daperlman's Full Review: Microsoft Office XP Professional Full Version for ...
I work at an office with a network (I also have a network at home). I myself, develop software so I found myself writing side applications to make this do what I wanted it to. But in the end, but had to revert back to Office 2000.
The Security - By far my biggest gripe
As we all know, we are living in the age of data. Keeping this data secure and dependable has become a much bigger priority. Microsoft has made a huge commitment to this endeavor, so much so that I think that they have lost sight of making the best applications they can. Security has been hugely enhanced in every Office application, by default. What is most troublesome is the fact that even the lowest level of security is so oppressive that it is counter productive. In order to open certain things or access one application with another, or share data....you must take serious measures. Whatever Microsoft has not made a patch for, you must fix by: writing your own components that have access to the programs, or changing the registry. A program for an average user should never require that the registry is accessed. Some of the things that you can't do without some background in programming: Run Scripts, Mail Merge to Outlook, Mail Merge in Outlook, Use data from Remote Server (create ADO Connection), open several types of docs including virus definitions (any level1 extension), CHANGE MANY OF THE SECURITY SETTINGS.
Let me focus on an example of how Microsoft has shot themselves in the foot with this ridiculous level of security. MS-Word has a feature for 'Mail Merge.' Mail Merge will ask for a data source and then merge a document with that source. Lets say that you have a database of people who have requested that you send them an email newsletter. You can write, personalize, and send a letter to 1000's using this feature...that is unless you have Outlook XP. In this case Outlook will prompt user that security is breached. Not once, but for each email that is sent. 1000 messages 1000's msg box warnings, making mail merge useless.
What they tried to do...with good intentions
Microsoft has set out to improve error handling by having errors sent to them. While this seems to make sense, I have never received the response that is promised by the "send error" dialogue. Also components are constantly updated and devices are installed and removed....how could the error report possibly contain relevant data. Despite this improvement being ineffective, it is definitely a step in the right direction.
Smartags enable formats and formulas to retain original states (or relevant data). This feature actually works well and it will make your day if you are copying things b/t apps.
A bunch of new templates exist in Word.
A document recovery system is supposed to save work automatically if an application has a fatal error...but it rarely does
An auto refresh is available for adding dynamic data to your page...to bad you can't copy server-side code so it won't usually work
Multiple email addresses can be added to a profile. I prefer to handle this at the Exchange Server.
OCR function is supposed to convert image to text...works surprisingly well, but still not ready for prime-time
Microsoft's fight against piracy
Microsoft feels like they are losing out on lots of money, due to business (and some consumers) pirating the software. Their answer to this is software activation. I understand their perspective, but many people change configurations, computers and locations. What's more this is simply annoying. I don't want an application trying to connect and send info to a company unless I command it to do that. I don't know how this can be justified when it can easily be cracked. The registration process be it by phone or internet consumes computer and human resources, which cost Microsoft money. The fact is, that most businesses are legitimately paying for all software on their networks.
They think they know you
By default Office XP thinks that you don't know what you are doing. Thus the help dialogues, security restrictions, and "wizards." Yep Outlook XP thinks that you are the moron who opens the email with the subject line "Joke" with a .VBS attachment, the person who closes applications w/out saving, who needs a little cartoon character....you get the picture here.
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