A Quick Look at the Office System New Features

The keystones underlying changes in the Office System are collaboration and communication . Now working in groups is easier than ever. New features ”built right into the task panes of selected applications ”enable you to reach team members , share tasks , and work on documents with a click of the mouse. Also, in the Office Professional editions, support for the universal Extensible Markup Language (XML) standard enables you to share data with coworkers and between applications more easily. In addition to the collaboration and XML features, the Office System includes these enhancements:

• Instant messaging capability now extends through smart tags to all Office applications. This means you can contact any team member who is currently online when you re working on a document that lists his or her name ”no matter where you re working.

  Lingo  

  Instant messaging is a real-time communication tool that enables you to see which of your contacts are currently online and send them a quick note in a window that pops up over other applications.

• XML support in Word, Excel, and Access now allows you to open , use, and save files as XML data (Office Professional editons only).

  Lingo  

  XML is an acronym for Extensible Markup Language, a universal, customizable metalanguage that allows users to develop and apply a simple tagging system to identify the content and structure of data.

• SharePoint Team Services features are now built into Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, enabling you to work collaboratively in a shared space online.

• Improvements in smart tags and the addition of XML-driven InfoPath forms and smart documents give you (and your business) additional power to gather and use data through the familiar Office interface.

• Office Help now extends automatically online to Microsoft.com, giving you access to virtually unlimited Help resources in the form of conventional Help articles, tutorials, and more.

• The Office System now makes working remotely easier than ever by adding full support for the Tablet PC, with ink support that enables you to transform handwritten notes into typed text ready to be edited, e-mailed, printed, or shared.

• Additional security features in the Office System and improvements in setup make upgrading, deploying, and maintaining Office easier.

• Improvements in each of the applications (the new Reading view in Word; a visual mapping tool in Excel; backup support in Access; a great new editor in FrontPage; and a whole new look for Outlook) streamline your computing experience and give you more power to apply to your Office creations.

Information Rights Management in the Office System

One of the challenges to sharing information and working collaboratively is the question of how to make sure that proprietary data is protected. How do you control the distribution and modification of your key documents? In the Office System, a new feature known as Information Rights Management enables you to protect your documents by controlling access and editing features. In other words, you control who views, prints, edits, or forwards your document ”and set the limits on what, if anything, you want them to be able to change.