Microsoft Office 2000 Developer

What's New in Office 2000 Premium

See Also

Office 2000 Developer is built on the architectural foundation of Microsoft Office, which has established a position as the most efficient suite of applications for document creation, communication, and business information analysis.

There are literally hundreds of new features in Office 2000, but they can be grouped into four major areas:

• Increased productivity is achieved using Office features that take over routine tasks, leaving you free to concentrate on creative activity. For example, Office programs self-diagnose and repair key missing or damaged files. Personalized menus and toolbars move items you use more frequently to a prominent position.
  
  
• Integration with the Web happens throughout Office 2000. Programs can easily save their files in the language of the Web — HTML — and easily transfer files to and from the Web. Use of HTML also means that any Office document sent in that format can be read by anyone with a Web browser.
  
  
• Support for multilingual users is realized by allowing companies to deploy one core set of software code worldwide. A global interface lets you change the language of the user interface and help files without affecting the operation of the application.
  
  
• Reducing the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of Office 2000 is accomplished by improvements in setup, maintenance, and performance. TCO is a method of adding up the costs of acquiring, using, and maintaining a product like Office 2000. TCO is a popular yardstick in the corporate world, but it is significant even in small business or in personal use.

Increasing Your Productivity

Office 2000 takes over more of the "housekeeping" aspects of your work, leaving you free to concentrate on more important issues. Personalized menus and toolbars track your way of working and respond by making your most frequently used commands and buttons the easiest to reach. Self-repairing programs check for damaged files before launch. Web features automatically select the correct formats for files.

• Personal menus   put your most needed commands at the top of a menu. The feature evaluates the commands used most frequently and shortens menus by promoting frequently used commands and hiding rarely used commands. Holding the cursor over a menu title expands the menu to show all items. After a few cycles of use, your menus will be personalized so they present your most-used commands at the top.
  
  
• Personal toolbars   share space on the screen based on the frequency with which toolbar items are used. Frequently used items are promoted to let multiple toolbars share a single row. A "slider" button quickly displays any hidden buttons.
  
  
• Collect and paste   manages up to 12 separate items on the Clipboard. Thumbnail views let you paste or drag individual items or the entire group. The feature provides a quick way to move a collection of items from one document or program to another.
  
  
• URLs in command bars   give Web access. Web content can be brought directly into the active program by entering a URL in the command bar.
  
  
• Clip Gallery   contains thousands of pictures, sounds, and motion clips. There are new searching tools and the ability to drag and drop images into any Office document. The Clip Gallery can be reduced to remain open in a small side pane view while you work on your document. If you have Web access, you can download clips from a special Web page and add them to your Clip Gallery.

Supporting HTML as a Companion Format

The language of the Web is HTML, and Office 2000 applications support it. By using a single file format, you can easily share documents across the Web, even with users who do not have Office 2000 on their computers. Office 2000 adopts the HTML document format on an equal footing with other native Office formats like Word documents or Excel worksheets. This means that information created on the Web or an intranet flows smoothly through Office programs. It also means that Web documents can be saved as Office documents and vice-versa.

• HTML as a native file format   lets Office save to and read from HTML files with high precision. Features present in the Web document are preserved when saved to Office format.
  
  
• Office document features   not supported on the Web are preserved when an Office document is saved as HTML. When you open the document in a Web browser, these features will not appear. However, when you reopen your Office document in your Office program, you can still view and edit the original formatting. Web-based document sharing becomes as easy as working with regular Office documents.
  
  
• Office Web Components   let you view and manipulate worksheet or database information in a Web browser and share the findings over the Web. You can create custom solutions and interactive reports with these easily used components.
  
  
• Save as Web page   command copies a file to the Web directly from Office programs. Saving a Web page to a Web server becomes as easy as saving it to your local hard drive.
  
  
• HTML as a Clipboard format   allows easy data interchange between Office and a Web browser. You can store as many as a dozen Web items on the Clipboard at the same time and paste or drag some or all of them into your Office document.
  
  
• Web page previews   of Office Web pages can be viewed within your own browser, even before you save the file.
  
  
• Graphics formats   for Web pages are automatically saved in Web-friendly formats. After you save your document as a Web page, you can still edit its graphics and objects when you open your Web page in an Office program. The image is saved in both the native format and the browser-displayable format for easy editing.

Collaborating on the Web

Using Office 2000, working with the Web becomes a natural part of your daily routine. You can create Web pages easily and publish them to the Web quickly. Web-based information sharing becomes a powerful extension of what you do with Office.

The capabilities of the Microsoft^® Internet Explorer Web browser are woven throughout Office programs, making working with Web pages as easy as working with Office documents. The interweaving of Office with the Web means that business analysis tools in Office can work with data in many forms, whether from a messaging server, your hard disk, or a Web browser.

• Web Discussions   let you have a typed conversation with several people at once. You can or have serious business discussions or chat about the weather, while keeping a record of what everyone said.
  
  
• NetMeeting integration   provides conferencing software that sets up an online meeting from within any Office program. You can communicate with people at different locations in real time, using a Chat window, and even write instant notes to each other on an electronic whiteboard.
  
  
• Web subscriptions   automatically send you e-mail when an important document or Web page has been updated. Subscribe to a document or Web page, and indicate if you would like to be notified by e-mail or Web page when the document changes.
  
  
• Web file management   simplifies managing files stored on a Web server. Access the Web Folders through any Office program or the Windows Explorer. Use the Web Folders features to store material, view file properties, and drag and drop files from any Web server to which you have access.

Supporting Multilingual Users

As Office has become a global corporate solution, the need for simple methods of deployment and usage has grown. In response, Office 2000 has added or enhanced a number of features that let you work with the languages you want.

• Global user interface   lets you change the language of the user interface without affecting the operation of the program. You can enter, display, and edit text in all supported languages in any version of Office 2000. Supported languages include European languages, Japanese, Traditional and Simplified Chinese, Korean, Hebrew, and Arabic.
  
  
• Single worldwide executable   means only one core program version, which simplifies deployment and usage for global businesses.
  
  
• International Web pages   are saved with international text encoding so users in any language system are able to view the correct characters.
  
  
• Unicode   allows easier multilingual document creation. It is available in all Office 2000 programs. You can enter and display text from any of the supported languages in a single language version of Office.
  
  
• Input Method Editor 2008   supports enhanced input methods for Far East languages. All Office 2000 programs support this feature.

Reducing the Total Cost of Ownership

Installing and supporting the software is easier in Office 2000. Flexible installation allows you to install only the features needed. You can also run programs from a server or set them up so they are installed only when first used.

• Install on demand   means that programs and components are installed only when needed, saving space on the hard drive. Shortcuts, icons, and commands for programs that were not installed may appear in your interface. Just click them to have Office install the program or component for you.
  
  
• Self-repairing programs   automatically detect and repair critical errors. Essential files and registry entries are checked automatically and repaired if necessary when you start an Office program. The Detect and Repair command is used to reinstall non-critical files, like fonts or templates that are missing or corrupted.
  
  
• Office Profile Wizard   fully backs up and restores Office 2000 settings and preferences for easy transfer to new machines or installations.
  
  
• Template Manager   lets you easily access new or custom templates even if they are not stored in the default location.
  
  
• Roaming user profiles    let you move from machine to machine on your network and retrieve user and machine-specific settings from a server. Your system administrator can configure your user profile to travel with you. Then, when you log on to a different computer, it will start up with your personal configuration.