Current Shareware 1994 January/SHAR194.ISO/articles/office4.zip/OFFIC4.TXT

Text File | 1993-10-20 | 18KB | 324 lines

Microsoft Unveils Microsoft Office Version 4 Featuring New IntelliSense Technology
   Microsoft Office Applications Offer Unprecedented Consistency and Integration

    NEW YORK - Oct. 19, 1993 - In a worldwide announcement
today, Microsoft Chairman and CEO Bill Gates unveiled Microsoft* Office
version 4, the newest edition of the most popular office suite for the
Microsoft Windows* operating system.  The Office family includes the
best-selling Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, the Microsoft PowerPoint*
presentation graphics program, the Microsoft Access* database
management system and a workstation license for Microsoft Mail.  The
announcement, at New YorkÆs Hudson Theater at the Hotel Macklowe,
was broadcast by satellite downlink to an audience of more than 50,000
people worldwide.  Featured in the presentation were the new Microsoft
Excel 5.0, Word 6.0 and PowerPoint 4.0.

    "Office 4 represents a major shift in the way people will be using
desktop applications," said Gates.  "Just as the move from MS-DOS-based
applications to graphical applications resulted in new levels of usability and
productivity, we believe the move from the current generation of
applications to the new world of information-centric applications will result
in tremendous increases in user productivity."

    "With Office 4, we had three major goals," said Pete Higgins,
senior vice president of desktop applications at Microsoft Corporation.
"We wanted to move beyond current standards in ease of use, integration
and customization.  With IntelliSense technology, weÆve made the
individual applications in Office dramatically easier to use.  With our
increased focus on consistency and OfficeLinks, weÆve made it far easier to
use the applications together.  And by incorporating technology of Visual
Basic into Office, weÆve made it much easier for MIS managers, Solution
Providers and corporate developers to use Office as a foundation for
custom application development."

    Microsoft Office outsells its nearest competitor by five to one, with
more than 2.5 million units shipped worldwide, and shipments for
individual Office applications now total more than 22 million.

IntelliSense Technology Promotes Ease of Use
============================================

    Microsoft Office version 4 raises the ease-of-use bar by
incorporating new Microsoft IntelliSense* technology, which makes
everyday tasks automatic and complex tasks easier. IntelliSense technology
senses what users want to do and intelligently produces the desired result.
In fact, the 100 most common tasks users perform with Microsoft Office
can now be accomplished in one step.  Examples of IntelliSense technology
in the new Word version 6.0 include AutoCorrect, which automatically
corrects common typing and misspelling errors, and AutoFormat, an
innovative feature that automatically formats an entire Word document in
one step.  Other examples include Microsoft Excel version 5.0Æs TipWizard
* assistant, designed to observe a userÆs actions and then offer hints about
how to get that work done faster, and PowerPoint version 4.0Æs
AutoContent Wizard, which actually helps users develop appropriate
content for their presentations, as well as organize and present the
information in the most effective way.

Attention to Consistency Leverages Learning
===========================================

    Microsoft Office version 4 programs are designed to work together
seamlessly, sharing a common user interface design that makes it easy for
people to learn and use the products.  Having a high level of consistency
helps users feel comfortable using multiple applications together.  Some of
the many areas of consistency in Office include the following:

*    Menu Bars.  Eight out of nine menu titles are identical and are
    located in the same position across applications.
*    Pull-down Menus.  Office applications have consistent
    grouping of commands where appropriate.
*    Toolbars and Toolbar Buttons.  Two-thirds of the toolbar
    icons are the same and located in the same position across
    Office applications.  Customizing toolbars is easy and done the
    same way across applications.
*    Dialog Boxes.  Dialogs for common operations (e.g., File
    Open) share the same layout and similar capabilities, controls
    and command buttons.
*    Short cut Menus.  All are identical where appropriate and all
    are context-sensitive, appearing with the click of the right
    mouse button.

Shared Components
=================

    Microsoft Office version 4 applications share a number of
components, including the spelling checker, custom user dictionary,
Microsoft Graph, Microsoft Query Tool, equation editor, ClipArt Gallery,
font effects, graphics filters, setup, and text conversion filters.  Specific
features within Office also share the same code, for example, Find File and
routing capabilities.  Using common components across all Office
applications saves disk space and leverages learning.

Seamless Information Sharing With OfficeLinks and Rich OLE 2.0 Support
======================================================================

    Microsoft OfficeLinks goes beyond the concept of cut and paste
and raises it to a new level of integration by making it easier for users to
share information among applications and to accomplish common cross-
application tasks.  With OfficeLinks, users can focus on their work rather
than the tools theyÆre using.  The foundation for many of the OfficeLinks
tools is rich support for Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) 2.0, the
latest version of the open industry standard that makes it seamless and easy
for users to move and share information between applications.  Because of
OLE 2.0, users can edit "objects" (e.g., a spreadsheet chart) within a word
processing document without ever leaving the document, then drag and
drop objects across applications.  In addition, Microsoft has built upon the
foundation of great OLE 2.0 support to address specific cross-application
needs; for example, to insert a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet directly into
Word documents or PowerPoint presentations, the user simply clicks on a
Microsoft Excel worksheet button that sits directly on the Word and
PowerPoint toolbars.

    Widespread industry support for OLE 2.0 means users will reap the
benefits of customized desktop solutions designed specifically to meet their
needs.  "With Office 4, Microsoft has succeeded in creating the most
tightly integrated set of applications on the market - in large part because
of OLE 2.0 - bringing the industry a quantum leap closer to MicrosoftÆs
vision of æInformation At Your Fingertips,Æ " said Ken Gardner, president
of ReportSmith, Inc., maker of the ReportSmith client-server database
query and reporting program.  "OLE 2.0 also widely expands usersÆ
choices because they can easily integrate literally hundreds of third-party
value-added applications."

    "The combination of OLE technology and the Microsoft Office
suite provides a framework for users to handle information in ways they
never could before," said David Skok, president and founder of Watermark
Software, Inc., in Burlington, Massachusetts.  The company manufactures
Watermark Discovery Edition, image-enabling software that lets users scan
paper and fax-based documents as Image Objects into any OLE-compliant
Windows-based application.  "This framework allows developers like
Watermark to provide users with a new way to electronically handle paper-
based documents through image-enabling applications for Windows,
including Microsoft Office.  We are delighted to be part of MicrosoftÆs
ongoing effort to set new standards for productivity in business
applications."

The Microsoft Office Manager
============================

    Microsoft Office version 4 also includes the Microsoft Office
Manager (MOM), a set of tools that makes it easy to use Office products
together.  MOM comes with a customizable toolbar that makes it easy to
launch and switch between Office applications.  MOM also includes the
first and only integrated installation process for office suites, enabling
customers to easily install all the applications in Office or uninstall
components they donÆt want.  MOM will automatically clean up any files
associated with uninstalled modules.  MOM also includes Cue Cards that
step people through the most common cross-application tasks.

Office Incorporates New Microsoft Visual Basic, Applications Edition
====================================================================

    The integration of the Microsoft Visual Basic* programming
system, Applications Edition in Microsoft Office enables developers to use
Microsoft Office as a solutions-development platform.  Visual Basic is the
most widely used development environment for custom Windows-based
applications today.  The development community using Visual Basic
includes a worldwide infrastructure of hundreds of thousands of VARs,
MISs, and third-party Solution Providers.  Integrated into Microsoft
Office, Visual Basic for Applications provides full applications
programmability - the ability to create custom solutions with Microsoft
Office and other existing, reusable application components, rather than
creating solutions from scratch.  With Visual Basic for Applications,
Microsoft Office solution builders can "remotely control" functionality in
supporting applications through the programmability interface in the
industry-standard OLE 2.0 architecture.

    American International Adjustment Company, Inc. (AIAC), a
subsidiary of American International Group, Inc. (AIG), contracted with
Landau & Associates, a Microsoft Solution Provider, specializing in Visual
Basic and Visual Basic for Applications programming, to assist in
implementing a customized module.  AIG is the leading U.S.-based
international insurance organization and the largest underwriter of
commercial property and casualty insurance in the United States.

    "AIAC has re-engineered a paper-intensive process using Office
applications and the Visual Basic programming language," said John R.
Flynn, senior vice president of AIAC.  "All the customized documents are
electronically transferred in an embedded object using OLE 2.0, and
transported by Mail.  We have built a sophisticated insurance claims
management system that automates many of the tasks that were previously
handled manually."

    "The key here was the integration of Office products using Visual
Basic for Applications," said Mike Landau, president and CEO of Landau
& Associates, based in Morristown, New Jersey.  "We were able to
leverage our expertise in Visual Basic, easily apply that knowledge to
Visual Basic for Applications, and work with the new Office applications
to create a custom solution."

    PaineWebber, widely recognized as a leader in equity research, was
also able to dramatically increase productivity in its publications production
department by moving to Microsoft Office.  PaineWebber worked with
Micro Modeling Associates, Inc., a Microsoft Solution Provider, to
re-engineer the production process, primarily using Word and Microsoft
Excel, thereby reducing production time by 40 percent.

    "Now the analysts can pull up a screen and work directly on
whatever part of the publication they need to create," said Candace
Schwartz, PaineWebberÆs vice president of research publications, based in
New York.  "And itÆs easy to update their numbers and respond to changes
quickly without having to recreate the wheel."

    "The ability to have really nice integration between Office
applications is a big plus, and it was critical to the success of the
PaineWebber solution," said Roy Wetterstrom, a managing partner at New
York-based Micro Modeling.  "And the new Office 4 with Visual Basic for
Applications will raise it to a whole new level.  It was great before; now
itÆs going to be incredible."

Office on Microsoft Windows, the Macintosh and Microsoft Windows NT
===================================================================

    Users can choose between two Office editions, Microsoft Office
Standard for Windows and Macintosh*.  Microsoft Office Standard for
Windows includes Word, Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint, and a workstation
license for Microsoft Mail (server software available separately).
Microsoft Office Professional for Windows includes all of the above plus
the Microsoft Access database management program.  File formats for
Microsoft Office Standard for Windows and the Macintosh are compatible
across platforms, allowing users in mixed environments to share files,
macros, text, data and graphics.

*    The new Office for Macintosh will include core code versions
    of Word, Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint, and is expected to
    ship in the first half of 1994.
*    Work is also underway on 32-bit versions of Office family
    applications that run on the Microsoft Windows NT*
    operating system.  Microsoft expects to ship 32-bit versions of
    Word and Microsoft Excel for Intel*-based systems in the
    second quarter of 1994, and Digital* Alpha AXP* and MIPS*
    versions of Word and Microsoft Excel in the third quarter of 1994.
*    In addition, through the Equal Application Adapter, Microsoft
    Word and Microsoft Excel for Sun Microsystems* SPARC,
    Silicon Graphics and Hewlett-Packard*, and
    UNIX* platforms will be available from Quorum Software
    Systems in the second quarter of 1994; through the
    SoftWindows emulator from Insignia Solutions, Sun SPARC
    and Hewlett Packard versions of Word and Microsoft Excel
    will be available in the first quater of 1994.

Product Support Services
========================

    A wide variety of product support options are available to Office
users, including free phone support.  All Microsoft Office support
engineers are cross-application experts, so customers can call one
telephone number to access help for all Office applications:  (206) 635-
7056 for Microsoft Office for Windows, [phone] for Office for the
Macintosh.  In the last two years, Microsoft has increased its staffing and
operational investment in Product Support Services by 200 percent, greatly
improving its technical support to better serve customers.  According to a
recent independent report, certified by the Software Support Professionals
Association, MicrosoftÆs support satisfaction ratings for word processor
and spreadsheet products outranked WordPerfect, Lotus and Borland by a
significant margin.

    Microsoft Product Support continues to offer unlimited no-charge
standard support for all Microsoft desktop applications, Monday through
Friday, from 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. (PDT).  Customers can also call in the
evenings and on weekends for a nominal fee ($2 per minute, $25 per
incident, or $195 annual subscription).  Customers using any Microsoft
desktop application now have the option to access support 24 hours a day,
seven days a week.

Pricing and Availability
========================

    Microsoft Office Standard version 4 is available for a suggested
retail price (SRP) of $750.  The SRP for Microsoft Office Professional is
$899.  Through Feb. 1, 1994, users of any Microsoft Office family
application can upgrade to Microsoft Office Standard for a special
promotional price of $259.  Users of other qualifying programs can trade
up to Microsoft Office Standard for an SRP of $299 during the same time
frame.  Users who obtain either the Office Standard version upgrade or
trade up are eligible to upgrade to Office Professional through Feb. 1,
1994, by obtaining a special upgrade to Microsoft Access for $99.

    Large organizations may also acquire Microsoft Office through the
Microsoft Select software licensing program.  Microsoft Select includes
options for maintenance, an easy way for large organizations to keep their
users on the most current versions of Microsoft products.

International Versions
======================

    Microsoft Office version 4 is scheduled to be available in more than
two dozen languages, including International English, Danish, Dutch,
Finnish, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Swedish, Spanish,
Portuguese, and French Canadian.  Other international versions are under
development for Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai and Turkish languages.
System Requirements

    To ensure flexibility and accommodate various hard disk space
needs, users can choose from three installation options:  Typical, Laptop
(minimum), and Complete/Custom.  Microsoft Office Standard requires
16.5MB of free disk space for the minimum installation and 48MB of free
disk space for the full installation.  Microsoft Office Professional requires
24.5MB of free disk space for the minimum installation and 62MB of free
disk space for the full installation.  Microsoft Office Standard and
Microsoft Office Professional require a minimum of 4MB of memory when
running under Microsoft Windows 3.1; 6MB is recommended.

    Founded in 1975, Microsoft (NASDAQ "MSFT") is the worldwide
leader in software for personal computers.  The company offers a wide
range of products and services for business and personal use, each designed
with the mission of making it easier and more enjoyable for people to take
advantage of the full power of personal computing every day.

                #########

Microsoft, PowerPoint, Microsoft Access, MS-DOS and Visual Basic are registered trademarks and Windows, IntelliSense, TipWizard and Windows NT are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.
Macintosh is a registered trademark of Apple Computer, Inc.
Intel is a registered trademark of Intel Corporation.
Digital is a registered trademark and Alpha AXP is a trademark of Digital Equipment Corporation.
MIPS is a registered trademark of MIPS Computer Systems, Inc.
Sun Microsystems is a registered trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Hewlett-Packard is a registered trademark of Hewlett-Packard Company.
UNIX is a registered trademark of Unix System Laboratories.

EditorÆs Note: MS-DOS is a trademarked product name.  Please do no abbreviate to
DOS.  Windows NT is a trademarked product name.  Please do not abbreviate
to NT.

Prices listed are U.S. suggested retail prices.  Reseller prices may vary.