Singapore in doubts over Office XP
There are new features like voice recognition and tools to build a shared website, but experts say it has no big improvements worth its cost.
Microsoft launched the latest version of its best-selling Office software last week in Singapore. And this had led many to wonder if it is worth the hefty price.
The answers from experts seem to be unanimous: The Office XP is not a big-enough improvement to justify upgrading to it for most people.
Office XP consists of a suite of programs, including the Word word processor, the PowerPoint presentation software and Excel spreadsheet software.
Among the more significant improvements are voice recognition, which preempts the user in certain tasks, and tools that let groups of people create a website to share documents and work together better.
A review by Greg Keizer from CNet, an online technology website, said: "Microsoft Office XP's online and collaborative tool improvements make it a smart upgrade for businesses and groups, but it is not worth the cost, time and effort for single or home users."
Keizer says the ability to create a shared website is the biggest draw. But this also means that users who do not need to collaborate with their colleagues online might find small improvements that are nice but not necessary.
The website created lets users share documents and contacts, post meetings and announcements, and host discussions online. This is useful, particularly for companies that do not have their own dedicated servers.
CNet also praised a new tool which lets the user recover a document when any of the Office applications or the system itself crashes.
ZDNet, a technology website, was the most skeptical about Office XP. Senior editor Lori Grunin said in a review: "Though Microsoft has made some nice enhancements on the surface, underneath it's still the same old Office. Most users won't find any compelling reason to rush out and buy this upgrade."
Microsoft is touting the new "task pane" feature, which gives quick access to often-used functions, but she sees it as a cosmetic improvement.
The crash-recovery features are barking up the wrong tree as they do not address users' complaints, she said.
"Sadly, some of the most important new features in the suite address crash recovery, not crash protection. The applications seem to crash just as often as they used to."
The technology-news website Wired.com took a more optimistic approach to Office XP, saying that it is a "leap worth taking".
While most of the changes may be cosmetic, some are marked improvements, it said. For example, when a user pastes a block of text in Word, the software will ask him whether to keep the original formatting or change it.
Price: S$889. Version upgrade costs S$449.
Requirements Hardware:You need a PC with a Pentium 133 MHz processor. Operating System:At least Windows 98. Hard Disk: At least 210 MB of available hard-disk space.
New Features Smart tags: These appear to provide options for completing a task quickly. Speech recognition: The dictation facility changes speech to text and allows voice commands to make formatting changes and navigate menus. Handwriting: Use this to write directly in Microsoft Word and save it as a handwritten document or convert it to typed characters. Office template gallery: Hundreds of templates are available for business or personal use. Document recovery: When there is a program error, you can save the work at the moment the error occurs.
The Strait Times