Where's the Emperor's clothes? (Office-03)

**wmfay1** · 2004-01-10 04:37

My company is upgrading to office-03 from 2k. Don't know where to begin other than is there a simple way to keep everything as much the same as possible? The only good thing I can say so far is, "It's nice to see the programmer's help is back the way it was in office 97." Guess we didn't know when we had it so good. ;-)

**mitzs** · 2004-01-10 13:18

(Edited by Leif to make the links live - see the quick guide)

You probably already found these links but I'm going to pass them on anyway. <img src=/S/smile.gif border=0 alt=smile width=15 height=15>

http://www.microsoft.com/office/ork/...ne/default.htm

http://office.microsoft.com/assistance/top...=ES790000201033

http://office.microsoft.com/home/office.as...1033&CTT=98

Good luck with the update and let me know how it went.

**jscher2000** · 2004-01-10 23:18

> is there a simple way to keep everything as much the same as possible?

This might be covered in the above links, but I didn't visit them: If you are volume licensing Office, and perhaps even if you aren't (???), you can merge your configuration to a single administrative install point. As part of that process, you can attempt to work around some of the new features you don't like, and add back some of the ones you feel are missing. I haven't used 2003 yet, but in Word 2002, there are at least half a dozen things I changed, such as changing the default menu shortcuts from the new task panes back to old dialogs (File>New, Format>Styles); adding a toolbar button for the "old" Accept/Reject Revisions dialog; setting the style of deleted text revision marking to strikethrough (there's no GUI way to do this); and turning off "balloons" in Print Layout (formerly known as Page Layout?) mode. Your mileage may vary.

Based on what I've seen in demos, the best feature of Word 2003 is the ability to set protection in forms on a much more granular level (i.e., not entire sections). No comment on the other applications, although people are saying good things (mostly) about Outlook 2003.

**wmfay1** · 2004-01-12 23:59

We are a volume license site. I also have TechNet; it says April 2003 but don't know how recent that is. Have been having to deal with this STUFF all too frequently in the last 10 years. Want to buy a copy of "Hacker's Guide to Word for Windows, 2ed" ? © 1995! IBM used to treat us better than we are getting today. (any obfuscation with my e-mail address may or may not be intentional). Just between you and me, only the PUC templates survive. Everything else has gone the way of the Dodo, FOCUS, DYL, PROFS (remember Ollie North & Admiral Pointdexter had a problem with this?).

**wmfay1** · 2004-01-20 20:20

Was able to get to Border's (one of the finest reference libraries in Honolulu) and found a book called "Microsoft Office 2003 Inside Out". Microsoft should be ashamed of themselves. What I was trying to ask about was the "TASK PAIN" (sic) and "Tiling" of the Help window. Had they bothered to tell us about this change ahead of time (There are a lot more of us who are not BETA testers but actually count more), there would have not been so much problem finding about how to deal with it. There also apparently is a way to install the release without going back to nubie mode. If you go into the help there are lists of new functions and new objects. But since there isn't an index in the first level of help anymore, I will leave that to the student as an exercise.
"Those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it. It makes for good puzzles." - Erno Rubick

**DaveA** · 2004-01-20 20:52

Being that you upgraded from 2000, there were a lot changes in 2002 (XP) that are NOT new to 2003. Most of the books I have and/or seen do mention the differences between 2002 and 2003. We have never expected any company or book reflect the differences from earlier version other than the last one.

Task Pane was a XP addition and I think you will find that the use of "Ctrl and select" to make a link work was added in 2002 also. You will also find that there were a lot of additions as far as the "Right clicking" in 2002 and more so in 2003.

Your closing statement about history, is very valid. You by skipping a version, have lost the history of that version and now have to catch up.

**unkamunka** · 2004-01-20 21:42

Given the very slow movement in upgrades for Office over the years, the Microsoft standard "What's New in....." feature in Online Help is beginning to look decidedly out of touch. It only ever has covered the differences between the current and previous versions. Many Loungers seem to be shortly undergoing the delights of shifting from Office 97 to Office 2003 in one step - if they have not already done so.

**Karen** · 2004-01-21 19:03

We will be doing some work for some people upgrading from 97 to 2003 - we currently use xp and will install 03 soon. If anyone has had any experience with the jump from 97 to 03 I would be greatful for the advice,

**DaveA** · 2004-01-21 21:46

You might want to go and fine some of the "Step by Step" or "Visually" and etc type of books on the older versions, so you can glance over what was new in them. By getting these smaller books, not only would be cheaper but easier for a glance over before seeing what was done in the next version. When skipping a version or two, it is very hard to tell what is really new in the current version.

**unkamunka** · 2004-01-22 09:16

Can you give us a notion of which Office Apps you are updating? Is it almost entirely Excel and Word, or do you have, for example, Access to migrate as well?

**Karen** · 2004-01-23 06:52

It is likely to be the whole office - Access, and Outlook included. The problem with most of the books is that they usually gloss over the annoyances. I have got most of the Que Books (which Woody either writes or contributes to) for Office 97, Word 97, and have bought one for each of the individual apps for 2003. It is the little things that worry me.

For example the Map feature in Excel 97 is one I never used. I had forgotten it was taken out in some version after that.

One of my clients uses it all the time - he works in an area involved in air safety and maps out air incidents by geographical location. He is part of the group that is moving to 03 - I earn't a lot of kudos when I told him that map wouldn't be available - there is now a separate product (and hence more dollars). Now that he knows he can manage the transition, but I keep wondering what other little gotchas are out there.

Cheers

**riclager** · 2004-01-23 15:48

I just purchased the Que Microsoft Outlook 2003 book and it is fantastic.

Ric Lager

**wmfay1** · 2004-01-27 23:41

Finally, someone who appreciates the problem.

**wmfay1** · 2004-01-27 23:47

The complication for us will be that we lose ALL administrative rights! Have you ever had to upgrade a server product and not have admin rights? I have! It involves a lot of creative guess work and arm twisting to get the people who do to do what needs to be done!
Imagine, you can't create or change an ODBC definition. You can't load a Wizard someone forgot to add. BUT WORSE, you may not have any printers defined and be expected to test reports! Know what happens? The reports Hang! Access will not be able to format the report and DOES NOT know how to tell you this. In comparison LINUX starts looking good.

**wmfay1** · 2004-01-28 00:05

If it is that simple, why doesn't MS just issue a short changes memo to those of us who have been around since before Access 1.0 hoping it might someday be a real product? Know what? It made it in 97! That is a formidable product. Since then MS has successively been obfuscating and hand tying. Why don't they document the changes to comdlg32.dll? Why is it in Excel, but in Access in a different form, and not in Word? Don't you just love it when it just fails silently -- invalid call, and turns out the definition of the flags has changed! It is the best example I can come up with for the "I KNOW WHAT YOU WANT BUT NOT GOING TO GIVE IT TO YOU" instruction. (sorry 'bout the rant. I know you are a nice guy. I assume you have read Cathedral and Bazzar. The magi hav'ta collect their fee some other way.)
--"If it isn't documented, it doesn't exist. Except for Worms, bugs, and viruses." I said that. (It is my retort to the falsehood, "If you can't measure it, it doesn't exist.")

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