to hold the relevant details. This site could then integrate with Outlook calendars, show changes to the agenda and be used as a place on which to post the minutes and action points after the meeting.

Many companies have tried this collaborative approach, and it does require a shift in office working culture. But once Office 2003 becomes the standard business package, it'll soon be a way of working that most office workers will become used to.

Another major development is support for eXtensible Mark-up Language (XML) in Word, Excel and Access. This means you can integrate data more effectively and businesses can develop their own solutions that use XML with Office 2003.

There's little doubt that Office 2003 will soon find its way on to the desktops of most big businesses all over the world. It might take a hefty chunk out of the corporate IT budget, but productivity improvements could easily outweigh the cost of upgrading.

These benefits aren't quite so obvious for small businesses and home users, however. Office 2003 is excellent, but there's no compelling reason to fork out for an upgrade. There are also cheap alternatives that should be more than sufficient for many people. But however good other office suites are, all but the most die-hard supporters of the open source cause would prefer the latest version of the 'real thing'.

Go on, admit it--you might hate Microsoft, but if someone gave you a copy of Office 2003 for Christmas you'd be a very happy bunny indeed.

HOW MUCH?!

The pricing of Office 2003 isn't straightforward because Microsoft has released various editions -- each with different applications.

ONE NOTE

Microsoft has added OneNote to the Office family, a sophisticated note taking application which lets you collect, store and manage all sorts of information.

The best feature is the ability to record audio notes, which are synchronized with your written notes. It's often a nightmare finding a particular quote in a long speech--but if you've jotted the basics down in OneNote, highlighting the text will take you straight to the relevant part of the recording.

It can be used on desktop and laptop PCs, but it really comes into its own if you use a pen. At around 150 [pounds sterling] it's not exactly cheap, but if you can afford a fancy Tablet PC then it shouldn't be too much of a stretch to grab this invaluable tool too.

ALTERNATIVES

OpenOffice.org

Why splash out a few hundred quid when you can download this excellent open source office suite for nothing? It's compatible with Microsoft formats, so you'll be able to view and edit Word, Excel and Access files without any problems. It's available for pretty much any platform, and you can become part of the dedicated community that's constantly developing this impressive package.

www.openoffice.org

StarOffice

The world's most popular alternative to Microsoft Office is built on OpenOffice's source code, but it's a commercial package that includes other third-party technologies and extensive support from Sun Microsystems. It's the number one choice for Linux users, but sadly there's no Mac version. It's available for under 50 [pounds sterling].

http://wwws.sun.com/software/startstaroffice

EasyOffice

Another bargain package that's compatible with a wide range of file formats. The full EasyOffice suite will set you back just $39 (23 [pounds sterling]) and contains 22 applications, handling tasks like PDF creation, file compression, image editing and voice recognition as well as the standard office functions. If you're really tight, there's a less powerful freeware version too.

www.e-press.com

Microsoft Office 2003: Can You Afford it -- or Afford to be Without it?

Software; Software Review; Product/Service Evaluation By Scott Parker