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Product Overview for Microsoft Office XP
Professional
The most significant version of Office ever released, Microsoft Office XP Professional
integrates productivity innovations throughout its programs to transform the traditional
Office suite into a smarter overall work experience. By simplifying productivity, enabling
collaboration for everyone, and extending Office beyond the desktop, Office XP Professional
streamlines how people work with information and one another, making it easier for everyone
to create, share, and analyze important data.
In addition to the core Office XP programs - Microsoft Word, Excel, Outlook, and PowerPoint -
Office XP Professional includes Microsoft Access 2002, the Office XP database solution that
helps users store, access, and analyze their data.
BENEFITS
- Works with you.Whether you're working on your PC, company intranet or the Web,
new context-sensitive Smart Tags pop up with the options you need - right when you need
them. No digging through menus!
- Hands you tools. Now tasks that once required multiple steps are just one click
away. The secret? The new Task Pane. The bottom line? You'll use more of the software features
in Office XP, to get more done in less time.
- Guards your work.Relax. Your work is safe with Office XP because AutoRecover saves
it at regular intervals while you work. Prone to sudden power outages? Relax again. Document
Recovery is designed to save your PCs work-in-progress.
WHAT'S NEW
Smart Tags
Microsoft Office Smart Tags are a set of buttons that are shared across the Office applications.
These buttons appear when the user needs them (such as when a user makes an error in an Excel
formula, when Word automatically corrects a user's action, or when a user pastes some data) and
gives the user the options they need to change the given action or error.
Task Panes
Office XP applications give users easy access to their important tasks in a single integrated view.
From the Task Pane, which appears on the right side of the screen, users can perform searches, open
or start a new document, view the contents of the clipboard, format their documents and presentations,
or even access translation and template services via the Web.
Note: Different Task Panes are associated with specific applications. Each individual application's
Product Guide highlights the Task Panes unique to the given application.
Paste Options Smart Tags
Multiple paste options allow users to decide whether they want to paste their data as they originally
copied it, change the style so that it fits the style of the document they are pasting the data into,
or apply specific characteristics to the data, based on the content.
AutoCorrect Options Smart Tags
This feature provides an easy mechanism for users to control and modify automatic behavior that takes
place within the Office applications. Users can undo an auto correction, choose to not have that
correction take place in the future, or access the AutoCorrect Options dialog box without needing to
search for it under the Tools menu.
Speech
Office XP increases user productivity by supplementing traditional mouse and keyboard execution with
voice commands. Users can dictate text, make direct formatting changes, and navigate menus using
speech and voice commands.
Note: Speech is currently available for U.S. English, Simplified Chinese, and Japanese languages.
Handwriting
Office XP enables users to take handwritten notes on their handheld device and upload their notes as
text directly into their Office applications. Users can also write directly in Word XP and keep the
document in handwriting or convert it to typed text. Furthermore, East Asian users will be able to
handwrite characters in Japanese, Chinese, and Korean, and Word will automatically convert it to the
correct typed character.
Office Document Imaging
The new Office Document Imaging functionality, which takes advantage of Optical Character Recognition
(OCR) technology, enables users to scan multi-page documents, view those documents, and reuse that
text in their Office applications. Furthermore, users can locate their imaged documents at a later
time using the full text search capabilities built into Office.
Streamlined User Interface
Office XP has a new look and feel that improves the user's Office experience. This includes removing
visually competing elements, visually prioritizing items on a page, increasing letter spacing and word
spacing for better readability, and defining foreground and background color to bring the most important
elements to the front.
Office Template Gallery
Provides hundreds of professionally designed templates on the Web that can be accessed and edited
directly within Office.
Compress Pictures
The Office XP Compress Pictures feature enables users to compress images within their Office files.
Users can select the intended use of the file (Web, print, screen display, etc.) and designate
whether one or all images in the file should be optimized. The images are then shrunken and compressed
in a manner that minimizes the size of the image without minimizing the visual quality of the image.
Office E-mail Introduction
Microsoft Office E-mail contains an introductory field, which enables users to enter a short introduction
at the top of the message when sending mail from an Office application. This eliminates the need to change
the body of the document the user is sending.
Ask A Question
Office XP enables users to type a question without launching the Answer Wizard or the Office Assistant.
Even if the assistant is turned off or hidden, the question is answered in an Answer Wizard balloon.
Context Sensitive Smart Tags
In previous versions of Office, Word and Excel were smart enough to recognize URLs and e-mail names
and assign links associated with these items. Users could then activate the items by clicking on them.
Word XP and Excel XP extend this functionality to include information from Microsoft Outlook or the
Web, including names, dates, addresses, phone numbers, places, and stock symbols. Because these Smart
Tags are extensible, organizations can create their own.
Search (Task Pane)
As part of the Task Pane, the new search capabilities of Office XP make it simple to find text in a
document. Users can also find files or folders-regardless of where they are stored-without needing to
leave the document they are working on. Furthermore, users can index the files on their machine. The
result is faster and more comprehensive searches.
Save to MSN
Using MSN Communities, users can save their documents to a file cabinet on the Internet, which can be
private or public. This allows users to easily share files on the Internet without ever leaving
Microsoft Office. MSN Communities uses Passport as its authentication mechanism.
Media Gallery
Thousands of clip art images, sounds, photos, and animations are available on the Web and can be
accessed from Office XP applications. The Clip Gallery Live is updated monthly so that users can
constantly extend their design possibilities.
My Data Sources
A new folder in the My Documents folder keeps track of the data sources that users have previously
accessed. This enables users to quickly find a connection to a database or other data source without
having to spend time searching for it.
Document Recovery
Microsoft Word, Excel, Access and PowerPoint give users the option of saving their current files at
the time an error occurs in an application. As a result, users spend less time recreating their
documents, spreadsheets, databases, and presentations.
Application Error Reporting
In Office XP, the applications can automatically report any errors that occur directly to Microsoft or
the user's corporate IT department. This gives Microsoft (or organizations) the data needed to further
diagnose and correct these errors as well as to provide users with direct access to workarounds or
other information on the error.
Application and Document Recovery
This provides a safer method for shutting down an application that is not responding. Users can choose
to shut down a non-responding application while initiating recovery of the document. They can also
report the problem to Microsoft or their corporate IT department at the same time.
Repair and Extract
Microsoft Word and Excel can automatically invoke this corrupt-document repair and recovery functionality
in the event of an error or a failure to load a file. Users can also invoke this functionality by
choosing Open and Repair from the File Open dialog box (the drop-down menu to the right of Open).
Auto Recover
Automatic recovery has been added to Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Publisher. Users can choose how often
files are automatically saved. If an error occurs, the recovered file is opened, and users have the option
of discarding the file, saving it over the original, or saving it as a separate file.
Safe Mode
Office XP can recognize common problems associated with booting up an application and can automatically
run the appropriate work-around. This enables the user to launch the application in the event of a
boot-related error, thus preventing unnecessary downtime.
Document Password Encryption
Word and Excel offer improved password encryption options, and PowerPoint has it for the first time.
These applications offer the choice of using the standard CryptoAPI, a stronger encryption algorithm
than previous versions. Default encryption remains the same (for backward compatibility) while the
stronger encryption is offered as a choice.
Digital Signatures
Office XP gives users the ability to digitally sign entire documents. This enables users to know if
a document has come from a trusted source as well as if the document has been altered from its
original state.
Single Security Tab
The security options for each application are now available under a single tab under Tools>Options.
This makes it easy for users to access their security options without having to go to multiple locations.
Visual Basic for Applications Installation Options
Administrators and/or users have the option of removing Visual Basic for Applications from Office
installations on a user, group, or organization-wide basis.
Send for Review
Office understands each user's specific role in the review cycle and gives each user the tools needed
to successfully collaborate on documents. When a document is sent for review (from the File > Send To
menu), the correct reviewing tools are automatically turned on for others to review. Furthermore, when
the document is sent back, users can merge the changes back into the original document.
MSN Messenger Integration
When an Outlook user opens an e-mail message (or views it via the Preview Pane) or a contact card, he
or she can identify whether that person is online. Users can then immediately initiate an MSN Messenger
session from within Outlook.
Outlook Free/Busy Sharing
Using Microsoft Outlook, users can share Free/Busy information with others over the Internet. This
makes it easy to schedule meetings among Outlook users who do not share an Exchange server.
Propose New Time
When receiving a meeting request, users now have the option of proposing a new meeting time to the
meeting organizer rather than just declining the request. Furthermore, users who have Exchange server
will be able to see the free and busy times of each attendee before submitting the new meeting time.
Group Schedules
Users can save multiple group calendars within Outlook for quick and easy access to their team or
conference room schedules. Within this single calendar interface, users can view the free and busy
times of their group as well as easily send e-mail or set up an appointment with the entire group.
XML Support in Excel and Access
Excel now supports Extensible Markup Language (XML). Users can load and save generic, well-formed, and
spreadsheet XML directly into Excel. Furthermore users can query XML spreadsheets from the Web and
thereby analyze important Web data. Access users can easily import or export XML schema and data
documents into and out of Access. Users can automatically import the XML tables or access advanced
options to customize the import.
Intelligent Setup
When upgrading from a previous version of Office, Setup analyzes a user's current configuration and
intelligently installs the same components.
Smart Tag Extensibility
In addition to the Smart Tags that will ship as part of Word and Excel, third parties can tie in to
the Smart Tag technology to offer their own solutions for Office XP users. For example, an organization
can create a Smart Tag that links the user directly to all the organization's customers, orders, prices,
and more, when the user simply types in an order number into Excel.
Custom Maintenance Wizard (CMW)
This feature gives administrators the ability to maintain and configure Office XP after it has been
installed. Among the options available to the administrator is the ability to add or remove files,
programs, or components of an installation. Administrators also have the ability to change settings
for a given install and to change Outlook configuration settings. The Custom Maintenance Wizard options
mirror those of the Custom Installation Wizard.
Save My Settings Wizard
With this wizard, users can save their settings directly to a file or up to the Web (using Microsoft
Passport for authentication) where they can easily access them and apply them to another machine.
Users no longer have to recreate their settings on a second machine (such as a machine at home) or a
new machine. In addition, this feature saves time for administrators who can quickly move settings
from machine to machine.
Setup from HTTP
Office XP can now be installed directly from a Web Server instead of just from a file share on the
organization's network. This includes installation support from HTTP, HTTPS, and FTP.
Digital Dashboard Support
Users can easily create Digital Dashboards to access their important information from Office or the
Web right from within Outlook version 2002.
Save/Open from Exchange
Documents can be saved directly from Office into the Web Storage System using the File/Save As dialog
box. Documents are easily retrieved from Exchange 2000 into Office using the File/Open dialog box,
enabling users to utilize the security, replication, accessibility, powerful application and workflow
capabilities of Exchange as a store. Office users can store e-mail, tasks, documents, or spreadsheets
in a single folder and can access this folder from any client, including the Windows Explorer, Outlook,
Outlook Express, or a Web browser.
Document Properties
The Web Storage System allows custom properties such as document author, workflow recipient, or
description to be stored with each item in the database. This provides powerful opportunities for rich
viewing, indexing, searching, and organization of information. Any number of properties can be stored
with each item, and the set of properties can be different for each item.
Built-in Content Indexing and Search
The Web Storage System includes built-in indexing for high-speed, accurate, full-text searches, enabling
users to find content quickly and easily. Users of Outlook can search for documents in the Web Storage
System as easily as they search for e-mail messages today, increasing their productivity. Users can use
the same Outlook search interface they have become accustomed to, but the queries are significantly
faster. Furthermore, users can find matches in documents both attached to e-mail messages and stand-alone,
rather than only in messages.
Support for Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning (DAV)
Web DAV is a new HTTP-based protocol that people can use to collaborate seamlessly on documents over
the Web, regardless of their authoring tools. With Web DAV, users can perform basic remote file operations
(for example, copy, move, and delete) across the Web. The support for Web DAV in Exchange 2000 enables
Office documents to be stored directly into Exchange Server, facilitating working with and searching for
important Office files.
Integration with Microsoft FrontPage
FrontPage can be used to edit and manage Web applications hosted on the Web Storage System. For example,
Web-based custom forms can be created in FrontPage 2000 and hosted by the Web Storage System. Using the
native dialog boxes in FrontPage, developers can open a Web page directly in the Web Storage System,
edit it using the familiar FrontPage tools, and then run the application in a browser directly from the
Web Storage System.
Document Subscriptions
Office users can subscribe to documents and folders, and they can even search and categorize their
subscriptions. Readers or authors can express interest in a particular document, folder, search, or
category and be notified (via SMTP mail or through a central Web site) when there has been a change.
Notifications can fire immediately or be batched within a particular interval.
Collaboration Toolbar
Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server servers are valid Collaboration Servers within the Office 2000
collaboration toolbar.
File Menu Additions
The file menu in Office applications is enhanced to allow documents to be checked in, checked out,
and submitted for publication without ever leaving Office. Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server document
libraries are directly visible and navigable in the Office 2000 Open/Save dialog boxes.
Property Promotion
Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server synchronizes Office document properties set inside a document with
those in the document profile. If a document contains an "author" property, that value is promoted to
the document profile. If a document profile is edited, it is updated in the underlying document.
Document Versioning
Edited Office documents are tracked so that previous versions can be retrieved. Versioning is used for
two reasons-audit and recovery. Audit is used to find out who changed a document, when it was changed,
and what was changed. Recovery is used when a user wants to revert to a previous version of a document.
Document Profiling
Document Profiling allows users to associate attributes with their Office documents, making them easier
to find, organize, and act on. These profiles can be configured on a per-folder basis, and profile
requirements can be set for each folder.
Document Retrieval
Once Office documents are placed into a Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server, they can be retrieved
based on content, location, key words or phrases, document profile, and attribute information. All
versions of a document can be retrieved. Furthermore, users who do not have access to a document or
do not have access to a draft document do not see it returned in search results.
Single Check-in/Check-out
Authors and editors can reserve their Office documents for editing. When checked out, the document
cannot be updated. Office Document locking with check-in and check-out can be configured on a
per-folder basis.
Drafts
Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server draft-support feature ensures that Office documents are not seen
until they are ready to be seen. Office documents that are created as "drafts" can be shared by a set
of authors, but are not visible to readers. When a document is ready to publish, it is made visible to
users by an explicit "publish" operation.
Publishing Approval
Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server allows customers to establish a simple procedure for publishing
their Office documents. "Approvers" can be set for a folder, determining who has permission to make
documents available to readers. An author can submit a document for publication to an approver who
examines the document to decide whether to publish or reject the document. Several different models
for publishing are supported.
STANDARD FEATURES
File Format Compatibility
The file formats are backward-compatible with Office 2000 and Office 97 (with the exception of Access 97).
Users of Office XP, Office 2000, and Office 97 can seamlessly share documents with one another.
IMPROVED FEATURES
File New (Task Pane)
As part of the Task Pane, creating a new file or opening an existing file is made simpler. Not only can
users quickly open a new file from within the task pane, but they can also create a new document from
a template that lives on the Web, create a new document from an existing document, or get a list of
their most recently used templates or documents.
Office Clipboard (Task Pane)
An improved clipboard enables users to copy up to 24 pieces of information at once across all the
Office applications or the Web and store them on the Task Pane. The Task Pane gives users a visual
representation of the copied data and a sample of the text, so they can easily distinguish between
items as they transfer them to other documents.
Office Assistant
The Office Assistant is hidden by default. It appears when Help is activated and hides itself when
Help is completed.
Help Window Improvements
An improved user interface enables users to easily access important help topics, Web sites
(such as Product Support Services and Office Update), and a "What's New" catalog where they can
learn about new areas of functionality in each application.
Web Queries
When in Excel, users can easily access, analyze, and refresh data from the Web. When information
from the Web is copied into Excel, a Smart Tag appears, giving users the option to create a
refreshable query. Users can then manually refresh the data, or they can identify how often Excel
should automatically refresh the data. Users can also create these Web Queries by simply dragging
and dropping a Web page into Excel.
Print From Browser
Users can print an HTML file from the original Office application in which it was created. If a user
chooses to print an Office HTML file, Internet Explorer launches the appropriate application. This
provides users with a significantly higher quality printing result.
Web Options Compatibility
Office makes it easy for users to target a particular level of browser when creating documents for
the Web. This is done via a new "Browsers" tab in Web Options. This tab brings together all the
browser-specific options. Users can choose their target browser from a drop-down menu and set specific
browser options in their documents.
Insert Hyperlink Dialog Box
Enhancements to the Insert Hyperlink dialog box make it easier for users to link to files in the Web
pages they are working on. The dialog box shows a list of files and folders from the current folder
in the Web page and allows users to switch to another open Web page.
Document Password Encryption
Word and Excel offer improved password encryption options, and PowerPoint has it for the first time.
These applications offer the choice of using the standard CryptoAPI, a stronger encryption algorithm
than previous versions. Default encryption remains the same (for backward compatibility) while the
stronger encryption is offered as a choice.
Compare and Merge
Office XP gives users the ability to merge together comments and revisions from multiple reviewers.
The author (document owner) can then accept and reject one or all revisions.
Markup
Changes in Word and PowerPoint are represented by "markups" in the right margin of the document. These
markups identify revisions or comments from a reviewer, but do not obscure the original document or
affect its layout. This gives the user a more comprehensive view of the changes that have been made.
Reviewing Toolbar
The reviewing toolbar gives users a variety of views and options when reviewing documents. For example,
users can filter the document to view changes by specific reviewers or by all reviewers. Users can
also step through each change and accept or reject the changes individually, or they can accept or
reject all of the changes at the same time.
Office Web Components
A variety of improvements have been made to the Excel Web Components, such as support for loading
native Excel files, support for named ranges, multiple worksheets, wrapped texts, and the ability
to publish entire workbooks with interactivity to the Web. The Excel PivotTable component offers
conditional filtering on a range of expressions for filtering data. Finally, Office XP extends the
object model for the components that allow developers to build custom solutions that deliver data
to the browser.
Custom Installation Wizard (CIW)
A variety of improvements have been made to the Custom Installation Wizard. These include the ability
to remove files at the time of installation (e.g., outdated add-ins), set security levels for each
application, and customize Outlook in a variety of new ways.
Policy Support
Policy support for new features include improved respect for system policies. Office XP provides
added policy support for a majority of the new Office XP areas of functionality (where appropriate).
Administrators can now set policies that control the various Office security settings (such as being
able to turn on/off VBA support) and Office Task Panes (such as turning it on/off or adding new links).
International Support
International improvements have been added to Office XP. They include independent setup for each
language (making it easier to add or remove specific languages), a new Multi-Language Pack setup
wizard and automatic detection of Operating System language settings. Furthermore, FrontPage will
now be available in 26 languages (15 were available previously), and includes support for bi-directional
character sets and Unicode. This means that users can be in FrontPage and create content in whatever
language they have installed on their system.
Support for Windows Terminal Server
Office XP has made a variety of improvements on its interaction with Windows Terminal Server. For
example, installation is made simple because administrators can simply run setup when installing
Office XP rather than needing a custom transform. Furthermore, certain complex graphics such as menu
fading and smooth scrolling are turned off automatically when a user is connected to a remote machine.
This creates an improved application performance for the user.
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
Office XP Professional
Computer/Processor
The recommended system is Windows 2000 Professional on a computer with a Pentium III processor and
128MB of RAM. Pentium 133 MHz or higher processor required.
Memory
RAM requirements for Microsoft Office XP Professional depend upon the operating system used, plus an
additional 8 MB of RAM for each Office application running simultaneously: for Windows 98 and Windows
98 Second Edition, 24 MB of RAM for the operating system; for Windows Me, Windows NT Workstation or
Server 4.0, 32 MB of RAM for the operating system; for Windows 2000 Professional, 64 MB of RAM for the
operating system. Windows XP Professional, or Windows XP Home Edition - 128 MB of RAM plus an additional
8 MB of RAM for each Office application (such as Microsoft Word) running simultaneously
Hard Disk
Hard-disk space requirements will vary depending on configuration. 245 MB of available hard-disk space
is required for the default configuration of Microsoft Office XP Professional with 115 MB on the hard
disk where the operating system is installed. Customers without Windows 2000, Windows Me or Office 2000
SR1 will require an extra 50 MB of hard-disk space for the System Files Update. Custom installation
choices may require more or less hard-disk space.
Drive
CD-ROM Drive
Display
Super VGA (800x600) or higher-resolution monitor with 256 colors.
Operating System
Microsoft Windows 98, Windows 98 Second Edition, Windows Me, Windows NT 4.0 with Service Pack 6 or
greater, or Windows 2000, Windows XP or greater. On systems running Windows NT 4.0, the version of
Internet Explorer must be upgraded to at least 4.01 with Service Pack 1.
Peripherals
Microsoft Mouse, Microsoft IntelliMouse, or compatible pointing device.
Miscellaneous
Multimedia: Multimedia computer required for sound and other multimedia effects. A hardware
accelerated video card or MMX processor will provide improved graphical rendering performance. Pentium
II 400MHz or higher processor, 128 or more MB of RAM, close-talk microphone and audio output device
required for speech recognition.
E-mail & Internet: Microsoft Exchange, Internet SMTP/POP3, IMAP4, or MAPI-compliant messaging software
for e-mail; Microsoft Exchange Server required for certain advanced collaboration functionality in
Microsoft Outlook; some Internet functionality may require Internet access via a 14.4kbs or greater
modem or a high speed connection, and payment of a separate fee to a service provider; local charges
may apply.
Handwriting: Graphics tablet recommended for handwriting input features
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