Office XP Part II
The Good And The Bad In Office XP

New product launches often invite a product testing by users before they decide to purchase the new version. Launch of Office XP seems to have given the potential customers a completely different idea about the software as being something more than an office suite. However, the common tools like the Word, Excel, Access, Outlook, Frontpage, PowerPoint still exist. Here is a comparitive feature review of what is there and what is missing.

Word
This time round, there is little evidence of change to the Word file format and basic feature set. The Reveal Formatting Task Pane lets you clear formatting for selected text. You can now, WordPerfect-style also see where formatting effects begin and end. Multiple blocks of text can also be selected by holding down Ctrl when dragging with the mouse. An optional feature displays dotted lines under names and contact details. It's now easier to insert contact information from Outlook, send e-mail or get more information about a highlighted item. Just clicking the icon does the job.

Excel
The feature set has been enhanced without a compromise on compatibility. Now Web Queries can be built by dragging a table from the browser into a worksheet. The Watch Window shows the result of Web queries or calculations on any cell. Debugging is aided by an Evaluator that steps through formulas. Excel also recognises that numbers formatted as text be sorted with numbers in numerical format.

Outlook
It is no longer cluttered, the interface features separate Internet and Microsoft Exchange views. It also includes support for Hotmail accounts. However, news groups are not supported. The useable add-in fax option is missing from the full version but is retained if you upgrade to XP from 2000 or earlier. Word remains the default e-mail editor but responds really fast. ASCII email received is automatically reformatted to remove line breaks. Appointments can now be colour-coded to match user-defined rules. Outlook also includes conveniences long available in Outlook Express like the preview pane displaying active links; auto-complete e-mail addresses and choosing from multiple accounts when sending.

PowerPoint
The Task Pane displays thumbnails of slide design, out sourced schemes, and animation effects. There's also an animation builder that creates effects from cascading option menus. Presentation now includes multiple "master" slides. Charts and diagrams can be created and edited in place. PowerPointXP is not perfect, but its still the presentation software leader.

FrontPage
Mostly unchanged, except for interface refinements and page-design features. The program now builds picture galleries automatically. The tabbed interface lets you navigate multiple pages. Some features like components that automatically display MSNBC news or Expedia travel information seem designed to increase traffic to MSN's Web sites.

Access
AccessXP is fully compatible with previous version. The only difference is that XP lets the user to choose an extensible new format permitig to add features without requiring file conversion. Access now supports Excel pivot tables. The new features are comfortably slotted into the existing interface.

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