Microsoft Office Standard Edition 2003 Upgrade (Excel, Word, Outlook, PowerPoint)

Amazon.co.uk Review Microsoft Office Standard Edition 2003 is a bundle of the most essential desktop applications: Office Word 2003 for word processing, Office Excel 2003 for spreadsheets, Office PowerPoint 2003 for presentations and Office Outlook 2003 for e-mail and personal information. Office applications share a common look and feel, which means there's less to learn when switching between them. There are also shared components, such as the drawing tools which let you create charts, diagrams and text effects. Another strong point is that Visual Basic for Applications is fully integrated, enabling anything from simple macros to custom solutions that automate one or more of the Office applications. Office has been a highly capable product for years, making it hard for Microsoft to come up with compelling new features. New in Office Standard Edition 2003 is great integration with SharePoint Services running on Windows Server 2003, allowing users to save documents to an internal website with features like update notification, task lists and version control. Tablet PC users get built-in support for Ink, letting you add handwritten notes and drawings to Office documents. Those with always-on Internet access will like the updated Task Pane, offering online help and potentially third-party services direct from the Internet. Outlook has been reworked in this edition, with a better interface and more secure e-mail reading. Office Word 2003 is enhanced with a new Reading view, using ClearType technology and automatic page-sizing for ease in reading online documents. Although this is the Standard edition, it is comprehensive and feature-rich. There is also a professional edition, which adds the Office Access 2003 database manager, Office Publisher 2003 for desktop publishing and some additional features in the area of XML support and rights management. Office deserves its position as the leading productivity suite. It's an excellent deal, but makes less sense as an upgrade unless you have a tablet PC or will make use of the new collaboration features. --Tim Anderson Manufacturer's Description Microsoft Office Word 2003, the latest version of the best-selling word processor, takes customer experience and feedback to deliver innovations you can use to create impressive-looking documents and help you work better together. Communicate and Share Information Better. Communicate and Share Information Better Communicate quickly and effectively with othersinternally and across organizations. Capture and Reuse Information, Bring information into your documents for more timely access to the information you need to make good decisions. Access Additional Productivity Resources Quickly find the information you need to complete your work. Microsoft Office Excel 2003 enables you to turn data into information with powerful tools to analyze, communicate, and share results. Microsoft Office Excel 2003 can help you work better in teams, and help protect and control access to your work. In addition, you can work with industry-standard Extensible Markup Language (XML) data to make it easier to connect to business processes. Capture and Reuse Data Bring key business data into your spreadsheets for more timely access to the information you need to make good decisions. Share Information with Confidence Work together effectivelyinternally and with other organizationsand help protect against the misuse of sensitive company information. Increase Productivity Be mobile and access information that can help you create the best spreadsheets possible. Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 provides an integrated solution for managing and organizing e-mail messages, schedules, tasks, notes, contacts, and other information. Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 delivers innovations you can use to manage your communications, organize your work, and work better with othersall from one place. Manage and Prioritize Your Communication Organize information better to help save time and be more productive. Let Outlook Do Work for You Outlook can help you get the information you needand block the information you don't needto stay productive. Work with Others More Easily Work together better and help protect against the misuse and unwanted distribution of key company information. Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2003 includes new tools to help you create, present, and collaborate on presentations that have more impact. Work Together and Share Presentations with Confidence Now it's easier to collaborate on compelling presentations and share them with others. Impress Your Audience Use Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2003 to create exciting slide shows with graphics, animations, and multimediaand make them easier to present. Access Information at Your Fingertips Find the information you need without having to leave Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2003.