Campus-wide
Microsoft Office 2000 Launch
By
Manfred Chan
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Whats New in
MS Office 2000?
The most noteworthy
feature in MS Office 2000 is its unprecedented integration with
the Web. With the help of Office Server Extension, SQL Server
and IIS on the NT server, users can manipulate documents via the
Web such as Open/Save files directly from/to the Web, Web collaboration,
Web discussions, Web subscriptions and notifications, and multilingual
support. Moreover, it improves the user-friendliness by enhancing
the user interface like multiple collect and paste, personalised
menus and toolbars, etc. In addition, it supplies built-in analysis
tools to reduce the programming effort, for example, PivotTables
and PivotCharts, Excel OLAP integration and Data Access Page.
You can visit the MS Official Web site - to see a list of new
and improved features in Office 2000.
How About File Compatibility?
In general, Office 97 applications,
except Access 97, can open Office 2000 files without a converter.
However, special format that cannot be recognised by Office 97
will not be retained. Since Access 97 does not support Unicode
file format, you have to explicitly save the file in the format
of Access 97 in the Access
2000 to make the file compatible.
To share files among different versions, Microsoft recommends
using the Dual File Save function. It eases the coexistence issues
by saving Office 97/2000 & Office 5.0-95 formats in a single
file but the disadvantage is that the dual file becomes larger.
Please visit http://www.microsoft.com/office/enterprise/deployment/fileshar.htm
for more details.
Any Cost?
As Office 2000 Professional Edition
is centrally provided and covered in the Microsoft Campus License
Agreement, it can be installed on campus for students and staff
use without any additional costs to departments. The Professional
Edition of Office includes Word 2000, Excel 2000, PowerPoint 2000,
Access 2000.
Whats the Plan of Implementation?
To make the upgrade easier, we have
joined the rapid deployment program for Office 2000 offered by
Microsoft. This program outlines the new features and the various
installation methods so that the CSC can quickly deploy this software
and integrate with others in our network environment.
The implementation was divided into
3 phases. First we introduced English Office 2000 on the English
Windows 98 platform in our CSC Student LAN. Upon its successful
implementation, we provided English Office suite on the Windows
95 platform in the Staff LAN, and the CSC was the first pilot
department to test the Office suite. The last phase was the implementation
of English Office 2000 on Windows 95 to all departments. The launch
was completed on 25th October 1999. Our plan of implementation
also includes installation of the multi-language pack and multi-lingual
will be supported in due course.
How to Install?
To install English Office 2000 on
your PC, you can simply select one of the MS English Office 2000
options in the departmental application menu. This option will
install IE 5.0 and all four Office components. However, if you
want to install FrontPage 2000, the system will also install the
IE 5.0 and Office 2000 for you. In either case, the installation
requires a minimum of 500MB hard disk free space on the local
drive C. It is recommended that users should have at least Pentium
200MHz or above with 64MB RAM in order to get a better performance.
Please note that the installation
program will automatically remove all components of the old versions
of Office, such as English Office 95 Prof. SR2, English Office
97 Prof., etc. Hence, make sure you will no longer need the earlier
versions of Office before running this installation program.
Whats Next?
The implementation of Office 2000
on the English Windows 98 platform was scheduled on early December
1999. Thereafter and depending on the availability of the CD Media,
the CSC will launch Chinese Office 2000 on Chinese Windows 95
and 98 platforms in January 2000.
Any Help?
If you encounter difficulties while
installing or using the Office 2000, please contact our Help Desk
at ext. 7658.