Chapter 24: Working and Collaborating Online

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Overview

In this era of telecommuting, long-distance associations, and on-the-move lifestyles, online communication plays a much larger role in collaboration than it has in the past. Online communication gives people a convenient way to work together by sharing documents and ideas in near real time across networks, regardless of where participants are located. To help make online communication possible, the Microsoft Office System offers a number of online collaboration features.

The online collaboration features in Word work in conjunction with other Office applications to expand the Internet and network options available to you from within Word. For example, Word works with Outlook to enable you to create and send e-mail messages; Word works with Microsoft Windows Messenger to enable you to send and receive instant messages; Word works with Microsoft Office Document Imaging (MODI) to create Tagged Image File Format (TIFF) files and fax documents; and Word works in conjunction with Microsoft Internet Explorer to provide Microsoft NetMeeting conferencing capabilities. In this chapter, you'll learn about a few of the most common online collaboration tools accessible from within Word. In particular, you'll learn how to use Word to send instant messages and e-mail messages, send faxes, conduct online conferences and meetings, and participate in Web discussions. Let's start by looking at one of the newest forms of integrated online communication—sending instant messages.

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