Microsoft’s
Office Platform
Microsoft
is using its Tech Ed conference, meeting in Dallas this week, as an
occasion to announce about 40 partner solutions which use Microsoft
Office as their platform, increasing individual, team and
organizational productivity within a familiar environment.
Microsoft has been working for some time to promote Office as
a platform, noting that with millions of installed Office users, it
represents an economically viable target for developers.
Some
of these new Office Platform solutions include:
To
support developers in the Office Platform program, Microsoft is
adding and enhancing a variety of programs.
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Microsoft
Office System Solution Directory will showcase partner
solutions and point
customers and Microsoft field representatives to specific
solution categories.
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An
Office Marketplace section on the Microsoft Office web site
will connect customers
with products and services.
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The
Office System Partner
Solution Builder Program will provide training
vehicles,
development support and marketing opportunities.
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The
Microsoft Smart Client
Readiness Program for ISVs is designed to provide
ISVs with resources to build software products on Microsoft
smart client technologies,
including Microsoft Office System and Pocket PCs. Details will
be available in August.
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And
A Word From A Customer
One of
our readers who, like me, is trying out Office 2003 (formerly Office
11 Beta), wrote to tell us about his experiences.
We thought you might enjoy a few excerpts.
Our
Subscriber Writes:
Along
with tens of thousands of other people, I'm beta testing Microsoft
Office 2003. They are
probably doing it because they are Microsoft Solution Partners or
something like that. Or
maybe they are CTOs and they want to know if they should upgrade to
increase their enterprise's productivity when the software ships.
I'm doing it because it costs $24.95 to sample all the new products
and see whether it's worth paying $499 to have them forever. Right
now, I have them until November 30.
First
impressions: Office 2003 is prettier. It's all blue, and the
applications seem to hang together better, or at least they appear
to because of the pretty GUI. Outlook has some new views for reading
email, and seems to work better with my spam filter, than Outlook XP
does.
Amy:
I
hope that’s true (we haven’t tried putting a Spam filter onto
Office 11 yet), because we haven’t had a good time running them
with Office XP.
Our
Subscriber loved all the extra software that came with the Beta, but
found out that if you only use it in standalone mode, you don’t
get all the function.
Subscriber:
The
CD Software packet of Office 2003 comes with a lot of mystery meat:
One Note 2003, Windows SharePoint Services, Microsoft
PortalServer, Windows Server, InfoPath, and Exchange Server. I
didn't install them for the same reason I don't cook: it's not
necessary for a single person. Some things you just don't need to
know.
I
was especially saddened to know that I, as a single person, could
not use the Shared Workspace feature in Microsoft Word. If I were
lucky enough to have lots of friends on my network, I could create a
shared workspace on the web with its own URL.
I could invited other people into my workspace, and let them
collaborate with me on my documents. I could assign them tasks,
store documents in a private library, create links to references
needed for the document, and receive "dynamic updates"
when someone in my workspace altered my document.
Amy:
Our
correspondent found it hard to use Front Page, but easy to use
Publisher. That’s why
there are different products for different kinds of users.
He liked some of the new features of PowerPoint.
Subscriber:
Our
old favorite, PowerPoint, has a few spiffy new features: it has a
rehearsal timer, and a shared workspace feature of its own. No new
slide layouts (what a shame) and no really funky new background
designs. Probably best not to fix something that is not broken
(although it's overexposed).
Amy:
I’m
glad our subscriber liked PowerPoint 2003.
It’s one of my favorite parts of Office 2003. But I have to admit nothing beats the new editor, One Note.
I’m using it on a Tablet PC (Toshiba) and it may change my
life. I’ll tell you
about it soon.
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