Prelude76 Posted September 15, 2003 Share Posted September 15, 2003 this is to anyone who beta-tested Office 2003. how is it better for users that just use Word and Excel? how have those 2 been improved, and is it worth the upgrade? i know Outlook and Frontpage have changed a lot, but we dont use those over here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SonicDragon Posted September 15, 2003 Share Posted September 15, 2003 I've been using Office 2000 for a while now.It's fine for what i do, but i'd also love to hear about your experiences with 2003.Have they improved any on the grammer checking in 2003? In 2000 it's really bad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FuzzButt Posted September 24, 2003 Share Posted September 24, 2003 Howdy,Well Just got Office 2003 installed on my backup PC. I can't mess up my good office XP. I have looked around a bit and like it so far. It looks fresh but still has many of the same features that were there before.I use Word and Outlook the most. Excel and Front Page a bit. Outlook does look different. Though I don't really see much that is better than Office XP. It might look a bit different but acts the same. They did keep the ability to have a http email server like Hotmail. A lot of the dialog boxes are exactly the same. For instance I print a lot of Envelopes. The Label/envelope wizard looks and acts the same. Same grey box even. After 24 hours I can't see the reason I would want to spent all that money for it.I do see that nearly everything in Office connects to the internet all to easily. Hyperlinks for this and that are all over the place. If you have no internet connection this would be a waste.Well that is my impression so far.Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GolfProRM Posted September 24, 2003 Share Posted September 24, 2003 From what I've read (PC world and others) Office 2k3 is really only worth the Outlook Upgrade... there weren't many changes (none really notable) to Word or Excel. If you really value Outlook, then upgrade. If not, don't Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RandomBox Posted September 24, 2003 Share Posted September 24, 2003 Different strokes for different folks: I understand that Visio is now an integral part of the Office2k3 package. I would love to get my hands on just that part to try out. Well, maybe just Visio and the new Outlook! Can partial installations be done with Office2k3? But the price of entry is just not worth it to step up from my present Office2k2 version.At another link here ( http://www.scotsnewsletter.com/forums/inde...25&t=2734&st=15 ), Marsden11 posted some of the GUI snapshot pictures for the Outlook2k3 and it does look pretty polished! That topic also had some discussions about pricing and deployment! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marsden11 Posted September 24, 2003 Share Posted September 24, 2003 <<Can partial installations be done with Office2k3? >>Sure. You can purchase Office 2003 and just install the apps you want. You could just install Word but if that was all you wanted... why buy the whole package? If all you want is Outlook then just purchase the Outlook 2003 upgrade.Many of you have asked for recomendations for different programs like Outlook or Word. It is hard to say what features are important to you and whatever it is you want to do with them. We saw improvements in everything so the decision was simple to upgrade all our clients.The best way to know it it is right for you is to order the trial version that will become available when Office Systems 2003 goes live. Most of the MS trial software is full featured and comes with 120 day trial period. If you can't tell in 120 days then just un-install it and reload it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ThunderRiver Posted September 24, 2003 Share Posted September 24, 2003 If you only use Word and Excel, there is really not much point to upgrade to Office 2003. The Word 2003 contains a new feature called "Read mode," but it doesn't work as great as it should be.OneNote 2003 is something that people may find it useful, but so far at this point, I haven't found it beneficial to my work and so on.If you have Office 2000, you are already good to go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prelude76 Posted September 24, 2003 Author Share Posted September 24, 2003 OneNote 2003 is something that people may find it useful, but so far at this point, I haven't found it beneficial to my work and so on.yeah, OneNote looks pretty slick. like a typical post-it notes program on steroids. it can save sound clips, sketch, and even notes from a handwriting pad to sketch notes. did OneNote used to be a company that 'merged' into Microsoft, or did MS develop this one from scratch? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ThunderRiver Posted September 24, 2003 Share Posted September 24, 2003 Microsoft wrote OneNote from scratch, but then again, it is actually an enhanced version of 3M Post-It Note Software.I haven't found it useful because I don't have a tablet, and I haven't found a feature that does alarm clock, which reminds you of something. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FuzzButt Posted September 25, 2003 Share Posted September 25, 2003 Well after a bit of use I am starting to like the new outlook 2003.They corrected the slow startup bug. It checks and sends to your servers in seperate processes. The Junk folder actually works. So far the Filters work quite well too. Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marsden11 Posted October 26, 2003 Share Posted October 26, 2003 I was playing with MS InfoPath 2003 last night. Wow! Another reason to think about Office Systems 2003. It ships with the Enterprise edition and is also available as a stand alone product.Imagine dynamic forms that allow modification during entering data and being able to publish to Web or email instantly and all in XML... Businesses are going to eat this app up.Here is the form in InfoPathI'm filling out this Issue Tracking form but I need more Contributors. What do I do? Since the form is dynmaic I can as as many as I like on the fly. Here I have added two more folks that need this info. By putting in their email addresses, all three will automatically receive this email when I click send.See the little blue arrow? All I do is click that and I can add a new input field above or below.Imagine an auto insurance claims agant in the field. He/she fires up InfoPath on his/her Tablet PC and loads the companies standard auto damage form. The agant fills in all the fields and finds there is a special need for more info and can easily add the input fields and when completed, quickly send the claims form to all parties involved via Outlook which can wirelessly connect to the companies Exchange server via wifi. Shoot a few pictures and attach them to the email and click send...All done in XML. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marsden11 Posted October 26, 2003 Share Posted October 26, 2003 Here is the emailed form in Outlook. You can see that the form I filled out in InfoPath looks the same in Outlook. Notice, it is also included in an XML attachment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ThunderRiver Posted October 26, 2003 Share Posted October 26, 2003 Sounds nice. I will look into it.I have InfoPath, but I am not exactly sure how to use it yet. My learning curve with XML hasn't been very well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marsden11 Posted October 26, 2003 Share Posted October 26, 2003 That is the coolest thing with InfoPath. I did nothing to use the form but call up a template and Fill in Form. I did not need any background in XML to make it work. 3rd party solution providers already have InfoPath template solutions on the market. You can also take any form template and customize it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ThunderRiver Posted October 27, 2003 Share Posted October 27, 2003 I started using Office 2003 around September 9th or so (didn't count the beta testing period), and I always think that Microsoft should not make general public to wait so long for something to happen.Not all components of Office 2003 utilize XML. OneNote is not XML, nor does programs like PowerPoint, or even Word for that matter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marsden11 Posted October 28, 2003 Share Posted October 28, 2003 <<...or even Word for that matter.>>Word 2003 does XML.I can save in XML and quite a few other document types.When I do Save As XML, receive the following message.Notice it advises against ill-formed XML.When I'm finished saving to XML I now have two files. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marsden11 Posted October 28, 2003 Share Posted October 28, 2003 <<...which is great if that report or form is used by co-workers have office 2003, and not great if they don't.>>One does not need Office System 2003 to use InfoPath. It is a stand alone product.If you want to create dynamic XML forms or customize them then yes, you will need InfoPath. I can share the form data with anyone. You can see the rich formatting in the copy of the form I emailed myself. There is the InfoPath XML attachment that you could display in any browser or view in any text reader.Here is the XML in Word 2003.In the end it is just data... strip it of all XML tags and you have the data.Similar to a PDF file. I can fill in certain PDF files if that functionality is enabled within the PDF document. But if I want to modify the document and add input fields... I need the full Adobe product to do so.I see InfoPath more as a company internal data organizing resource rather than a data sharing in a true b2b sense. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martini Lover Posted October 29, 2003 Share Posted October 29, 2003 I purchased Office 2003 yesterday. I have been using Word 2000 from the Works Suite that came on my Compaq Laptop. I use Word quite a lot, and think I know more than the average person about it, but then my wife say I think I know everything anyway. I would like to learn Excel, and I would like to learn Outlook, as I use Outlook Express now. Sounds like I a big MS fan, and I am. The clincher for me to upgrade, I have a daughter in college. “Student Teacher Editionâ€, $149. It can be installed on three computers. Her's at school, Home, and the laptop.Sunday’s paper had a store, who would throw in a HP color printer, ink cartridge, Digital 2.0mg Camera, 32 flash card, and USB cord, all the extras for $50. $199 total. They are giving a fifty buck rebate, if I get it, (As we all know, that’s another story.) I think I will be happy.So far the Word as I see it, has a few little tinkles and chirps that I like and I am sure I will find more. It sure is prettier.Outlook has me confused already.I haven't even loaded Excel.One Note looks very interesting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teacher Posted October 29, 2003 Share Posted October 29, 2003 Three computers? I thought it was only two....... Where did you find such a deal? As a teacher with a student at home that is enough to make me think about going ahead and getting this version since I do run XP regularly on both daughter and hubby's computers. Besides, I am expected to teach Office each year so it helps if I am up to date. Of course, we are just converting to XP and next year I start teaching voice activation so it will be interesting to see if that has changed with the newest version. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martini Lover Posted October 30, 2003 Share Posted October 30, 2003 It was at Office Max, and I am not sure whether they run this nationwide, or regionally. I live in Michigan.The new Office does require Windows XP so beware if you don't have it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marsden11 Posted October 30, 2003 Share Posted October 30, 2003 Windows 2000 and up for Office Systems 2003 compatability. It will not load on Win98 and below... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prelude76 Posted October 30, 2003 Author Share Posted October 30, 2003 One Note looks very interesting.i like it. i use it a lot now at work. i just wish it had a bit more 'features' in it, like note Alarm Clock. but it's nice, especially for a design engineer as myself, to add notes and then sketch in a little diagram to go with it. now if i can only convince my boss i need a pen tablet because my mouse drawing skills are lackluster. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teacher Posted November 2, 2003 Share Posted November 2, 2003 It was at Office Max, and I am not sure whether they run this nationwide, or regionally. I live in Michigan.Thanks. It was national. Of coruse after I drove the hour to the nearest store they were sold out. They checked a two-state area for inventory and they were all out so I called my sister in Missouri and she went and picked it up for me. Haven't figured out what printer/camera I bought with it yet but will be interesting to see. I think they goofed too because she told me the total was $150 plus tax including the printer and everything before any rebate. Will have to check when seeing the info. Thanks for the heads up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.