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Microsoft has revised its office suite to take advantage of the new capabilities of Windows 95. Other features and enhancements were also made. Here are the improvements and the author's assessment.
This review of Microsoft's latest version of its office suite, Office 95 was based on a prerelease version of the product. This version is a replacement for Office Professional 4.3 The new version is designed to run on Windows 95 and now, for the first time, includes time management for individuals and workgroups.
Office 95 is available in two versions, Office 95 standard version and Office 95 professional version. The standard version consists of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Schedule+. The professional version contains all of the items in the standard version plus Access. If the professional version is purchased in CD-ROM form, it also includes Bookshelf. The system requirements for Office 95 are included in the Exhibit.
In case you are not familiar with these programs, the following is a brief description of each:
* Word is a full-featured word processor that can create tables and graphics.
* Excel is a comprehensive electronic spreadsheet that can manage, format, chart, and analyze data.
* PowerPoint is a presentations graphics package capable of creating fully formatted slides and presentations.
* Access is a relational database management system.
* Schedule+ is a personal information manager (PIM) and scheduler.
* Bookshelf provides a multimedia encyclopedia together with a dictionary, thesaurus, book of quotations, atlas, chronology, and almanac.
Windows 95 Capabilities
Office 95 is designed to take advantage of the new interface, the 32-bit architecture, and technology enhancements in Windows 95, some of which include--
* multithreading which enables a user to do multiple actions within the same application simultaneously;
* faster recalculations in Excel (Microsoft claims 30 to 50%/ on average),
* consistent user interface,
* long file names (Caveat: Older applications will not be able to handle the longer file names),
* ability to move files between a desktop/network PC and notebook PC and maintain the most up-to-date files on the computer being used at the moment. This feature allows multiple users to share files, and
* plug and play support (I stayed away from this one).
Automated Tasks
Tasks, such as spelling, formatting, filtering, and...