MS Office 2000 Premium

URL: http://www.microsoft.com/office/

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Rating: Very good

Review:

First off, Office 2000 is definitely not a must have, however, if you have been having problems with Office 97 (as I did), then you might consider it.

Word 2000

Since I do a lot of research on the net, and need to pull those documents down and put them into a print form, Word 2000 and Internet Explorer 5 are a big benefit to me. I save the page in IE5 (Web Page, Complete), open it in Word, change to print view and remove banners, reformat paragraphs, etc., creating a fast and readable print document.

Word 2000 also has improved the columns function although the bullets function has taken a step backwards (bullets are now always indented). Finally, the toolbars remember what commands you use and only show them (although there is an arrow to look for ones you rarely use). I like that feature, others may find it irritating.

Excel 2000

I don't use Excel much, but the newest version does seem slightly easier to use, especially grabbing the "handle" to resize cells.

Powerpoint 2000

If you use PowerPoint, this is a great improvement. The three pane view allows you to work on your slides with the outline and notes all in view. BIG improvement. And it is even easier to do most tasks, streamlining the production of a presentation.

Access 2000

Haven't had a chance to try it.

FrontPage 2000

I liked FrontPage 98, but 2000 is better. More stuff. :)

PhotoDraw 2000

I tried this for a few weeks and then took it off. I found it counterintuitive and difficult to work with, and not able to do some detail work. As a user of professional graphics programs (Corel Draw 9 and PhotoShop 5), I am probably not part of the intended market for this program.

Publisher 2000

Each version of Publisher seems to get better, and this is no exception. The Program works well, does what it is intended to do and does it quickly. I use it to produce Newsletters for work, and I used it at home to produce Banners, Signs and History Lesson Posters for my Independence Day Party. Flawless.

Outlook 2000

Sorry, I don't use Outlook.

IE5

I use IE5 as part of Windows 98 SE, so Office 2000 did not give me the option to install IE5, but the browser is definitely worth having.

Other stuff

Premium also comes with a number of other tools, mostly oriented for small business. I have not had the opportunity to try any of them.

Works well, no bugs found at this point.

Submitted by: Al