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Kicking the tires of Microsoft Office XP

By Linda Musthaler
Network World, 04/09/01

Have you finished upgrading your users to Microsoft Office 2000 yet? If not, you'd better hurry, because you're going to need to start planning the upgrade to Office XP soon. At least, that's what Microsoft would like you to do.

Office XP should be hitting the computer store shelves by June. If you weren't among the 10,000 or so official beta testers of this software, you can still get an advanced look through Microsoft's Corporate Preview Program. For about $20, you can order a release kit that can be installed on up to 10 computers. Be forewarned, however, that the "preview" software expires on Aug. 31, reverting to a reduced-functionality mode. After that, you'll have to purchase the license for Office XP or reinstall your old version of Office.

If you think this might be an upgrade you can skip for now, you're not alone. The consensus among network administrators in one online poll seems to be that the new features and functionality of Office XP don't warrant an enterprisewide upgrade - especially if you've just made the switch to Office 2000. If your users are still on an older release of Office, however, this new version is worth a look.

There doesn't seem to be any "killer feature" that makes this software a must-have. Mostly, Office XP focuses on an improved user interface, collaboration tools, Web enablement and increased reliability. There are a few new features of note, such as voice and handwriting recognition, and digital signatures.

I read through the product guide to better understand what this upgrade might do for my organization - I'm most interested in the collaboration features. Along with collaborative document review, Office XP offers integration with Microsoft SharePoint Team Services, which sounds like a Web-based, location-independent network for workgroups. (Could it be that Windows for Workgroups has finally joined the Internet Age?)

It's got to be hard for Microsoft, Lotus, Corel or other developers of integrated suites to continue to come up with new features. Most of these packages contain everything but the kitchen sink. What's more, the average person rarely uses some of the more obscure and complex features. Microsoft seems to be on the right track, though, with making its already abundant list of features easier to use.

For instance, the Office XP applications have something called Smart Tags that are shared across applications. Smart Tag buttons appear when users need them and give users options for changing a given action or error. For example, you could use a Smart Tag to override Word's autocorrect option.

Now I like when Word stops me from typing something stupid, like a misspelled word. But sometimes I actually intend to type a word or acronym, and Word "corrects" it for me, whether I want it to or not. Turning off the autocorrect feature would disable this function completely, even though I want it to be there most of the time. Using Word 2002 in Office XP, I can set a Smart Tag to quickly disable autocorrect for just one instance. Nice feature, but is it worth upgrading for?

If you plan a mass upgrade, be sure your users have upgraded to Windows 98, NT, 2000 or ME. Office XP won't work with Windows 95. Clear off some disk space, too. Office XP needs 210M bytes of space. Microsoft saves you some disk space, though, by not installing a bunch of graphics files and templates that you can download from the Web when you need them.

I suspect the "feature" Microsoft is going to hear the most complaints about is the software activation process. To reduce the likelihood of software piracy, Microsoft requires that Office XP contact the mothership by going online and giving your product ID code to register the software. You can install Office on at most two machines.

If your PC crashes and you must completely reinstall the software, you'll need to call Microsoft to receive a code to do another installation.

The word I'm hearing is that most network administrators are content with Office 2000. With Microsoft still developing its .Net strategy, few big organizations will want to move to Office XP when there could be another new, integrated application (such as Netdocs) around the corner in 2002. Still, if your company bypassed the Office 2000 upgrade, or if you need extensive collaboration tools, then give Office XP a test-drive this summer.