Rating: 
Summary: A System of Solutions
Review: This is a justified upgrade for all Office 97, 2000 and some Office XP users. Office has evolved into a system of information gathering tools, a set of solutions for ideas, communication, connecting people and places. Intense XML (extensible markup language) integration for generating solutions that are compatible with today's, tomorrow and future standards. The updated applications integrate with the Windows XP experience featuring a bolder inviting interface. I am disappointed with the default use of the current theme in Windows XP, but with the new tool bar icons, it makes you forget about that. Overall it's a wonderful work experience with Office 2003. The suite offers improved reliability and stability, because of the integration with the supported operating systems. Once the suite is installed, you don't have to restart your computer, just start using the applications, the suite even has its own default programs group (finally), which keeps your programs menu less cluttered. Word 2003 includes development tools that add dynamic features to documents making them powerful than ever. The power beneath all this is XML, allowing the user to embed components for updating data in documents such as stock quotes. Word 2003 offers simple, familiar yet improved features regular users are accustomed to. Majority of the features in Word 2003 are aimed primarily toward businesses and the Enterprise. But are still necessary for the average user because of the control over information across all the Office applications. Tools such as Information Rights Management (IRM), (this controls the flow of information to specific users), persons can be restricted on how they use your Office files; whether it's printing or sharing, very powerful! Reading view is an enhanced mode of print preview; documents are laid out in virtual pages reducing the need to print. The Task Pane is also improved by offering resources to look up information on a particular topic being typed; this is a feature across the core Office applications. Lots of other great features make Word 2003 a worthy upgrade. Excel is a XML mammoth because of the integration with the language. The ability to migrate data between different storage sources and extraction of information to make it flexible in different scenarios. Tables can be transferred back and forth between applications such Word with ease. Excel can continually use the tables from documents as a data source for further expandability. It's the flexibility for data exchange that makes Excel 2003 very powerful. Outlook, is so revamped, this alone is a worthy upgrade. Three panes in Outlook 2003 make e-mail an enjoyable experience. The Mail Pane holds all of the necessary tools found in prior versions of Outlook such as the Outlook Bar, and the different folders such as inbox, calendar, etc. The second pane gives an expanded view of the different items listed in the Mail Pane, like your incoming mail, contacts and calendar, which makes reading these information resources easier on the eye and productive by providing a better view. Reading your e-mail in the third pane (Preview Pane), the user views the message in portrait layout, more content is seen compared to prior versions. Its even better to view e-mails with "Clear Type" turned on for Windows XP users. Other features such as improved Virus and Spam protection makes Outlook 2003 a great upgrade. Outlook is not placed on the desktop by default, it can also be minimized to the system tray in Windows, for users connected to an Exchange Server, this displays all the network settings available. PowerPoint 2003 offers the same features of version 2002, but what makes it an enticing upgrade is the package to CD feature that allows users to save presentations onto CD-ROMS. The PowerPoint Viewer included with each Package to CD allows it to be played on other computer systems even if PowerPoint is not installed. Windows media integration is also in PowerPoint 2003, which makes watching presentations more fun and exciting. The effects are fantastic when combined with these elements. The ability to integrate videos into Presentations to create home movies has long been a request of users, even if they have a DVD burner. For the PowerPoint 2000 user this is a worthy upgrade that provides simple yet Powerful tools to take presentation graphics to a new level. This new version of Access is also XML integrated, enhanced features such as extraction of data from multiple tables, Access 2003 also improves Smart Tag integration. The ability to design solutions within the program makes web services a powerful resource for the enterprise; the flawless integration with Microsoft SQL makes information sharing a productive experience. This makes data storing and retrieval an easy way to control how data is implemented across many scenarios using personalized solutions, allowing your information to have a stronger impact across the Enterprise. Publisher has become a mainstream Office application because of its integration with other Office programs. It connects to product databases; the Mail Merge feature is much improved because it's the same one as Microsoft Word, which offers greater ease of use. The Start Center is awesome, which makes starting publications an organized experience for the user. The interface is less cluttered and more customizable. You can rename pages like Workbooks for better searching, if you are typing large publications. The website features are easier to use; it provides satisfactory integration with FrontPage, for converting websites created in Publisher. With a total of 45 design master sets, users can create attractive e-mails that are fully compatible with many messaging services. The ability to merge data sources using text and images is great. Compatibility goes back to Publisher 2000, which is a draw back for users who might be using Publisher 98 or under. Outlook Business Contact Manager is an application that offers features for Small Businesses for generating customer reports and e-mailing customers. Picture Manager has replaced Photo-Editor; it has better image editing tools, more functionality and ease of use. Office 2003 is a worthy upgrade for many users, especially persons still in an existing Office 97 or 2000 user base. The tools it provides offers a powerful productivity experience that makes information accessible, controllable and connected for you the user. The suite and all the Office 2003 applications are supported only on Windows 2000 Service Pack 3, Windows XP all editions.
Rating:
Summary: Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2003
Review: This is the newest version of Microsoft Office. I think this is the best also because they have added programs that you couldn't get with 2000 or XP. They include:
Microsoft Word 2003
Microsoft Outlook 2003 with Business Contact Manager
Microsoft Excel 2003
Microsoft Access 2003
Microsoft PowerPoint 2003
Microsoft Publisher 2003
Word 2003 has really improved and it has much more fonts than the older versions. I love PowerPoint now and I use it a lot with work and just sometimes to fool around with. Outlook has finally gotten a new look to it which looks awesome. Publisher has even more things you can do with it. Excel has become a little bit easier with more things built into though. I love Office 2003 and no other company can even compare to it.
Rating: 
Summary: Induced compulsion to upgrade software
Review: Why should the average user spend lots of money, which in turn corresponds to a considerable quantity of sweated work time, which in turn corresponds to time taken away from one's own interests, family and friends, just to buy a new version of an Office suite ? The same job of a new version of, say, a wordprocessor, can basically still be done by a word processor of 20 years ago. Do we really need all these improvements, all these animations, these "cute effects" etc. when what we need is simply write a letter or a report and spell-check it? In most cases not at all. But software houses are very good at inducing people to buy their products and let them believe the new version will make them save time: but to save that time they have to work more to pay the bill. This induced compulsion to ever upgrade one's systems is becominng an manipulative invisible taxation system. Much better to use free producs: OpenOffice.org or any other.
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