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. --Dominic Johnson
After the most painless installation yet of a Microsoft product, Office XP Standard immediately starts to make a favorable impression. Not only does tighter code mean faster startup and shutdown times for each program, but many smaller tweaks have been introduced to improve functionality across the board.
The focus of this release is on making Office smarter, by providing better collaboration tools for organizations and more customization tools for individual users. The new smart tags are a clever way of automatically matching data in documents to tasks, such as inserting an address when you're writing a letter in Word, or copying and pasting in Excel. This is extremely welcome, as is the ability to customize AutoCorrect (i.e., choosing which errors you want the program to correct automatically). Also new are task panes, which are essentially a cross between a wizard and the Help system. Using the drop-down menu format, these panes make relevant commands easily available, thus achieving faster results.
In addition to cross-product improvements, each application in the suite has had an overhaul. Outlook has seen many tweaks that improve usability and productivity, notably, AutoCorrect works as you type, and improved ease in setting up mail accounts. Outlook 2002 also includes support for Hotmail, so you can manage this account in the same place as your other e-mail accounts. PowerPoint contains a plethora of enjoyable new effects, including some useful new applications like the organization chart creator. Word and Excel make good use of smart tags and task panes. Some other useful new features include a merge function in Word for incorporating other users' changes, a word count display for those late-night essays, a drop-down menu in Excel with commonly used functions, and an extremely easy-to-use set of diagram creators.
Office XP Standard will improve productivity and results across the entire application suite. The improved functionality, especially with smart tags and task panes, will save users considerable time in creating quality documents. --Colin Neal
Microsoft Office XP Standard puts the features you need within easy reach at all times. New context-sensitive smart tags pop up with options you need--right when you need them. No more digging through menus. Tasks that once required multiple steps are just one click away with the new task pane. The new version of Outlook in Office XP Standard condenses all your personal and professional e-mail into one central location, even your Web-based e-mail accounts like Hotmail. With AutoRecover, your work is saved at regular intervals while you work. PowerPoint includes animation effects and custom slide transitions. An editable print preview assures that your printed slides and documents come out right the first time. Office XP Standard also includes Word 2002 and Excel 2002.
1 Good, but free substitutes are available.
Microsoft did a pretty good job with its office products. They are easy to use, powerful and versatile. Between Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, you can get al;; your office needs met, whether you are a beginner, student, or a professional
The best feature of the Microsoft Office suite is Outlook. It combines an easy to use calendar, email program that can handle multiple email accounts, task lists, and many other features that are just right if you need an all-in-one organizer.
HOWEVER ---
One of the other reviewers mentions that "the bottom line is value... why pay retail?" My question is - why pay at all? There is a FREE office suite called Open Office that you can download (again, for free, and legally). All you have to do is Google Open Office, and you will find the website. Granted, Open Office is not as good as Microsoft Office, but it is quite close. If you are looking for basic word processing, presentation software, and spreadsheet package, and if you do not require advanced features and your budget is tight, Open Office would be perfect for you.
2 Office
Well, actually I like Excel and hate Word. The other programs included I have little or no use for.
I use Excel all the time for engineering calculations, including writing VBA macros to automate things that I can't do easily in the cells. It's very useful, like having a calculator that remembers everything you've done, writes it down, but allows you to change inputs and recalculate everything automatically. Unfortunately, there is a bug in the help files, so I can't get Visual Basic help anymore. The IT guys at work fixed the regular help but never could get the macro help to work again. Very annoying.
Word is terrible compared to WordPerfect. What I used to be able to do with a couple of keystrokes, now takes minutes of navigation thru menus and dialog boxes. Outline formatting, numbered lists, etc. are especially frustrating in Word because nothing is obvious. You shouldn't have to get a college degree in word processing in order to learn to write a specification and get the formatting correct. One annoyance is that paragraph formatting is hidden in a selectable little space at the end of the paragraph, so if you try to delete the last few words by hitting shift-end and delete, you will delete numbering, formatting, etc. of that paragraph. Also, the thesaurus that came with WordPerfect was much better.
In general, Microsoft Office tries to be everything for every possible user, automates many tasks to do things that it thinks I want to do even though I don't, and makes it hard to figure out how to undo them.
I am using WordPerfect wherever possible and trying StarOffice.
3 Real problems with this one..
Installed the upgrade over Office 2000 on a well equipped XP Professional system. Liked it well enough but after an online update, File->Open began taking 20-30 sec per level to navigate to the file. Unfortunately, installing this package seems to put the 'better' file menus in and everything came to a crashing halt. Worse news is that it wouldn't uninstall nor reinstall/fix (something got corrupted). A Msoft A+ beat on it a long time then finally reinstalled XP (unfortunately an all too common occurance, for lots of reasons) and all was well until I installed Office XP again. The problem recurred but this time, a system restore cleaned it up. Still using Office 2000. Now using Office XP as a gold coaster. I've heard of this happening on other systems.. something in the networking maybe.. We're using a Linux server w/Samba drive. Works great with everything else..
4 If you want to write...
Microsoft Word on XP is the industry standard and next to Quark Express one of the most important tools of the trade.
Nothing comes close to Microsoft Word. MSWORD is as important as the invention of the pen and most importantly is compatible with nearly everything. Open up any written document. Save to any written document type. The import feature is almost flawless.
5 Thank goodness I get a university discount
When I saw the cost of this, my jaw dropped. I didn't think it would cost so much for Word, PowerPoint, FrontPage and Excel.
I went to the university bookstore at my school to see if I could get any kind of discount on it. Thank goodness Indiana University has a contract with Microsoft!
About the program now that I've complained about the cost enough...
WORD
This is the program I use the most because for being a word processing program, it is very versatile. I can write term papers and what not with it, but I can also credit news letters complete with graphics. I have also used it to create invoices with neat graphics.
FRONTPAGE
I know HTML (one of the languages webpage makers write webpages in), so I pretty much only use this program when I'm trying out something new, like frams. I have also used it to figure out HTML codes for colors, frames, and tables. I had a college instructor who used it to do her entire webpage and it looked pretty good.
EXCEL
I used Excel to keep track of the money I was spending on gas for 6 months, how many miles I was traveling, where I was traveling, and the cost of gas. I know it sounds like of nerdy, but it really helped me save some money on gas, knowing exactly where to stop when I was on a trip. I also has how many miles I was putting on my car in that 6 months (10,000+ miles), which explained the wear and tear.
POWERPOINT
I am just beginning to learn this. I didn't realize what a valuable program PowerPoint was until people in some of my college classes gave presentations with it. Man, my poster board presentation was nothing compared to theirs. It is actually a pretty easy program to learn, but the 'little extras' like the animation and extra graphics can take a bit of time.
OUTLOOK
I use this program to check my school e-mail because I have AOL at home. I like not having to go to the university's website, navigating my way to the mail page, signing it, and going through at least one more link, just to get to my e-mail. This program goes straight to my mailbox with no links, no navigating.
ACCESS
When I tried to use access to create a database of my CDs, I had a lot of problems. It is probably the only program in this software suite that I think is a total waste of disc space. I have had to use it before, but for me, I can just use Excel to make lists, it is much easier to use.
I am really glad that I have Microsoft Office. It has made school a lot easier. I can e-mail documents to my school account, download them, and know they will work with the school software. That saves me from having to reformat the assignment whenever I want to work on it at school.
6 what it is
Office XP itself was a fine upgrade - endlessly configurable (you don't like the clip? Kill the clip! Hate spell-on-the-fly? Turn it off), well-suited to file- and data-sharing, more stable, quicker internet data connections, still more refinements and improvements (like programmable smart tags) to Excel and Word, a much-improved set of add-ons in Project, Publisher, and Visio. And the upgrade process was easy. If you had trouble you either had some horribly complex project to switch or you waded in without paying attention to instructions. It was a very smooth transition.
The Developer version added (still adds, since you can buy it now) added developer editions of SQL Server and Exchange, plus Source Safe, Code Librarian, and various other useful and sometimes well-buried stuff. I'm not sure why Office Developer isn't just folded into a slightly downpriced MSDN Professional, but then Microsoft still hasn't matured on the level of licensing and packaging. The Office suite is, however, a mature product that has been improving enormously since the 2000 release. If only Redmond would lose their fascination with Byzantine licensing and Rubik's Cube bundling (cool! We can sell it this way, and THIS way, and THAT way, and for these people we can probably get them to pay for THIS THAT way ...), people might stop complaining and realize the products are much-improved.
2003 continues the march onward in quality. If you're considering XP Developer, you're likely better off looking at an MSDN package to get the same tools.
7 Dont' do it!
This is an extremely disappointing product. When I bought a new computer with Windows XP loaded, I was forced to upgrade my previous version of Office to restore all of the functionality. They have added so many 'features' that many things that used to be simple are nearly impossible. It is also extremely intrusive (guessing what you're trying to do), often wrong, and very hard to dissuade. Something as simple as a numbered list with sub-bullets in Word is an exercise in frustration. Creating web pages with Word that used to take me 15 minutes or so are now multi-hour curse-a-thons.
Unless your hand is forced, you'll be much happier with the earlier versions of MS Office.
8 Microsoft Office XP small office edition
I recently purchased the above item from "Fun2sell" using Amazon.com.
I was most impressed not only with the product but the integrity of the seller,Patrick.
The product was excellent,the service fast,the seller professional and courteous.
I would not hesitate to use your service again.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Diane Smith
9 Stick with what you have.
I wasn't going to post a review up but I must seriously disagree with the last post. Office is nice, looks pretty, but the price is ridiculous. If you've got Win98SE and an old edition of Office then stick with it and keep your money in your own bank. You worked to hard to just give it away. If you have a different office suite package that does what you want then you'll be alot happier if you treated yourself out for a night of fun instead of buying this. With the price of this software you can have ALOT of fun! I guess this is what a monopoly gets us...inflated prices!!!!
10 One Word: [BAD]
Our office made it mandatory for us to upgrade to Office XP....I have had nothing but problems since. Thankfully, I only have to deal with this piece of garbage at work. I definetely will NOT be buying ANY XP branded product for my home computer.
First of all if you thought Word was slow, wait until you try Word XP. It takes nearly 5 minutes for a large document to load in Word XP while Word brought it up in a few seconds. And when word finally does load your document, it has stupid comments all over your document (which is probally why it took so long to load). The first time I tried printing a document with Word XP, it took nearly 90 minutes for it to even get to the printer! When the document FINALLY printed out, I found that it printed out ALL the comments which DOUBLED the size of my document. I figured out how to turn the comments off, but have not figured out how to turn it off permantly. So everytime I load a document, I have to turn the comments off and hope that the drop downs that do this actually work!
Also when I first loaded word, outlook or excel there was this annoying "pop up" at the top corner of your screen that had something to do with hands free typing. I permantly killed this window too because I DON'T NEED THIS [stuff] MICROSOFT!!
Also another feature I don't like is when you copy more that one item in word, it brings up another annoying clipboard window that Microsoft assumes you want. This window displays EVERYTHING you have copied and covers up part of the window you are working in. I never have and never will use this clipboard so there is no reason why it should keep popping up. Apparantly Microsft "forgot" to add a way to permantely turn this off from office. I ended up having to go into the Windows registry to do it.
Finally there are bugs galore. The buttons and drop downs sometimes stop working for no apparant reason. Sometimes when trying to open certain documents from other office programs you get error messages, and when trying to open Help, you occasionally get messages saying "Error opening help"! Go figure.
Top these errors off with the ever annoying autoformatting "feature" in Word, Excel and Office and you have a complete waste of money.
Bottom line, Don't waste your money on this. You are MUCH better off with what you have now. I have discovered, that Microsoft tries to FORCE you to do things the way they ASSUME you like to do things. They just keep adding more "features" that intefere more than assist you. You will spend a lot of time undoing what they force you to do. You will also spend a lot of time trying to turn off their useless and annoying "features" just to type ONE document. Heck you may be better off with a typewritter since you have the freedom to do what YOU want instead of wasting time undoing what Microsoft automatically does for you.
11 A critical upgrade
XP Professional carries the basic office into a far more integrated structure of flipping data, graphics, and presentations from one format to another without any Office family squabbles. No system is perfect, but this beats out the clunker systems from the "competitors"
12 an excellent Office Suite
I decided to give OfficeXP a short review, particularly because it deserves much better then an average 2.5 stars rating - as the previous reviewer said, the OfficeXP is the best office suite you can currently get. While this package is not a bargain, it beats any competition by the huge margin.
I noticed improvements over the older versions of MS Office at several places - while the improvements may be minor to some people, the fact that the product runs without a glitch is enough for me to justify the purchase. Everything is very intuitive & straightforward, and without cumbersome handling and abundant variety of errors encountered in non-MS products.
If you want to get frustrated, do everything twice as long with numerous glitches appearing usually at the least convenient moments (like when you need to have something urgently done, save your work to the file, etc. ), get free Open Office or pay moderate fee for Star Office 6.0; if you want to work fast and effortlessly since the first minute following the ultra-smooth installation, do yourself a favor and purchase OfficeXP; if you're not in a hurry, you may want to wait for Office 2003, which should be out soon.
(Note: installed on Win2kPro-SP4 machine /P2.4GHz-1GB RAM/, absolutely smooth ride and I'm impressed with the software - reviewed version: OfficeXP(2002)SBE/DSP incl. Word, Excel, Outlook and Publisher)
13 If you're a regular user, DON'T USE IT
Microsoft Office is an essential suite for computer users, because it lets you write documents, elaborate presentations, that sort of thing. And you thought there's nothing out there that can really replace it. Think again.
I absolutely have no problems against MS Office, except for two things: THE PRICE. I refuse myself to pay 400 dollars for this. Besides, I don't even have 400 dollars to spend.
THE ACTIVATION PROCESS. Microsoft can't kidnap my right of installing the program on the amount of computers I want to.
Yes, I know this is still a very good software package. But if you're a high school or college student who doesn't have a budget worthy of a Fortune 500 company, or just a regular Joe who wants to write neat stuff in his computer, you can try alternatives such as StarOffice or OpenOffice.org, which are very similar, the learning curve is nonexistant if you've already used MS Office, and the price is unbeatable (it can be even free). It even opens and saves stuff in MS Office formats. Ask one of your techie friends to download OpenOffice.org and burn it into a CD, and YOU WON'T BE BREAKING ANY LAWS. If you're a corporate user and you can pay this much for Microsoft support, go ahead. It's really not worth it anymore.
14 Crashes / Doesn't Maintain Earlier Version Format Integrity
After having used Word 6.0C and the same other programs on my computer for years, without hardly ever crashing, OfficeXP2002 was my nightmare in waiting. Once installed on my Win98SE 256/40G, Office XP crashed regularly while reading emails, writing emails and editing Word documents. Explorer also started to crash regularly. I got to know the blue screen really well!
After passing on error messages to MS, they told me it was conflicting with my Nvidia graphics software. Upgrade their driver I was told. After that, my Epson 800 printer wouldn't work. The new Nvidia driver conflicted with a Librarydll file. Had to msconfig and turn Nvidia's flashy controls off at startup. Now the printer works. OfficeXP still crashes, but it seems not mid document, usually when exiting or restarting when one or two other programs are running, thus locking up the entire system. Shutting down never seemed the same also - a hanging Win98 screen!
After reinstalling Win98SE and reading several articles, I went to a MS Win98SE patch html page and updated about 7 updates! My computer still crashes, usually daily, probably because Outlook is always running and I need to run two or three other programs. Never had this problem over the years with Outlook Express always running.
OfficeXP hasn't crashed mid-email or mid-Word document (yet) but my computer hardly ever goes a day without crashing.
OfficeXP's Word will not maintain the formatting integrity of my Word 6 or Word97 documents! You can count on boxes and lines being out of alignment with text. Apparently MS changes the formatting in Word for every new version (to force everyone to upgrade?) Doesn't even maintain formatting integrity when you save a document in an older version (just try opening it up with the older version!!!) The whole thing is a nightmare but I now feel locked in. It will be a loooooog time before I upgrade ever again. One day there'll be an alternative to Word that is truly cross-platform and productive.
15 Mother's Little Helper
Bought this for me Mum to go with her birthday laptop. Her emails and photo attachments seem to be getting thru OK, so I guess the books works.
16 Too [much $], too much bloat.
If you have followed Microsoft Office from version to version you may have noticed something: it gets BIGGER and BIGGER and BIGGER.
Office 95, office 97, Office 2000, and now Office XP, continue the trend towards larger, more complex software on each release. You have to keep upgrading your PC every year or two so the "Microsoft Office of the year" runs ok on your system.
I got a shrinkwrapped MS Office XP box with my last computer (it was a bundle at a special store price). Before opening the shinrwrap, I asked the store manager if I could use the demo system they had on display, which had Office XP installed. After seeing that there were no improvements from previous versions, and that disk space usage was higher than Office 97, I decided it was time to move on.
... Bottom line: StarOffice 6.0 costs a fraction of MS Office, uses a fraction of the hd space and ram of MS Office (which means StarOffice will run OK on systems where Microsoft Office XP is dog-slow), StarOffice 6.0 reads and writes all Microsoft office file formats, and lets you install LEGALLY, with NO ACTIVATION WHATSOEVER, your StarOffice suite on 5 machines, with no extra cost. To top all this, the look-and-feel is essentially the same, no re-learning curve!.
Oh, I almost forgot, I saved $.. more, because StarOffice 6.0 includes templates for all AVERY LABELS, no need to purchase "Avery LabelPro" software like I had planned to do.
17 Hey, It's the Best
I am compelled the write this review only because so many have been so cold. I have used Lotus, Word Perfect and Office XP. I can honestly say that Microsoft offers a superior product. Without getting into boring details, it is fair to say that no office suite offers greater acceptability and versatility than Office XP. It is the standard by which all other office suites are judged. There can be no question about this.
Many will criticize XP Office for not being as good a value as their competitors. To this comment, I reply, that you get what you pay for in any office suite. Like it or not, Microsoft is king.
XP has some cool new features. The "detect and repair" feature creates a mini-restore program within XP Office. The variable Office Assistant makes Clippy vacant or replaced by a new face. Mostly, I like the improved integration between Outlook, Word and Excel. Then again, I just use the program. Hey, is'nt that the point.
If I still had 2000, I might wait for Office XML to be released later this year. Then again, I have been using XP for over a year now and have no regrets. Yeah, I'll probably upgrade again and pay some ridiculous upgrade price when XML is released. I guess I just like using the best office suite available.
18 Not a good deal
If everyone were still churning out stock options in their sleep and making money every time they went to the coffee machine, it wouldn't be so much of an issue. And if the licensing were less draconian, it wouldn't be so much of an issue.
But since we actually need to work to make a profit these days, it's not really smart to spew all this money at software that you're not even using, most of the time, to create your product.
Have your office sysadmin or techwriter or something try out StarOffice or OpenOffice.org for a couple weeks, then train the rest of the company on how to switch. Using the same software all your professional life isn't in the bill of rights and the smart decision is to switch to something that works, that you can actually afford.
If your employees or co-workers are smart enough to make whatever they're making, they're smart enough to switch to a different spreadsheet.
19 REAL SLOW
I purchased this upgrade, because MS said it was basically 30% faster than Ofc 2000. NOT!... It's more like 30% slower!
I use an Intel PIV 2.4 GHz with 1Gig DDR RAM with twin 80 WD SE drives, and an ATI 9000 Pro 128Meg video. There is not a lot of fluff apps loaded on this machine, because it is my primary business computer. Office XP Pro is amazingly much slower than Office 2000, especially Outlook. Between messages, it seems that it takes forever to load. Word is not used as my editor. Even with all the Service Packs (2) and updates installed. Even the machine performance degraded after installation. Prior to installation, speed wise, the computer would average 1100+ on pc pit stops performance test. Now, it averages 950+. Go figure...
Functionality is basically the same as Office 2000 with one exception, Photo Draw has been removed from Office XP. (One less useable app, more money for Ofc XP). The graphics in each app is improved in Ofc XP, but what does that really provide?
If you already have Office 2000 Pro, do not upgrade to Ofc XP Pro. Office XP Pro is definately not worth the additional $$$.
The only gain apparent is the improved graphic interface, but even that is not much, and not all that.
20 Excellent
All I can say is I have had Win 3.1, Win 95 and Win 98 then went to this upgrade. This is the best Windows yet....very stable and well very stable...it handles crashing programs very well and Windows does NOT crash, I have had WIN XP 2 months now and had it crash 1 time, ok let me repeat 1 time, where it could not recover. I HIGHLY recommend this item and I am very glad I upgraded to it. The most stable Windows ever. Sure I had to pay for it, but still, it is very stable... I highly recommend it, for the home or the professional version. Best windows eve.
21 Another Day, Another Release
BOTTOM LINE:
If your Office is quite old (95, 97), you should upgrade.
If you are an Office expert, stretching your projects to use every ounce of capability, or your team makes big collaborative projects with Office, you should upgrade.
If you are in the other 95% of Office 2000 users, keep what you have, save your money, and enjoy.
DETAILS:
Office XP is fine, usually. Works OK, usually. Doesn't have major bugs, seems a little more solid, but still occasionally crashes or has other problems.
Office XP does all the same things as Office 2000, plus has the theoretical capability for voice & handwriting inputs. For most of us, with desktops PCs, that won't matter.
Smart Tags will be occasionally helpful, but will always block off the cell you're about to edit, with unnecessary options for the cell you've just changed.
A most confusing thing in Office XP is still its abuse of Microsoft's own Windows programming standards (published for others only?) in how it represents multiple open documents. Excel and Word act differently, both in violation of the rules, with multiple icons in your task bar for documents open in the same Word or Excel window. This confusion can hurt both inexperienced and power users alike: for example, when closing one document you may accidently close a second one with the same click.
Finally, as usual, most of the changes are not in user-helping functionality, but are "under the hood", partially re-tooling Office to support Bill Gates' future software architecture visions and, in the long run, helping Microsoft.
22 Explodes for no adequately explored reason, very overpriced.
Not only do we continue to buy this overpriced software, but it continues to explode for no adequately explored reason, as well.
As long as there was no actual choice, if one had to create Word files, then at least it made sense to use MS Office.
However, now there is no reason to continue with the money flushing. StarOffice is a great deal cheaper, works generally the same way, reads and creates Word Excel and PowerPoint files, and is all in all an entirely adequate product.
And yes, StarOffice runs on Windows too.
23 How I Learned to Stop Spending, and Switch to StarOffice
I think using MS Office is like smoking; OK, not deadly, but you don't realize how much money you're spending every day or year on stuff you don't need. Put together all the money you've spent on MS Office products in your lifetime, and it might be more than is in your 401k depending on how you did in the last couple years of the stock market.
MS Office does work. Yes. Sometimes when I used it I would get the blue screen of death, sometimes not. It had its problems but we used it because we had to use it. Because everyone else used it and we had to, too.
StarOffice does the same stuff, handles the same file formats, costs soooo much less money. OpenOffice.org, ditto, and free. The decision isn't really a hard one about whether MS Office is worth buying. You don't need MS Office to make MS Office files (StarOffice opens and creates Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files).
Get StarOffice or OpenOffice.org and keep your money; Microsoft has enough.
24 Industry standard but over featured and too buggy
Chocked full of features. More features than anybody will ever need, such as the dreadful team-cooperation feature set (probably copied from IBMs horribly buggy Lotus SmartSuite, which crashed all the time). Office too is still buggy after all these years. Ironically, this version seems more buggy than the previous version, Office 97, which was pretty stable in the end. Office is still not particularly user friendly either -- the excess of fluff-features complicates navigation. The horrible paper-clip "office assistant" is still around, despite what the press say. So, disappointing -- but the competition is much worse so you might as well succumb and buy it.
25 Costs twice as much as my first car. Get OpenOffice.org.
My first car in 1990 cost $$$ and was worth every penny. Microsoft Office, XP or other, not so much. It's good, but not compared to its price, and therefore not a good choice. If you haven't tried StarOffice or OpenOffice.org yet, or haven't tried the latest release, just do it. Unless you're a turbo macro user, or create feature-length animations in PowerPoint, you're spending a month's rent for nothing by buying MS Office.
Plus, as other reviewers have mentioned, with this version you have to register and activate it before it expires. No more MS Office sharing.
So anyway, be forewarned about the registration issue, and think about whether it's really worth twice as much as a rusty but dependable Datsun.
26 To expensive for what it is
I was about to buy this product since its the one I use at the office, but when I looked at the price I did some research first.
Why would I buy it, when I can get very similar alternatives for much less like StarOffice? of even for free (OpenOffice). It does have nice features but most of them I have never used. I have been using OpenOffice for the past 3 months and I haven't missed a feature yet. If you are buying this office suite I would recommend you try OpenOffice first, it could save you a lot of money.
27 Why pay $$$ for a new version of Office?
I mean have you ever used more then a fraction of Office features? When my wordpad at hope stopped to recognize office xp file format (which was not a problem with previous version of the office) I lookd for an alternative and I found one, for free: an application package from openoffice.org. 50 MB file reads md .doc format and doeas it all for free and very well.
28 THIS IS THE WORST!
I bought this software 8 months ago. My hard drive went bad recently. I tried to install this software again on my NEW hard drive. YOU CAN'T!! I wasted hundreds of dollars on a product I can't use now! I called to have my registration trasfered to my new computer but Microsoft won't let me transfer my registration or have the software on two PC's. WHAT A BUNCH OF BULL! DON'T BUY THIS VERSION! Not only is there the above problem but there are many better programs available, with more advantages, cheaper price and no hassle. I'm not anti-Microsoft but this experience has shown me what this company stands for.
29 Look at the Price! Give me a break...
Get real! How does Microsoft justify charging almost $$$ retail for this suite of products? In my opinion, the updates and modifications in the XP versions of Microsoft's most popular Word, Excel, and Power Point programs are merely cosmetic. Patch your old versions and keep your money in your pocket. Most people will "borrow" a copy from work. Warning! Microsoft is cracking down on this. They are developing ways to get onto your system to find out if you have "borrowed" copies of their product.
30 Be Careful What You Wish For
Microsoft XP Pro, is remarkably amazing. The features on it, are so delightful to the modern consumer. Microsoft accomplished its mission in making a Windows package that is 100% user friendly.
Sounds great doesn't it?
Yes, and no. I am a huge fan of Microsoft XP Pro, I love being able to navigate through Windows with ease, and I like how everything is no longer complex, but really really easy.
What I don't like is the security issues. Not, that I believe that it's wrong or right, but the digital security on Windows XP Pro is strict. Everything you install has to be digitally signed by Windows, meaning you the user will have endless nightmares trying to find drivers upon drivers, that match the Windows XP Logo. Even then, there still seems to be conflicts with Windows.
My recommendation is that Windows XP Professional, is just that, keep it to the Pros. If you want to buy Windows XP, save money and time by investing in Windows XP Home Edition, even then there are digital signature problems, but less than you would have with XP Pro.
On a larger scale, if all else fails stick with Windows 2000. Windows ME was rushed, and was a huge flop for the consumer; it was rushed onto the market leaving holes and flaws within itself. Windows XP had more time invested than ME, but for PC gamers, this purchase can result in massive headaches.
Just be careful what you wish for.
31 Not worth the money
Don't use unless you are forced to. The price Microsoft wants for this package is too much for what it offers. For the most part it is no different than Office 2000, Office 98, Office 95 or for that matter Office 6 for windows 3.1. Features that were poorly implemented in earlier versions are still poorly implemented. Most of the functionality in Office XP is the same as it was in these earlier products, so it leaves the user with the question, what am I paying over "$" for? Even the upgrade price is ridiculus. My opinion, check out Staroffice or if you can't afford that then check out OpenOffice. I have gone back to Office 97 on the one PC I use Microsoft office on (the hard drive was reformatted and instead of hassling through MS's product activation, AGAIN, it was decided to just go with an earlier version). Staroffice and openoffice are used everywhere else.
32 Worth the Money?
I'm afraid I'm going to have to buy this thing. Let's face it, Office is an outstanding multi-task tool, however complicated it may be. My problem is having to pay so much damn money for it. I have tried Sun's StarOffice, but I found that it's not FULLY compatible with MS programs, especially if the file in question is remotely complicated. I'll bet that I'm like a lot of other people in that I already have so many existing MS Word, EXCEL, PowerPoint, and other Microsoft files that I need to work with, I am kind of forced into buying this program for my new computer.
I would have no problem whatsoever switching to another brand if I weren't "locked in" to using Microsoft, especially considering the highway robbery. What ever happened to the anti-trust thing?
33 Nothing Good About It
I can not find one good thing about MS Office that I can't get from a cheaper alternative. MS Office tries to "read your mind" and ends up formatting your document in goofy ways. When it crashed it asks you to send an error report, the report contained data from my Excel file! It takes forever to load and to install and if you do not do the step by step (ugh!) install you end up having to put the disk in every other week to get the feature that was not originally installed.
In short:
If you want to share personal info with MS
If you want your work to look like MS wants it to
If you want to "never" be done installing to software
If you think wasting $$ is good
Then
Buy this product. Other wise look at Star Office or another product.
34 The Best Operating System I had Ever Used !
Do yourself a Favor, and Upgrade from Windows 2000. Install "Microsoft Office XP Professional Upgrade, by Microsoft," and watch 98% of your computer woes vanish before your eyes ! Do the Updates, and watch the remaining 2% disappear, without a trace.
I did a Format C:, installed Windows 2000, Upgraded to XP Professional & the PC is running Smooth. The Internet runs more smoothly than I have EVER seen, before. The package comes with a Firewall. Games run very, very smoothly. The computer is so quiet, you barely realize you are even online.
I had a hard time getting standard software to run on Windows ME, but XP makes everything EASY, and makes it a joy to work on the PC. No more headaches. No more searching for patches on the internet.
This package has it all. I work in IT and do troubleshooting all day. Now, I do not have to come home and work on MY PC, as well. XP is the answer to most of your PC problems. This software will more than pay for itself, within weeks (or minutes, if you are as frustrated with your O.S. as I was).
Everything flows and runs with Great Ease. Just pick-up a "Windows XP For Dummies" ( ISBN # 0764508938 ) book and you will soon be raving to all your friends and co-workers to Upgrade to XP, ASAP.
* Note: since writing this, I purchased the Windows XP Operating System and Office package, and I like it even better.
I have re-written this review, do to clarification issues. I was in a fun mood when I wrote it and now realize some of it could have been misinterpreted. Also, I have since noticed "issues" with running certain scanners on XP. However, by now, the upgraded drivers should be on the various company websites, to fix that problem.
35 overpriced
This software is incredibly over priced for ANY level of usibilty. There is No reason for you to pay this much for anything Microsft unless it will run a server, give you lifetime on site support, and make you coffee. Consider something less costly with the same useability like StarOffice or gobeProductive.
36 You'll like it more than you think
I've been a fan of the "Office Philosophy" as long as I've known of it. It's almost like software communism. One set of application to satisfy any and all of your needs, for both personal and professional environments. Everybody's got it, which, instead of meaning that it's "trendy," it means that it's nothing less than practical.
It bridges the idea of operating system platforms. You know what I mean: sending files to a friend or co-worker, only to get a response of "I can't open that. Send it in ---- format." First, chances are, the recipient will have Office. Second, if you receive a non-Office file, your Office software will be able to read it, provided it wasn't created on some software from Mars.
OK, enough argumentum ad populum. Besides being a great idea on a global scheme, it's also a great idea for a stand-alone system and/or stand-alone user. Office integrates your system. For example, consider running WordPerfect, Lotus 1-2-3, dBase, and Netscape for your word-processing, spreadsheet, database, and communication s needs, respectively. While individually, each application is perfectly adequate for its own job, a vast majority of the time one might want to integrate some amount of work done in one program into work done in another program. Good luck, buddy. These programs hate each other; each one believes that it can do the job of all these by itself, and rationality be darned.
Office lets you do it all. Integration runs smoothly and you truly don't have to worry about losing functionality if you decide to switch over from your old program. In addition, the suite is extremely stable, and intelligent: it'll figure out how you - as an individual - like to manage your system, as well as fix any problems that won't come along. For example: try deleting msword.exe. Then go and double-click the Word icon on your desktop. Office will figure out the problem and reinstall the missing file. REMEMBER: you'll need your Office installation disks for any of the auto-fix features in Office.
(My advice: when installing, provided that you have sufficient system resources, select "Run all from my computer" to avoid missing any features you might want to use further down the road.)
As far as ease of use, YOU CAN'T beat Office. The applications not only work well, they also look good. The Help files actually do provide logical, coherent, and practical help for common questions or tie-ups. Office runs smoothly and doesn't use up an extraordinary amount of system resources (although Microsoft's "Minimum Requirements" tend to be a bit under-estimated, or is it over estimated...? Anyway, you need more than they say).
I'm running 256mb RAM with a 1.4 Ghz Pentium 4, and I have no problems. Also, I am running Office XP Professional and Windows XP Home Edition. As far as I know, Windows XP is not a necessary upgrade from 2000 when moving from Office 2000 to XP. There are some licensing restrictions with XP that I'm sure most are aware. So here's my solution: DON'T BREAK THE LAW. You won't have problems then.
Pricing is a bit steep, so save your pennies.
37 WARNING: Obnoxious "activation" required
In keeping with Microsoft's total lack of concern for consumers, they have fixed this version so the purchaser must do a minimal registration via the web or phone in order to use the product. This means it is locked to your computer. This is an effort to prevent piracy. Preventing piracy is an honorable and important goal. However, there's more to it. If you upgrade or replace your computer, you'll have to call them on the phone and explain your story and if they think you're telling the truth, then maybe you can install the program you bought on your new computer. This also means that if you have two computers on your desk, you have to buy two copies, one for each computer. Also, this is Microsoft's first step toward forcing consumers to lease software instead of buying it. This move would likely force consumers to upgrade to the latest bloated version, even if they are happy with the old one.
Office XP is a decent set of applications, but there are at least two good alternatives that don't come with the obnoxious features. Check out either StarOffice or WordPerfect Office 2002. Both are excellent office suites and both are available on Amazon. Both are totally compatible with Microsoft Office file formats.
So, before dropping a ton of money on another Microsoft marketing scheme, consider the alternatives.
38 Word +, Excel =, Outlook -
ABOUT ME...
MOST USED: Word, Outlook, Excel
SETUP: P4 / 1.3 Gig / 256 RAM
~GENERAL~
SMART TAGS:
I cut and paste a lot between documents, and the "smart tag" approach to pasting is a cut (ba-dum-bum!) above previous Office implementations. No longer do I need to find the (non-macro-friendly) "Paste special" menu option; instead, a helpful icon that appears next to my text lets me choose among my options. This is a real time-saver for me (although it gets in the way in certain environments, e.g. the icon sometimes covers up cells in Excel).
TASK PANE:
I found the new task pane much more convenient and a good use of screen real estate on larger monitors, particularly for Word. The multiple-object clipboard that sometimes occupies this space is nice in theory, but for some reason I never remember to use it, probably because my own brain holds a few objects at a time.
BLOAT?
I have a fairly high-powered desktop running Office XP. I would never think to install Office XP on my P2 233 laptop, where Office 2K resides.
~ WORD ~
Unlike a previous reviewer, I like the new approach to Styles -- by keeping track of what styles are in use, I can hunt down the "rogue" styles that are, er, crimping my style. I also like that I can switch between "Available Formatting," "Formatting in Use," "Available Styles," and "All Styles" -- in Word 2K-, switching to Outline mode filled up your Styles pull-down menu with styles you will never use.
I also prefer the new (XML-friendly) way of handling review notes, footnotes, corrections, etc.
~ OUTLOOK ~
I found Outlook XP disappointing. The Rules (filters, so important in the era of spam) remain clumsy as ever (see Eudora for a much more intuitive interface) and its poor handling of multiple folders (e.g. flagged items in sub-folders do not trigger alerts; address lookup never seems to find contacts in address sub-folders) has not been fixed.
~ OVERALL ~
Flame me all you want, but I generally like Microsoft products. Sure, the product's got security holes like Swiss cheese, but that I will leave to the geeks to debate (I gladly exchange security risks for the ability to create powerful macros in VB/VBA). I appreciate Office XP's UI and think it is a worthwhile upgrade from 2K.
39 Some new things but....
Ok first i don't know what some people were talking about ms instant messenger (which has nothin to do with the office suite) but office xp provides some new capablities for the power user. For the occasional user that checks their e-mail with outlook, writes a few word documents and maybe a powerpoint presentation DONOT need this upgrade. The new features are very small and you probably won't even know what they are. Basically all the aplications were left untouched but i have actually noticed a little faster start-up time. It does contain a pretty good document imaging utility to scan text documents and edit them in word and a feature to import and export your office settings which i thin kyou can get as an add-on for office 2000
40 office xp
I have been using this program for a long time and I find nothing wrong with the XP office suite. I have the full version. It's faster than it's previous versions. It loads in half the time that the previous versions do. Those having problems with it let me make a suggestion. Buy a copy of Norton's SystemWorks 2002. It will fix any problems with your computer. The problems some of you are having are probably Windows related (broken shotcuts, invalid links etc.) I love Windows ME and XP Office 2002 - they work great together.
billy
41 Only if you are new to MS Office!
Microsoft Office XP Standard offers four essential tools that allows the user to create professional looking documents, resumes, letters etc. It also has powerful tools for mail merge, document recovery ( so if a blue screen attack happens it will recover your document). It also has a speech recoginition technology, which you have to train before you can actually start telling it what to do. Microsoft Excel, is a very essential program that makes adding up and analyzing numbers very easy, you are able to create chart's with your numbers for formal presentation. Microsoft Excel has become like a industry standard spreadsheet program so that at least should make you think about buying this suite. It also contains features for publishing your data on the web. Microsoft Outlook is a great e-mail program or PIM that has everything in one place, you are able to have multiple accounts without having to sign in multiple times separately into different e-mail services, Outlooks scheduling features are truly amazing when it comes to organizing your life. Microsoft PowerPoint is a great program for creating presentations, with its fantastic effects, PowerPoint 2002, especially is worth the buy, you will have a lot of fun with this product alone! Over all the new features in Office XP it self will make it a great buy for first time users, things such as task pane which allows users to work more faster. It would have been nice to add Microsoft Access, which is a great database program but, you have to look to the Professional edition of Office XP for that program. If the price of the program scares you and you don't have the money and only want essential tools look to Microsoft Works Suite 2002, a great set of integrated tools, which offers the complete version of Microsoft Word and a spreadsheet, database etc at a [lowe] price, ... check out the review!
42 Microsoft Does it Again!
If you are a user of any Office Suite product you should consider Microsoft Office Professional XP Edition. Microsoft has made great leaps and bounds with this upgrade. I love the new look in Outlook. Setup is a breese, even if you use this on your home PC.
43 Latest if FATware from Microsoft
Do you want to slow yoru systems down?
Do you want more bugs?
I upgraded this because I was looking for a better version of Outlook. I've found the Office 95 or Office 97 suite to be more than adequate for my needs and are the best applications for speed and efficiency. I had to wipe my entire disk to get it working and reinstall my older applications to get it workig reliably again.
The one feature hyped here is the way outlook can download email from WEB based HTML systems. Tht can be done with a free patch available from Microsoft for Outlook 2000...
Microsoft creates software applications that crash your older microsoft applications and encourage you to upgrade. Installing a simple upgrade to Internet Explorer or Instant Messenger will [mess] up a beautifully running machine.
My advice is don't use MS Instant Messenger, because it forces you to upgrade or deal with a reoccuring suggestion to upgrade...The net effect is they never really fix any software package to make it bug free. Each new version introduces new bugs and patches not fully tested, or perhaps deliberately [mess]something else up.
The solution is to use software that has been tested together extensively, like Win95 and Office 95. Win98 and Office 97, etc.
Never upgrade only one component of your OS and Office Applications or you will be sorry.
One final point...
44 Computer Fools
Do not be discouraged by the other fools' reviews. XP does use product activation, but you do not have to worry about Bill Gates dropping down your chimney and invading your privacy. It is only a precaution to cut down on piracy (although there are still numerous ways around it).
I am currently running Windows XP Professional, and love it. It is true that Office XP is not that much different than 2000, or 97 for that matter, but I would recommend it to somebody who doesn't have Office at all.
As for those people who think that Microsoft is an oppressive monopoly, why not use something else? I also run RedHat Linux and BeOS, they are both extremely capable operating systems. RedHat is packaged with StarOffice which is a very robust office suite. The reason why you don't choose non-Microsoft products is because, bottom line, they make the best software. Nothing comes close to the compatibility and functionality of the new Microsoft products. XP is just the beginning of more great products from Microsoft.
45 Comprehensively Useful
There is no other product which compares to the Microsoft Office suite. "Microsoft Office XP Standard" is the place to to get started. And it is the place you'll probably stay.
You do need Word and Excel, and occassionally, PowerPoint. Learn basic word processing and spreadsheet usage. Shine in meetings with PowerPoint.
It lacks Access, but most people don't need the database strength of it, and will survive nicely with just Excel.
For e-mailing documents and files to coworkers, you can be confident they'll easily open Office files... there is a good chance they use it themselves.
Outlook is one of those highly underrated, but enormously useful applications to help you organize your contacts, schedule and tasks easily. You can use it as an e-mail reader as well, though that feature has been vulnerable to viruses.
Word is a huge program which can do far more than you'll need, but it will allow you versaility and simplicity that WordPerfect has yet to pull off.
Excel is a basic spreadsheet with incredible math functionality. I don't need most of the math tools, other than minor budgets and such. I find it handy for tracking my poetry submissions; I can see which magazine I sent which piece to when, and how and when they replied.
PowerPoint makes those cool slideshows with the text that can be animated on the screen. With the templates, you can look good without requiring a graphic design degree.
I fully recommend "Microsoft Office XP Standard." It is the business and home office standard. You need it, it is easy to learn, and the price is right.
Anthony Trendl
46 Patience is a virtue!!!
Honestly, I think you should wait a year or two before you upgrade most of the new features are not really relevant to consumers, but are aimed more at businesses. I don't know if they are shipping Office XP with Service release 1, but I think most users who would like to uprgade should at least wait until it is being shipped with the bug fixes. The applications look beautiful. They are easy to use of course, but if you are just typing documents, sending e-mail, adding numbers things like that stick with Office 2000. Because in these rough times you don't want to waste money on something you are actually getting over and over and over again. I'm not saying it's the same applications but for users who are doing simple things in Office it really does not make sense to buy something that is packed up with 90% of features you are not using. Just have a little patience and wait the year or two by that time Microsoft will be releasing Office XP 2005, and trust me they are, I read in an interview, where the Microsoft Office Team manager said the next version of Office XP will be based more on collaboration and services. I am making sure you don't make any regrets, buying this product.
47 But Where Is The Difference
Yes, Office XP performs all the tricks so that any document, presentation and/or spread sheet looks like a million dollars but how many times is Microsoft going to slap a label on a product and declare it to be a major improvement?
The features found in Office XP are almost a clone to the previous Office suite's. Yes, you can now hold 24 items in your clipboard and that is indeed something but isn't that a nifty trick that could have been added as a download? The task panes, etc. look nice but nobody in the work world is going to use them. Also, you need a full screen when you are seriously working and some of Office XP's innovations reduce the work area.
If you are happy with the Office suite you are currently using, keep it and ignore this upgrade. There are no improvements big or small that justify the cost. Yes, it has the best programs going but it is difficult to install and after you finally get it on your system you are left with - a clone of the Office Suite you were previously using.
48 The need for a new office, not a new look.
This upgrade is particulary useless if you have an Office 2000 product. The design has been updated and 'smoothed' over. The only draw-back to this product is the fact that Word still auto-formats like usual, without the writers consent. If you are in the market for an upgrade over a pre-2000 office product this is for you. Would a 2000 Office owner get his/her's money worth in buying this, no.
49 Waste of Money
Man, did I waste my money! I used Office97 before, and have switched back to it. Office continues it's steady march toward doing this FOR you, instead of offering useful tools. There is nothing useful in this package that O97 doesn't have, but it DOES have stuff like Activation, lousy table support, crazy 'automatic' font size changing (I set it to 11pt, and it changed to 10pt).
Pass on this one unless you, like me, have money to burn!
50 Increase your productivity... Get Office XP
Office XP is a great improvement over version of Office prior to 2000. Smart tags help to bring key features out that once were hidden from view, making it much easier to be productive in Office. Great improvements have been made in Access 2002 which is now much easier to use than its predecessor was, even easy enough that a novice user could figure out how to setup a basic database with little problem. PowerPoint 2002 also features some nice new transitions and other "bells and whistles" to help make your presentation look more professional. For those of you who may have created Binder files, in previous versions of Office, this feature is no longer available, however an unbind feature comes with Office XP. The downside that I have heard much about is the dreaded Product Activation. If you work within your license to use Office, you should never have any problems. My computer gets worked pretty hard, and I often have to reinstall Windows. Needless to say, Office has to be reactivated. Never once has MS staff refused to activate my product. This "torment" is really more dreaded than most users will ever find it to actually be. Be more productive with a copy of Office XP today!
51 ((((B-L-O-A-T-E-D))))
I've been using this software for about three months now and have installed it on seven or eight different machines that I maintain, and honestly, the best I can say is that the actual upgrade process is very smooth--this Office suite comes on one CD instead of two, it scans for previous versions, offers full installation options, and explains very clearly what it is doing. When I upgraded to Office 2000, the software took upwards of an hour; with XP, the upgrades took from ten to forty minutes, depending on the speed of the machine I was upgrading to.
You will first notice how nice everything looks and the new "Smart Pane," which is supposed to be a window with what Office thinks you will want to do. The contents of this pane include your most recently used documents and options to create new documents.
The menus look a lot like the DHTML effects common on many web sites--menu options are "highlighted" when you mouse over them. A few other things have changed, but the changes are mostly cosmetic.
The Smart Pane, which is really more of a "pain" than a "pane," is obtrusive to me--I am what is called a "power user," i.e., I use MS Office for about four hours a day, rely on it, and am very familiar with it. When I open an application, I want wide, open space. I often close the Smart Pane without using its features, instead opening documents the way I have for years-either by opening them from the Work menu I added or by clicking to them. This Smart Pane is supposed to close when you open something, but sometimes it doesn't, meaning I have to click to close it.
Worse, the Smart Pane automatically opens when you want to do something it thinks requires many options. For example, if I want to modify a style in Word, the Smart Pane appears and offers me myriad options for editing my styles. This whole process of opening the Smart Pane slows everything down (I'm running a Pentium III 933 mHz with 128 mb RAM and a 7200 rpm ultra ATA hard drive with relatively few applications installed; got to keep it clean!!).
Editing styles provides a good example of how bloated the software is. You may recall from Office 2000 that all the styles were either built in or created by the user. Now, however, XP creates new styles based on what it finds in your document. For example, if you have a italicized one of your Heading 1s, XP will show the regular Heading 1 style and the Heading 1 style with italics. Imagine how many such styles you might have in your document; with these new additions, XP has easily doubled or tripled the number of styles I must wade through to get the one I want.
XP slows down every machine it's loaded on. My oldest machine, a Dell Pentium 75 running Win 98, was still chugging along quite nicely, even with Office 2000 installed. Now, however, after I've installed XP on it, it moves so slowly that it's almost laughable-clicked buttons bubble up comically. The worst part is that the computer is much, much slower, even if I'm not using any of the XP applications. I guess there's too much XP stuff now running in the background.
I have a few gripes with Word, many related to printing problems, but one is particularly laughable, typical of Microsoft. Now, when Word crashes, it politely tells you that it has done so and offers to send a report of the problem to Bill. It swears that it won't send any personal data. The first few times I saw this, I thought, sure, why not, send it, maybe it'll help. Hah! Each time, without fail, my computer froze! So, instead of having just one program crash, I ended up with a frozen machine. Remember, I'm primarily using a new, major name machine with little other software installed. Learned not to do that real quick!
There is one change I do like in Word. Since I do a lot of editing for a living, I find the new style of showing comments much better than the previous method. In Office 2000, comments were shown as "sticky notes" that appeared when you moused over them. Now, however, the comments appear as neat rounded squares in the margin. They look good on the screen and they print out well for others to read.
Another major reason I upgraded was because of a fatal flaw in FrontPage 2000. I have detailed more of this problem in my review of FP2002, but essentially, FP2000 could not publish my web site because it was too large. I was hoping that the bundled FP2002 would have fixed that bug. It did, but it has other compatibility issues that MS hasn't been able to resolve with most web hosts.
My relatively low rating is for the upgrade, not for the overall quality of the product. The product, which crashes at least as frequently as Office 2000, seems to be no more functional than its predecessor, meaning that the upgrade is necessary only for those who want to have the latest thing. The best news is that I've learned how to take advantage of MS's support discussion groups. The answers and workarounds I found in those groups were a thousand times more helpful than MS's pitiful Help or canned tech support messages. Again: Don't pay for support-go to their support groups for help first.
In short, this is something of a "non-upgrade," and will most likely cause more problems than it will fix.
52 ((((B-L-O-A-T-E-D))))
I've been using this software for about three months now and have installed it on seven or eight different machines that I maintain, and honestly, the best I can say is that the actual upgrade process is very smooth--this Office suite comes on one CD instead of two, it scans for previous versions, offers full installation options, and explains very clearly what it is doing. When I upgraded to Office 2000, the software took upwards of an hour; with XP, the upgrades took from ten to forty minutes, depending on the speed of the machine I was upgrading to.
You will first notice how nice everything looks and the new "Smart Pane," which is supposed to be a window with what Office thinks you will want to do. The contents of this pane include your most recently used documents and options to create new documents.
The menus look a lot like the DHTML effects common on many web sites--menu options are "highlighted" when you mouse over them. A few other things have changed, but the changes are mostly cosmetic.
The Smart Pane, which is really more of a "pain" than a "pane," is obtrusive to me--I am what is called a "power user," i.e., I use MS Office for about four hours a day, rely on it, and am very familiar with it. When I open an application, I want wide, open space. I often close the Smart Pane without using its features, instead opening documents the way I have for years-either by opening them from the Work menu I added or by clicking to them. This Smart Pane is supposed to close when you open something, but sometimes it doesn't, meaning I have to click to close it.
Worse, the Smart Pane automatically opens when you want to do something it thinks requires many options. For example, if I want to modify a style in Word, the Smart Pane appears and offers me myriad options for editing my styles. This whole process of opening the Smart Pane slows everything down (I'm running a Pentium III 933 mHz with 128 mb RAM and a 7200 rpm ultra ATA hard drive with relatively few applications installed; got to keep it clean!!).
Editing styles provides a good example of how bloated the software is. You may recall from Office 2000 that all the styles were either built in or created by the user. Now, however, XP creates new styles based on what it finds in your document. For example, if you have a italicized one of your Heading 1s, XP will show the regular Heading 1 style and the Heading 1 style with italics. Imagine how many such styles you might have in your document; with these new additions, XP has easily doubled or tripled the number of styles I must wade through to get the one I want.
XP slows down every machine it's loaded on. My oldest machine, a Dell Pentium 75 running Win 98, was still chugging along quite nicely, even with Office 2000 installed. Now, however, after I've installed XP on it, it moves so slowly that it's almost laughable-clicked buttons bubble up comically. The worst part is that the computer is much, much slower, even if I'm not using any of the XP applications. I guess there's too much XP stuff now running in the background.
I have a few gripes with Word, many related to printing problems, but one is particularly laughable, typical of Microsoft. Now, when Word crashes, it politely tells you that it has done so and offers to send a report of the problem to Bill. It swears that it won't send any personal data. The first few times I saw this, I thought, sure, why not, send it, maybe it'll help. Hah! Each time, without fail, my computer froze! So, instead of having just one program crash, I ended up with a frozen machine. Remember, I'm primarily using a new, major name machine with little other software installed. Learned not to do that real quick!
There is one change I do like in Word. Since I do a lot of editing for a living, I find the new style of showing comments much better than the previous method. In Office 2000, comments were shown as "sticky notes" that appeared when you moused over them. Now, however, the comments appear as neat rounded squares in the margin. They look good on the screen and they print out well for others to read.
Another major reason I upgraded was because of a fatal flaw in FrontPage 2000. I have detailed more of this problem in my review of FP2002, but essentially, FP2000 could not publish my web site because it was too large. I was hoping that the bundled FP2002 would have fixed that bug. It did, but it has other compatibility issues that MS hasn't been able to resolve with most web hosts.
My relatively low rating is for the upgrade, not for the overall quality of the product. The product, which crashes at least as frequently as Office 2000, seems to be no more functional than its predecessor, meaning that the upgrade is necessary only for those who want to have the latest thing. The best news is that I've learned how to take advantage of MS's support discussion groups. The answers and workarounds I found in those groups were a thousand times more helpful than MS's pitiful Help or canned tech support messages. Again: Don't pay for support-go to their support groups for help first.
In short, this is something of a "non-upgrade," and will most likely cause more problems than it will fix.
53 ((((B=L=O=A=T=E=D))))
I've been using this software for about three months now and have installed it on seven or eight different machines that I maintain, and honestly, the best I can say is that the actual upgrade process is very smooth--this Office suite comes on one CD instead of two, it scans for previous versions, offers full installation options, and explains very clearly what it is doing. When I upgraded to Office 2000, the software took upwards of an hour; with XP, the upgrades took from ten to forty minutes, depending on the speed of the machine I was upgrading to.
You will first notice how nice everything looks and the new "Smart Pane," which is supposed to be a window with what Office thinks you will want to do. The contents of this pane include your most recently used documents and options to create new documents.
The menus look a lot like the DHTML effects common on many web sites--menu options are "highlighted" when you mouse over them. A few other things have changed, but the changes are mostly cosmetic.
The Smart Pane, which is really more of a "pain" than a "pane," is obtrusive to me--I am what is called a "power user," i.e., I use MS Office for about four hours a day, rely on it, and am very familiar with it. When I open an application, I want wide, open space. I often close the Smart Pane without using its features, instead opening documents the way I have for years-either by opening them from the Work menu I added or by clicking to them. This Smart Pane is supposed to close when you open something, but sometimes it doesn't, meaning I have to click to close it.
Worse, the Smart Pane automatically opens when you want to do something it thinks requires many options. For example, if I want to modify a style in Word, the Smart Pane appears and offers me myriad options for editing my styles. This whole process of opening the Smart Pane slows everything down (I'm running a Pentium III 933 mHz with 128 mb RAM and a 7200 rpm ultra ATA hard drive with relatively few applications installed; got to keep it clean!!).
Editing styles provides a good example of how bloated the software is. You may recall from Office 2000 that all the styles were either built in or created by the user. Now, however, XP creates new styles based on what it finds in your document. For example, if you have a italicized one of your Heading 1s, XP will show the regular Heading 1 style and the Heading 1 style with italics. Imagine how many such styles you might have in your document; with these new additions, XP has easily doubled or tripled the number of styles I must wade through to get the one I want.
XP slows down every machine it's loaded on. My oldest machine, a Dell Pentium 75 running Win 98, was still chugging along quite nicely, even with Office 2000 installed. Now, however, after I've installed XP on it, it moves so slowly that it's almost laughable-clicked buttons bubble up comically. The worst part is that the computer is much, much slower, even if I'm not using any of the XP applications. I guess there's too much XP stuff now running in the background.
I have a few gripes with Word, many related to printing problems, but one is particularly laughable, typical of Microsoft. Now, when Word crashes, it politely tells you that it has done so and offers to send a report of the problem to Bill. It swears that it won't send any personal data. The first few times I saw this, I thought, sure, why not, send it, maybe it'll help. Hah! Each time, without fail, my computer froze! So, instead of having just one program crash, I ended up with a frozen machine. Remember, I'm primarily using a new, major name machine with little other software installed. Learned not to do that real quick!
There is one change I do like in Word. Since I do a lot of editing for a living, I find the new style of showing comments much better than the previous method. In Office 2000, comments were shown as "sticky notes" that appeared when you moused over them. Now, however, the comments appear as neat rounded squares in the margin. They look good on the screen and they print out well for others to read.
Another major reason I upgraded was because of a fatal flaw in FrontPage 2000. I have detailed more of this problem in my review of FP2002, but essentially, FP2000 could not publish my web site because it was too large. I was hoping that the bundled FP2002 would have fixed that bug. It did, but it has other compatibility issues that MS hasn't been able to resolve with most web hosts.
My relatively low rating is for the upgrade, not for the overall quality of the product. The product, which crashes at least as frequently as Office 2000, seems to be no more functional than its predecessor, meaning that the upgrade is necessary only for those who want to have the latest thing. The best news is that I've learned how to take advantage of MS's support discussion groups. The answers and workarounds I found in those groups were a thousand times more helpful than MS's pitiful Help or canned tech support messages. Again: Don't pay for support-go to their support groups for help first.
In short, this is something of a "non-upgrade," and will most likely cause more problems than it will fix.
54 Even XP beta worked great for me
I like the integrated firewall. I don't have Office on this machine, and had no problems using Outlook Express. I am not so sure I like the indexing service but, heck, you don't have to use it. I have been running TheSims on it and it works just great for that game. I have also used the web browser extensively. I hardly ever log in to AOL, but it is compatible with XP. Weatherbug works. If you buy a machine with Me on it, try to get the XP upgrade for (price). Updating XP has run slick as a whistle. I think it is a smooth transition from the old Dos-based opsys to the new kernel. Since I haven't used it with Windows I can't speak to problems integrating it there. I like
the Weatherbug on my desktop, and it is also compatible with XP.
So my experience has been very good.
55 Buyer Beware!
XP is the beginning of the end as far as system privacy is concercned and a slew of other problems. Here are several reasons why you shouldn't use XP.
1: General Exclusivity
Manufacturers are requested to submit your drivers directly to Microsoft for approval before you try to peddle them to consumers.
2: Media Player 8
MP8 might lock out other codecs like MP3 and not allow them to make copies of their own music that they can play from their own hard drives. It is not so much about what MP8 can do, it is about what it can prevent us from doing with music and video that we already paid for.
3: Missing Features
Are we going to have a backup program like we did in the old days? Are we going to get dual monitor support in the home version like Windows 98 SE has? Are we going to get back the basic fax functionality we used to have? In order to get those features, we will have to buy a "Plus Pack" of some kind for another 50 dollars. They stripped those features from the home version and are forcing us to pay an extra 100 or 200 dollars to get the professional version.
4: Bundling Restrictions And Excessive Integration
Many of us feel uncomfortable that we are forced to use IE instead of Opera or Netscape browsers. We don't want all of that internet bloat-ware bundled into the basic operating system. We want to be able to uninstall IE and Outlook Express whenever we feel the urge. Not that we will necessarily, because both of those products are actually pretty good in their 6.x versions, but we want the option. What it boils down to is that we just want control over our Internet experience and our own applications. Is that too much to ask?
5: Security
We all know how insecure Outlook and IIS have been, but there are now concerns about changes in the XP Home Edition (and possibly other versions) that will provide support for unrestricted, full raw sockets. This is VERY scary.
6: Product Activation
This is a system designed primarily to prevent casual piracy. You know how you had to go buy a full copy of Windows 98 SE at the store because all your new computer came with was some stupid restore disk? You know how you went ahead and installed that copy of Windows 98 SE on your original machine as well as on the new one you just bought? Well, this technology will stop you from doing that. Why all the fuss? Because in part, people do pirate operating systems on a casual basis. They hate that they are forced to pay upgrade fees for what they consider to be bug fixes anyway. They hate that they have to put up with those bloated, OEM installs from Dell, Gateway and others who put everything from AOL to Walmart advertisements in the Start menu. They want to be able to do a clean install of the basic OS without all of that junk getting in the way, so they take a copy that they bought or got from a friend and use that single copy to install it on all of their machines. After all, almost every single computer you can buy comes with Windows on it, so why can't you just install the version you want the way you want and be done with it? Because according to the licensing terms, that is totally illegal, that's why.
I am not Anti-Microsoft just anti XP. Buyer beware.
56 It is What They Left Out.
Office XP has a few new features but some of the things you have grown to rely on are gone.
For example, in File\Open, you used to be able to type in a word and every file with that word in the title would pop up. No more. Now you have to type in *word* to find your file.
If you are drafting documents in both Outlook and Word, the machine will still hang up. I could go on.
I have the newest and most powerful hardware and have all the MS-Office products. I have used them for years. I am not a Microsoft basher. I am just very disappointed in this product.
As a publisher, author of 28 Books, 109 revised editions, six translations and over 500 magazine articles as well as a consultant to the book publishing industry, I spend a lot of time using my computer. I need the best tools. Office XP is an expensive disappointment.
Dan Poynter, Para Publishing.
57 SOMEWHAT DISAPPOINTING
YEAH, THE XP VERSION HAS SOME NICE FEATURES, SUCH AS THE WINDOW PANES, ETC., BUT: WHY DID THEY HAVE TO GO & CREATE THE "FLAT LOOK" FOR THE ICONS ON THE TOOLBARS???!!!....WERE THEY TRYING TO SAVE ON MEMORY? I USE THE ICONS A LOT, & I AM USED TO THEIR JUMPING OUT AT ME FROM THE SCREEN. I TOTALLY HATE THIS "FLAT LOOK". I CAN'T SEE ANY OF MY ICONS AS WELL ANYMORE. OVERALL OPINION: SINCE THE FUNCTIONALITY IS BASICALLY THE SAME AS WITH "OFFICE 2000", I SEE NO REASON TO GO TO THE "XP" EDITION.
58 Any upgrades are negated by new crippling features
Coming from Office 97, I was initially impressed with some of the features of Word and Excel that fixed some of the problems, added some of the features that I wished for in 97.
Words can not express my reaction when I got another computer for my one man office and called Microsoft on how to network the program to both computers. Not only could I not do THAT, I can't install the software on the other computer AT ALL. I was told that the program is installable on one desktop and one laptop. Those that work in small offices but have more than one computer or who want to be able to take work home and have a desktop instead of a laptop are out of luck.
They do not state this out front so BE WARNED....
59 Not enough features to be worth upgrading
Office XP, is a solid upgarde to Office 2000. But I must say, that most of the changes are cosmetic, which makes it a hard sell for paying $X to upgarde.
Here are the best of the new features in each application, in my opinion:
-- All applications - new "task pane" allows you to see related commands to your current position in the document.
-- there is a good feature in Word, to track changes with bubbles on the side of the document. It's much easier to read, and lawyers should love it.
-- Outlook is pretty much the same.
-- Excel - formulas manipulaitons are sort of easier and more intuitive.
I would say that if you are a features geek, that can't live without the latets UI, you should upgarde, othewise I would stick with Office 2k.
60 A nice upgrade to an already great program
I bought this program expecting it to be the same old ms office, but all I can say is wow. There are so many great new features. It also runs more stably. The only reason I give this 4 stars is because it is very expensive, and I still think that Corel WordPerfect Office 2002 is bettter (it is also half the price). I sugest you take a look at Word Perfect before buying this.
61 Office XP, the brighter future
This new office package is the best yet. Its new user friendly interface gives a more pleasent EXperance. The package is designed brillantly and the activate product removes any softwhere theft problems. Dont listen to the people who hate microsoft, this is the best office yet.
62 Awful awful awful!!!
Office kept freezing my computer. I'm running Windows 2000, which crashes very rarely, and NEVER freezes completely (i.e. no mouse/keyboard response).
After installing Office XP, the system started freezing (as described above) CONTINUALLY!
So I downloaded all the patches and updates for Office, Windows, and of course got the latest Video drivers. I shut down all non-essential programs, and it would still crash!
Eventually I uninstalled XP and reinstalled Office 2000.
63 Great Product for the Professional
Don't listen to the people who hate Microsoft. Their opinions are biased from the start.
I'm a Office 97 user that upgraded to Office XP. XP is easier to use, especially if 50 to 75 percent of your job is creating, modifying or sharing documents.
64 Utter ...
Office XP is not worth a looking at. Plain and simple. This overpriced program adds nothing really big over Office 2000 and also makes Windows 95 useless in the process. Now don't get me started about that product activation bull. You can read an article on CNET on how much trouble that is.
So the rule of thumb is this.. if you can get a copy of Office 2000, go with it. XP is too much of a hassle, not worth an upgrade, and that activation stuff is a true invasion of privacy.
One of the worst MS programs up there with Windows ME.
65 MicroShafts again
This product just ticked me off big time. I build my own systems (for myself). I am not a pirate. I feel like Microsoft is treating me like one! In order for me to use Office XP I have to have the product activated by Microsoft via a modem or internet connection. This is like buying a new car and the dealer only provides you with the Valet key and states we retain the master key to your car forever. HOLD ON HERE! I bought the product.., it’s like being told you can use it but you can’t own it. What happens if that service becomes unavailable for some time? What kind of malarkey is that? I don’t think it is Microsoft’s right to know I am rebuilding my system and or moving the software from one computer to another. You won’t be able to do that with the consent of Microsoft. Who do they think they are? I do not recommend buying this product unless you want to explain to Microsoft what you are doing with your computer every time you are feeling like improving your system. The next thing you know Big Bill will be in your system watching you to see where he can get another buck out of you.
66 Trust me It's great!! - Andre Da Costa
I recently went to a friends house and found out they had XP running on their machines and wasn't I amazed. The application that startled me the most was PowerPoint it is just fantastic with the new animations, this will make any audience say "WOW". The applications are also great with a much improved user interface, other improved applications are Publisher which is also my favourite application next to PPT. The other apps. such as Access and FrontPage hasn't changed a lot but they do look great with minor user interface improvements. With the look and feel of this version of Office you would surely even wan't to upgrade from 2000, thing for me is I don't have anymore money I already spent it buying Office 2000. But for those of 95,97 and even 98 it's worth the upgrade. My friends machine run's Win2k so he's O.K. I heard that it won't run on Win95, but that shouldn't be a problem just buy the upgrade for Win98 [it's cheap] and your done. Other nice features are Smart Tags, Task Panes they help a lot especially when it comes to doing school work. The only time I'm going to upgrade is in 2002 when WinXP arrives. Other products you should also try is MS Portfolio 2002 with hundreds of templates. One missing app. I miss so dearly is PhotoDraw, it was discontinued [shame on you Microsoft].
67 OFFICE XP
I DONT RECOMEND TO BUY THIS COPY OF OFFICE THE SOFWARE IS THE SAME AS OFFICE 2000 WITH A MORE GRAFIC DISPLAY. YO NEED TO ACTIVATE IT CALLING MICROSOFT AND THEY BY PHONE SPELL A 42 DIGIT NUMBER TO ACTIVATE THE PRODUCT. AND IN THE NUMBER THEY ONLY SPEAK ENGLISH (I ONLY SPEAK SPANISH). THE SOFWARE IS EXPENSIVE AND IS THE SAME AS OFFICE 2000
68 XP ruined the Microsoft products on my Dell computer
I installed this product on my Dell computer. It did not try to register itself, but I got the message that installation was complete. I cannot access Word, Excel or PowerPoint. I was not able to uninstall it completely. Windows 98 and Explorer are hardly working. I cannot access my Office 97 or even uninstall it and reinstall. Dell Computer is of absolutely no help.
Office XP is dangerous garbage.
69 A nice improvement
Very nice improvement. The addition of XML campatability and SQLServer 2000 really helps those who need the power. A lot of bells and whistels but may be too much for those who only want a word processor.
70 Some nice features, but not worth the money.
It's hard to justify the cost for the set of features it delivers. I've waited a long time for this upgrade from Microsoft; I expected more. If the price where more like a Windows Me upgrade,... I'd say it's worth the money, but over twice as much for the standard edition upgrade, I'd say wait as long as you can to upgrade.
Perhaps Microsoft will realize it needs to add more funcationality or start offering large rebates. As much as Microsoft needs the revenue from Office, if it doesn't sell as expected, Microsoft will need to do something.
71 DISASTER!
Installed Office XP over an existing Office 2000 installation and Windows 2000 on a PIII system. I will regret this upgrade forever. Installation appeared to go fine but on restart I had about 50 different .dll error messages. I just kept hitting the return key to continue over and over. After I had replied to all the error messages I couldn't open a single document and the computer appeared to run very, very slowly. Restart, reboot, restart, reboot - nothing helped, the symptoms were the same each time.
Uninstalled XP and reinstalled 2000. .DLL error messages are gone but MediaPlayer won't work.
However I did manage to install Office XP to my other computer running Windows NT 4 and it seems to work pretty well. There's no particularly great new features in this version of Office, though, so given what I know about it now I probably wouldn't have bought it in the first place.
Office 97 should be enough for just about anyone, and I still use it on my slightly aging laptop. A truly great product, I'm sorry it's no longer available for sale.
72 You will be assimilated
Is everyone really going to keep throwing money at Microsoft everytime they come out with a new version of office. Can't everyone see that this just a ploy to bring in more revenue every year. I say keep your currenct version or get staroffice for free.
73 If you can and must upgrade, then purchase this version.
In the interests of full disclosure, my thanks to Microsoft for providing me with a subscription copy of Office XP. I wouldn't own XP if I had to pay for it.
The new features in XP, be they useful (like better document recovery), bearable (like the activation procedure), or merely easily disabled (like task panes), simply do not provide a compelling reason for most users to upgrade. This software costs slightly less than my first car did... would that I could spend that kind of money on non-essentials!
So who should upgrade? I would say that group consists mostly of large businesses looking to take advantage of XP's new collaboration features and owners of Office 97 Small Business Edition who would like one of the applications not contained in that package. And why this version? Because it contains EVERYTHING, including a very cool mouse, and it's only available for a limited time.
In parting, shame on Microsoft for continuing their trend of ridiculously understated and actually steep system requirements. You really do need a new system (P-3/Athlon, 128MB RAM, and a 17" monitor) to get the most from this software - given the wide install base of 64MB Celerons with 15-inch screens, this is a travesty. Linux anyone?
74 XP Special Edition is Phat
I have used the Upgrade XP for three weeks an I did presentations with the Powerpoint. It was great and I had no fatal shutdowns. I think they have a winner, again
75 Like Office 2000? Like Office 2000.
My company's Microsoft rep recently gave me a T-shirt that reads "Office XP - upgrade today!". I write this review to reclaim my soul. Office XP is NOT a necessary upgrade, nor is it necessarily the best option for a new system.
A point-by-point comparison of the latest and the last version of the suite is not necessary, as they are virtually identical. Aside from minor enhancements, the only noticeable new feature is a MS Works-like "task pane" which takes up valuable screen real estate (thankfully, it is easily disabled). Perhaps the most talked about aspects of the new Office are the Activation Wizard (which restricts multiple installations) and the fact that "Clippy" doesn't appear as often. I am rather annoyed that I will probably have to call Redmond after upgrading my new PC, but given rampant software piracy, I understand the motivation (let he who has no "offsite backups" cast the first stone). And let's face facts: if you can't figure out how to turn off the talking paper clip, you probably need the talking paper clip!
Bottom line: the money you save buying Office 2000 will more than make up for any "features" in XP you miss. Move quickly – soon you won’t have the choice.
76 XP for professionals
It would appear that most people who wrote comments complaining about the new XP's registration feature do not really understand software licensing. I think that it's incredible shrewd for Microsoft to incorporate the technology to decrease on pirating. This will eventually lead to cheaper software for people who actually buy rather than borrow or pirate softwares. Each program should only be loaded on a single computer anyway! The program has powerful enhancements, but for the average user who uses only 10% of the features, Office 97 is probably suffice, but for business, there are indespensible enhancements to increase productivity. Buy a tutorial book and enjoy it's power!
77 Why bother?
So I decided to get the latest version of Office and here's what I found:
-I get too few improvements to justify the outrageous price. Everything works about the same, and there's no single improvement that will make you much more productive or convince you that your money was well-spent.
-I have to ask for Microsoft's permission to install the software, move it to another computer when I upgrade, or reinstall the software if I have to reformat the hard drive. (And since I made the mistake of buying a computer with Windows ME, that is a real possibility.)
-The system requirements seem designed to help MS's buddies over at Intel move a whole bunch of Pentuim 4 systems that would otherwise gather dust in warehouses. Of course, if you have a lot of time on your hands, you can use your existing system and spend that time waiting for apps to load.
-The software is still unstable. Sure, I'm less likely to lose data after a crash with this version of the software, but am I the only one who thinks maybe the software shouldn't crash at all? I have thought for a long time that instead of adding dozens of new features with each new release, maybe MS should do a release of Office without new features, but with all of the existing features functional.
Don't waste your money on bug-filled software that doesn't make you significantly more productive.
78 Buyer Beware!
When I ran OFFICE XP for the first time a message appeared telling me that I could run OFFICE XP only 49 more times without "activating" the software. Activating involves calling Microsoft and getting a code number to type on my PC. I called them and they explained that each time OFFICE XP is installed I will have to call for a new and different code number. If I replace my old PC and want to install OFFICE XP on my new one, I have to call for a code number. If I want to install it on my notebook as well as my desktop PC, I need 2 code numbers. And 2 code numbers is the limit! After requesting 2 activation codes for the same OFFICE XP CD, you are directed to speak with someone at Microsoft who will hear your case and decide if you have a valid reason for requesting a third code! Also note that OFFICE XP looks at your hardware each time you boot. If it detects a major change (new hard drive, new video board, etc...) it will disable itself and require you to call Microsoft for a new activation code. And remember, you only get two codes before you have to explain yourself.
I worry that Microsoft will stop giving these codes out in three or four years telling their customers instead that OFFICE XP is no longer supported and that they should upgrade to OFFICE 2XXX if they want to continue using the product.
I sent mine back to Microsoft for the 30 day money-back guarantee.
79 Same old stuff, too bad i can't give it ZERO stars.
Like all the products that Microsoft make, this is just same old stuff with a new name on it AND some more major bugs. I don't like the idea of mandatory registering, one would question what kind of DATA is microsoft collecting from our home PC. it's also too expensive for nothing new. Stick with office 2000 as long as u can.
80 Office XP Professional Upgrade - definitely
Hello Application Purchaser,
I received my Microsoft Office XP Professional from Amazon.com with excellent packaging and quick delivery, really, no lie. The product installed flawlessly retaining all of my previous Office settings while uninstalling my existing Office programs. Quite a feat. All of the applications have a new professional flat look with button response which make computing look and feel closer to what it is intended to be. I look forward to trying the voice recognition and web integration features. So far I rate this product a 4 stars only because I haven't looked at the free supplied Microsoft Interactive Training yet.
Best, Robert Computer Drafting Service
81 A product to think about before you buy
I bought this product expecting tons of enhancements from the 2000 office suite, there were little except for the special xp emblem. Furthermore, under the guise of a product activation(which must be activated in order to use the full version, otherwise you get the full version for a little bit before it reverts back to a demo), Microsoft limits the amount of computers you can install it on. I was only able to install it on two computers before it would not allow me to activate the product any longer, stating the product was already activated on another machine and to contact customer service. Overall, I would have to say that this product is grossly overpriced, and anyone looking for an office suite that is comparable, but much cheaper should check into Sun's Star Office(It works with Microsoft documents so it's worth it).
82 Bend Ovah!
.... This has to be the most unnecessary software upgrade to date from Microsoft. There are virtually no significant enhancements over Office 2000. Those bells and whistles that are included in this product seem to do more to diminish performance than add functional value. And forget about trying to upgrade from any Office version older than Office 97 - they are not considered qualifying products and the upgrade WILL NOT INSTALL! Even Amazon's very competitive prices of [price] for the upgrade and [price] for the full version border on obscene. .... My recommendation is if you can live without it do so!
83 What the point
nothing new. It's slightly better versions of everything, nothing nessisary, even for buisness. Office 2000 was excellent, inovative, and still great! It's a much better deal to get O2000 now, O2002 is too exprensive for nothing great
84 Product Activation
After you install this product, you will be forced to call Microsoft for permission to use it again if you re-format your hard drive and reinstall. In other words, you will not "own" anything except the right to beg Microsoft for permission to use what you have paid for. If you want this, please go ahead and order this software.
85 Great upgrade
I have been using the Office XP Beta for several months. The icons highlight better, the task panes are very helpful, especially in PowerPoint, and the applications run snappier, although a speedy PC always helps.
The most interesting feature with the largest potential is Smart Tags. Many are built into the applications, and they allow the user access to many commands right at the point of need as opposed to having to use the menus. As more people develop Smart Tags, they will be available for downloads and installation on any PC. With the capability of Smart Tags, almost any feature or function whether local or over the Internet can be implemented. Many previously custom developed applications can now be implemented with small amounts of Visual Basic code implemented as Smart Tags. Smart Tags can even be implemented in Internet Explorer with Microsoft free Web Components.
The two negative features. One is on-line registration which will limit flexibility in where Office XP is installed. The second is the fact the Outlook 2002 will not allow emails containing exe, vbs, or 11 other extensions to be read. These attachments are held by Outlook and not available to the receiving user to stop the spread of viruses. There should be a way to override this, but the release version allows no override.
86 This Version Kicks
I have always kept up with the latest versions of Office as they became available but when I had a chance to try out Office XP as a Corporate Preview I jumped. This version now has the ability to save your work if the program crashes "WOW". I sometimes write long letters and would get very fustrated when loosing them. It also has Voice Reconition built in and with the Smart Tag function you don't have to jump back and forth between programs to sync information. I am sure that there is more great things to explore and find with this program but trust me that with just those functions alone that XP is really worth the price.
87 Fantastic Product
This is a very pricey suite of applications, but if you are thinking about Office 2000 forget it, go to XP. This is the greatest version of Office I have ever worked with (that would be all of them to date)and Microsoft has listened to the customer. The voice recognition engine (L&H) is very good out of the box, and the improvements to Outlook, Publisher, and FrontPage are right on target. Access supports previous versions (2000 by default), Task panes, clipboard, search, and everything else that is shared between the programs are nearly flawless. SmartTags are GREAT. If you can't tell by now, I love this product. You get what you pay for.......
88 Best Product Ever
Microsoft Office XP makes it sooo easy for you to complete what you need to get done in less time. Microsoft has defeinitely expanded use-ability in this product. Way To Go Microsoft.
89 Office 2000 is better
Microsoft is still successfully putting out their fabulous Office suite. Office 2000 was the perfect piece of software. In my experience, it was reasonably stable, had great options, and ran efficiently. I couldn't imagine anything else that needed to be added. Unfortunately, Office XP is a lot slower and just doesn't have such a polished feel to it like 2000 does. It feels overly bogged down with unnecessary graphics (especially on the menus) and is a lot slower than 2000.
Sure, its still a good product and I only give it 2 stars by comparison to 2000. There is absolutely no reason to upgrade! Don't get tricked by Microsoft. If you are buying Office for the first time, see if you can find a copy of 2000 somewhere.
90 Would have been 5 stars!
I've been demoing XP for about 1/2 a year now, I rarely had any problems concerning Office. Cosmetically, it has changed (aka, the menus, etc) Very stable! Would have given it a 5 star rating, but the price is just too high. Corporate users can afford it and would benefit from it, but people like me would have to skip a car payment..
91 Best
This is the best Office yet. Best of all Clippy is gone. I am very happy because clippy was anoying. Now it has a better help section. It has Front Page, Word, Excel, Access, and Power Point. I highly recomend buying this even if you have Office 2000. It is a lot better. This is a must have for all PC users.
92 Over Priced for Current Customers
Would not buy unless an "upgrade" price is offered.
93 The New Menus make it a Must!
The Applications in Office XP have some great new upgrades, but what really won it over for me were the new menus and the lack of the Office Asstant. YAY NO MORE PAPER CLIP :)
94 Improved usability and stability
Microsoft has made its Office applications a bit easier to use and significantly more stable in Office XP. I welcome these enhancements because I'm a heavy user of Word and Excel. Occasional and light users of Office products would probably not find these enhancements worth the upgrade.
I'm jazzed about Office's new Task Panes, which are (to me) the primary usability enhancement. I'm a heavy user of find-and-replace. In previous versions of Word, the Replace dialog box was always in the way, covering up text. In Word 2002, this feature appears instead in the task pane, which slides out from the right edge of the window. Instead of covering up the text, it shrinks the text area a little bit. Also, in previous versions of PowerPoint, if you wanted to see how different presentation designs looked on your presentation, you had to open a dialog box, choose a design, apply it, close the dialog box, open the dialog box, choose a design, apply it, close the dialog box, ad nauseam. In PowerPoint 2002, the presentation designs appear in the task pane, avoiding the pesky closing and reopening of a dialog box.
I'm encouraged that Office XP seems to crash less than previous versions. When it does crash, it seems to do a better job of recovering your work. Also, it politely tells you when it's going to crash, automatically restarts, and gives you a choice of versions of your document (including checkpoint saves) to open.
95 Where is PhotoDraw??
Having invested in Office 2000 Premium with PhotoDraw and numerous Microsoft and other reference materials, I find little reason to justify a purchase of Office XP without PhotoDraw and to start the repurchase of reference materials again.
96 A solid and reliable product... but for how much?!
I've been trying out Office XP and have appreciated the enhanced features and the improved reliability of the software. If you work in an office environment or do a lot of office work at home, you will experience this software and the experience won't be so bad. But ... for an upgrade? Ouch! Definitely not for the home user.
If you want a similar experience for less, consider WordPerfect Office Suite 2002 or, better yet, StarOffice 5.2. Both are less expensive, compatible with Office 2000 and have similar features. In particular, StarOffice 5.2 can be downloaded for free.
97 Microsoft Office XP Developer
I have used Microsoft Office 2000 Developer, and now I am using Microsoft Office XP Developer, and this is the BEST version of MS Office XP Developer.....EVER!
BUY it....you wont be disappointed....I wasnt. :)
Brian
98 Same stuff, with a new look
I tested the beta version of Office XP (Last candidate release) and the interface is cool but the functionality is almost the same. Only some XML stuff and many Windows crashes..
If you have previous Office versions, don't waste your money..
99 something missing
Did anyone notice that Office 2000 Professional used to include FrontPage, Publisher and PhotoDraw but the Office XP Professional Upgrade only includes the basic applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Access)? I have a problem with that. I like MS products in general, but I expect their product lines to be consistent. The Prefessional Upgrade should upgrade all the applications. If the other applications were discontinued, that would be one thing, but the "Special Edition" includes the full suite. Is there a "Special Edition" upgrade to fully upgrade the original Professional Suite?
100 Reliability improved
I have been using Microsoft Office XP Professional Plus Version Beta for a short while of time now and I am finding it a great application yet to date. I have been using the application extensively, for work and home and I have noticed that reliability has been slightly improved and this is of great achievement. For any of Microsoft Office program to stop responding, a great improvement is of Auto-Recover that would recover the document before the work goes into a land of black holes. It is of a great tool and this would save me from swearing at the computer, in fact it has already saved my work that would usually take me another two hours to reproduce. On another note, features such as "Smart Tags" and "Task Panes" are also of a welcome intake as changes can now be done very easily like font-changes and inserting images. Microsoft Office XP programs now offer (finally) multiple highlighting so to save time and effort. Mail merge is now easier and the clipboard now holds more. Individuals will now be pleased that the paper clip will now be eradicated with the much delight from myself and other individuals and to curtail the times of swearing at it. However, individuals can still turn it on if you still miss it or use it. Overall, Microsoft Office XP is a welcome piece of software and with voice-recognition (for the times when typing too much is a strain or you can not be bothered) then it is here to stay, until the next version of Microsoft Office. However, there are a few setbacks on the improvements of Microsoft Outlook Express and of Smart Tags in some programs not as comprehensive as in Microsoft Word but these should not be a problem really in the long term. Microsoft Office XP Professional Plus Version contains every Microsoft Office application that I use from Microsoft Excel to Microsoft Publisher; these programs will get you on top of your work. For more information of Microsoft Office XP, there is a demonstration of it's features... Flash is required even though a non-flash version is available.
