Jewish World Review March 26, 2004 / 4 Nissan 5764
Office 2004 for Mac is coming
By Mark Kellner
http://www.NewsAndOpinion.com |
The arrival of a new version of Microsoft Office for the Macintosh, in this
case called "Office 2004," is on the horizon, and should be welcomed by many
users.
No official release date has been announced, but a demo of some of the new
features in the productivity suite can be found at
http://www.microsoft.com/mac. If you're into the Mac as a productivity tool,
you'll want to learn about this pending product.
I've been working with a Beta version of the entire suite for about a month.
There are still some kinks to be worked out, but it's a substantial
improvement over previous Mac Office products. The new release will, in many
ways, be exceptionally close to the Windows-based Office 2003 that bowed
last year. Although the Mac and Windows versions of Microsoft Office have
had varying degrees of compatibility over the years, I believe it is safe to
say this new Mac version will be the most "simpatico" for Windows users who
end up with a Mac, and that's a good thing.
All four of the Mac Office components - Word, Excel, PowerPoint and
Entourage (the PIM) - are substantially improved. To keep an air of mystery,
Microsoft is parceling out the full details in installments, but there are
some things that can be made public now.
Presenters who like the Mac will want to see the new version of PowerPoint,
which will give Apple's Keynote some competition. . I can't disclose
everything that's new here, but the program's new "Presenter Tools" offer an
on-screen clock, a notes pane and thumbnails of the entire presentation, all
of which the presenter can see, while the audience sees a full-screen
display of the actual slides.
The other area open for immediate discussion is Entourage, which is the Mac
equivalent of Microsoft Outlook, and then some. I've come to rely on
Entourage substantially in the past few weeks, even if I've not been able to
get the software to work with one of the Exchange-based e-mail systems I
use. That should be fixed by the e-mail host in a few days.
However, the plusses of Entourage so far are enormous. Top of my list would
have to be the "Project Center" which allows users to group e-mails and
files according to a given project. When setting up a project, an "alias"
folder is created on the desktop: drag-and-drop or save a file to that
folder and it's instantly available in the Project Center for easy
management, viewing and e-mailing. It's been of substantial help in one of
my recurring weekly projects, and it will probably remain indispensable, as
well as highly addictive.
When viewing e-mail, the program offers a "three column view" which situates
the e-mail reading pane to the right of the e-mail list; Microsoft says this
allows users "to view up to 40 percent more of the message on screen." I say
it's a brilliant idea, one earlier implemented in Outlook 2003. To make sure
that you get more real mail and less junk, there's an updated "junk mail"
algorithm that should block many unwanted messages.
Another new feature, previously unavailable in this program is archiving,
which lets you save all your PIM date in one file. It will be interesting to
see if this file can then be imported into Outlook, but for Mac-only users,
being able to create and save a periodic Entourage backup can come in very
handy. For cross-platform users, it might be essential.
All of the new Office productivity programs, when saving a file, will offer
to provide a "compatibility report," to check that the file you're saving
will open easily and properly in other versions of the same Office programs.
This is very helpful in "mixed" corporate environments, as well as for
independent users whose customers may not use Macs.
The new version of Word features a "notebook layout" that will be helpful in
taking notes of meeting and other items. The notes can be more easily
organized, indexed and arranged than a standard Word document.
There will be more to speak off as far as Office 2004 for the Macintosh is
concerned. For now, Mac users should stay on top of news about this program.
It's one you'll want to have as part of your arsenal.
Find this column useful? Why not sign-up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
JWR contributor Mark Kellner has reported on technology for industry newspapers and magazines since 1983, and has been the computer columnist for The Washington Times since 1991.Comment by clicking here.
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