Microsoft Office 2003®
~~Linda F. Johnson, Linda's Computer Stop

The beginning of this article originally discussed the technical refresh patches that you could download from Microsoft to update the beta 2 version of Office 2003.  However, the links to these patches have been removed from this article on October 17, 2003, since Microsoft is no longer offering them.  Any beta 2 users will have to wait now, until the full version of Office 2003 is released later this month.

I've been playing with the beta for a couple months and the two programs I'm most impressed with are Outlook 2003 and FrontPage 2003 (which I'm using to create the online version of this article).  I have yet to see anything in the other programs that I couldn't live without, since I've been using Office XP which suits my needs just fine.  But, why do I like Outlook and FrontPage so much better in this new version?  Read on....

FRONTPAGE 2003

Well, the first thing I can say is THANK YOU MICROSOFT for finally putting something in FrontPage that cleans up the code.  When you publish your FrontPage site, you now have options to reduce the size of a page by removing empty tags, white space, redundant tags, unused and empty style definitions, and even certain tags that you specify.  I've tried it on some of my pages and it definitely works.  I'm hesitant to use it on all of my site yet, especially with a beta, until I'm sure it doesn't remove anything that is necessary, but so far I'm impressed.  And, at least we know now that Microsoft has recognized this shortcoming in FrontPage's ability to create clean html code and is finally trying to help us clean it up.  Another thing I like is now, at the top of a page, while you are working on it, FrontPage displays all the html tags it is adding.  Here's a picture which shows how it looks:

And you can click on the dropdown for any tag and look at the choices you get!

Also, FrontPage 2003 offers some new views, including a split view which lets you see the html code in the same window as the actual page while you work. Here's a sample of that:

Note all the html tags are color coded and also note that the lines of code are numbered on the left automatically so you can reference the actual line of code when you get those errors saying something is amiss in line number such and such.

Of course, with all the xml improvements in Office 2003, FrontPage, being a web design program, definitely benefits from this. When you edit XML, the XML View toolbar provides additional options for formatting code.

So, for now, I am a big fan of FP 2003 and look forward to making the final product my default web editor.

OUTLOOK 2003

I held off on using Outlook 2003 because I use Spam Inspector within Outlook and the makers of Spam Inspector had not yet approved it for use with the Outlook 2003 beta.  And, because of all the spam I get, I cannot use any email program that won't let me use my beloved Spam Inspector.  But, as luck would have it, I wrote to the Spam Inspector people and asked them if I could use it with Outlook's 2003 beta and they told me the existing version would not be compatible but they would let me beta test the new version, so I took a BIG chance and installed the beta version (v 4.0) of Spam Inspector inside the beta version of Outlook 2003 and actually made them both my default programs and I've been using them together now for about a week with no problems at all (knock wood).  Actually, "no problems at all" seems like an understatement....I not only love Outlook 2003, I ADORE this new version of Spam Inspector!! (and I'll tell you more about that in a minute.)   But here's what I love about Outlook 2003 so far:

The interface is GREAT and soooo customizable :-)  You can set up default views for all of your folders and the choices you have are innumerable so I doubt you won't be able to create one you love.  And there's a wonderful new feature which allows you to save your searches to a folder so you can just open that folder and the search will run automatically, based on the new contents of your folders...and you can tell it exactly which folders to include in the search.  Here's an example of one of the searches that's already created for you when you install Outlook 2003...it's called the Unread Mail folder.  I set this folder up to only search the folders that are most important to me and now whenever I open this folder, all of my unread items appear, and I used the sorting and grouping features to display the mail, grouped by the folders they are in.  Now, when I open this folder, it shows me all of the unread items in the folders I chose, and they are grouped by folder and it looks like this:

And notice there are collapse buttons to the left of each folder name, so I can expand and collapse each one as I want.  There are also view choices to display the groups as expanded or collapsed by default.  I also use the preinstalled search folder called "For Follow Up" so I can easily see all messages I marked for follow up, no matter which folder they are in and I REALLY like this convenience.  And, another goodie is the addition of the "Favorite Folders" option at the top of your folder list.  I used to have to add numbers to the beginning of my most common folders so they would appear at the top of my folder list...now I don't have to play around with tweaking folder names anymore because I can just drag them to this pane at the top of my folder list and they are right there at the top for me.  Here's how this looks:

SPAM INSPECTOR 4.0

Now let me quickly tell you about why I love the new Spam Inspector.  It gives me SO many new choices for bouncing mail, reporting spammers, and general configurations and even allows me to turn it off and on quickly, with the click of one button on the toolbar.   And, I'm not sure if it's Outlook 2003 or Spam Inspector 4.0, or the combination, but the whole process of them working together is MUCH faster and smoother!  Yes, I got it because I needed a version that would work with Outlook 2003, but it works with Outlook 2000/2002/2003, Outlook Express 5/6, MSN Hotmail in IE, Eudora 5.2/6, and IncrediMail XE/Pro.  More info on Spam Inspector is here.

Like I said, I've only been using the Office 2003 beta seriously for a couple weeks, but, if the other programs are half as nice as Outlook and FrontPage, I think this one is going to be a winner.  If you want to see more and learn what new features are included in all of the programs, you can go here and read Microsoft's description.  Just remember though, if you buy it, it will not work on any versions of Windows previous to XP and 2k, SP3...so please don't go buy it if you have Windows 98 or ME :-)

Now that I've fallen in love with it, I am accepting donations so I can buy it once it hits the store shelves...LOL

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Linda Johnson is a college instructor of all of the Microsoft Office Programs, as well as Adobe PhotoShop and Windows. She also teaches online distance learning classes in Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, Publisher, and Word at Eclectic Academy. She has worked helpdesk and teaches and lectures at many local businesses and tech schools in her area. Support this newsletter by checking out Linda's eBooks, MS Word MAGIC!, Book I: Fonts, Fun & Formats and Book II: Table Wizardry, How To Get Started As a Software Trainer, and her newest series of MSOffice eBook Tutorials and CD