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Office Features

Office 2000 tracks the user's pattern of usage and automatically customizes the interface based on this pattern. The result of this is that the menus and toolbars will eventually display those commands you use most often. Additionally, Self-repairing applications in Office 2000 search for missing or corrupted files and repair them automatically.

Office applications have a common interface. For example, the standard menus and toolbars of Word and Excel share a number of common options and buttons.
 

The typical Word 2000 tool bars are shown
 

The similarity between features such as menus and toolbars makes it easier to use a new application from the Office suite once a user is familiar with one of them.

With Office 2000, you can format document text as you easily preview font styles before you choose them using the what you see is what you get (WYSIWYG) pull-down font menu. It's simple to select the font you want, even if you don't know it by name.

One of the main aims of Office 2000 was to make it easier to use. This does not mean that any features have been removed from the applications. Rather, Office now tracks the user's pattern of usage and automatically customizes the interface based on this pattern.

When an Office application - such as Word - is installed, only a certain number of commands are visible on the menus. These represent the commands that Microsoft believes to be used most of the time - for example the Spelling and Grammar option in the Word Tools menu.

The commands that are not used often can be accessed by holding the cursor over the arrows at the bottom of the menus. When you start working, the application automatically moves those commands or options you access to the list of visible commands. The result of this is that the top part of the menu will eventually display those commands you use most often.

As well as extending to menu options, the Office 2000 intelligence feature extends to the toolbars. As you use toolbar items, they are moved up the toolbar so that all the items are displayed in a hierarchical fashion. This enables multiple toolbars to share a single screen row.

When you open an Office application such as Word, the menus and toolbars are by default set to personalize users' settings. Therefore, the standard and formatting toolbars appear in a single row. The menus move recently used commands to the list of visible commands.

The personalized menus and toolbars feature can be turned off if the user prefers to revert to the full menus and separate toolbars that were used in Office 97. When you turn off the feature to move recently used menu options to the list of visible commands in one application, it affects all your Office 2000 applications.

Suppose that you want to revert to the Office 97 menus and toolbars. To do this, you first select the Tools menu. Then you choose Customize. On the Options tabbed page of the Customize dialog box, you clear the Standard ... row checkbox. This checkbox is not either available if the Standard or Formatting toolbar is hidden or if both toolbars are floating. To show all the commands on the menus, you clear the Menus ... first checkbox. To view your changes, you click the Close button. The menus and toolbars now appear as they do in Office 97.

Let's say that you want to type a letter using the Letter Wizard. As you write letters on a regular basis, you decide to add the Envelopes and Labels button to the toolbar. You begin by selecting the Tools menu. As the Letter Wizard option is not available, you hold your cursor over the down-pointing arrows to view more options. The Letter Wizard option appears and you select it. You choose a design that you want to use and then click OK. Next you type your letter, save the document, and close it. The next time that you want to use the Letter Wizard, you find that the option is immediately available in the Tools menu.

To add the Envelopes and Labels button to the toolbar, you click the More Buttons button on the standard toolbar. Then you move the cursor over the Add or Remove Buttons button. You scroll down the list until you reach the Envelopes and Labels button and you select it. A checkmark appears next to the button and you click anywhere on the screen to close the list. The Envelopes and Labels button now appears on the toolbar.

 

New Open and Save - Places Feature

Office 2000 has added a number of features to the Open and Save dialog boxes. You can now complete common file management tasks such as finding and deleting files using a command bar.

The addition of a Back button now allows you to return to any file or folder anywhere in the directory structure.

A Places bar, similar to the one previously available in Outlook, provides easy access to a number of folders.

The Open and Save dialog is shown because the Office 2000 dialog includes a new Place bar. The Places bar is convenient for navigation and to locate files.

The Places bar folders include the History folder, containing a list of recently used files.

A Personal folder can serve as a place to store and organize your private documents.

The Personal folder is available if you are using Windows NT Workstation 4.0; otherwise, it is replaced by a My Documents folder.

A Desktop folder shows the desktop in the dialog box.

A Favorites folder can be used to store the files you use most often.

The Web Folders option points to folders on connected web servers and helps you publish files on the Internet or on your Intranet.

You may find when you are working with documents that you need to gather information from several different sources. Office 2000 has introduced a quick file-switching facility that represents each open document as an icon on the Windows taskbar. You can then switch between open documents, as you need them.

 

Powerful Clipboard Feature

To simplify the moving of text and pictures, the Office 2000 Clipboard can now collect and paste multiple items. Items can be copied to the clipboard from documents, e-mail messages, web pages, presentations, or other files.

For example, you can copy some text from an e-mail message, copy a drawing from a web site, and copy a table from Excel. Then you can switch to Word and paste all the copied items into a document.

You can copy items using any program, but you can paste items only into Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, and Outlook.

In order to make use of the Clipboard, you need to open the Clipboard toolbar in any Office application. The Clipboard is then available for use in all other applications.

The Clipboard can hold up to 12 items. You can't copy more than this in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, or Access.

If you do try to copy more than 12 items, you are asked whether you want to cancel the copy command or replace the first copied item with the new item. If you attempt to copy items in any application other than Word, Excel, PowerPoint, or Access, the items are copied to the Windows Clipboard.
 

The clipboard tool is shown in this Microsoft animation with several clips stored and ready for use.

Collect and Paste makes it easy to copy up to 12 pieces of information from any document and then paste them, either one at a time (in any order) or all at once, into another document.

The last item copied to the Office Clipboard is always copied to the Windows Clipboard. If you choose the Paste command in any application without selecting an item from the Office Clipboard, it is this last item that is then pasted from the Windows Clipboard. The Office Clipboard toolbar, however, allows you to paste any item individually or all the items at once.

Suppose that you are putting together a progress report containing suggestions and improvements for the new distribution policy and catalog your company is putting out. For your report, you want to include the brief introduction to your company that appears on its web site.

Suppose you want to include the following:

• Parts of a memo from another office

• Parts of an e-mail from customer support

• An Excel table containing the quantity of each page from the catalog that has been  requested by each sales person

You decide to copy the text from each of the documents into your own document, so  you begin by opening each of the sources. Each of these documents now appears as a button on the taskbar.

As you want to copy multiple items, you choose Toolbars - Clipboard from the View menu in Word. The Clipboard then appears as a floating toolbar. You click the Internet Explorer button on the taskbar to view the company's web page. You select the text you want to copy and you choose Edit - Copy. Now you click the Excel button on the taskbar to activate Excel. You select the table and click the Copy button on the toolbar. You repeat the procedure for those parts of the e-mail message you want to copy. You'll do the same for those sections of the memo you want to include.

You return to your progress report document and place the cursor where you want to copy the introductory text from the web site. Now you click the button on the Clipboard that contains the Internet Explorer icon. The web site text is then pasted into your document.

You scroll down the page until you reach the section on women's sport. As you are unsure which text to paste, you hold the cursor over the documents until a tool tip appears. The tooltip gives you the first line of the copied text, and you now click the button to paste the text into your document.

You repeat the procedure for the e-mail message and the Excel table. You can then close the Clipboard and format the new text so that it corresponds with the rest of the document.

 

Office Assistant Assistant, Rocky image Features

The Office Assistant now appears without a window, taking up less of your screen space, and can provide help when you ask questions using your own terminology. Linguistic-based search technology means that you can now ask the Office Assistant questions in less technical language. If the Office Assistant cannot answer the question, it provides a link to the Web where the user can find additional help.

The Office Assistant is no longer restricted its own window nor the applications you are working in. Initially it appears in the application's window, but it can be moved by dragging it to a new location. You can also specify that the application move the Office Assistant when it is in the way.

When you open an application for the first time, the Office Assistant appears on your desktop asking you if you need help. You can choose to view information for upgrades and new users, find out about the Office Assistant, or start using the application.

The Office Assistant can be displayed on your desktop while you work so that you can access help at any time by clicking the Office Assistant and typing your question.

There are a number of instances where the Office Assistant offers aid without you having to ask for it. For example, when you access a wizard - such as the Letter Wizard - the Office Assistant immediately explains to you what each tabbed page of the wizard does. In certain cases, it asks you whether you want help with a feature you have chosen.

The Office Assistant has a built-in function that attempts to pre-empt any questions that you may have about the tasks you are performing. When you perform a task, the Office Assistant presents you with a list of questions that it anticipates you may want to ask. Because the Office Assistant is common to all Office applications, any changes you make to its operation will be reflected in all the applications. If you do not want the Office Assistant visible, you can hide it, or you can turn off the Assistant completely.

You can specify that the Office Assistant is present on your desktop when you are working on a Word document or that Word moves the Office Assistant if it gets in the way.

If you do not want to be distracted by the Assistant, you can change the Assistant to the Office logo, which is the least active. If you want to limit the activity of the Assistant, you can decide to turn off the Help with wizards and Guess Help topics options.

You can decide to turn off the Assistant's sounds. To view the Office Assistant, you select the Show the Office Assistant option from the Help menu. If the Office Assistant is being displayed, this option is replaced with a Hide the Office Assistant option. You'd right-click the Assistant and select Choose Assistant from the shortcut menu to change the Assistant. On the Gallery tabbed page, you click the Next button until you find the Office Logo Assistant. Then you click OK to use the Assistant.

To turn off the Office Assistant

  1. Make sure the Office Assistant is displayed.
  2. Click the assistant to display the Office Assistant balloon.
  3. Click Options.
  4. On the Options tab, clear the Use the Office Assistant check box.
Assistant, Rocky image If the Assistant you choose is not available, you may need to install it. At left, Rocky is my favorite Assistant.  The Office Logo appears as your default Assistant. Customize the Assistant, right-clicking it; choose "Options" from the menu. On the Options tabbed page, you might select the Move when in the way checkbox. Then clear the Help with Wizards, Guess Help topics, and Make sounds checkboxes. When you have finished customizing your Assistant, you click OK.

 

Clip Art Gallery Features

Office 2000 has introduced a number of improvements to the Clip Art Gallery. These include a drag-and-drop function and being able to search for clips using normal, everyday language.
A clip gallery image is shown Office 2000 includes a number of pictures, photographs, sounds, and video clips to enhance your documents and presentations. You can find these items in the Clip Art Gallery. You can also add your own pictures, sounds, and video clips to the Clip Art Gallery.

To access the Clip Art Gallery, you choose Picture - Clip Art from the Insert menu. This opens the Clip Art Gallery and you can then click the various tabs to view the pictures, photographs, sounds, and video clips.

The Clip Art Gallery includes a search facility to help you find appropriate clips. This feature has been enhanced in Office 2000 by the addition of a Find similar clips option, which appears when you click an image.

Once you have chosen a clip art image, you can paste it into your document or presentation.

With Office 2000, you can now also drag images from the Clip Art Gallery and drop them in the document.

You may find that you want to use a number of clip art images throughout your document. Instead of having to reopen the Clip Art Gallery each time you need an image, you can click the Change to Small Window button. This allows you to leave it open in a small side pane view while you are working with your document.

 

E-Mail Feature

All Office 2000 applications include e-mail as part of their functionality. This means that you no longer have to open your e-mail application and send documents as attachments. Instead, you can open a mail header toolbar from within the application and mail the document directly.
A Microsoft animation is shown to illustrate use of the new e-mail button. The new Office E-mail button makes it easy to send a file in e-mail right from the program you're working in. You no longer need to launch an e-mail program and then attach your file to send it in a message. Because your document is sent using HTML e-mail, anyone with a Web browser can view it with full fidelity.

Office 2000 uses Microsoft Office E-mail, which replaces WordMail. When you send a document using Office E-mail, it is sent in the HTML format. This means that it can be read by anyone who has an HTML-compliant e-mail program.

If you receive a message that has been sent using Office 2000, you can open this message in your Office 2000 applications. You can then edit the mail message using the Office editing tools.

Office 2000 allows you to use Word as your e-mail editor. Any message that you send from Word will be sent in HTML format automatically. If you are using Word as your e-mail editor from within Outlook, you can choose whether to send the message in HTML, rich text, or plain text format.

Let's say that you are working in Word on a report on the progress of your company's new distribution policy and catalog. You want to mail this report to your distribution managers in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia.

As he made a few suggestions, you also want to send a copy to Ron Palmer - RonP  - in the customer support group.

You open the document in Word. You click the E-mail button on the toolbar. The mail header toolbar appears and you type the e-mail addresses of the recipients in the To field.

Alternatively, recipient names can be selected from the address book. You can also select or type names to be copied on this mail in the Cc field.

By default, the document's name appears in the Subject field.

Then you click Send a Copy.

If you have more than one profile, you are asked to choose one to use, so you select your profile and click OK.

The document is sent and you are returned to Word.

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