You would have to be a computing hermit to be ignorant of the dominant position Microsoft has in today's computing world. In a number of different areas, Microsoft sets the standard that others must follow. In no area is this more true than in the domain of office suites. Microsoft began the process of integrating the various components of an office suite into a unified whole, and that trend continues in the latest version of Office Professional for Windows 95. Office Professional includes Word (word processor), Excel (spreadsheet), Access (database), and PowerPoint (presentation graphics). New to the suite in this version is Schedule +, a personal information manager (PIM). The Standard version of Office does not include Access. Buyers of the CD-ROM version of Office Professional will also find a copy of Bookshelf (Microsoft's collection of online reference works) included in the package.

As noted in the product's name, this version of Office (7.0) is designed for use with Microsoft's new 32-bit operating system, Windows 95 (the suite will also run under Windows NT 3.51). Users familiar with the last version of Office (4.3) will find that this new version is more an evolutionary (rather than revolutionary) step ahead. Only a few new features have been added to the suite. What Microsoft has really concentrated on is the suite's integration and ease-of-use. I personally find this a welcome change from the seemingly endless stream of new features that seem to be added to each new release of a product (which often include an accompanying set of new bugs as well!). Suffice it to say that users of earlier versions of Office will have no problems getting up to speed with the new version. This is a good thing, too, as the hard copy documentation in this release has been shrunk to a single task-oriented volume, which while well written, is no substitute for a complete set of documentation (to be fair, the online docs are very good, but I've always preferred to have a book I can sit on my lap while I'm learning a new program!).

One new feature that is in Office is the Office Binder. The Binder is an OLE container that lets you embed files from different Office apps into a single file, which can be copied or moved just like any other file. This makes it much easier to work on projects involving several different apps, as all the files in the project are stored in one place, regardless of which app originally created them. A number of third-party apps support the Binder as well (Micrografx's new ABC Graphics Suite, for example), so I'm sure the Binder will continue to get more important and useful as time goes on.

The biggest change in Office, however, is not the number of new features, but the fact that it's now a fully 32-bit suite of programs. What this means to the user is that the programs are more stable and work together better. The OLE (Object Linking and Embedding) 2.0 support in this release of Office is much improved over earlier versions. Speed has been greatly improved, and you no longer have to worry about running out of system resources as soon as you start using it (a lot of the credit for this probably must go to Windows 95 itself, however). The programs now seldom crash, even when several of them are running at the same time, and speed has generally been improved for most of the apps in the suite (see my comments below on this for each of the apps). The multitasking of the apps is also much smoother (in other words, they don't slow each other down if more than one of them is running at the same time).

Office users will find that the interface in each of the apps is very similar. They all use the same basic toolbar and icons for common functions such as printing and file management. They also use the same dialog boxes for these functions as well. The apps also share the same core code for many tasks, such as spell checking. This makes learning the various programs in the suite much easier. A new suite toolbar (called the Microsoft Office Shortcut Bar) is also included in the new Office. It replaces the old Microsoft Office Manager (which was affectionately known as MOM). This new toolbar is much more customizable than the old version. You can easily create multiple toolbars of various programs, macros, and folders that you can select from with a single click of the mouse. It can be placed on any side of your screen, or it can float freely anywhere you place it. You can even set it up to be invisible until you move the mouse cursor to a specific area of your screen.

Users of Word will find that while the number of truly new features is few, the number of enhancements made to the ones that already exist make the upgrade well worth while. For example, the spell checker in Word now automatically checks your spelling as you type, and puts a wavy line underneath words it doesn't recognize. You simply right click with the mouse to bring up a list of possible corrections, or you can add the word to the dictionary or call up the full spell checker. The automatic formatting of documents introduced in Word 6.0 has also been improved. Overall, the changes have made Word a more friendly and easier to use program. Speedwise, I found that Word is a little faster in this version for most operations, although there are a few slow areas (starting the program is slower, for instance).

Excel, on the other hand, has greatly sped up in this release. I found that it's generally more responsive in just about every area (welcome news for number crunchers!). Its integration with Access has been improved in this release also. For instance, you can now use Excel as a database front-end for data-entry forms that actually manipulate an Access table. The Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) programming language is also supported by both Excel and Access in this version of Office (unfortunately, Word users must still use the older WordBasic language, at least until the next version comes out).

A couple of new features in Excel for end users include AutoComplete (which fills in the rest of a word you're typing in a cell if Excel recognizes it) and AutoCalculate (which shows you the maximum, minimum, average, and other statistics about a range or column of numbers which you highlight with the mouse).

PowerPoint users will find a number of improvements in such areas as animation and color support (a number of new textures, gradient fills, and color schemes have been added to this release). A new style checker looks at the grammar in your presentations, along with other things (such as the number of bullets used per slide). A new Meeting Minder feature lets you annotate your presentations and add Action items to them (which are then converted into slides at the end of the presentation, with each item being shown on a list of bullets). The new Pack and Go wizard is a real boon to users who frequently do presentations at a number of different places; it lets you store your creations in a compressed format on multiple diskettes, so you never accidentally leave part of your presentation behind when you leave your office! All these changes make PowerPoint a better presentation tool, as well as much easier to use. The speed of the program appears to be about the same as earlier versions (although at times, certain operations appeared to be a little slower).

The real performance loser in this new suite is Access, however. I found it to be noticeably slower than the last version (2.0). This performance drop is relative, of course; I found it to perform adequately on my PC (a Pentium 75 with 16 MB of RAM). Don't even bother to run it with any less RAM than this, however! End users will appreciate the new wizards that walk the user through tasks such as creating tables and templates. You can also use Access for such things as a report generator for Excel tables (just another example of the closer relationship between the two programs). Overall, I think that all users (whether they be end or power users) will be happy with this new version of the program.

Schedule + has been upgraded in this release into a full featured PIM. You can now store names, addresses, phone numbers, and other data, and display that data in a number of different formats. You can also use it (as its name suggests) to schedule appointments and other tasks (a new Meeting Wizard helps to facilitate this). It's also easy to share this data with other members of the Office suite. While Schedule + is still not as full-featured as other PIM's such as Act! and Ecco Pro, it may be all the PIM that many users may ever need.

Users thinking of upgrading to this new version of Office should note that this suite requires a powerful computer for best performance. For example, while most of the suite's members will run with only 8 MB of RAM, it is highly recommended that you have 16 MB of RAM installed (especially if you plan to run Access or more than one program at the same time; Access requires 12 MB of RAM at a minimum to run!). Also, a full installation of the suite requires over 120 MB of hard drive space, so make sure you've got plenty of room! As far as the processor is concerned, I wouldn't try to run Office on anything less than a 486 DX2/66. If you've got the PC required, though, you'll find that the new Office will be able to handle just about any task you can throw at it with grace and poise! It's well worth the upgrade if you're moving to Windows 95!

Gateway offers this column to its readership as a service, but please note that it is not responsible for the accuracy or opinions of the author and offers no warranty either expressed or implied that the information will produce the desired result.

The information provided in this article is based upon the writers particular experience with certain equipment. Familiarize yourself with the requirements of your local and state electrical code and insure yourself that the work you plan to do does not require a licensed professional. If you decide to attempt to do the work yourself, always exercise extreme caution when working on electrical systems because accidents may cause serious injury including death and damage your computer. If you experience difficulty or do not understand the instructions, please consult a professional in your area.

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