Product
Description
Microsoft Office XP's empowering document design tools, integration
of voice recognition functionality, and impressive network-
and Web-based sourcing capabilities should be enough to convince
those interested in saving time and consolidating effort to
take the leap.
In keeping with Microsoft's much-ballyhooed .NET strategy, Office
XP introduces several features that utilize the vast infosphere
inhabited by the 21st-century desk jockey. Smart tags beckon
underneath recognized objects like misspellings or symbols,
offering a stock quote here, a synonym there, or "Would
anyone care to configure my auto-correction list?" The
task pane looks similar to Microsoft Internet Explorer's Explorer
Bar, and acts like an open tool chest pulled up alongside each
application in the suite, providing readily configured searches
for information or multimedia files. Putting up a team Web site
that tracks projects and serves as an information hub requires
only the use of one of the included templates, ready to be customized
and uploaded to the server.
The Send for Review feature
further streamlines the collaborative process by allowing
the sender to view revisions made by multiple parties within
the framework of the original document. Outlook now features
a color-coded calendar and easier meeting management, along
with instant messaging and variable e-mail account access.
All user system errors can be tracked globally, and then network
security settings modified remotely while anti-virus and debugging
IT resources are diverted accordingly.
After firing up Microsoft Word,
typing "Dear Somebody," and hitting the Enter key,
we made a startling discovery. Up popped Clippy, Microsoft's
publicly pink-slipped office assistant. Clippy might have
aptly announced, "Rumors of my death have been greatly
exaggerated," but instead predictably observed, "It
looks like you're writing a letter." Once the groans
of disbelief had subsided, we quickly right-clicked and banished
Clippy to the silicon ether, presumably forever
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