What’s New in MS Office 2000?

The most noteworthy feature in MS Office 2000 is its unprecedented integration with the Web. With the help of Office Server Extension, SQL Server and IIS on the NT server, users can manipulate documents via the Web such as Open/Save files directly from/to the Web, Web collaboration, Web discussions, Web subscriptions and notifications, and multilingual support. Moreover, it improves the user-friendliness by enhancing the user interface like multiple collect and paste, personalised menus and toolbars, etc. In addition, it supplies built-in analysis tools to reduce the programming effort, for example, PivotTables and PivotCharts, Excel OLAP integration and Data Access Page. You can visit the MS Official Web site - to see a list of new and improved features in Office 2000.

How About File Compatibility?

In general, Office 97 applications, except Access 97, can open Office 2000 files without a converter. However, special format that cannot be recognised by Office 97 will not be retained. Since Access 97 does not support Unicode file format, you have to explicitly save the file in the format of Access 97 in the Access

2000 to make the file compatible. To share files among different versions, Microsoft recommends using the Dual File Save function. It eases the coexistence issues by saving Office 97/2000 & Office 5.0-95 formats in a single file but the disadvantage is that the dual file becomes larger. Please visit http://www.microsoft.com/office/enterprise/deployment/fileshar.htm for more details.

Any Cost?

As Office 2000 Professional Edition is centrally provided and covered in the Microsoft Campus License Agreement, it can be installed on campus for students and staff use without any additional costs to departments. The Professional Edition of Office includes Word 2000, Excel 2000, PowerPoint 2000, Access 2000.

What’s the Plan of Implementation?

To make the upgrade easier, we have joined the rapid deployment program for Office 2000 offered by Microsoft. This program outlines the new features and the various installation methods so that the CSC can quickly deploy this software and integrate with others in our network environment.

The implementation was divided into 3 phases. First we introduced English Office 2000 on the English Windows 98 platform in our CSC Student LAN. Upon its successful implementation, we provided English Office suite on the Windows 95 platform in the Staff LAN, and the CSC was the first pilot department to test the Office suite. The last phase was the implementation of English Office 2000 on Windows 95 to all departments. The launch was completed on 25th October 1999. Our plan of implementation also includes installation of the multi-language pack and multi-lingual will be supported in due course.

How to Install?

To install English Office 2000 on your PC, you can simply select one of the MS English Office 2000 options in the departmental application menu. This option will install IE 5.0 and all four Office components. However, if you want to install FrontPage 2000, the system will also install the IE 5.0 and Office 2000 for you. In either case, the installation requires a minimum of 500MB hard disk free space on the local drive C. It is recommended that users should have at least Pentium 200MHz or above with 64MB RAM in order to get a better performance.

Please note that the installation program will automatically remove all components of the old versions of Office, such as English Office 95 Prof. SR2, English Office 97 Prof., etc. Hence, make sure you will no longer need the earlier versions of Office before running this installation program.

What’s Next?

The implementation of Office 2000 on the English Windows 98 platform was scheduled on early December 1999. Thereafter and depending on the availability of the CD Media, the CSC will launch Chinese Office 2000 on Chinese Windows 95 and 98 platforms in January 2000.

Any Help?

If you encounter difficulties while installing or using the Office 2000, please contact our Help Desk at ext. 7658.