Excel
Excel's feature set is enhanced without damaging filing compatibility-with prior versions. "Web queries" can be built by dragging a table from the browser into a worksheet. Excel recognises stock symbols, so it's a no-brainer to build queries that download stock prices. A Watch Window shows the result of Web queries or calculations on any cell, even if the cell itself is not currently visible. Debugging (one of the strengths of rival Corel Quattro Pro) is aided by an Evaluator that steps through formulas. Excel now recognises that numbers formatted as text should be sorted with numbers in standard numerical format, and other new error-prevention features warn against mistakes like sorting a single column instead of a larger block. You can live without Excel 2002's new features, but enhanced safety and convenience make the upgrade worthwhile.
Outlook
Outlook loses its cluttered interface and separate "modes" for Internet and Microsoft Exchange. It gains a logical layout and integrated Internet and Exchange mailboxes-as well as new support for Web-based Hotmail accounts. Internet newsgroups still aren't supported, and the add-in fax option from older versions is gone (but retained in upgrade installations). The default email editor is Word, which now opens snappily, unlike its sluggish performance in previous upgrades. Incoming plain-text messages are automatically reformatted to remove line breaks, but a mouse-click on a prominent restore button returns the breaks if the reformatting was overly aggressive. Appointments can be colour-coded automatically to match user-definable rules; group schedules are supported; and reminder messages for the same time period are displayed in a single dialog. Outlook gains many conveniences long available in Outlook Express: the preview pane displays active links; email addresses are automatically completed as you type; and you can choose among multiple accounts when sending. This is the first Outlook version with no major frustrations, and the most welcome upgrade in the suite.
PowerPoint
The new Task Pane feature proves its worth in PowerPoint, displaying thumbnails of slide design and colour schemes, lists of animation effects, and an animation builder that creates effects from cascading option menus. Multiple "master" slides can be stored in a presentation, allowing different designs for different sections of a slideshow. Charts and diagrams can be created and edited in place, and a design grid is available when you create slides, but is hidden when you present them. Whiz-bang features like animations can be previewed directly in a slide, but you can't preview less-glamorous but more useful features like font changes, as you can in Corel Presentations. PowerPoint isn't perfect, but it remains the overall presentation software leader, with its flexibility and elegance.
FrontPage
FrontPage is mostly unchanged, except for interface refinements and a few new page-design features. For example, the program builds picture galleries automatically, so you don't have to construct a table by hand. In addition, a tabbed interface lets you navigate among multiple pages - a capability that prior versions kept well-hidden in a menu. New text effects like shadowed fonts look attractive but waste bandwidth, and some features seem designed to increase traffic at MSN's Web sites, like components that automatically display MSNBC news and Expedia travel information. Macromedia's Dreamweaver remains the first choice for advanced Web authors, but FrontPage is good for everyone else.
Access
Access 2002 looks and acts reassuringly familiar; the default file format is the same as Access 2000's. The difference is that Access 2002 allows you to choose an extensible new format that will allow you to add features from future Access versions without requiring file conversion. Excel's pivot tables are now built into Access, but with a slightly different interface. Page design adds multiple undo and redo, as well as enhancements for better control over field sizes and linked pages. All the new features are unobtrusively slotted into the existing interface-as are almost all enhancements throughout the suite.
Finally, Microsoft gives users command of their software, rather than decide for them how its programs will work. Web integration and user control are laced throughout the XP suite in thoughtful and practical ways, and the company did not sacrifice functionality for these additions. Most users won't absolutely need this upgrade, but those who do will notice that this is one of the few Microsoft upgrades that offers almost no pains with its significant gains.
Microsoft Office XP
Company:Microsoft
Ph:13 20 58
Price: Not yet announced
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