• PC World
• » Software
• » Operating Systems

NEW YORK -- Dubbing it the "beginning of the digital decade," Microsoft's Bill Gates announced the launch of Office XP, the company's most Internet-savvy office suite to date.

Gates opened Office XP for business during a keynote address at the Manhattan Center's Hammerstein Ballroom here today by plugging the program's close ties to Microsoft Web sites, as well as its access to third-party services.

Office XP is also important because it is a stepping-stone to the company's long-term plans for wide-ranging Web services that will fall under the umbrella term .Net, Gates said.

"For us [Office XP] is just the beginning of our .Net strategy--allowing people to access any information, at any time, on any device," Gates said.

Worldwide Launch

The Office XP launch here was one of 100 worldwide, and the megasuite is now on sale in 15 countries. For U.S. buyers, a full version of Office XP Standard will run $479; the upgrade is $239. It ships with 2002 versions of Word, Excel, Outlook, and PowerPoint.

The Professional version includes Access 2002 and costs $579, or $329 for an upgrade. An XP Professional Special Edition upgrade is available for a limited time for existing Professional Office customers. The $479 Office suite includes 2002 versions of FrontPage and SharePoint Team Services, Publisher, and a Microsoft IntelliMouse.

Gates, Microsoft's chair and chief software architect, trotted out a handful of well-known executives from companies upgrading to Office XP, including Jeff Bezos, the chief executive office of Amazon.com, and executives from Ford, Turner Broadcasting System, and United Parcel Service of America.

Gates also shared the stage with one other notable personality: Clippy. The reviled animated paper clip from earlier versions of Office, voiced by actor Gilbert Gottfried, is now a marketing mascot for Office XP. Microsoft has, however, kept its pledge to keep the character out of the default installation of Office XP.

New Features

Clippy may not be part of the default installation anymore, but Microsoft has added some new features. They include:

• Smart Tags, a context-sensitive tool that works with Office XP applications. Smart Tags can send or grab data from the Internet. For example, when you hover over an address in Word, you can map it online by using Microsoft Expedia. Smart Tags also lets you embed Office XP programs such as Excel spreadsheets in Word or PowerPoint documents.
  
  
• SharePoint Team Services, a new version of Office 2000's collaborative features. As before, Team Services lets workgroups quickly set up a Web-based home with message boards, folders for shared documents, and additional teamwork tools. Refinements include more control over the look and feel of the Web site, as well as options for granting different users varying levels of access.
  
  
• Upgraded support for multiple e-mail accounts in Outlook. Microsoft also added collaboration features for making appointments on a shared calendar.
  
  
• Task Panes, windows that open to the right of Office applications, offering context-related access to commands, information, and tools otherwise buried in pull-down menus.
  
  
• Document Recovery, which makes it easier to salvage important documents when a Windows application crashes.
  
  

Winning Over Skeptics

Gates was typically indulgent in his estimations as to how the new suite will impact users, calling it the "pinnacle of productivity."

"By making Office 10 percent better, we save 100 million man hours," he claimed.

Bombast aside, Gates's stump speech convinced more than a few customers to upgrade, judging from attendees' responses.

"I'm impressed," said Ray Lance, a New York-based computer consultant, at the launch. "The Smart Tags and collaboration tools make Office XP a powerful asset."

Patrick Clarke, manager of information services at Syntegra USA, said his firm will upgrade 1000 desktops from Office 97 to XP. "We are very interested in these Web-based collaboration features."

Clarke did admit, however, that his firm might not have been on the upgrade path already if Microsoft hadn't changed its licensing strategy. The plan has drawn fire from critics because it will require some customers to pay as much as 30 percent more for Office XP than they did for older versions--if they don't upgrade by October 1. Some analysts predict the new scheme could backfire, deterring both first-time and upgrade buyers.

Activation Aggravation

Some have criticized XP's Activation Wizard, which prevents users from running one licensed copy of Office XP on more than two computers. The antipiracy measure requires users to activate Office XP over the Internet or by phone.

The process involves two numbers: the product identification code, and a number Office XP generates. The second code summarizes the configuration of your PC hard-drive size, video specifications, and other hardware items. If you install the software onto a third PC, Office recognizes that it's in another environment and prevents activation.

While Microsoft insists that it doesn't identify people personally or collect exact data about hardware through the process, computer consultant Lance still expressed some concern about it. "A number of my clients are not keen to the idea Microsoft is keeping tabs on what kind of PC they're using," he said.

(For a detailed look at the newest features of Office XP and a guide to upgrading, see PCWorld.com's extensive coverage at XP Xposed .)

• See more like this:
• Microosft,
• XP,
• Office,
• Web,
• .net