Bundle Of Joy

Entrepreneur, Sept, 1999 by Cassandra Cavanah

Microsoft's latest arrival may be the software suite to take your business into the next century.

The office suite of choice for most, if not all, Windows users is Microsoft Office, which combines the power of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, Publisher and more into one package. Sure, Corel and Lotus fought the good fight with WordPerfect Office and SmartSuite, respectively, but they really haven't made much of a dent in Bill Gates' fight hold on the market. And now, just in time for the new millennium, Microsoft is unleashing a new and improved version of Microsoft Office dubbed, appropriately, Office 2000.

IT'S A WEB WORLD

Not surprisingly, Office 2000's major departure from its predecessor is its total embrace of the Internet. Office 2000 is designed to make life easier for today's Web-enabled workers. Microsoft is well aware that many business functions these days rely less on printed output than they do on the Web. Bearing this in mind, the company has designed Office 2000 to easily output documents to the Internet - you can save documents in HTML as easily as you save them into a word-processing format. In addition, with Office 2000, Microsoft is thinking ahead by offering users the ability to create and share information as well as collaborate with others over the Web. It's made sure design themes from the various applications carry over to FrontPage, Microsoft's Web site publishing tool, for seamless site creation. My favorite Web-inspired enhancement is the integration of e-mail with every Office 2000 application. A tiny button on the toolbar lets you easily insert a mail header at the top of any file and send the document without switching over to Outlook, Office 2000's e-mail program.

BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE . . .

Of course, we all know there's more to life than the Web, and Office 2000 promises to make computing just a bit easier by incorporating the features you've always wanted but never thought to ask for in your office suite. The appearance of the program's components has altered little; however, there are various tweaks to the interface that promise to enhance the user's experience.

A key change is file-management navigation. Now, when accessing the File/Open command, files will be listed with more viewing area than before, so you can view more files at a time. In addition, easy-access folders line the File/Open dialog box, giving users one-click access into folders like "History," which houses the last 20 documents you've worked on, and "Favorites," to access Web links. You'll also have a quick link to your desktop.

Microsoft has also enhanced the clipboard function to allow for multiple "collect and paste," in which users gather information from multiple sources and retain them in the clipboard for pasting later. This was definitely my favorite new Office 2000 function. You can hold up to 12 different clipped items in the clipboard library.

Office 2000 also saves you from unnecessary screen clutter by automatically adjusting toolbars and menus to give you access to the items you use most often. Another interesting and useful feature is Quick File Switching, which makes every open Office 2000 document available on the task bar for easy switching between files.

MAKING BUSINESS EASIER

Microsoft has packed plenty of improvements into Office 2000 that will make entrepreneurs happy. The new Small Business edition of Office 2000, for example, includes Word 2000, Excel 2000, Outlook 2000, Publisher 2000 and Small Business Tools.

The Small Business Tools are a definite upgrade from previous versions and include Small Business Customer Manager, Business Planner, Small Business Financial Manager and Direct Mail Manager. These tools give you easy access to the robust functions of the core programs of Office 2000 as well as common small-business software, such as accounting programs. Essentially acting as a bridge to help users work with data within these programs, the Small Business Tools make it easy to perform tasks by providing plenty of wizards to get you started and extensive links to appropriate Web sites.

The Small Business Customer Manager, for example, helps you track, analyze and manage customer information based on accounting data stored within the Financial Manager, which can be imported from more than 50 financial packages. That data can then be used to track where certain products are being purchased and in what quantities.

In case you need to update or revamp your business plan, the Business Planner gives you all the tools you need. The Business Planner tool provides a short questionnaire to get you started and the Excel spreadsheet is available to help you analyze information. The plan itself is written using Word. Small Business Tools also comes with access to InfoUSA, a directory of companies to aid you in your business-to-business dealings.

MULTIPLE FLAVORS

In an effort to be all things to all users, Microsoft has created an entire family of Office 2000 suites, with each version designed to appeal to different user groups. Office 2000 Premium packs the most punch of the bunch and includes every application and tool imaginable: Word 2000, Excel 2000, PowerPoint 2000, Access 2000, Outlook 2000, Publisher 2000, Small Business Tools, FrontPage 2000 and PhotoDraw 2000. It costs $799 (street) for new users and $449 to upgrade. Other versions include Office 2000 Professional ($599 street/$349), which comes with the Small Office Tools, and Office 2000 Standard, which includes Word 2000, Excel 2000, PowerPoint 2000, Access 2000 and Publisher 2000. Office 2000 Small Business, mentioned earlier, costs $499 (street) for new users and $249 to upgrade.