Microsoft Office 2000 Custom Installation Wizard

The Microsoft Office 2000 Custom Installation wizard (CIW) enables you to customize how you install Office 2000 applications. To simplify the process of installing Internet Explorer with Office 2000, the Internet Explorer Customization wizard works with the CIW.

If you plan to include Internet Explorer with your custom Office package, you have the following two choices:

• If you do not want to customize Internet Explorer, you can choose to install Internet Explorer components by using the CIW. You do not need to use the Internet Explorer Customization wizard.
• If you want to customize Internet Explorer, you can specify this choice in the CIW. The CIW will then start the Internet Explorer Customization wizard so that you can customize the browser setup process.

To customize Internet Explorer, you must first install Internet Explorer 5 and the IEAK on the computer where you are creating your custom Office package. When you customize Internet Explorer settings, the Internet Explorer Customization wizard runs in corporate administrator mode with the following settings:

• The distribution media is CD.
• Two installation options are available: Minimal and Typical. You cannot change the names of these options, but you can specify which components will be installed with each installation option.

Note The CIW installs Microsoft NetMeeting and Microsoft Outlook Express with all installation options.

• All of the cabinet (.cab) files and custom components that are created by the Internet Explorer Customization wizard are placed in the same folder.

When you run the CIW and customize Internet Explorer, user options from Windows Update Setup will not be displayed during the Office setup process. The user options for the setup are determined by the CIW.

Web Component Features

When you install Office 2000 and Internet Explorer 5, you can take advantage of new Office 2000 Web components, which integrate Office functionality with the Web. Most importantly, Web components make it possible for anyone with a browser to view the contents of Office files. Using Web components, you can easily create and share Web documents using the same Office tools that you use to create printed documents. For example, your Web pages can now include Microsoft Word documents or Microsoft Excel functions and formulas.

Web components include the following features:

• HTML as a companion file format - Office applications can save to and read from HTML files. HTML files are elevated to the same level as the proprietary file formats, including Microsoft Word (.doc) files, Microsoft Excel (.xls) files, and Microsoft® PowerPoint (.ppt) files. Office applications also intelligently manage companion files, such as embedded graphics and other objects that cannot be stored in HTML format.
• Web-based collaboration - Using Office Server Extensions (OSE) features, you can work with Office files and collaborate in a Web-based environment without needing expert knowledge of Web technologies and servers. For example, you can publish documents to available Web servers or view the contents of the Web server by using Windows Explorer.
• Data access pages - Using the new data access page designer, you can build data access pages (HTML pages with databinding capabilities) by using familiar Microsoft Access controls, or open any existing HTML file and add data-bound fields to the page. Data access pages also support Microsoft Visual Basic Scripting Edition (VBScript) or Microsoft JScript, so you can program in the language of your choice using a familiar development environment.
• Save as a Web page - This Web component feature enables you to save your current Office file in HTML format directly to a Web server. For example, you could create product pricing tables in Excel and then save them as Web pages on your server so that customers could view the tables using their browser.
• Office themes and design templates - You can easily create consistent-looking Web pages using themes and design templates, which have been created and coordinated between Office applications and the Microsoft FrontPage® Web site creation and management tool. For example, Microsoft Word and Microsoft Access provide themes, and the Microsoft PowerPoint presentation graphics program includes design templates consistent with these themes.
• HTML file editing - You can easily edit HTML files by using Office applications. When you click the Edit button in Internet Explorer, it launches the Office application that created the HTML file so that you can edit its contents.
• HTML as a Clipboard format - Office makes HTML a standard Clipboard format. Now you can easily copy and paste data between Office applications and the browser.
• Web page preview - Using your default browser, you can preview Web pages created in Office without saving the pages first.
• Link handling and repair - An improved hyperlink interface in Office applications makes it easier for you to create, edit, and remove links from Office documents. Also, when users save documents, Office applications check the links and repair those that are not working.
• International text encoding - Office applications save files by using international text encoding, which enables you to view the correct characters using any language.

For More Information

For more information about the CIW and deploying Internet Explorer with Office 2000, see the following:

• Microsoft Office 2000 Resource Kit
• Microsoft Office 2000 Web site
• Chapter 16, "Customizing Setup"