Suite life: Microsoft's new software suite makes computing sweet indeed

Entrepreneur, March, 1997 by Cassandra Cavanah

Microsoft has added a new configuration to the Office 97 family - the Small Business Edition. Considering how fast small businesses and particularly the homebased segment - are growing, it's no big surprise that Microsoft is targeting small-business users with its most popular software program. What is somewhat surprising, however, is how Microsoft adapted Office 97 to appeal to small-business users.

After numerous focus groups and much testing, Microsoft determined that small-business users don't require two of the key Office Professional components: Microsoft Access (database) and PowerPoint (for presentations). That left Word 97, Excel 97 and Outlook 97, the new Microsoft information manager. To make the product more appealing to small-business users, Microsoft added Publisher 97 (desktop publishing), Automap Streets Plus (street- I level mapping), and Small Business Financial Manager 97. The result is an extremely interesting and easy-to-use suite of products. (Macintosh and Windows 3.1 users are out of luck when it comes to Office 97 - this is a Windows 95/NT product only.)

* FULL DISCLOSURE

Before reading on, you should know that the Office 97 Small Business Edition is going to eat up a lot of space on your hard drive - more than 100MB. Of course, if you're already an Office user, that number may not be daunting.

Because this program won't be shipping until the time this magazine reaches you, I reviewed a beta version. To my surprise, I didn't encounter any bugs. The upgrade program for Office 97 is very liberal, and most users will qualify for the $249 upgrade price rather than the $499 full price.

* THE OUTLOOK IS GOOD

Microsoft Office is already the most popular suite on the market - and for good reason. This program has always made it easy for users to share information between modules: for instance, to embed a spreadsheet into a Word document and be assured that as the spreadsheet gets updated, so will the Word document.

All this and more holds true for Office 97. That's because of Outlook 97 (below), a new desktop information manager that brings even more integration to the Office suite. Outlook 97 combines the functionality of an e-mail application and contact manager (address book, appointments and the like) with a document manager. Users can do all their work directly from Outlook, simplifying the process of organizing data, events and even people.

I found the Journal a particularly interesting feature. Here Outlook keeps track of all the activities you've performed in Office applications, letting you track your daily activities and open current files and e-mail messages directly from Outlook. If you rely on your calendar, you'll appreciate Outlook's simple but comprehensive calendaring function. Here you can plan recurring meetings from now until forever and also organize daily tasks.

Additionally, Outlook provides much of the. Internet functionality in Office 97, including exchanging messages with associates via e-mail or internal mail. What's nice is that contact information listed in Outlook includes space for e-mail and Web site addresses. Sending messages is a one-click procedure, as is visiting a contact's Web page. Without any reconfiguration, Outlook was able to dial up my Internet service provider and download my e-mail messages. Word fans will love Word-Mail, a capability that lets you use the features and formatting of Word 97 for e-mail messages.

* USABILITY IS KEY

Readers of this column know if a program isn't user-friendly, it's not going to receive high marks. As an existing Office user, I may be biased, but, in my opinion, Office 97 is probably the most user-friendly program there is. Of course, Microsoft only had to improve on a good thing, and the developers had plenty of user feedback to make sure they got it right. But Microsoft went beyond the call of duty to improve this program to ensure its top spot in the category.

First, there's the Office Assistant - an animated character (you can choose from nine; I liked Scribble the cat) that resides in a small box outside your work area. The Office Assistant helps users get through the basic tasks of Office 97 and unobtrusively prompts you to learn more about certain functions.

There's also something called IntelliSense that consists of helpful tools that make it easier to work. For example, Auto-Text guesses what you're about to type - such as a month, salutation or any word you choose to add to the AutoText dictionary - and fills in the rest of the word when you hit Enter. There's also an improved AutoCorrect for fixing typos as you work.

A new Document Map view in Word is great for people who type large documents and need an easy way to navigate them. The Document Map uses a split screen and displays an outline of the document on the left side, letting users click on subheads to navigate through the document.

If you've ever struggled with laying out a table in Word, you'll love the way tables work now - just draw them to the size you want. No more guessing how to add a row or column.