[pic] Microsoft® Office Reviewer’s Guide for Windows® 95 May 1995 [pic] Table of Contents Introducing Microsoft Office for Windows 95 2 Design Goals of Office for Windows 95 7 Making the Transition to Office 95 Easy 26 System Requirements for Microsoft Office 95 27 Conclusion 29 Introducing Microsoft Office for Windows 95 This Reviewers Guide is designed to assist in your evaluation of Microsoft® Office Professional for the Microsoft® Windows® 95 operating system including the CD-ROM version, Microsoft Office Professional & Bookshelf® 95 CD-ROM reference library for Windows 95. It will help you understand where the product has been and where it is going. Additional reviewers guides, enhancement guides and self-guided product tours are available separately for Office 95 and each of the individual Office 95 applications. Specifically, this reviewers guide discusses the following: • The evolution of Microsoft Office • The major trends in the office suite category • The design goals for Office 95 • How Office 95 delivers on those goals • How Office 95 makes the transition easy Since its introduction in 1988, more than 11 million users have bought Microsoft Office, making it the world’s most popular office suite of business productivity applications. Users have responded to Office’s best- of-breed applications, use of innovative technology to automate common tasks, ability to share information among applications, and robust environment for custom solutions. Microsoft Office 95 provides full version upgrades of its entire suite of the industry’s proven best-of-breed applications: Microsoft Word for Windows 95, Microsoft Excel for Windows 95, the Microsoft PowerPoint® presentation graphics program for Windows 95, Microsoft Access for Windows 95 and — new to Microsoft Office — Microsoft Schedule+ for Windows 95. In addition, Microsoft Office Professional & Bookshelf 95 for Windows 95 provides the growing number of CD-ROM users with enhanced online reference tools available in Bookshelf 95 and tighter integration with Office 95, making it the most complete set of desktop application productivity tools available. The new Microsoft Office 95 builds on the following key areas: • Optimized for the 32-bit Windows operating system. Office for Windows 95 is designed to take full advantage of Windows 95, the newest 32-bit Windows operating system, and the Microsoft Windows NT™ Workstation operating system, version 3.51, the newest update to the Windows NT platform. • Microsoft Office 95 is designed to maximize the Windows 32-bit environment so that users can enjoy the full potential of their PCs. Windows 95 combines a more intuitive user interface, easier access to information, better resource management and multi-tasking capabilities to provide a superb environment for office suite users. Office 95 also supports Windows NT Workstation 3.51, which is designed for users who need to run higher-end mission-critical applications with added security capabilities. • Make It Easier So People Can Focus on Their Work. Office 95, with second- generation IntelliSense™ technology, now goes even further to anticipate user commands, assist during complex tasks and make product functionality more discoverable. Users gain the freedom to focus on their work, not their software, with enhanced automation and discoverability. • Provide Office Users with a More Seamless Environment. Office 95’s new OfficeLinks tools allow users to share information more seamlessly among applications. In Office 95, OfficeLinks has been expanded to support second-generation OLE object technology and new integration scenarios, for example between Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Access. This enables users to focus on their projects and not on a specific set of tools. • Help Users Communicate Better in an Increasingly Connected World. Office 95 is designed to provide users with the tools and ability to exchange and access information regardless of where it resides, and to communicate with computer users everywhere. Office 95 provides great networking and workgroup support — but it goes beyond those niches to be the best office suite for a broad range of communications, work environments and Internet- based uses. • Provide The Building Blocks For Creating Robust Custom Solutions. Office 95 makes it even easier to create better, faster and more cost-effective custom solutions based on Office 95 applications. With enhanced support for The Visual Basic® programming system, OLE, Data Access Objects (DAO) and Open Database Connectivity (ODBC), Office 95 provides a robust set of building blocks for custom business-solution development. The Evolution of Microsoft Office When Microsoft Office was first introduced in 1988, it was designed to provide users with a cost-effective way to purchase a set of leading desktop applications. Initially Microsoft Office was based more on a marketing strategy than a technical strategy; nonetheless, demand for Office grew as users increasingly wanted to use multiple applications at the same time. Today, users expect to be able to use multiple applications at the same time and they demand increased consistency and integration in those applications. In response to this customer demand, Microsoft focused its desktop applications strategy on delivering an office suite product that would go far beyond a packaged box of individual applications. Microsoft delivered its first product based on this new technical strategy with Microsoft Office 4.3. Office 4.3 revolutionized the office suite category by providing customers with a tightly integrated, best-of-breed family of applications in a single box. Microsoft Office 4.3 established Office as a cohesive technical product, rather than simply a convenient marketing package. Microsoft Office 4.3 introduced new technology standards in the following areas: • IntelliSense technology automates routine tasks and simplifies complex tasks. Office 4.3 introduced a new level of automation to users through IntelliSense technology. IntelliSense automated some of the most common tasks through such capabilities as AutoCorrect, AutoFormat, AutoFilter and AutoReport. This advance in intelligent automation of everyday tasks enabled users to get more work done in less time. IntelliSense technology also helped users to simplify complex tasks, resulting in greater competency and satisfaction. Wizards gave users step-by-step guidance through potentially difficult tasks such as the creation of newsletters, presentations, PivotTable® dynamic views and database tables. The result: non-expert users could accomplish more advanced tasks. • OfficeLinks and OLE 2.0 provide tight integration. With the introduction of OfficeLinks, users were able to focus more on their projects and less on the specific tools they were using. Office 4.3 introduced a new level of consistency across the Microsoft Office business productivity applications with common menus, toolbars and dialog boxes. This consistency allowed users to use their learning in multiple applications. • Office 4.3 also took a dramatic step forward with tight application integration, which made it easier to share information. OfficeLinks tools such as Report It, Present It and Merge It provided built-in functionality to exchange and access data or text between Office applications. In addition, Office 4.3 pioneered the use of OLE 2.0 technology, providing users with a more seamless ability to share information among applications. Robust OLE 2.0 support enabled users to drag and drop objects (for example, Microsoft Excel chart or Word paragraph) between applications and edit those objects in place. • Robust set of tools for custom solutions development. Office 4.3 introduced users to a powerful set of tools for a complete development environment, including Visual Basic programming system, Applications Edition — a robust programming language based on the popular the Visual Basic programming language — and support for OLE Automation, the enabling technology for accessing and controlling reusable components. This combination of technologies and best-of-breed tools in each Office application allowed end users, developers and consultants to create powerful robust line of business applications that took advantage of the rich set of functionality available in Microsoft Office. The Office Suite Category Today Over the past couple of years, many trends have transformed the desktop applications category in dramatic ways. The following key trends continue to shape the product development and contribute significantly to the design of Microsoft Office 95: • Windows 95. Windows 95, the next major upgrade to Microsoft Windows- based system software, will make current PC tasks easier and new tasks possible, based on the new Windows 32-bit architecture, enhanced user interface and range of new technologies. Current 16-bit Windows-based applications will run on Windows 95; however, developers will need to redesign applications in order to take full advantage of the enhancements offered in Windows 95. Users have told Microsoft that they expect applications that not only support Windows 95, but also go the extra mile to take full advantage of the enhanced Windows 95 environment. • Continued need for easier-to-use applications. Increasingly, software is used by a wider array of users for a broader range of projects on a much more frequent basis. Desktop applications need to enable a wider spectrum of users to easily use the PC to complete tasks with a minimum of training and expertise. • While desktop software has become a more integral part of people’s jobs, those people haven’t increased their desire to become technical experts. Most people are not interested in learning the intricacies of the computer; rather, they just want to use it to get their jobs done. While applications in the early 1990s have made great strides in automation, integration and ease of use, desktop productivity applications still are not as easy to use as users would like. More than 28 percent of the entire U.S. population says it is still intimidated by computers (source: IntelliQuest’s National Computing Survey, March 1995). • Office users continue to rank “making the applications easier to use” as one of the top requests for future versions of Office (source: Microsoft Office Registered Users Base Study, August 1994). In many cases, people are not using the full potential of their current applications in the most efficient manner. For example, while 70 percent of Word 6.0 users create documents with bullets, only 40 percent use Word’s AutoBullet feature (source: Microsoft Word Registered Users Base Study, March 1994). An application’s behavior needs to be more intuitive and ideally adapt its functionality to the way users work. • Users expect tighter integration among all applications. Today, more than 60 percent of all word processors and spreadsheets are sold through office suite packages. More specifically, in 1994, more than 75 percent of Microsoft Excel 5.0, PowerPoint 4.0 and Word 6.0 sales were sold through Microsoft Office (source: Microsoft Office Internal Sales Tracking, February 1995). The ability to easily share text, data and graphics continues to be the top reason why users decide to purchase an office suite product (source: IntelliQuest’s Software Purchase Process & Segmentation Study, March 1995). While Office 4.3 pioneered consistency and tight integration in the suite category, users expect more integration within office applications, as well as with third-party products. • Users are working in a more connected environment. As networking, client- server-based custom solutions and online access continue to penetrate the PC desktop, users are increasingly looking to locate and access the full array of information available to them — whether that information is on a local server, wide area network or the World Wide Web. According to the Office Usage Study, more than 51 percent of Office 4.0 users in the workplace are connected to other computers through local area networks (LANs) (source: PC Watch, December 1994). Not only are people connected within local groups, but increasingly across the far-reaching Internet. International Data Corp. (IDC) estimates that roughly 500,000 new Internet users are coming online every month. IDC has also stated that it expects the Internet will experience a 93 percent annual growth rate, amounting to 128 million users by 1997 (source: International Data Corp.’s Market Opportunities in the Era of Internet Commercialization, 1994). In this increasingly connected world, desktop applications must provide tools and support a variety of industry standards that make it easy to locate, share, edit and manage information regardless of where the information resides. • Demand for great tools for application customization continues to increase. As organizations of all sizes invest in information technology, there is increased demand to take advantage of the investment in desktop applications to create customized business solutions. Starting with Office 4.3, Microsoft Office has provided the tools and technology that people need to create custom business solutions from the available building-blocks of Office applications. As a result of providing these programming tools and enabling technologies, more than 500,000 developers worldwide currently use Microsoft Office to create custom solutions for their customers. Increasingly, these developers demand greater tools and support to more easily create business solutions for their customers. For example, one of the most requested areas of functionality in Microsoft Access and Microsoft Excel was enhanced programmability. • Users expect better performance. Application performance affects all areas of the product and dramatically affects customer satisfaction. Users want to experience better performance with a minimum of changes to their current hardware configurations. They want PCs and applications that will allow them to run multiple applications, often simultaneously, without the concern of running out of system requirements. • Migration to new versions of applications is too difficult. As users and organizations look to take advantage of software upgrades, they must also consider the migration costs of those upgrades. Desktop applications must make it easier for people and organizations to easily migrate to new versions of the product by providing them with technology information, support and tools. Research-Driven Design to Meet User Needs Responding to key market trends is but one component contributing to new product directions at Microsoft. The other is a comprehensive, systematic research effort that includes analysis of product support data, user surveys, controlled usability laboratory studies and field research. Desktop application usage continues to expand. Microsoft must find better ways to closely track current usage and discover the unarticulated needs of its current and potential users. Microsoft continually examines the design process and looks for better ways to understand users and their evolving computing needs. Ongoing research is conducted to understand what users want to accomplish with their software and how they want to accomplish it. This research is the basis for the company’s user-driven design process, which enables Microsoft to understand how people use the products and ultimately build better products to meet customer needs. The research includes the following types of information gathering and analysis: • Product support call data. Each day, more than 20,000 calls are logged into the Microsoft database of Product Support Services issues. Each call is documented and cataloged so trends and feature-related issues can be identified and quickly addressed. Prior to each product release, developers identify the product features and aspects that generate the most support calls and then work to create enhancements that eliminate the top 10 causes of support calls. For example, one of the top reasons for Microsoft Excel 5.0 calls to PSS was user’s inability to understand the number formatting options. In Microsoft Excel 95, Microsoft revamped the number formatting options to make them more intuitive. • Usage studies. Each year, Microsoft polls thousands of Office users about their use, satisfaction and current product preferences. This research is also conducted for each of the individual Office applications and even includes research on non-Microsoft application users. In total, the Microsoft Desktop Applications organization conducted a dozen usage studies in 1994 alone. • Instrumented version data. Each year, Microsoft sends selected users special “instrumented versions” of Microsoft Office. The “instrumented version” of the product includes a database that tracks every user action, including mouse clicks, keystrokes and dialog box selections — in the background — as users work. This detailed quantifiable data is tracked in a database and gives Microsoft insight into what features users access, how they access them, and how frequently a feature gets used. In preparation for Office 95, more than 3 million user actions, more than double that of Office 4.3, were recorded in instrumented version databases. This enabled Microsoft developers to focus on enhancing the features most important to users and to provide easy access to the most- frequently used features. For example, instrumented version data from Microsoft Excel 5.0 shows that users had difficulty opening the Cell Notes annotations left by other users. So, Microsoft re-engineered Cell Notes for Microsoft Excel 95. Now, Cell Notes automatically pop up when users pause the mouse over an annotated cell. • Contextual Inquiry (CI). Contextual Inquiry (CI) research is a new technique for Microsoft designers, who have been specially trained in the research technique by consultant experts; Office 95 is the first version of Microsoft Office to incorporate this type of research. During the past 18 months, the developers of Office have used CI — a technique based on social anthropology — to help them better understand in a broad sense how computers play an integral role in the work day of users. This approach enables development and design teams to learn about the entire process of creating a document or spreadsheet — not just about a specific feature’s use. • This time-intensive research included visiting more than 300 customer sites and, with minimal interruption, watching how users worked. First a team of designers spends a day observing a user throughout his work day. The Microsoft observer is taught to track how the user completes a task and how he gets information, and even documents the physical layout of the user’s workspace. After each of these visits, a team of Microsoft designers meets in Redmond to discuss the findings from the visits. The Microsoft observer provides a rich description of the user’s work environment, flow of information and work process. During each of these debriefings, keys observations are documented. These observations are collected and grouped together by common trends after a series of visits. These trends and common learnings are then used as the foundation for product design enhancements and development. • For example, the new Office Binders feature (see below) was a direct result of this process. It was based on CI identification of users’ needs to electronically organize the process of collecting, analyzing, preparing, and distributing documents which include multiple file types. • Activities-Based Planning (ABP). While CI Research helps to identify new concepts for further investigation, it also helps to identify key product activity areas, for example, mail merge in Word or list management in Microsoft Excel, for more focused probing with ABP. ABP includes more traditional on-site visits by Microsoft teams, who talk with users at their workplaces about how they use specific areas within their applications. For example, after ABP visits Microsoft discovered that one demanding task for users of PowerPoint was the follow-up after a presentation. Consequently, Microsoft added innovative tools to PowerPoint 95 to help users more easily track action items during and after meetings. Now, presenters can be more efficient, thorough, productive and prepared for subsequent presentations in follow-up meetings. For Office 95, Microsoft developers conducted ABP visits at more than 300 sites. • Usability Testing. To ensure that Office 95 works the way users work, Microsoft spent more than 14,000 hours testing new features and designs for all the Office applications — nearly twice as many hours than were spent in usability testing for Office 4.3. Software users of varying proficiency levels were brought into the usability labs and asked to create a document, spreadsheet or database or to accomplish a particular task. Developers watched and listened as the users worked with new or proposed features and interface elements. Wherever the user had difficulties, the developer refined the design and re-tested it until it met usability requirements. For instance, usability testing helped to refine Office 95’s IntelliSense enhancements, including Answer Wizard, animation of Word’s new background AutoFormat and Microsoft Access’s Filter by Selection. • Benchmarking lab. One feature area across all desktop applications affects everything else — performance. In developing Office 95, Microsoft improved the performance benchmarking process, which previously was done near the end of the development cycle. Today, throughout the development process, Office 95 is run through performance benchmarks in the Microsoft Desktop Applications Division Labs (DADLab). This enables developers to track how specific code changes affect performance and to make necessary adjustments earlier in the development process. The result is that Office 95 users will see performance as good as — and frequently better than — that which they experienced with Office 4.3, without an increase in memory requirements. • Quality assurance. To meet rising customer expectations, Microsoft must offer software with unprecedented product quality. In developing Office 95, Microsoft reorganized its testing and development teams, pairing developers with testers from the beginning of the design process to identify and correct potential problems earlier in the development process rather than waiting for final code to test. Testers review feature designs and identify potential problems before code is even written. In addition, testers develop automated tests that developers must pass before they can submit code for testing review. This process enables the development team to more efficiently design, develop and release high-quality software in a timely manner. Design Goals of Office for Windows 95 To develop the design goals for Office 95, Microsoft developers considered previous product development, current industry trends and the results of the user driven development in-depth research. Taken together, this information shaped the design goals for Microsoft Office 95. Those goals included the following: • Take Full Advantage of Windows 95. Beyond offering standard support for Windows 95 or releasing a simple port of Microsoft’s current 16-bit applications, Office 95 is designed to take full advantage of the new interface, architecture and technology enhancements that make Windows 95 an easy-to-use and productivity-enhancing operating system for every PC user. Microsoft’s goal is to make Office 95 the best office suite for Windows 95. • Make It Easier So People Can Focus on Their Work. This includes making Office features more “discoverable,” so that users can be more self- sufficient in using them and focus on their work rather than on their software. Office 95 is designed to reduce the steps required to complete a task and dramatically reduce the task’s complexity. Office 95 offers enhanced and expanded IntelliSense technology to adapt and respond in customized ways as users work with Office 95. • Provide Office Users with a More Seamless Environment. Office 95 takes even greater advantage of shared code, shared components and integration among Office applications for a more consistent and seamless environment. In Office 95, integration goes beyond the Office family of applications and includes third-party Office Compatible software products. • Help Users Communicate Better in an Increasingly Connected World. Office 95 not only helps users create, analyze and present information, but also facilitates the processes of accessing, distributing, collaborating and viewing of information in an increasingly connected world. • Provide The Building Blocks For Creating Robust Custom Solutions. Office 95 continues to provide users with expanded support for Visual Basic for Applications and greater support for the object model, to facilitate the creation of powerful and effective custom development. Design Goal One: Take Full Advantage of Windows 95 Windows 95 is a great advance for PC users of virtually all skill levels. It makes current tasks easier, new tasks possible and PC computing more fun. Office 95 is designed to take maximum advantage of the new performance, architecture, features and user interface of Windows 95, and is designed to be the best possible Windows 95 office suite. • 32-bit environment support. Office 95 applications are full 32-bit applications that take advantage of the greater system resources, robustness and multitasking capabilities of Windows 95 for improved performance. Pre-emptive multi-tasking enables users to conduct file searches, online communications or other tasks, all while smoothly editing a document or a spreadsheet. • Multi-threading. Microsoft has also implemented multi-threading — for operations such as faster printing in Microsoft PowerPoint and Word or database queries in Microsoft Access — which enables a user to do multiple actions within the same application simultaneously. • Application speed. Having gained valuable experience from the previous release of 32-bit Windows-based applications —Microsoft Excel and Word for Windows NT — Office 95 developers have enhanced the Office code for the richer 32-bit environment for enhanced performance benefits. As a result, users will experience increased performance in several of the most common functions throughout Office. For example, opening or paging through documents is quicker. Microsoft Excel 95’s recalculation engine, in particular, has been redesigned for the 32-bit environment to handle calculations 30 to 50 percent faster on average, making it the fastest spreadsheet to date. • Consistent user interface. Users of Office 4.3 will feel right at home with Windows 95, because many of the interface enhancements pioneered in Office 4.3 — such as tabbed dialog boxes, tool tips and shortcut menus — have now been implemented in Windows 95. All toolbars and dialog boxes have been updated for the new design of Windows 95. In addition, the increased animation of Windows 95 can be found in the form of smooth animated scrolling in Office 95. Support of the Windows 95 shell lets users double-click a template in the Windows shell to create a new Office file of any type (document, spreadsheet, presentation, etc.). File properties and first-page thumbnail scans can also be browsed in the Windows shell, letting users preview files without having to launch applications or open the files. • Long file names. Office 95 is designed to take advantage of the support in Windows 95 for 250-character long file names. Now users can create long file names for any of their Office files. • Shortcut technology. Users of Office 95 can take advantage of Shortcut technology that makes it easy to access documents or sections of documents using a shortcut (similar to a file pointer than can be placed anywhere on the desktop). Office 95 not only allows users to create shortcuts to any document type, but with its enhanced support, users can also create shortcuts to a specific page of a Word document, or to a worksheet with a Microsoft Excel file or a form within a Microsoft Access database. The result is that users can quickly and easily navigate their way to a specific location within a file. • Scrap technology. Just as workers might copy a note or memo and leave it on their desks for later reference and use, Office 95 users now can drag and drop a sentence or paragraph, spreadsheet cell range, presentation elements or database entries to the Windows desktop for easy use and reuse. • Briefcase support. Office 95 provides full support for the Windows 95 Briefcase, making it an ideal office suite for users who move files between a desktop/network PC and notebook PC and who need to keep the most up-to-date files on the computer they’re using at the moment. Today, users commonly compare the date-stamps on files and manually copy them from one machine to another. But that’s a tedious and error-prone process. The Briefcase minimizes headaches such as these by synchronizing the different versions of a file whether they are on the same hard drive or on the network. The user specifies which files and directories he or she wants to synchronize by moving the files into the Briefcase. When the user reconnects the portable to the network or desktop PC, the Briefcase can be used to automatically update the new file with the master version. For example, Microsoft Access 95 enables users to make changes to a database on the road and then synchronize the changes with the master database when they’re back in the office. Microsoft Access 95 even takes it a step further and manages the replication and conflict resolution of the record on the different versions of the database. For example, multiple users can update the master database, thus updating each of the record by record changes checked in several users for easier database management across multiple users. • Explorer view. One of the many interface innovations of Windows 95 is the Explorer, which provides a faster, fuller, more intuitive way to view and manage file organization. Office 95 fully supports this innovation. Views in the File Open dialog are the same as in Explorer, including Large Icons, Small Icons, List, and Details. Users can select a file to be opened, preview a thumbnail representation of it, and open it while automatically running its application for editing or data manipulation. • Microsoft Network Support. Users of Office 95 can automatically connect to The Microsoft Network (providing they have subscribed to the service) and get additional product help if they need it. All Office applications have a Microsoft Network menu item on the Help menu. Once the user visits a Microsoft forum on MSN, that forum appears in the MSN shortcut menu. Users also have the option of creating shortcuts in Windows 95 that go directly to specific areas on MSN, and adding those shortcuts to any Office 95 Help menu. • Plug and Play support. The Plug and Play architecture that makes PCs easier to set up and use is supported in Office 95. Office 95 supports screen resolution changes from Plug and Play along with any system changes that result from a user accessing Plug and Play (such as adding memory, sound cards or hard disks, etc.). Design Goal Two: Make It Easier So People Can Focus on Their Work As a broader array of people use Microsoft Office as an integral part of their work day, Microsoft must continue to focus on making it easier for them to quickly and easily use the full power of their applications in the most effective manner. In Office 4.3, Microsoft took a dramatic step forward in addressing this functionality with IntelliSense technology and features such as AutoCorrect, AutoFill and Wizards. The second-generation of IntelliSense technology makes Office 95 even easier to use and enables people to more readily discover untapped functionality within Office. As a result, users can focus on getting their work done with less frustration and not focus on the tools they need. Making Everyday Tasks Automatic Office 95 focuses relentlessly on finding better ways to automate and simplify everyday tasks, such as spelling, formatting, filtering and data entry. The goal is to provide the broad base of users with intelligent tools that dramatically improve their ability to complete tasks and get their work done faster. • Spell-It. Spell-checking is one of the most common tasks done within a word processor, with more than 94 percent of users spell-checking their documents (Source: Microsoft Word Instrumented Version Study, June 1994). Word 95 redefines this task by automatically spell-checking documents as a user types. This eliminates the time-consuming spell-checking of a document after it’s completed. Word 95 takes advantage of the idle time available during document creation to automate the task and provides instant right click access to suggestions for the correct spellings as a user types. No longer is spell-checking restricted to an action most commonly done at a document’s completion. Even if a user chooses to view the spell-check only after the document is drafted, Spell-It already will have checked the document for misspellings. So, when the user does run the spell-checker, Word has already identified which words are misspelled and can quickly suggest corrections, making the process dramatically faster. • AutoFormat as users type. Microsoft research into formatting revealed that users like visual feedback on the formatting of their documents as they type, and that many users don’t know where or how to access formatting functionality (such as the numbering feature and borders features in Word) and thus they resort to standard typewriter defaults. Word 95 automatically formats documents with lists, borders, symbols, fractions and headings as users type, creating formatted documents without requiring users to take their hands from the keyboard. • Numbered lists are automatically created when the user types a number followed by a blank space and text. • Bulleted lists are automatically created when a user types in a symbol such as *, o or > followed by a blank space and text. • Horizontal borders are automatically created when more than three of the common character substitutes are used on a single line (===, ---, ___ ) • Proper ordinals (1st) and fractions (½) are automatically generated when the user types “1st” and “1/2.” • Headings are created when the users types a short line without punctuation followed by two carriage returns. • Smart or “typographic” quotes are automatically created, and Word 95 is smart enough to properly handle quote marks, such as the mark used in the ’95. (HINT: ‘95 is incorrect). • Enhanced AutoCorrect — The AutoCorrect feature formerly found only in Word 6.0 is now available throughout Office 95. AutoCorrect will fix the user’s common typos or common misspellings on the fly, as a user types. Common typographical errors are automatically corrected, for example, forgetting to capitalize the first letter of a sentence. AutoCorrect will also expand user- list), it is possible to type MS and MS’s to achieve Microsoft and Microsoft’s. Likewise, typing MS(r) will yield Microsoft®. • The TWo INitial CAps rule is much smarter in Word 95. It no longer mistakenly corrects CDs, PCs, MHz, or any other TWo initial capitals pattern which does not contain vowels. This dramatically reduces the number of false ‘corrections.’ • Accidental usage of the CAPS lock key is automatically corrected. For example, when typing “tHIS” with the CAPS LOCK key depressed, AutoCorrect will automatically change the typing to “This” and turn off the CAPS LOCK key. • Word 95 is much more flexible with regard to AutoCorrect expansion. In addition to the spacebar (which is all that Word 6.0 recognized), punctuation, apostrophes and other delimiter characters now automatically trigger AutoCorrect expansion. This allows the symbol expansion described above as well as possessive expansions. For example (with “MS(Microsoft” in your list), it is possible to type “MS” and “MS’s” to achieve “Microsoft” and “Microsoft’s.” Likewise, typing “MS(r)” will yield “Microsoft®.” • Exceptions List — Word 95 now tracks and automatically adds exceptions to an AutoCorrect Exceptions list on the fly, as the user works. AutoCorrect Exceptions are designed to learn from the user and modify its behavior automatically to adjust to the user’s needs. Just backspace over an AutoCorrect correction and Word 95 automatically puts it on the exceptions list. The next time you type that same entry, Word 95’s AutoCorrect will recognize the entry and override the AutoCorrect rule. • AutoComplete. In Microsoft Excel 5.0, Microsoft allowed customers to create their own pre-defined lists to speed up data entry. Customers asked for an even easier way to enter their own custom data, without having to set pre-defined lists. In response, Microsoft provides AutoComplete in Office 95. With AutoComplete, users simply type the first few letters of an entry into a cell, and Microsoft Excel for Windows 95 automatically completes the entry based on an intelligent evaluation of other entries already made in that column. This provides a more intuitive way for users to enter repetitive data. There’s no longer a need for “set up” or the limitation of staying within pre-defined boundaries. • For users who feel more comfortable with the mouse, Microsoft Excel 95 also offers alternative quick data entry access from the Pick from List option on the shortcut menu. Pick from List enables users to simply click Pick from List on the shortcut menu and select from the list of entry options based on what has been entered already. • AutoCalculate. Microsoft Excel 95 eliminates the need for temporary formulas and calculator work with AutoCalculate. AutoCalculate calculates the sum of the cells that are selected. The “selection” can be a single cell, a whole column or even multiple, non-contiguous ranges. AutoCalculate can be switched to show the sum, average, minimum, maximum, count of selection, or count of numeric selection. The AutoCalculate result is conveniently displayed on the status bar. • AutoFilter Top 10 (AutoFilter, first introduced in Excel 5, provide easy and automatic tools for the over 70% of people who use Excel for managing lists. AutoFilter allows the user to view only those rows of a list that contain a specific value, for example all customers whole live in Asia. In studying how people use Excel 5 AutoFilter, we noticed that many times they wished to filter on fields that contain numerical data that isn’t easy to “match”. Excel 95’s AutoFilter therefore lets you pick a “Top 10” filter. So instead of trying to figure out how to filter for population greater than 200,000,000, Top 10 Filter lets users specify a filter based on top (or bottom) values or relative percentages and does it automatically. • Filter by Selection. Microsoft Access 95 makes it dramatically easier for users to locate database information quickly. For simple filtering of information, users no longer need to build a query to locate information. Instead, with Filter by Selection, they need only highlight a selection in a datasheet or on a form and click Filter to locate the underlying data based on that selection. For example, if a user wanted to see all customers in North Carolina, he or she would simply highlight North Carolina from any entry and click Filter. Microsoft Access automatically locates the records that match that filter. Users can also filter simply on “Carolina” or on states that begin with the letter “N.” Filter by Selection provides a flexible and intuitive interface to make it easy for users to create ad hoc filters of their data. • AutoFormat. Similar to functionality available in Microsoft Excel and Word, Microsoft Access 95 can AutoFormat forms and reports to quickly deliver great-looking results. AutoFormat will pull from the list of available styles and automatically change the form or report accordingly. • AutoPick. AutoPick in Schedule+ 95 automates the planning of a meeting by automatically locating an available time slot for all selected attendees. Instead of users having to spend time analyzing multiple schedules and determining the best time to hold meetings, AutoPick completes this task for the user. • Meeting Minder. PowerPoint’s new Meeting Minder helps users automate the once-tedious task of tracking notes and action items during the course of a meeting. Presenters can capture discussion notes or action items simply by clicking the right mouse button during a presentation. PowerPoint automatically creates an Action Item Slide for review at the end of your presentation. In addition, presenters can export the meeting minutes and action items to a Word document later for better communication and follow- through after the meeting. • Style Checker. PowerPoint’s new Style Checker will scan presentations and check for common presentation design problems, such as inconsistent or improper use of capitalization, spelling errors, font size problems and other stylistic issues. The Style Checker makes it easy for a broad range of users to create great-looking, professional presentations without a lot of expertise. The Style Checker can be customized to reflect a specific organization’s style rules. • Slide Navigator. PowerPoint 95’s new Slide Navigator enables presenters to view a list of slides, complete with slide number and title, during their presentation. The Slide Navigator allows presenters to quickly jump to a different slide to address an unexpected question. The Slide Navigator also remembers which slide the presenter was on so that presenters can easily jump right back again. • Slide Miniatures. PowerPoint’s black-and-white Slide Miniature lets users preview both the color and black-and-white versions of the same presentation at the same time. The slide miniature provides a quick, unobtrusive (it’s a miniature) way to view both displays simultaneously. When users zoom in to work on enlarged detail, the slide miniature shows the whole slide for a bird’s eye view. • Animation Effects Toolbar ( PowerPoint for Windows 95 makes it easier than ever to apply preset extended animated builds to transform your plain text and graphics into dynamic builds with sound attached. Users can easily apply flying effects and reverse builds to text and objects with one click of a button. • AutoClipArt. Forty-four percent of presentations include only text, and miss out on the added impact that images can provide (Source: Microsoft PowerPoint Awareness and Usage Study, September, 1994). For the creators of such presentations, the new AutoClipArt feature makes it easier than ever to add visual impact to a presentation. AutoClipArt automatically selects appropriate clip art to complement and enhance the presentation’s message by scanning the presentation for relevant key words. Making Applications More Discoverable, So Users Can Learn As They Go While applications include hundreds of features, most users use only a fraction of the functionality available to them. Most often, it is simply because a user does not know that the functionality exists in the product. Microsoft’s Wish Line database shows that more than 25 percent of the feature requests that users make for future versions of the product are for functionality that already exist in the current product. Clearly, one of the best areas Microsoft can improve its products is to help users take better advantage of their available tools. • Answer Wizard. Until now, when users sought assistance, they had to pull down a menu, search through alphabetized entries or navigate their way through thousands of pages of reference material, hoping that they were thinking of the question in the same terms that the developers thought about the answer. The Answer Wizard dramatically improves the process of providing assistance as users work. Accessible from every Office 95 application, it represents a dramatic step forward in allowing users to use common vocabulary to get assistance within their applications. The Answer Wizard accepts questions phrased in standard English, interprets those questions with natural language processing and decision theory techniques, and takes the user to the appropriate help topics to answer them. For example, if the user asks, “Show me how can I send out my Christmas cards?” the Answer Wizard displays the Help topic for Mail Merge. • The Answer Wizard makes it easier for users to get the assistance they need, when they need it, right from within the product, just as they would from a colleague down the hall. The Answer Wizard enables users to ask questions using their own vocabulary to quickly locate help from more than 13,000 Help topics available within Office 95. • Expanded online assistance. While the Answer Wizard enables a broad range of users to discover how to access the full potential of their software by making it easier to locate the help they need, Office 95 also provides dramatically expanded Help to assist people in completing tasks. Office 95 includes a dramatically more automated Help system that helps people complete a task much faster. More than 20 percent of Office 95 Help topics are automated “interactive” answers that guide a user through the steps of completing a given task. For tasks that require multiple steps, Office 95 provides a concise step-by-step answer that can remain on the screen while the user completes the task. Usability testing of Office 95 revealed that, on average, users completed tasks 25 percent faster with the Answer Wizard and the new expanded Office 95 Help system than with the previous Office 4.3 Help system (Source: Office 95 User Assistance Usability Study, February 1995). • Task-based documentation. In an effort to provide documentation designed to complement the way people work with their software, the printed documentation for Microsoft Office, Getting Results with Microsoft Office, has been rewritten to incorporate a solutions-based focus that guides users through common projects, such as how to write a business plan, create a budget or set up an inventory system. Instead of navigating a reference list of product features, users can learn about features in the context of a specific user-defined task. Now the documentation, like the applications, are fully integrated across all Office applications. • Animation. Office 95 is designed to provide users with a greater level of user feedback in the form of increased animation. Microsoft Usability Lab research showed that many users did not understand many operations, for example, inserting and deleting rows or columns in Microsoft Excel or Microsoft Access. In many cases, the operation was done too fast: The screen would blink and a new row or column would suddenly disappear and a user did not know what had happened. Office 95 makes dozens of operations more understandable by adding animated visual feedback. For example, when inserting a column in Microsoft Excel or Microsoft Access, the user can now see columns sliding to the right, and a new column appearing. By the same token, Word will also animate repagination as a result of inserting or deleting text. • Intelligent Navigation. Microsoft user research shows that up to 25 percent of all user actions involve moving from one place to another within documents and worksheets. This involves scrolling as you browse, searching for ranges of data or specific paragraphs of text, and so on. Office 95 helps the user by controlling navigation and providing handy assistants. • Proportional Scrollbars. In previous versions of Office applications, users clicked in the scrollbars repeatedly to navigate down or across. In Office 95, the thumbs or elevators in the vertical and horizontal scrollbars resize in proportion to the area of a document, sheet, database or presentation that contains data or text. The thumbs intelligently constrain the user to avoid accidentally hyper-scrolling past his or her work. • Expanded ScreenTips. Office 95 provides help on almost any element of the screen, from toolbar buttons to menu commands, with expanded ToolTips, ScrollTips and QuickTips, all of which help users learn and navigate through applications as they use them. ScrollTips provides feedback on the user’s location within the file. It indicates the cell within a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet or the page within a Word document. ScreenTips provides the users with direct feedback when they need it most. For example, to learn what an option does within a dialog box, the user merely clicks the Help button available in every dialog box to choose the selected option for a tip. • TipWizard — TipWizard® assistant, which helps users learn and get the most out of their application as they work, was a popular feature of Microsoft Excel 5.0. Now, it’s been added to Word 95, too. TipWizard allows Word 95 and Microsoft Excel 95 to provide users with assistance as they work, using animation and clear instructions to help people get up and running more quickly than ever before. For example, Word’s TipWizard works interactively with the AutoFormat as the user types feature to provide feedback and present choices to users. Users have the option of changing the AutoFormat action or clicking the Show Me button for a demonstration of the formatting action. Simplify Complex Tasks With Wizards In some cases, more steps or user choices are required to complete tasks. Office 95 is designed to make these more complex steps easier with Wizards. Wizards present the user with a series of choices, written in plain English, that guide the user through a task. Below are some samples of the new Wizards available in Office 95: • Template Wizard with data tracking. Microsoft Excel 95’s new data tracking through the Template Wizard will now automate the entire process of creating a template and automatically tracking fields of the template in a database. For example, a small business or a specific department now can easily create a template from an existing document, such as an expense report or inventory tracking spreadsheet, and link that data to other spreadsheets or a database. This essentially allows customers to create their own simple, custom solutions without writing a single line of code. • Database Wizard. The Database Wizard in Microsoft Access 95 includes more than 20 customizable templates to create full-featured applications from scratch. Users can choose what information they want the application to track, and the wizard will build a custom application based on those needs. • Simple Query Wizard. Microsoft Access 95 introduces a new query wizard that will allow users to locate desired information quickly using a wizard, regardless of the underlying data structure. Users simply choose the data they want to look for from a drop-down box, and the wizard handles the inclusion of related tables if needed. • Improved Form/Report Wizards. Microsoft Access 95’s second-generation Form and Report Wizards have been improved to allow users greater flexibility in creating the exact view required, regardless of underlying tables or queries. After selecting the desired data for the from or report, users are presented with different layout choices based on the data selected. If the user chooses data on both sides of a one-to-many relationship, for example, the Form Wizard offers to build a Main/Subform. • Access Import/Export Wizard. Users no longer need to figure out how data is structured to bring it into Microsoft Access 95. The new wizard analyzes the target data and allows the user to decide what and how data should be imported into the database. Depending on the type of file being imported, users can define data types and indices at the time of import. • Meeting Wizard. Schedule+ 95 offers a Meeting Wizard that walks users through the entire process of scheduling a meeting, including identifying participants, agenda, location, available time and required resources. With the Meeting Wizard, the user gains the benefits of Schedule+ 95’s added power, without having to learn any complex functions or procedures. • Pack and Go Wizard. PowerPoint 95 users can compress and save their presentations across multiple diskettes, including all linked files and multimedia files, to easily take their presentations on the road with them. • AutoContent Wizard. PowerPoint 95’s improved AutoContent Wizard provides suggested content and organization for presentations, helps to tailor a talk for length and audience, and help tailor it for format based on output selected. Additional Related Functionality Previously Available in Office |Ease of Use Functionality | | | |AutoFormat creates great |Chart Wizard guide Excel | |looking Word documents or |users through the creation | |Excel sheets with a single|of great looking charts in | |click. |plain English | |AutoSelect allows users to|Word Document Wizards | |simply place a cursor in a|provide steps by step | |word to select it within |assistance to create | |Microsoft Word |newsletters, letters, faxes| | |or brochures | |AutoFill automates the |PivotTable Wizard makes it | |entry of a Excel range |easy create dynamic, | |based on patterns like Q1,|flexible views of Excel | |Q2, Q3, Q4. |data for better analysis. | |AutoSum provides one click|Formula Wizard steps users | |access to sums in |through the setup of any of| |Microsoft Excel. |Microsoft Excel’s hundreds | | |of formulas. | |Format Painter copies |Database Table Wizard steps| |format characteristics for| | |easy formatting |users through the creation | | |of a database. | |AutoReport creates |AutoContent Wizard helps | |database reports with a |users structure the content| |single click in Access |of a presentation | |AutoForm creates custom |Tip Wizard in Excel | |forms based on database |provides users with | |with a single click |assistance based on their | | |usage. | Design Goal Three: Provide Office Users With a More Seamless Environment Office 95 builds on the consistency work done in Office 4.3 with added consistency including Access and Schedule+. In Office 95, Microsoft has expanded this focus on consistency and integration to include Office applications, Office Compatible applications and the rest of the PC desktop. Office 95 not only provides a more consistent work environment, but also a more tightly integrated way to work with desktop applications. The goal is to enable users to easily leverage experience and information across applications. Consistent Tools Office 4.3 applications set an industry precedent for consistent look and shared functionality in an office suite. It represented a major step forward in providing users with a consistent interface across all the Office applications. Office 95 builds on the 150 person years of consistency work that has already been done to expand the consistency to the new Office applications as well as Office Compatible applications. In Office 95, Schedule+ and Microsoft Access have been revamped to provide even tighter consistency with the Office family of products. The Office Compatible 95 Program enables third party and corporate developers to license the consistent toolbars and menu structures at no cost. The result is a more consistent work environment for users of Office. • Increased shared code. In addition to having applications that look alike, users expect them also to work alike. Office 95 takes a dramatic step forward in better integration with a significant amount of shared resources and actual code. Microsoft now has a centralized Office development team who writes code that is shared across Office applications. Shared code, such as File Open and File Starter (formerly File New), is written once and used across the Office. Now, users can use one dialog box, File Starter, to create a new document or launch one of the dozens of available pre-designed templates. Users can keep all file templates, even those of different applications, in one File Starter. The result is a more consistent set of applications and better integration for more seamless use. • Shared code also means that features can easily be shared across office applications. For example, full content-indexing and searching, most requested by users of word processors, is very useful in other applications as well. Users can now conduct full content index searching across all file types at once. Since this functionality is provided via shared code, all the Office applications have it and it operates the same way in each applications. Add a word to your SpellChecker or AutoCorrect dictionary when you’re working in Word, for example, and SpellChecker or AutoCorrect will correct that same typo or misspelling when you make the error in a presentation in PowerPoint. This is made possible by the shared office DLL’s, for example, MSOFC95.dll, within Office 95, that house code for shared dialog boxes and functionality throughout Office 95. • Over 20% of Office 95 represents code which is shared across the applications. For example, Office 95 shared code includes, the Answer Wizard, File Starter, File Open, Print, Save, Fast Find full content indexing technology, AutoCorrect dictionary, SpellChecker dictionary and more. These common tasks access the same code within Office and behave in the same manner, regardless of application. • Shared Office components. The shared components in Office 95 are OLE- based servers that go beyond the shared code described above. They are complete applications available from all parts of Office and are available as well in third-party Office Compatible applications. The shared components make it faster and easier for users and independent developers to create highly functional Office Compatible applications that are easier to use, because users can draw upon the same components with which they’re already familiar. The Office 95 shared components include: • Data Map — A robust tool that allows users the flexibility to analyze data geographically. Users can now easily spot relationships and trends among different types of data. • Microsoft Imager ( Allows users to import, edit and manipulate images in each of the Office applications. Provides TWAIN image support for scanned images. • Microsoft Query ( Office 95 users can access information from a variety a sources though Microsoft Query. For example, users can import external address databases for a Mail Merge in Word via Microsoft Query. • Microsoft Graph —The creation, editing and manipulation of graphs is consistent across the Office applications with the shared component, Microsoft Graph. • ClipArt Gallery —Provides a single location for the viewing of all available Office 95 clip art, which includes more than 1,000 images of animals, people, buildings and scenic backgrounds. Users can quickly preview thumbnail sketches and add their own images. • WordArt — Lets users create interesting text effects, such as 3-D and unusual alignments, to enhance documents. • Equation Editor — Lets users add fractions, exponents, integrals and other mathematical elements, from all Office 95 applications. • Microsoft Office Shortcut Bar (MOSB). MOSB is the successor to the Microsoft Office Manager (MOM) of Office 4.3. The changes in the MOSB reflect the evolution of the Windows operating system. MOSB moves away from a role as just an application launcher and toward a role as an application management tool. The MOSB continues to provide a single toolbar from which to run all Office applications, but it adds new features that augment Windows 95 and provide added power for users of Office 95. MOSB includes instant access to cross-application Office technology (File Starter, File New), a launching point for Office components such as the Answer Wizard, and multiple toolbar functionality for desktop wide support, third-party tools and applications. Most importantly, the MOSB has been expanded to enable users to fully customize the available toolbars with shortcuts to frequently used documents or folders. Users can simply drag and drop documents or folders to the Shortcut Bar for easy access. Integrated Office Environment Office 4.3 pioneered application integration with OfficeLinks tools and OLE 2.0 technology. Office 95 provides second generation support for both of these integration tools. The result is a more integrated environment where users can focus more on their work and less on the specific tools their are using. Below are some examples of how Office 95 achieves that: • Office Binders. The Office Binder, an entirely new Office functionality, introduces the next generation of integration among Office applications. It’s based on the learnings from CI research that found that users often work with many different types of files — text documents, spreadsheets, presentations and so on — for any given project. Using the metaphor of a traditional three-ring binder for compiling and distributing documents, Office Binders allow users to easily collect, print and distribute collections of varied document types in a coordinated and comprehensive way. The collection of documents can be stored in a single file called an Office Binder. Each section of the Binder can contain a different file type that may each have different page orientations. Because the Binder is a single file, a Binder can easily be posted on a network location so colleagues can contribute and edit different sections of the Binder at the same time. A single Binder file also makes it easier to include consecutive page numbering throughout the disparate document types for a more professional look and easier printing. • The Office Binder is based on extensions to OLE 2.0 technology and was developed by the Office development team. These OLE extensions have been made available to independent developers of Office Compatible applications (ISVs, Solution Providers and corporate developers) so that they can create files that work with the Office Binder. For example, this might allow users to add a TriSpective 3D model from a Office Compatible vendor named 3D/EYE or a custom database report developed in house to an Office Binder. • Tighter Integration with OLE 2.0. OLE 2.0 capabilities provide an enhanced interface, Drag and Drop text editing among applications and in- place editing. Using in-place editing, a user can click on an OLE object in Word — a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet for example — and Microsoft Excel’s toolbars and menus appear within Word. Office 95 adds enhancements to OLE 2.0 server support in Microsoft PowerPoint, allowing users to drag PowerPoint graphs directly into Microsoft Excel or Word. • Drag and Drop across applications. Sharing information between applications has never been easier than it is in Office 95. Office 95 takes advantage of the Taskbar, a new Windows 95-based interface element, which displays all the open applications and folders at the bottom of a users screen, even if they are working in full screen view. Taking advantage of OLE 2.0 Drag and Drop technology, users can copy or move any piece of information, for example, charts, tables, or paragraphs, from one application to another simply by dragging and dropping the selection on the Taskbar icon for the destination application. For example, to move a Microsoft Excel chart to Word, a user would select the Microsoft Excel chart, drag it to the desired Word document icon on the Taskbar, Word will automatically maximize to fit the window and drop the chart anywhere within the Word document. • Convert to Access Wizard. Office 95 makes it easier than ever to use Microsoft Access and Microsoft Excel together. Over 65 percent of Microsoft Excel users also use a database and have asked specifically for database integration enhancements. In fact most Office users create their first database in Microsoft Excel and then as their business grows look to migrate that list or “database” to Microsoft Access. In Office 95, users can easily migrate a Microsoft Excel list to a relational database without knowing anything about relational databases. Simply drag and drop the Microsoft Excel list into Microsoft Access. Microsoft Access 95 will then launch the Microsoft Access Import Wizard and then Table Analyzer Wizard to intelligently decipher the spreadsheet list or any flat file data and create a relational design that mimics the original data, but avoids all the problems of non-relational data. In a few steps, the user has moved the Microsoft Excel list to Microsoft Access and created a full relational database for better data tracking and management. • Microsoft Access Forms/Reports on Microsoft Excel Data. Microsoft Excel 95 users can use Microsoft Access’ robust forms and reports to enter information into a database they are keeping in Microsoft Excel. Using Microsoft Access Reports in Microsoft Excel lets users effortlessly create complex group reports, or even mailing labels from their Microsoft Excel lists or databases. • PivotTable Wizard. Microsoft Access 95 includes a PivotTable Wizard that walks users through the creation of Microsoft Excel PivotTables based on a Microsoft Access table or query. Therefore, Microsoft Access databases can take advantage of Microsoft Excel’s robust PivotTable capabilities right from within Microsoft Access 95. • Powerful reference information access with Microsoft Bookshelf 95. At no additional charge, the CD-ROM version of Office 95 also includes Microsoft Bookshelf 95. Microsoft Bookshelf 95’s complete reference library includes: • The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, third edition. • The Original Roget’s Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases. • The Columbia Dictionary of Quotations. • The People’s Chronology. • The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia. • The Hammond Intermediate World Atlas. • The World Almanac and Book of Facts®. • Users can easily access these reference works from the QuickShelf™ information retrieval tool from within Office 95, and can drag and drop text and data from them to Office 95. For example, users of Word 95 can create a letter and use Bookshelf 95’s new Address Builder to locate and calculate the correct zip code information for any address in the United States. • Office 95 integration with Bookshelf 95 provides users with a powerful set of leading productivity tools and a rich set of an award-winning reference library of over 9 million words with 650,000 entries or articles; thus, making Office 95 & Bookshelf 95 the most complete set of tools for end users of all types. • Export Meeting Minder notes. PowerPoint 95’s new Meeting Minder tool enables presenters to track discussion notes during the course of a meeting. PowerPoint allows users to export those notes to automate the creation of a summary memo following the meeting. • Address Book integration with Exchange and Schedule+. More than 50 percent of Word documents are correspondence that contain address or contact information. Word 95 supports integration with both the MAPI Personal Address Book and the Schedule + Contact List so that users can access their contact information when addressing a correspondence. Users gain one-click access to address information that they can drop into a Word document. For bulk mailings users can also use Word’s robust mail merge functionality and access information from Schedule+ or MAPI Personal Address Book. • Presentation Write-Up tool. As presentation graphics are increasingly used for less formal, interactive meetings, users are increasingly required to provide various distribution means for presentations. PowerPoint 95 integrates with Word 95 to automate the once laborious task of creating summary notes for slide presentations. Using OfficeLinks technology and OLE automation, PowerPoint’s Write-Up feature lets users automatically create an impactful handout of slides and speaker’s notes within Word. • Schedule+ integration with Microsoft Project. Schedule+ is a powerful workgroup scheduler. That power comes in part from its ability to integrate seamlessly with products such as Microsoft Project and Microsoft Exchange Server. Microsoft Project integration allows users to manage group scheduling functions and use Meeting Wizards as part of their overall Microsoft Project-based project management activities. Users can integrate their to-do list of tasks with master project schedules for better tracking. There are specific fields, such as, % Complete, in the Schedule+’s to do task manager, which facilitates the tracking of project tasks. Microsoft Project also automates the once tedious chore of tracking progress on specific project tasks by extracting information from task information within Schedule+. Office Compatible Program and Support • Office Compatible Program and Support. Since the Office Compatible Program was introduced in April 1994, 125 ISVs worldwide have participated, representing a wide spectrum of applications ranging from multimedia presentation software to applications that help users analyze their investment portfolios. The Office Compatible Program is designed to help provide Office customers with applications that look and work like Microsoft Office. • For Office 95, Microsoft is working with hundreds of independent Solution Providers (ISVs, consultants, systems integrators, etc.) and corporate developers by giving them information and access to Office design specifications and code in order to integrate their applications more tightly with Office 95. The Office Compatible 95 program makes it easier for third-party developers to create products that look and work like Microsoft Office 95, because it makes the technical specifications for Office Compatible applications widely available to independent developers at no charge. The Office Compatible Program includes the following: • Office Compatible Basic Toolkit, a free kit that provides all the necessary information to create an Office Compatible product. • Licensing access to the Office Compatible logo for easy identification of applications who integrate well with Office 95. • Access to Office Compatible on-line communications. • Quarterly Office Compatible newsletter providing technical information and announcements of marketing opportunities. • Additional development-kit offerings, which enable ISVs to develop even more tightly integrated Office Compatible products that integrate with specific Office features. The Advanced Developer Kit, for example, offers access to the code and opportunity to include third-party applications as part of the Office Binders. Additional Related Functionality Previously Available in Office |Consistency & Integration Functionality | | | |Dialog Boxes are consistent|Support for OLE 2.0 is | |in Office for similar |available in all Office | |commands. |applications, making it | | |easy to drag and drop | | |tables, charts or text | | |between applications. | |Menu Bars are identical for|In-Place Editing allows | |eight out of nine top |editing of objects in | |options in Office |different applications. | |applications. |For example, users can | |Toolbars provide same |edit Microsoft Excel data | |buttons for similar |in Word and get the | |commands throughout Office.|benefit of all the | | |Microsoft Excel menus and | | |tools within Word. | |Consistent behavior is |Insert Microsoft Excel | |provided for similar |Worksheet button in Word | |operations like charts, |makes it as easy to insert| |tables and queries. |a worksheet as it is a | | |table. | |Context-sensitive Shortcut |Analyze It makes it easy | |Menus are available in all |to export Microsoft Access| |Office applications. |data to Microsoft | | |Excel for analysis. | |Keystroke shortcuts are |Present It/Report It can | |consistent for similar |turn a Word document into | |commands in Office. |a presentation in a single| | |click and vice versa. | |Drag and Drop is available |Office Integrated Setup | |in each Office application.|makes it easy to install | | |the product at once. | Design Goal Four: Help Users Communicate Better in an Increasingly Connected World Users of Office have told Microsoft that they want their everyday productivity applications to facilitate the increasing needs of online editing, communicating via electronic mail, authoring documents to the Internet, and posting information to advanced workgroup information databases. Microsoft’s development philosophy is to provide users with the tools and support they need to collaborate and communicate within the connected world without their having to learn and understand a host of new tools. The tools should be as easy to use as the Office applications that people use everyday. Features that implement this philosophy include: Facilitating Collaboration in the Connected World As computers and users increasingly are inter-connected, new opportunities and new challenges arise. For example, users increasingly create documents that are never actually printed and formally presented, but rather distributed, edited and viewed electronically. Office 95 redesigns application functionality to provide tools which seize those opportunities and overcome the challenges for increased online collaboration. • Shared lists. Microsoft Excel 5.0 provided a host of functionality that enabled better collaborative efforts with Scenario Manager, Auditing tools, and Routing to allow users to work together. However, Microsoft Excel users also need the ability to simultaneously add data to the same file. In fact, more than 65 percent of Microsoft Excel’s ABP visit subjects requested the ability to have multiple users add data to a file at the same time. By re-engineering Excel 95 worksheets to allow for Shared Lists, groups of individuals collaborating on a single list can add data at the same time, eliminating the “file in use” message typically received when opening a file already in use by another user. • Conflict resolution occurs when the users save the file. In order to keep it very simple, Microsoft Excel 95 uses a “last one wins” strategy for resolving conflicts. The second user to save is presented the details of the conflict and gets to decide which value to keep. All conflicts get logged onto a “Conflict History” worksheet that is automatically created in the shared workbook by Microsoft Excel. This allows the user who is resolving conflicts to go back at a later time to review and reverse prior decisions. • Briefcase Support. Office 95, as mentioned earlier, provides support for the Windows 95 Briefcase, making it an ideal office suite for users who move files between a desktop or network PC and notebook PC. The Briefcase is also a great tool for workgroup computing. Users can take files on the road and then automate the updating of those files with the master file. Microsoft Access 95 has provided some additional tools to handle record replication and reconciliation for its databases. For example, a group of users can take a database on the road, add data and update records, and when they return to the office they can check in their changes to a master copy on the network. Microsoft Access 95 will also manage the synchronization replication of the different versions of the database. Therefore, multi-users can make changes and all of them will be updated in the master database without the need of manually updating individual changes. Additionally, when the changes are replicated up to the master version of the database, the changes made to the master database, including new forms and buttons are also deployed down to individual user’s desktops automatically. • Highlighter. The Highlighter is a great example of making software work the way users are accustomed to working in the real world; it lets users mark or highlight a document or e-mail message just the way they would by marking a highlighting felt-tip pen on a printed document. Users are constantly looking for more effective ways to communicate documents electronically and to take advantage of the benefits of electronic editing. The Highlighter lets users both call-out parts of documents for easier collaboration and also track work-in-progress in documents. Like the revision marking feature introduced in Word 6.0, the Highlighter lets users choose their highlighter color. • Microsoft Excel 95, Word 95, and PowerPoint 95 viewers. These small, no charge and easily distributable applications allow users to view, copy information and print files created in Microsoft Excel 95, Word 95, and PowerPoint 95 even if they don’t have those applications installed on their machine. The Viewers make it easier for PC users to share information and work together. If you send a memo over the LAN, WAN or Internet with the Word 95 Viewer, the recipient can view the memo even without having access to the entire Word application. The Word and PowerPoint viewers will both be available at the same time as Office 95 is first available. The Microsoft Excel viewer will be available shortly thereafter. Facilitating Communications in the Connected World A host of additional enhancements in Office 95 recognize that users want to use their familiar Office applications to help communicate to others whether they are connected to the LAN, information servers, or the Internet. Office 95 is a great communicator in any of these environments. • WordMail. Word pioneered IntelliSense technology and with it a greater level of ease of use for many of the most common word processing tasks such as typing, formatting and spelling. However, until now, users have not been able to use these advancements in their e-mail editor. Instead, they were limited to plain text and weak editing tools. With Word 95, users can now use the world’s most popular text editor as their e-mail editor. Word 95 works seamlessly with the Windows 95 Inbox (a standard component of Windows 95) to become the user’s standard electronic mail editor. WordMail takes advantage of sophisticated support for OLE 2.0 and DocObjects (which handle entire documents as “objects” that can be incorporated into other applications) to create a robust e-mail environment. Users can take advantage of all of Word’s capabilities from within WordMail including: AutoCorrect, Spell It, AutoFormat on the fly, AutoText, 100 level Undo, rich text formatting, tables and Revision Marking. Other enhancements include: • Special mail toolbar within WordMail that includes standard Send, Reply, Reply All and Move functionality. • WordMail automatically uses Revision Marking when users edit the body of a previously sent e-mail message. This enables easy message/edit tracking. • Headers containing address information are automatically stylized when users hit Reply. This helps users keep track of messages and long e- mail threads. • AutoSignature automatically enters a stylized sign-off; saving users an extra step. • Custom document properties. In addition to its standard summary and statistics properties, Office 95 allows users to create custom document properties. Custom OLE properties allow users to create robust summary information about a file that can be previewed and sorted without opening the file. • Users can easily create custom OLE properties for specific information about the document from the Properties option on the File menu of each Office application. For example, users can create a custom OLE property for an expense report form, so that the expense total or payment status shows up as a field in the spreadsheet’s Summary Information. Then, a manager could sort through her team’s expense reports based on these custom OLE properties without having to open and view the reports themselves. • Custom properties support several data types including Text, Date, Number and Boolean (Yes or No). • Document properties are stored as part of the file and travel with it in the file system, enabling more robust document management solutions. For example, currently third party document management systems maintain a separate database of profile information for each document, but if the document leaves the repository this profile does not travel with it. Using custom document properties these vendors can now store this profile information with the actual document, thereby maintaining the profile information wherever the document travels. • All properties are stored in a standard, defined way using OLE structured storage. This allows third party applications to easily access and change the property streams without requiring to open the file. • Properties can be linked to text which has been tagged with the Bookmark feature in Word, Named Cell in Microsoft Excel or database field in Microsoft Access. These properties can be updated bi-directionally. For example, as bookmarked text changes within a document, the property changes dynamically. Likewise, if another application changes a linked property then Word updates the bookmarked content when opening the file. The [pic] next to a property in the dialog above symbolizes that it is linked to a Bookmark, Named Cell or database field. • Support for Exchange. Office 95 family programs are tightly integrated with Microsoft Exchange, the new, information server component of the Microsoft BackOffice family for Windows NT Server. Any Office files can be posted to Exchange public folders from within Office 95 or routed to multiple users, allowing users throughout the enterprise to easily share working files as though they were working together in the same room. To post a file to Microsoft Exchange, a user only needs to select Post to Microsoft Exchange from the File menu in any Office 95 application. • As mentioned above, Office 95 can exchange document properties with any application through the use of OLE to store the property streams. When a file is dragged and dropped to a Microsoft Exchange folder, it automatically extracts all of the document properties, including custom properties. Any of these properties can then be exposed and used to build folder views as shown above. Exchange supports three level of grouping as well as the creation of column headings for any property. • Support for Notes. Just like its predecessor, Office 4.3c for Windows, Office 95 can exchange document properties with Lotus Notes® via Notes/FX. Office 95 now supports version 1.1 of Notes/FX. Coupled with support for custom document properties, mentioned above, Office 95 based applications actually make it easier to integrate with Lotus Notes than the current generation of Lotus SmartSuite applications. • Presentation conferencing. PowerPoint’s new presentation conferencing allows users to run a meeting across the network for an entire team. A Wizard steps you through the setup and connection process to get you going painlessly and easily. A set of Stage Manager tools provide extra control and confidence during formal, podium based presentations. For example, Slide Meter lets you know at a glance whether you’re running ahead or behind your rehearsed times. The Navigator gives you a list of slide titles and preview pictures. And you have access to your speaker’s notes on your system. All your audience sees is your professional presentation. • Internet Assistant. This no charge add-on to Word 95 lets users of Office create documents for and browse the World Wide Web, using the familiar interface of Microsoft Word. Users can create documents in the World Wide Web’s standardized Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) format simply by saving the document. Internet Assistant’s built-in browsing functionality makes it easy to see what documents will look like online as well as create hyperlinks, simply by “surfing” to the appropriate place on the Web and copying a hyperlink (using the familiar copy and paste metaphor already used in Word). Creating hyperlinks between documents on internal “Webs”, like the corporate network, is equally easy. • Windows 95 Dialer Support ( Schedule+ 95’s new contact management capabilities provide users with the ability to store address information as well as phone numbers for key contacts. Schedule+ 95 also provide connections to Windows 95 Dialer through support for the telephony API (TAPI). With a connection to a modem, Schedule+ users will be able dial contacts with a click of a button directly from within the Contacts tab in Schedule+. • Schedule+ integration with Microsoft Exchange Server. Microsoft Exchange Server is the new, server-based workgroup product, part of the Microsoft BackOffice family for Windows NT Server, that integrates e-mail, scheduling, electronic forms, document sharing and custom applications. From Microsoft Exchange, users can access and organize information wherever they happen to be: in the office, at home or on the road. And the same Schedule+ available in Office 95 is also available in Microsoft Exchange. If the Schedule+ in Office 95 detects an Microsoft Exchange Server on the network, the user has the option of configuring Schedule+ to work seamlessly with that server. • Support for The Microsoft Network. If you have a modem, Office 95 makes it easy to register electronically using The Microsoft Network. Likewise, the Office application forums on MSN are just a mouse click away — just select The Microsoft Network on any Office help menu to see a list of shortcuts to MSN. • Integration with Microsoft BackOffice. The integration of Schedule+ with Microsoft Exchange is only one example of the integration between Office 95 and Microsoft BackOffice, the integrated set of server applications for Microsoft Windows NT that also includes SNA Server, SQL Server™ client- server database management system and Systems Management Server. Office and SQL Server are tightly integrated, for example, providing easy access to SQL data through the Open Database Connectivity standard and OLE 2.0 support in SQL Server 6.0. Users gain programmatic control over a broad range of database features. With SNA Server integration, it’s easy to access IBM mainframe data for use by Office 95 applications. Systems Management Server integration makes it easy for MIS managers to upgrade users to Office 95, to manage desktops and distribute files and applications — all from a central MIS location. Additional Related Functionality Previously Available in Office |Workgroup Functionality | | | |Send Mail command on the |Routing enables groups to | |File menu makes it easy to |distribute files for | |send a any Office document |review and track the | |as a mail attachment. |process. | |Master Documents enable |Multi-user Revision | |multiple users to manage |Marking facilitates | |and create a unified |multiple users reviewing | |document with different |and editing of Word | |document parts from various|documents online. | |authors. | | |Support for Notes/FX makes |Scenario Manager allows | |it easy to integrate Office|Microsoft Excel users to | |documents and information |easily edit and revise | |into Notes databases. |spreadsheets and track | | |changes. | |Annotations are a great |Cell Notes enable | |tool for on-line reviewing |Microsoft Excel users to | |and comments of Word |append review notes to | |documents. |individual cells of a | | |worksheet. | Design Goal Five: Provide The Building Blocks For Creating Robust Custom Solutions As users and organizations make the investment in desktop applications, they are also looking for applications that will enable them to maximize their investment for the specific business needs. In addition to providing the best set of tools for desktop users, Office is also designed to expose their tools or “objects” so that organizations can use them as the building blocks for custom solutions. With more then 500,000 developers building solutions based on Office, it is important that Microsoft provide the tools technology and support for enterprisewide solutions. For example, Systeme Corp. uses Microsoft Office and Visual Basic for Applications to write custom solutions that it says are easy to code and manage. Because it uses functionality that already exists in Office applications, the company has reduced its development time by at least 50 percent. Systeme can now focus on customizing solutions to meet specific customer needs and significantly reduce end-user training. Similarly, Chart House has implemented a customer-service system based on Office and Microsoft BackOffice products. The result was a “frequent diner” program that reduced the time to resolve customer issues from a full day to just seconds, resulting in improved service, reduced costs, and happier customers. These solutions and thousands like them are built on Office applications that are already on the desktops of over 11 million Office users. Office 95 builds on the development strategy foundation first introduced in Office 4.3 by delivering development tools enhancements in three areas: • Expanded implementation of Visual Basic for Applications development environment • Expanded and enhanced OLE automation support in Office 95 • Enhanced Enterprise data support Expanded and Enhanced Object Models Building solutions with Microsoft Office leverages the existing functionality of the Office applications, adding only the code necessary to customize their appearance, behavior or functionality to meet specific needs. Thus solutions built with Office 95 can take advantage of, for example, the document creation and management features in Microsoft Word; data analysis and charting features in Microsoft Excel; or database management and reporting features in Microsoft Access. All of this functionality is exposed to the developer as a set of powerful objects, accessed through OLE Automation. Office 95 expands and enhances the object models to each of the Office applications: • Expanded OLE Automation Support — OLE Automation enables developers to access and control objects from within other Office applications to create integrated solutions. For example, a slide library solution could be built in which slides are stored in Microsoft Access, users can select desired slides and then automatically build the customized presentation within PowerPoint. • Office 95 introduces OLE Automation server support to Microsoft PowerPoint, Access, Schedule+, and Office Binders. This support, which is already found in Microsoft Excel, Word and Project, means that Microsoft Office 95 is the only suite with programmatic interfaces to each of its applications. In total, Office 95 provides over 500 objects, representing millions of lines of code written and tested by Microsoft developers which can be used in the development of custom solutions. • Data Access Objects (DAO) — Microsoft Access 2.0 introduced Data Access Objects, or DAO, which provided developers with an object interface to “Jet”, the Access database engine, and external data sources via ODBC. In Office 95, Microsoft Excel will also support DAO, which is both easier to use and more robust than the previous XLODBC functions. Developers using DAO will be able to share their data access code across Visual Basic 4.0, Access 95 and Excel 95. • Enhancements To OLE Object Model ( To provide developer access to all features in Microsoft Office 95, the object sets have been enhanced to support new features. For example, Office 95’s new OLE document properties (explained on page 22) provide end users and developers alike with a rich means of managing and finding documents. Visual Basic for Applications (discussed below) supports the ability to read/write document properties from within Office applications. Expanded Implementation of Visual Basic for Applications While pre-defined objects allow developers to create custom solutions with less code, some code must still be written for many custom solutions. To address this need, Office 95 provides a consistent development environment with Visual Basic for Applications (VBA). With VBA successfully implemented in Microsoft Excel, Project and Access, Office 95 supports a rich programming environment in multiple applications. VBA may be thought of as the "glue that ties Office objects together" in a custom solution. • Extended Support for Visual Basic for Applications (VBA)— Based on the Visual Basic programming system used by millions of developers worldwide, Visual Basic for Applications provides an integrated development environment with advanced editor and debugging tools, built right into the host application. Office 95 introduces new Access support for VBA, which already exists in Microsoft Excel and Project. In Office 95, VBA will be included in Access, joining Microsoft Excel and Project. The benefit to developers is that they can now focus on learning one syntax, one tool set and one programming style for all of their solutions development. • In the next release of Office, Word and PowerPoint will also incorporate the Visual Basic for Applications programming environment. • Switching Access Basic code to VBA (A key issue for Access developers will be to migrate existing solutions to VBA. Since Access Basic is a subset of the VBA syntax, developers will be able to easily convert their solutions and take advantage of some of the robust tools provided in VBA, including enhanced editing environment, integrated VBA help and new debugging tools. Enhanced Enterprise Data Support Office 95 provides a rich set of tools and support to enable users to communicate in an increasingly connected environment. This functionality, including Exchange integration, support for MAPI, group scheduling functionality in Schedule+, OLE, and support for ODBC are fully programmable in VBA from within Office 95. Therefore, custom integrated solutions can easily be created that share and route information from multiple users and utilize data from any number of databases within an enterprise. Making the Transition to Office 95 Easy In the last three to five years, much has changed in terms of how the MIS department treats desktop productivity applications. First, the use of LANs and WANs are much more widespread in organizations of all sizes. These networks are now used to manage entire organizations centrally rather than departmentally. Second, Microsoft Office 4.3’s success has also lead to a dramatic increase in the number of organizations who have standardized on Microsoft Office. While a standardization gives an organization a great deal of control over their computers, there is also the responsibility for properly supporting that standardization. To facilitate the transition to Office 95, Microsoft has included a range of tools to facilitate that migration process, including: product functionality, compatibility, and product transition information. Built-in Transition Tools There are specific things Microsoft can literally build into the design of the product that will facilitate the transition path for previous Office users. • Managing File Formats. In designing Office 95, Microsoft has gone to great lengths to keep the file format the same wherever possible. Microsoft Excel 95 and Word 95 share the same file format with their most recent predecessors, Microsoft Excel 5.0 and Word 6.0. Users can seamlessly share files with a mixed environment of users as they convert to Office 95. Since both Microsoft Excel 5.0 and Word 6.0 were core code products, offering the same file format for Windows 3.x, Windows NT, Macintosh®, and PowerMac™ platforms, users can share files across a broad range of platforms. • While PowerPoint 95 will require a change in the file format from PowerPoint 4.0, users can read PowerPoint 4.0 files with the installed converter. PowerPoint 95 also will ship with a converter that can be distributed both Windows and Macintosh to PowerPoint 4.0 users so that they can automatically view and edit PowerPoint 95 presentations. Finally, PowerPoint 95 users will have the ability to save their files as PowerPoint 4.0 files. • Typically, when a database engine is changed, it’s common that file formats will change as well. In Microsoft Access 95, users will be able to open and use Access 1.x and Microsoft Access 2.0 files, and even make changes to the Microsoft Access 2.0 application as long as they aren’t using new Microsoft Access 95 functionality. There will also be the option of converting the files to the new Microsoft Access 95 format so the user can move forward with new Microsoft Access 95 functionality. Users of Microsoft Access 95 will also have the choice to create databases in the Microsoft Access 2.0 format to make it easier to work with a group of people while transitioning to Microsoft Access 95. • Finally, Schedule+ has also been designed with compatibility in mind. There are really two basic scenarios for Schedule+. Users can either use it as a personal time management tool, or, if they are using the Microsoft Exchange client and a valid MAPI provider such as Microsoft Mail 3.2 or Microsoft Exchange Server, they can use it as a group scheduling tool. In terms of compatibility with Schedule+ 1.0, if a Schedule+ 95 and a Schedule+ 1.0 user are on Microsoft Mail 3.2 servers, they can schedule appointments, read free/busy times, and the Schedule+ 95 user can read the Schedule+ 1.0 user’s file. Schedule+ 95 will also include a client for the Macintosh, so all versions of Schedule+ 95 on an Microsoft Exchange Server will have complete compatibility with each other. And, Schedule+ 95 users on an Exchange Server can still schedule meetings and read free/busy times with Schedule+ 1.0 users on Microsoft Mail servers. Schedule+ also has a great deal of compatibility with other mail and scheduling systems by being able to import various schedules from other products, and by sending textized meeting requests to users who don’t have Schedule+. • Consistency. In Office 4.3, making the applications consistent was one of its major design goals. Microsoft Access 95 and Schedule+ 95 have been redesigned to make them more consistent members of the Office Family. • Network Administrator Wizard. Customers have requested that it be much easier to do custom network installations of Office so they can control how Office is rolled out throughout their organization, making it easier to support. Administrators can now customize, using the Network Administrator Wizard, which feature set should make up the “Typical” installation for their organization, and even whether that particular feature set should run from the user’s local hard drive, or from an applications server. This tool will give the administrator unprecedented control over how Office 95 is installed in their organization, helping to avoid the need to visit each individual desktop to do the rollout Office 95 upgrade. • Microsoft Systems Management Server. MIS organizations are increasingly being called upon to support their organizations more thoroughly, with fewer resources. One of the tools they are using to assist in that area is Microsoft Systems Management Server. Among the many tasks this software assists with is software distribution. Microsoft Office 95 will ship with a PDF file and will fully support being distributed via Microsoft Systems Management Server. Transition Support Beyond the Box • Office Resource Kit. Similar to the various resource kits for Windows, there is a Microsoft Office for Windows 95 Resource Kit that is published by Microsoft Press. It serves as the complete guide for the administrator or support professional and covers the architecture of the applications, setup and installation, upgrading from previous versions of Office applications, switching from non-Microsoft products, and how to coexist in an environment where users are running various versions of the software together. It also includes various tools such as the Network Administrator Wizard, the Migration Planning Wizard, and file converters. • Office Preview Program. The intent of this program is to deliver a relatively stable beta of Office 95 to several thousand customers, well in advance of the product shipping, to give these organizations the time to plan for a successful migration to Office 95. Included in this program is a kit with the Office software, a beta of the Office Resource Kit, and several other tools that will provide the recipient with the information they need to evaluate and plan for deploying Office 95 in a timely fashion. • The Microsoft Office MSTV Traincast Series. This is a series of three television shows that will run from May through July. These shows will cover the features and functionality of Office 95, migrating to Office 95, and new solutions capabilities with Office 95. Each of these shows can be ordered from Microsoft and will serve as training materials. System Requirements for Microsoft Office 95 Office 95 is designed to run in the same hardware and memory configuration as Office 4. If a user is happy in their current Office 4 configuration, he or she will be as happy if not happier in the same configuration with Office 95. The most frequently selected installation option, Typical Install, will require approximately the same amount of hard disk space. Both Compact and Custom installation hard disk space requirements have increased as additional components like Schedule+ and Office Binders have been added to the product. Microsoft Office Standard and Professional System Requirements • Personal computer with a 386DX or higher processor (486 recommended) • Microsoft Windows 95 operating system or Microsoft Windows NT Workstation operating system version 3.51 or later (will not run on earlier versions of Windows) • 8 MB of memory to run two programs on Windows 95; 12 MB of memory to run two programs on Windows NT Workstation; more memory recommended to run three or more programs simultaneously. • Estimated hard disk space required: • Office Standard (Microsoft Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Schedule+): 28 MB Compact; 55 MB Typical; 89 MB Custom (to add additional features) • Office Professional (Office Standard + Access): Specific hard disk requirements unavailable at the time of the printing of this document. • One 3.5” high-density disk drive or one CD-ROM drive, VGA or higher- resolution video adapter (SVGA 256-color recommended), Microsoft Mouse or compatible pointing device Options • Windows-compatible network • Windows-compatible printer • 2400 or higher baud or faster modem (9600 baud modem recommended) • Audio board with headphones or speakers Microsoft Office Professional & Bookshelf System Requirements • Multimedia PC (includes 386DX or higher processor [486 recommended]) or an equivalent PC with multimedia PC upgrade kit (includes CD-ROM drive and audio board) • Microsoft Windows 95 operating system or Microsoft Windows NT Workstation operating system version 3.51 or later (will not run on earlier versions of Windows) • Microsoft MS-DOS® CD-ROM Extensions (MSCDEX) version 2.2 or later (provided with CD-ROM drive) • 8 MB of memory to run two programs on Windows 95; 12 MB of memory to run two programs on Windows NT Workstation; more memory recommended to run three or more programs simultaneously. • Estimated hard disk space required: • Office Standard (Microsoft Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Schedule+): 28 MB Compact; 55 MB Typical; 89 MB Custom (to add additional features) • Office Professional (Office Standard + Access): Specific hard disk requirements unavailable at the time of the printing of this document. • One CD-ROM drive • Microsoft Mouse or compatible pointing device • VGA or higher-resolution video adapter (SVGA 256-color recommended) • Audio board with headphones or speakers • Microphone for voice annotation feature • Microsoft Mouse or compatible pointing device Options • Windows-compatible network • Windows-compatible printer • 2400 band or faster or higher baud modem (9600 baud modem recommended) To access text and graphics only, the following are not needed: • Multimedia PC, audio board, Multimedia PC upgrade kit, headphones, speakers, and microphone Conclusion Office 95 is based on in-depth and continuous user-driven Microsoft research programs, which determine how customers use software, and how they’d like to use software to become even more productive. Office 95 is designed to take advantage of technology to tackle these customer issues and make Office 95 a more productive tool for customers. Office 95 remains true to its traditional strengths and takes dramatic steps forward in developing an integrated suite of the leading applications which are easier than ever to use for a broader range of users. In summary Office 95 addresses these major areas: • Take Full Advantage of Windows 95 • Make It Easier So People Can Focus on Their Work • Provide Office Users with a More Seamless Environment • Help Users Communicate Better in an Increasingly Connected World • Provide The Building Blocks For Creating Robust Custom Solutions As a result, Office 95 is the easiest to use, most integrated, most powerful, suite of business productivity applications. It includes a range of technology breakthroughs that provides users with a complete set of productivity tools that allow them to access the full potential of the PC. ######### ( 1995 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. The information contained in this document represents the current view of Microsoft Corporation on the issues discussed as of the date of publication. Because Microsoft must respond to changing market conditions, it should not be interpreted to be a commitment on the part of Microsoft, and Microsoft cannot guarantee the accuracy of any information presented after the date of publication. This document is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS DOCUMENT. Microsoft, Windows, IntelliSense, TipWizard, PivotTable, PowerPoint, Visual Basic, and the Office Compatible logo are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft in the United States and/or other countries. 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