How Suite It Is: Microsoft Releases Office 97 Mary Ziegler

In January Microsoft Corporation released Microsoft Office 97, a more 
stable, powerful version of its Office suite of products for Windows 95 
and NT. Microsoft hopes to retain its lead over Corel and Lotus, 
competitors who have recently released rival office suites. This 
competition has been beneficial to the end user, with vendors striving 
to improve the integrated features, Web tools, and usability of their 
software. Microsoft Office 97 delivers these improvements and more.

Integrated Features and Web Tools
The Standard Edition of Office 97 includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and 
Outlook - that is, a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation package, 
and information manager. The Professional Edition adds Access, a 
relational database, and the Bookshelf Basics Reference Library.

Both Editions offer new integrated features and tools. OfficeArt is a 
comprehensive set of drawing tools and clip art. New toolbars, including 
the main menu bar, are fully customizable. They can contain buttons, 
menus, or a combination of both, in the order you choose. You can add, 
remove, or relocate buttons and menus, or create your own by selecting 
"Customize" in the Tools menu. You can tear a toolbar off a menu, use it 
as floating palette, and then return it to its original location.

The Office Assistant, a new help feature, can take one of nine animated 
forms (paper clip, cat, etc.). It appears in a little window on your 
screen, giving you tips as you work and automatically jumping out of 
your way. 

Most notably, Office 97 has many new Web tools. Everything you produce 
in Office 97 can be saved in HTML format. Conversely, you can include 
hyperlinks to Web pages in your Word, Excel, or PowerPoint files. Links 
can also point to a different location in your document, to another 
document on your PC, or to a file on a local network. In Word and 
PowerPoint, a Wizard guides you through creating a Web page.

Each Office 97 program includes a Web toolbar that includes a back and 
forward button to navigate the links in your document as if you were in 
a Web browser. Office 97 opens a document's Web links in your default 
browser (e.g., Netscape Navigator). To take advantage of all of Office 
97's Web features, however, you must use Microsoft's browser, Internet 
Explorer, which is included with Office 97.
 
New Features in Word 97
Word 97 offers greatly improved table tools, making it easier to set up 
and redo table layouts. You can "draw" your own table with a pencil tool 
and use an eraser to merge cells. You can select a table and realign it 
to the right, left, or center of your page.
 
The Document Map is an outline that Word automatically displays in a 
window next to a document: it lets you navigate to any part of the file. 
With the Document Browser, you can jump through a document by an element 
of your choice, i.e., by paragraph, heading, table, or graphic.

New Features in Excel 97
Newcomers and fans alike will find something to admire in Excel 97's 
features. Microsoft has added the ability to create formulas using 
natural language. For example, instead of using the formula =SUM(A1:A4) 
to total a column labeled February, you can construct the formula 
=SUM(February). A new cell validation feature lets you set criteria for 
data entered into cells. You can restrict entries to specified ranges, 
limit characters in a cell, and even have an error message displayed if 
incorrect data is entered into a cell. You can merge any range of cells 
within a row or column to behave as one cell, and center or rotate text 
within cells.

PowerPoint, Outlook, Access
PowerPoint is much improved, with new templates and help features to 
assist you in creating anything from a traditional overhead to an 
animated, narrated Web presentation. Outlook 97, which replaces 
Schedule+ and the Exchange Inbox, is a central application for 
organizing your calendar, contacts, email, and tasks. Access 97 now 
lets you publish live, interactive database pages on the Web.

A Word on Compatibility
Office 97 uses a different file format than its predecessor, Office 95. 
To share files with others who haven't upgraded, you need to save the 
files in Office 95 format. If your colleagues are on Macintoshes, you 
must save your files in either Office 95 or an earlier format, depending 
on the version of Word/Excel/etc. on their machine. To open the file on 
a Macintosh, you may need to open the application first, then the file. 
If you load a document created in another file format into Office 97, 
the Office Assistant will remind you to be careful about choosing what 
format to save it in.

System Requirements
To run Microsoft Office 97 you need:
 
* A 486/66 machine or higher

* Windows 95 or Windows NT 3.51 or later operating system

* 8-12MB of RAM for Windows 95 (16MB recommended); 16MB of RAM for       
Windows NT (32MB recommended)

* 60-191MB of free disk space (121MB for a typical installation 
of the Professional Edition) 

* A CD-ROM drive (recommended)

* A VGA or higher-resolution video adapter (Super VGA, 256-color 
recommended)
 
Availability, Support, Online Info
The MIT Computer Connection sells the Microsoft Office 97 Standard 
Edition (CD) for $140 and the Professional Edition (CD) for $180. A 
coupon is enclosed for 3.5" diskettes.
 
If you have questions about installing or using the program, contact the 
Computing Help Desk at x3-1102 or <pc-help@mit.edu>.

A free noontime demo of Office 97 will be held on May 13 and June 23 in 
E40-302. To find out about fee-based courses on Word, Excel, and Access 
for Windows, check the Spring 97 Computer Training Catalog.

For more detailed information on Microsoft Office 97, visit the Web site 
at

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