MicrosoftOffice 2000, to be launched at Computer Faire `99 in Johannesburg, has taken a huge step forward for business productivity software by providing new tools that will allow IT professionals to better manage their Office environment. With its new Web-based capabilities, Microsoft Office 2000 streamlines how people work together and share information.
"As organisations increasingly adopt an intranet strategy to store information, typical users still find it too complex to place information on the Web," says Kevin Walsh, desktop applications division product manager at Microsoft South Africa. "Microsoft Office 2000 makes it easy for anyone to publish information on the Web, while extending its usefulness as a central work environment for collaboration and communication.
"While there is a multitude of new features and applications, Microsoft Office 2000 is designed to reduce the cost of owning a PC. In large organisations, Microsoft Office is no longer installed by end-users or by departments, but is often deployed and managed centrally with different configurations and profiles. New technology in Microsoft Office 2000 makes it more flexible and easier to install, which results in fewer administrator hours."
Microsoft Office 2000 will be available in five versions: Microsoft Office 2000 Premium, Microsoft Office 2000 Professional, Microsoft Office 2000 Standard, Microsoft Office 2000 Small Business and Microsoft Office 2000 Developer.
Microsoft Office has established a reputation as the most efficient suite of applications for document creation, communication, and business information analysis. For many functions, the business platform has evolved from paper to the Web, and Microsoft Office 2000 similarly extends desktop productivity to the Web, streamlining work processes and simplifying how individuals and organisations share, access, and analyse business information.
For South African purchasers of Microsoft Office 97 between 1 January 1999 and the launch of Microsoft Office 2000, an upgrade to the Microsoft Office 2000 is free. Details can be found on www.microsoft.com/southafrica. Purchasers of Microsoft Office 2000 after the launch can expect pricing to remain the same as for Microsoft Office 97.
Lower total cost of ownership
Microsoft Office 97 introduced some IT-focused functionality, such as the Network Installation Wizard and support for System Policies.
Microsoft Office 2000 expands this capability by providing administrators with the option for central control and greater flexibility, to ease deployment and migration while helping reduce end-user support costs.
Microsoft Office 2000 extends communication to include Web publishing, real-time, or ad-hoc document collaboration and analysis using the Web.
In addition, Microsoft Office 2000 has better integration with Microsoft FrontPage 2000 to make creating and managing intranets even easier. It also tightly integrates with the Microsoft BackOffice family to facilitate better information sharing through the Office applications.
New installation technology in Microsoft Office 2000 provides a greater level of flexibility and more control within each application at the feature, menu, or toolbar level so that IT administrators can more easily configure desktops world-wide. IT administrators can decide where the Office components or files will reside: on the client desktop, on the server, or on a hybrid configuration. This allows for better resource management. To give administrators full control, Microsoft Office 2000 has been optimised to run from a server-based terminal, using a Microsoft Windows-based terminal.
Each user`s preferences automatically migrate forward from the previous version, eliminating the need for a user or the help desk personnel to re-customise the interface during the migration period.
A single world-wide application executable means that only one "version" of each application needs to be deployed world-wide. The Microsoft Office 2000 Language Pack, with a pluggable language user interface, gives users or administrators the ability to switch to any supported language interface without reinstalling the application.
With IT administrators responsible for tens of thousands of PCs and laptops and also responsible for supporting users of all levels (including roaming users), maintaining standards and centralised control is critical. Microsoft Office 2000 takes advantage of Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional functionality to make it easier to centrally administer, track, manage, and control the end-user desktop or laptop.
Roaming user support means that an Microsoft Office 2000 user from Johannesburg can log on to any Office application in Cape Town or Durban - or Paris - and have a familiar work environment.
Twenty percent of desktop costs are attributed to end-user support.
Microsoft Office 2000 eases the support burden with self-repairing applications and file formats that are compatible with Microsoft Office 97. IntelliSense technology has been improved with increased interactive help: the Office Assistant will actually show a user how to complete a task. By reducing error messages and complexity, Office 2000 will reduce help desk calls and end users will become more self-sufficient. In addition, error messages and help topics can be customised for an organisation. This allows users to access department- or corporate-specific help right in their Office applications.
Simple and intuitive interface
Not only is Microsoft Office 2000 simpler than ever for administrators, a design goal of this latest version was to simplify the user experience substantially. Microsoft runs a "wish line" where users can suggest product features they would like to see. More than 25 percent of the features requested through the Microsoft Office Wish Line were for features already in the product. For Microsoft this meant that product functionality needed to be more discoverable and easier to use. Office 2000 addresses this need with better natural language support and an adaptable user interface. This will aid in decreasing support costs while making users of all levels more productive.
Microsoft Office 2000 learns and adapts by showing only the menu and toolbar commands that are used most often. In addition, it is still simple to view the entire menu or toolbar. The end user or IT administrator has the flexibility to customise or disable this feature.
This personal interface benefits the user because much of the complexity is removed, allowing users to work in an environment that is customised to reflect their own usage patterns.
Microsoft Office 2000 streamlines task completion by automating and eliminating routine tasks. For example, with Collect and Paste, users can collect multiple pieces of information from different sources and paste them individually. This streamlines document creation for projects such as a consolidated monthly report created in Microsoft Word with charts from Microsoft Excel and graphics from Microsoft PowerPoint.
Improved IntelliSense in Microsoft Office 2000 understands the meaning and context of the user`s actions and automatically produces the correct result. For example, Microsoft Word 2000 with Multilingual Editing can automatically detect and proof each sentence in the correct language.
Microsoft Office 2000 offers many new and improved features that significantly reduce the cost of PC ownership, increase office integration with the Web and the enterprise, simplify the user experience and extend value. All of these will help enable companies to compete in today`s corporate environment.
For more information on Microsoft Office 2000 please visit www.microsoft.com/office.
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Editors note:
If you are interested in viewing additional information on Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft Web page at www.microsoft.com and the Microsoft South Africa home page at http://www.microsoft.com/southafrica/.
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