Sincerely,

Christopher McMillan

 

           --==>> WOW -- WOODY's OFFICE WATCH <<==--
       The Long Awaited Office XP Round-Up/Roast-Up from
            Woody Leonhard, Certified Office Victim
       30 May 2001                              Vol 6 No 26

       Get a CHEAPER Microsoft Office - CheaperOffice.com

  Get advice on the best Office XP bundle and deals on offer.
     Comparison shop for the best price from just one page.
       "The best new resource for Office users in years"
        Visit http://www.CheaperOffice.com today - FREE!

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  Here it is, folks. The issue you've been waiting for, where
  I try to shed a little light on Office XP - what works,
  what doesn't, whether you should buy it, whether your
  company should install it, how it will hold up, where it'll
  fall down. I also have a pointer to a new Web site that
  will help you find Office XP at the lowest possible price.
  Feel free to pass this issue along to your friends and
  foes. I hope you (and they) will find a few morsels in here
  that will help you divine your Office future.

      1. The Bottom Line
      2. Why Should You Listen To Me?
      3. What Office XP Does Right
      4. What Office XP Does Wrong
      5. If You Want Office XP
      6. CheaperOffice.com
      7. Open Questions
      8. Upgrade from what?
      9. Quo Vadis
      10. Administrivia

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  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  1. THE BOTTOM LINE
  Wait a sec. You're about to scroll to the bottom of this
  issue of WOW to see what I really think about Office XP,
  aren't you? Okay. Fair 'nuff. I'll save you the round trip.

  From my point of view, Office XP has a few really
  important, well-built, innovative features. It also cleans
  up a lot of garbage that I've been fighting for years -
  most notably with the new Smart Tags that let you quickly
  turn off the bloody "features" that you don't want.

  There are also several parts of Office XP that are horribly
  intrusive (e.g., the Outlook Email Security Update), poorly
  conceived (automatic Contacts recognition), and virtually
  useless (voice recognition).

  In my eXPerience, Office XP isn't nearly as stable as
  Office 2000 was, out of the gate, although it's infinitely
  more stable than Office 97. In the final, shipping version
  of Office XP, I crash or lock up my machine, on average,
  several times a week. (NOTE: I use Office a whole lot
  harder than most folks! Writing a no-bull book about Office
  XP forces me into all the dark corners, where the demons
  lurk. Your results will vary.) I suspect that stability
  will improve when Office XP Service Pack 1 hits the ether -
  probably in a few months.

  With that as preamble, here are my recommendations:

  * If you're using Office 95 or 97, RUN, don't walk, to your
    nearest computer shoppe and upgrade. (Microsoft says 60%
    of all Office users are still stuck with Office 95 or 97
    - an unspeakable horror.) If you can get Office 2000
    Service Release 1 (or SR-1a) at a decent price, gofer it.
    If you can only find Office 2000 Service Pack 2 - the
    version you're most likely to discover in shrinkwrapped
    packages on store shelves - fuhgeddaboutit and pick up
    Office XP.

  * If you're using Office 2000 Service Release 1 (click
    Help/About), and it's working well for you, and you don't
    see any features in this review that you need enough to
    fork over a few hundred bucks, don't bother with XP. Wait
    until XP Service Pack 1 has been out for a few months,
    and see if the stability problems have been resolved.

  * If you're using Office 2000 Service Pack 2, and you want
    to be able to send and receive files via email without
    the %$#@! computer stripping 'em off, swear at Microsoft
    and upgrade to Office XP.

  * If you get a new machine, make sure Office XP is
    installed on it. If you're offered Office 2000 on a new
    machine, it'll undoubtedly be Service Pack 2, and you
    don't want it.

  How's that for a lukewarm reception to the latest and
  greatest version of Office, from Office 2000's biggest fan?
  Office XP doesn't have any to-die-for features that I can
  discern, and it certainly isn't any more stable than Office
  2000, so you shouldn't feel compelled to upgrade
  immediately.

  On the other hand, I'll readily confess that I LIKE Office
  XP, and will be using it exclusively on my production
  machine. I'll also back up often and back up well - a
  mantra many of you have read in my books, over the years.

  If you do decide to get Office XP:

  * Use http://www.cheaperoffice.com to find the best deal.
    More about that site later in this issue of WOW.

  * Download and install Ken Slovak's Attachment Options
    utility, from Sue Mosher's Slipstick site,
    http://www.slipstick.com/files/attopt.zip . Quit Outlook,
    run the utility, start Outlook, click Tools | Options |
    Attachment Options, and click the ALL button to have all
    file types excluded from the "Type 1" category. That will
    make sure the %$#@! computer doesn't swallow files
    attached to email messages.

  * Immediately turn off WordMail - in Outlook 2002, click
    Tools |, Options | Mail Format and uncheck the box marked
    "Use Microsoft Word to edit e-mail messages". That should
    improve your computer's stability substantially.

  * Buy, install, update and religiously use one of the major
    anti-virus packages. The exact brand doesn't matter
    nearly as much as getting an AV package and keeping it
    updated.

  * For gazillions of important tips on Office XP - and a
    free copy of Woody's Office POWER Pack, to boot - pick up
    the ultimate reference book, "Special Edition Using
    Microsoft Office XP," by Ed Bott and Woody Leonhard, at
    http://www.woodyswatch.com/l.asp?0789725134 .

  Alright. There's the icing. Time for the cake. But first...
  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


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  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  2. WHY SHOULD YOU LISTEN TO ME?
  Because I'm crazy enough to tell it to you straight, even
  if Microsoft blackballs me. Again.

  Actually, I've been directly involved in Office beta
  testing since long before Office was Office - Word for
  Windows 2.0, to be precise. My first book consisted of a
  compilation of bugs in Word 1.10a. I've written a couple of
  dozen books since then, most of them about Office, some of
  them heavy enough to give you a hernia. My software company
  makes WOPR, "the number one addition to Microsoft Office."
  And I've been using Office XP long enough to lose a hank of
  hair and make most of the rest of it turn gray.

  Okay. That last part was a small exaggeration. Small.

  I've also waded through lots of comments from other Office
  XP victims, and I'd like to thank all of you en masse,
  particularly for your contributions via the XP Survey Web
  site.

  This review is all my fault. I take full responsibility for
  it. There's nobody else to blame. What you read here is
  largely a compilation of my experiences, backed up by
  observations from trusted friends, both inside and outside
  Microsoft. I don't claim to be an almighty expert in any
  particular field - at least, nothing that's printable - but
  I've been around the block a few times with Word and
  Outlook, and been bitten a few times by Excel and
  PowerPoint. I haven't even tried to cover Access here;
  we'll be running Access 2002 articles in Woody's Access
  Watch.

  In the course of putting this review together, I used
  Office XP with Windows 2000, ME, and 98. All of the work
  I've done online with XP has been strictly dial-up. Some
  day I'll get a broadband connection, but I'm not holding my
  breath. I wouldn't touch Exchange Server if my life
  depended on it.

  This isn't meant to be a thorough review of Office XP
  features; rather, it's my take on how well the new features
  work. If you want a comprehensive review of Office XP, I'd
  suggest you start with the ZDNet write-up at
  http://chkpt.zdnet.com/chkpt/hud0007500a/www.zdnet.com/products/stories/reviews/0,4161,2708866,00.html.
  Microsoft has a decent overview of the bright side at
  http://www.microsoft.com/Office/XP , but you need to strap
  on your hip waders and take the marketing happy talk with a
  truckload of salt.
  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


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  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  3. WHAT OFFICE XP DOES RIGHT
  I think that, ten years from now, Smart Tags -
  context-sensitive mini-menus that appear all by themselves
  - will be seen as a key capability of all word processors,
  up there with squiggly underlines for mis-spelled words and
  right-click spell check. Right now, Smart Tags let you turn
  off many of Office's intrusive "auto" actions, selectively
  and easily. That feature alone is enough to get me to
  upgrade to Office XP. In the future, customized Smart Tags
  will do everything except shine your shoes, although Smart
  Tag overload - having too many of the bloody things - will
  no doubt become as problematic as font overload. I just
  hope no cretins discover ways to infect Smart Tags with
  worms or viruses. (And so far nobody has, as far as I
  know.)

  Task Panes make existing Office features more
  "discoverable" by putting related functions in a pane on
  the right side of the screen. Task Panes let you get at a
  whole bunch of functions, all at once. Some features, like
  Mail Merge and file search, only work with Task Panes. I
  really like 'em because they put a lot of information in
  one place. First time I saw a Task Pane, I whacked myself
  on the head and wondered why I didn't think of it first. Ah
  well. Another worthwhile feature, although some of the
  implementation decisions are really weird (e.g., not
  showing the Open task pane if there's a template in one of
  the \Startup folders - a problem that WOPR XP/2002 solves).

  The Search Task Pane finally allows you to search for email
  messages in multiple folders, as well as making it easy to
  search for documents ten ways from Tuesday. It's another
  great new feature - although you no longer have the ability
  to save and re-use searches, as you could in earlier
  versions of Office.

  Clippy - the Office paper clip - is almost dead, but hold
  the applause. You can bring him/her/it to life at any point
  by typing "Dear Mom," in a Word document, closing the
  Clipboard Task Pane in WordMail, or when you write your
  first email messages without a signature. Clippy is no
  longer completely brain dead: if you ask Clippy a question,
  you'll get the same answer as you would in the Help system.

  I found document scanning and imaging to be significantly
  better than ever before. The character recognition system
  built into Office does a reasonably good job of translating
  scanned documents into text. I like being able to
  "interleave" two-sided documents - you scan one side, flip
  the stack of pages over and then scan the other side, and
  the software puts all the pages in sequence. From ScanSoft
  and its TextBridge OCR software.

  There are lots and lots of small improvements across all
  the Office applications: Insert Symbol, for example,
  finally shows symbols that are large enough to see. It's
  the same in all the Office apps. The Media Gallery is a
  whole lot easier to use than the old Clip Gallery, and its
  interface to the Web is outstanding. Resizable standard
  dialog boxes are way overdue, along with the ability to
  customizes the Places Bar (a feature WOPR 2000 users have
  had for years). One click removes most (but not all)
  personal information in a file - Tools | Options | Security
  | Privacy options.

  In Word:

  You have to Ctrl+Click to follow a hyperlink. Bravo. Smart
  cut and paste is still turned on by default, but you
  (finally!) have control over all the "smart" components,
  individually. "Smart paragraph selection" - which drops the
  final paragraph mark when you select part of a paragraph -
  and "When selecting, automatically select entire word" are
  both defaults. In both cases, Word is trying too hard to
  second-guess the user. Booo.

  The Reveal Formatting Task Pane - WordPerfect fans note
  that this isn't reveal codes - shows a lot, including the
  genesis of oddball formatting. All the information shown in
  this task pane has been available since Word 97, but
  putting it all in one place really helps. Tooltips really
  do give you a lot of context-sensitive help. Comments are
  easy to read and out of the way. The new Track
  Changes/Reviewing Toolbar works great. Multiple
  (disontiguous) selects work the way you would expect. Drop
  caps and watermarks are slick. Compressing image files with
  a single click (on the Picture Toolbar) helps reduce
  document bloat, although I've had a couple of reports of
  problems with the feature. "File | Send for Review"
  streamlines several revision steps. Booklet printing rocks.
  Grammar checking has become noticeably smarter. Language
  support has improved considerably, and I personally
  appreciate the addition of Latin.

  Giving us back the single document interface helps -
  especially for people who commonly have more than one
  document showing on the screen at a time (see my discussion
  in Woody's Office for Mere Mortals issue 1.11,
  http://www.woodyswatch.com/wowmm/archtemplate.asp?v1-n11).
  But why can't we have Taskbar buttons for all open
  documents and the low-overhead SDI toolbar behavior, at the
  same time? Excel works that way. Why can't Word?

  The new Field dialog makes working with common field codes
  much, much easier, while tucking away most of the complex
  options underneath a button on the dialog marked "Field
  Codes". Support for {StyleRef} is quite good.

  Microsoft finally updated the Mail Merge Wizard. It has its
  shortcomings - for one thing, backing up in the Wizard
  doesn't "undo" everything the way you would expect - but by
  and large this Wizard's a huge improvement over the old
  one. Label merges, in particular, are very nicely done.

  Here's an improvement I really like. The COrrect TWo
  INitial CApitals feature is much, much smarter. As far as I
  can tell, it only corrects two initial caps on words that
  appear in the dictionary. So you can type JScript and CDnow
  and XYwrite, for example, without having Word "correct"
  them. Very clever. The person who came up with that idea
  deserves an award.

  The Drawing Canvas is great. Lots of flexibility. A bit
  hard to understand at first, but well worth the effort. And
  you get real stretch-and-drag connectors for your
  AutoShapes, as long as the connected shapes are all in the
  same Drawing Canvas.

  There's a new paragraph formatting option - Don't add space
  between paragraphs of the same style. Works very well, and
  it's exactly what you need for bulleted and numbered lists,
  where there's extra spacing before the first item and after
  the last item. Nice design work.

  There's better drag n drop of numbered and bulleted
  paragraphs. For example, if you drop a numbered paragraph
  into the middle of a bunch of numbered paragraphs, the
  moved paragraph takes on the formatting of the paragraphs
  above and below.

  Outlook gets rid of the Internet Mail Only/Corporate
  Workgroup schizophrenia, and from what I've seen the new
  hybrid works pretty well. Outlook will not replace
  emoticons such as :-) with smiley faces in your email
  messages, if you work in Plain Text mode (select Plain Text
  from the Message format drop-down box). Working in Plain
  Text also short-circuits AutoCorrect entries that would
  generate odd characters, such as the copyright symbol.
  Outlook 2002 simultaneously sends and receives messages,
  with a status report on-screen that gives a thorough view
  of what's happening. Reminders all appear in one box. Good
  stuff, long overdue.

  Excel's new Edit/Find and Replace capabilities represent a
  vast improvement over the old ones - but they're still at
  the Neanderthal level compared to Word. The Formula
  Evaluator, which steps through a formula calculation so you
  can see what's going on, works the way I would expect it
  to. Changes to the calc engine are great - WOWser CW
  compliments Microsoft on the way forward-referencing
  interworksheet links work better, and how new VBA hooks
  (dirty cells, check for calc in progress) make life easier.
  It's much easier to bring in data from the Web, and more
  reliable to publish data to the Web (with "Auto
  Republish"). Sorts work better in a number of ways,
  including a robust automatic recognition of data types.
  It's now easy to unmerge cells. Graphics are allowed in
  headers and footers, also long overdue.

  PowerPoint has tremendous user interface improvements,
  including the slide thumbnail list in Normal view. Multiple
  masters are a bit kludgey, but I can see how they could
  come in handy. The new animation controls just blew me
  away.

  Microsoft touts SharePoint as being a key part of the
  upgrade to Office XP. It makes group collaboration simpler
  - broadcast messages, contacts, tasks, discussions, and
  much more - and it all works via Internet Explorer. I
  haven't had a chance to test SharePoint thoroughly, but
  initial reports I've received from the field are positive.
  stay tuned.
  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


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  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  4. WHAT OFFICE XP DOES WRONG
  Product activation sucks, even when it works.

  From WOWser CZ: "I was working on setting up new Dell
  computers for a client.  They came with Office XP.  After
  installing I was told that I had to activate, either by
  phone or online.  Since the net connections weren't in
  place yet I had to activate over the phone.  After
  eventually getting a human I was told that I had to read a
  loooong set of numbers and letters.  After which she read
  me back a FORTY-TWO digit number.  Finally activated, (and,
  as you know, not even REGISTERED), I asked if I should save
  the 42-digit number and she told me that, no, if I had to
  do a reinstall I would have to go through this EVERY SINGLE
  TIME. I'm not as annoyed as my clients should be; they paid me
  for about a half hour of tech time to work on this
  Microsoft boondoggle."
  Actually this was wrong advice, if the Office XP
  registration system works as Microsoft alleges then the
  same activation code can be used when reinstalling on the
  same or similar computer.  But it demonstrates something
  we've known would happen (and Microsoft denied
  emphatically) - Microsoft staff would give misleading
  information about the activation system.

  WOWser JP: "Given the fantastically convoluted nature of
  Microsofts hotfix/servicepack releases, most everyone is
  still trying to figure out how to set Office 2000 right.
  Why upgrade to a fresh, new and surely more complicated set
  of problems?? With the new licensing/ registration scheme,
  us corporate IT guys figure that we're toast. I mean, who
  can figure out the scheme, much less control separate
  installations of it. Argh!!!"

  The Smart Tag connection to Outlook Contacts still leaves a
  lot to be desired. In theory, you can tell Office to look
  for "person names," and it scans text as you type, looking
  for people. When Office identifies a "person name" (using
  an engine that we're still trying to figure out), a Smart
  Tag appears. When you click on the Smart Tag, you're given
  several options: inserting that person's address in the
  document, for example, or adding them to your Outlook
  Contacts, or sending the person an email message. That's
  great, in theory. In practice, though, the "person name"
  identifying engine is seriously flawed: it doesn't bother
  to consult Outlook, and it can't be taught to work better.
  So, for example, Rose Vines (our Woody's Windows Watch and
  Palm Watch editor) doesn't make the grade as a "person
  name." If you mis-spell a name and it's recognized, the
  Smart Tag will offer to insert and address, or send email -
  but when you try to use the feature, you're informed that
  "Microsoft Outlook could not find the requested contact."
  Definitely much less than half baked.

  WordMail still isn't ready for prime time. I've kvetched
  about WordMail repeatedly in WOW, over the course of many
  years, and no doubt will many more times. In my experience,
  it's the single largest source of Office XP lockups,
  crashes, and weird behavior. I recommend that everyone
  disable it (see the first section above). The fact that
  Outlook 2002 uses WordMail as the default email editor
  clearly demonstrates to me that product management isn't
  listening to its users. Perhaps they'll listen to the cries
  from Product Support. This mistake will cost Microsoft
  millions and millions of dollars.

  Office XP includes a feature called "Airbags for Office"
  but in my experience the airbags don't work very well - in
  the past few months I've had lockups and foul-ups galore,
  and the airbags only saved my files occasionally. Office
  does have a new "Application Recovery" routine - Start |
  Programs | Microsoft Office Tools | Microsoft Office
  Application Recovery - that you're supposed to use to shut
  down an Office app when it's gone out to lunch. Again in my
  experience, when Office apps hang, they frequently take the
  whole machine with them. (Yes, using Windows 2000 Pro.)
  When all is said and done, you have to ask yourself why
  Microsoft made a tool whose only purpose is to un-hang
  Office applications.

  Voice Recognition - useless. The first line I tried to
  dictate into Word was, "Now is the time for all good
  organisms to come to the aid of their ecosystem." It came
  out, "If fifth Species be a speedy spoof speed the fellow
  and Malibu for the door for this man-fifth thing think both
  effect affect fifth thing think." Granted, the recognition
  rate got better over time. But even a 98% recognition rate
  is still nowhere near good enough for you to take the
  technology seriously, unless you have a very specific
  reason for using speech recognition. Check back in a few
  years. [Note: since I first published that review a few
  weeks ago, several of you have written to tell me that
  voice recognition works for you. That's great - really -
  and the technology is a godsend for the physically
  impaired. But I still can't recommend it for mainstream
  business use.]

  As I've mentioned several times in WOW, Outlook has lost
  its NetFolders ability - if you want to share a calendar,
  you have to install Exchange Server. It doesn't support the
  old Microsoft Mail ("Workgroup Post Office") features.
  Microsoft Fax is gone. You can't "Automatically put people
  I reply to in <folder>" any more. Can't automatically break
  up large messages into smaller ones
  http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q287/7/66.ASP
  even tought you can in the free Outlook Express. You still
  can't use Outlook for reading newsgroups. Hotmail support
  exists, but only in a separate folder. Hotmail's
  sluggishness makes it a real PITA for those of us using
  dial-up Internet access.

  I've covered the draconian "Email security update"
  extensively, most recently in Woody's Office for Mere
  Mortals issues 2.07 and 2.09 (
  http://www.woodyswatch.com/wowmm/archtemplate.asp?v2-n07
  and
  http://www.woodyswatch.com/wowmm/archtemplate.asp?v2-n09 ).
  If it weren't for Ken Slovak's fix (described in the first
  section above), this one abomination alone would keep me
  from recommending Office XP to anyone.

  Outlook email address autocomplete - where you type in a
  couple of letters in a message's "To:" box and Outlook
  fills in the rest - leaves a lot to be desired, although
  I'm not entirely sure how much of the problem is simply
  leftover from earlier versions of Outlook (see the
  discussion of Outlook .nick files at
  http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q245/4/21.ASP).
  I've already sent email to the wrong people, several times,
  because I wasn't watching the autocomplete closely.

  Then there's all the little things. The ability to install
  Office without VBA support worries the living daylights out
  of me. WOWser JC reports: "One caution: don't try running a
  2002-created presentation in an older version (I tried with
  PPT97). The first animation from 2002 that was not in 97
  froze the system. It didn't understand what it was supposed
  to do (which I expected) and just appeared on the screen.
  What I didn't expect was a program freeze." Hyperlinks get
  changed without your permission (WOW 6.25,
  http://www.woodyswatch.com/office/archtemplate.asp?v6-n25
  ). WOWser SR reports that ruler measurements can get
  permanently screwed up if you install Office XP over the
  top of Office 2000 SP-1
  http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&safe=off&ic=1&th=6b011fdf1f8baf79,5&seekm=enDOsKd0AHA.2092%40tkmsftngp03#p
  . And on and on. The Microsoft Knowledge Base is already
  packed with hundreds (thousands?) of reports on Office XP
  problems, even before it's released publicly.
  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


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  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  5. IF YOU WANT OFFICE XP
  If you decide to get Office XP - and, again, in spite of
  the doom and gloom you read in the preceding section *I* am
  going to use XP on my production machine - you should start
  by figuring out if your machine can handle it. Office XP
  won't run on Windows 95. You should have at least a Pentium
  2 class machine with 64MB or (much) more memory running
  Windows 98 SE or ME; 128 MB or more running Windows 2000 or
  Windows XP. You need at least 300 MB of hard disk space,
  and if you install all of Office XP right up front (which I
  heartily recommend), plan on using 500 MB or more. For
  voice recognition, plan on using a P-300 or faster with 128
  MB or more, and splurge on a USB digital microphone.

  With that hurdle cleared, you should decide how much Office
  you need. There's a full write-up on Office XP packaging in
  WOW 6.17
  http://www.woodyswatch.com/office/archtemplate.asp?v6-n17
  or http://www.cheaperoffice.com/html/XPVersions.asp


  If you buy Office XP bundled with a new machine, you'll be
  able to choose between Office XP Small Business (same
  features as Standard above) and Office XP Professional with
  Publisher (same as Professional above, plus Publisher
  2002).

  Those of you who bought the shrinkwrapped, retail version
  of Office 2000 in the US between April 2, 2001 and June 30,
  2001, qualify for a free upgrade to Office XP as part of
  MS's "Technology Guarantee". Details at
  http://www.cheaperoffice.com/html/buyersguide-insiders.asp

  Finally, the crucial decision about where to buy Office XP
  just got a whole lot simpler. More details in the next
  section.


  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  6. CHEAPEROFFICE.COM
  If you're going to buy Office XP you probably thought it
  was as simple as clicking over to your favorite online
  retailer and placing an order. I thought the same thing
  until I looked at a brand new web site - CheaperOffice.com
  - that a couple of my friends put together.

  I discovered an amazing range of prices for the same thing.
  For example, at the moment I'm writing this blurb, Office
  XP Professional Full Version can cost you as much as $579
  (the full list price, at the Microsoft Shop), or as little
  as $479.95 - a saving of almost a hundred bucks!

  Looking around the web sites for the best deal is a pain
  and the hassle is made worse by retailers who give the
  product a strange or misleading label.  You're supposed to
  know that 'MS XP SE' (to quote one online store) is
  actually 'Microsoft Office XP - Professional Special
  Edition' - Oy!

  CheaperOffice makes all that a lot easier. They check the
  prices of all the major retailers and list them on one
  page. The most expensive (usually Microsoft's own online
  store) and cheapest are clearly visible. Click on the link
  to check out the deal and buy. You get a good price and
  save heaps of time -- not a shabby deal by any standard.

  There's more. CheaperOffice's Office Buyers Guide points
  out that there's no need to pay extra for the 'full'
  version of Office, almost everyone will have a disk or CD
  around that will qualify them for the 'upgrade' package. It
  hadn't occurred to me, but the Buyers Guide is right, you
  may be able to use a humble old copy of Word for DOS to
  qualify you for the upgrade price on Office XP Developer.
  You'd save hundreds of bucks if you have the old diskette
  sitting around!

  For Office XP buyers there's a sneaky analysis of the
  prices for the different XP bundles. If you want the core
  Office programs and FrontPage there's a cheaper way to buy
  it than the overpriced 'Professional Special Edition' that
  Microsoft offers. It's very cool, all 100% squeaky-clean
  legitimate, and well worth your time and effort.

  Bottom line: check out http://www.cheaperoffice.com before
  you buy Microsoft Office. Tell 'em Woody sent ya.


  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  7. OPEN QUESTIONS
  That's a lot of information for you to digest, and I
  apologize, but Office XP is a huge product, with a lot of
  interesting and worthwhile nooks and crannies. Although it
  isn't as stable as it should be, and some of the design
  decisions left me shaking my head, several of the features
  are compelling enough for me to upgrade. You probably will,
  too.

  We Office users still haven't heard all the details about
  Office XP. We know that it won't be "for rent" in the US,
  although customers in New Zealand and Australia will have
  that option. As I discussed in WOW 6.24
  http://www.woodyswatch.com/office/archtemplate.asp?v6-n24 ,
  corporate site maintenance agreements are horribly
  confusing. It's not clear how long you'll be able to get
  FrontPage bundled with Office XP.


  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  8. UPGRADE FROM WHAT?
  Most vexing: as of press time, Microsoft hadn't announced
  its upgrade requirements!

  Usually, MS will tell you which products qualify for
  upgrade pricing: if you have a copy of Office 4.3, for
  example, you may be able to use it to get the upgrade price
  on Office XP. At this point, though, in spite of our
  requests, MS is mum on the topic.

  Even though Microsoft is selling upgrade packages through
  their own web site and elsewhere - they have refused to
  disclose the rules, even though they must know them as
  they're coded into the Office XP installation process.

  The folks at CheaperOffice.com promise to post the info as
  soon as it is available, at
  http://www.cheaperoffice.com/html/XPUpgradeGuide.asp .


  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  9. QUO VADIS
  It's pretty clear to me that Office XP was released too
  early. Microsoft has lots of statistics to "prove" that XP
  is more stable than any previous version of Office, and the
  numbers are quite impressive - lots of person-hours in
  testing, plenty of reported and resolved bug reports,
  automatic reporting of crashes. But the fact remains that
  Office XP is largely an inbred product.

  Microsoft clearly didn't listen to the hue and cry from its
  most ardent users (I offer WordMail as Exhibit 1). While
  lots of people tested Office XP, most of them were
  Microsoft employees, and the inbred bias shows (I offer the
  growing dependence on Exchange Server as Exhibit 2). Some
  of the new features are just plain silly (Smart Tags
  offering to insert an address for a non-existent Contact,
  Exhibit 3). Some are short sighted (Outlook email security
  update). Some reek of heavy-handedness (altered URLs). Some
  have good intentions, but the devil crops up in the details
  (product activation). If Microsoft had done a good job of
  testing Office XP - and listened to people who had the guts
  to scream bloody murder - we would've seen a much different
  product.

  More WOWsers than ever complained to me about Microsoft's
  arrogance during the Office XP testing process. That's
  nothing new. Some of Office's best features, over the
  years, have come from the most arrogant people I've ever
  met. But this time the arrogance was paired with a hollow
  deafness that I find disconcerting. It has a name. Hubris.

  Perhaps, as one WOWser put it, the beancounters really have
  taken the Office reins.

  Anyway, I fully expect that I'll be taken out to the
  Redmond woodshed and thrashed thoroughly for this review.
  So be it. The folks in charge can kill the messenger. This
  time, they can't duck the message.

  On another front... I've read a lot of drivel in the trade
  press about Office being a "mature" product, and how it's
  become so difficult to add worthwhile new features.
  Malarkey. People in the press have been saying that since
  the days of Word 2.0. The fact is that Microsoft can - and
  will - continue to improve Office in ways that we can
  hardly imagine today. I can think of a hundred features I
  could use, every day, right off the bat. Don't worry about
  the future of Office, my friend. As long as Microsoft has
  WOWsers to prod and poke and pry on every piece, there will
  be ideas galore. Office hasn't even begun to solve all our
  problems.

  If we can only get Microsoft to listen, eh?


  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  10. ADMINISTRIVIA
  I make a living (such as it is) by writing books - most
  recently, "Special Edition Using Microsoft Office XP"
  (http://www.woodyswatch.com/l.asp?0789725134 ) and the
  classic "Special Edition Using Microsoft Office 2000"
  (http://www.woodyswatch.com/l.asp?0789718421 ) which is
  still going strong. Every time you buy one of my books, you
  help me keep another wolf from the door, and thus support
  the WOW cause. My books are available from all good
  bookstores, including:

  Amazon.com:
     http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect-home/woodsoffiwatcwoo
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     http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/redirect-home/woodsoffiwatcw08
  Amazon Germany:
     http://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/redirect-home/woodyswatch

  PRIVACY
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  Your email address is only used to send this ezine, see
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  . WOW is sent out by some gigantic, nameless, faceless,
  truly uncaring machine that doesn't read mail sent to it. I
  know. I've tried. It won't even say Hi! Whatever happened
  to common courtesy, that's what I want to know. Anyway,
  replying to an issue of WOW won't get you anywhere. Use the
  appropriate address or web page.

  Tell your friends about WOW and earn money for charity. No
  bull: http://www.woodyswatch.com/affiliate/ .

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  Hit http://www.woodyswatch.com/office/archives.asp or you
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  .

  READER COMMENTS
  Your best bet is to use specific email addresses listed in
  the articles. Our general catch-all address is
  mailto:wow-feedback@woodyswatch.com but I don't get a
  chance to go through that stuff very often. I know, I know.
  Take some pity on me. Microsoft's making all the bucks. I
  catch all the flak....

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  WOW'S FAMILY
  WOW is the flagship newsletter in my ever-expanding
  electronic empire, a mere pawn in my master design to amass
  a giant warchest and take control of all the software
  manufacturers on the planet by giving away free advice
  to... to... wait a sec... hmmmmm... strike that. Let me try
  again.

  WOW is part of my secret plan to launch a hostile takeover
  bid for Microsoft. Yeah. That's it. See, all of us WOWsers
  will get together and chip in a buck or two, and them we'll
  have enough to... to... to pay Microsoft's electric bill
  for a month. Or at least a week. Naw, maybe a day. Yeah.
  Take THAT, Redmond!

  To help facilitate my hostile takeover, I've set up these
  handy one-click links so you can subscribe to my other FREE
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  is welcome! Yes, even you 'Softies. Tell your friends, your
  boss, even that weird guy in the corner cubicle, about WOW!

  Woody's OFFICE Watch
  Copyright 2001 by Peter Deegan. All rights reserved. ISSN 1328-1674.

      ======================================================
               W-O-O-D-Y-S--O-F-F-I-C-E--W-A-T-C-H

---

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Get more from the Web. FREE MSN Explorer download : http://explorer.msn.com

Jerry,

I'd like to think you are right on the interpretation of what "OR" implies.  
That would count me in as a "Mechanical Engineer" or "Rehabilation Engineer".
 (But, I doubt the state of California would go for that.)  However, I can
see how a strict reading -- though maybe far fetched - allows for another
interpretation.  

That is, a person could qualify without an ABET/EAC accredited (or
equivalent) degree, and/or field experience, as long as they had become
licensed as a PE.  I realize this seems remote, but there may be some
licensing processes, or conditions, out there that we are not aware of.  The
"OR" may be IEEE's attempt to be unduly exclusionary.

Hopefully you, or someone else, can give a convincing argument that I am
wrong.

Dwight Johnson

In a message dated 8/3/01 6:37:01 AM Pacific Daylight Time,
jweisman@vtc.vsc.edu writes:

Subj:Re: [RESNAre-psg] Credentialling info/history
Date:8/3/01 6:37:01 AM Pacific Daylight Time
From:    jweisman@vtc.vsc.edu (Jerry Weisman)
Reply-to: RESNAre-psg@yahoogroups.com
To:    RESNAre-psg@yahoogroups.com




 "robinson@coes.latech.edu" wrote:

    The IEEE-USA Board of Directors has released a new position
statement
on "Use of the Title 'Engineer.'"
     Read the statement at "
http://www.ieeeusa.org/forum/POSITIONS/titleengineer.html".

This statement...
"Graduation with an Engineering degree from an ABET/EAC accredited program
of engineering (or equivalent*), coupled with sufficient experience in the
field in which the term, Engineer, is used; and/OR
Licensure by any jurisdiction as a Professional Engineer."
...is consistent with the requirements for the CRE/RET as developed by the
ad hoc committee last year.  The requirement as developed stated an ABET
degree.  Please notice the useage of the word "OR" in this statement.  They
are NOT saying you have to have a PE in order to be called an engineer.
So??...What IS happening these days with this certification???
Jerry

To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
RESNAre-psg-unsubscribe@egroups.com



Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.

I'd like to think you are right on the interpretation of what "OR" implies.
That would count me in as a "Mechanical Engineer" or "Rehabilation Engineer".
 (But, I doubt the state of California would go for that.)  However, I can
see how a strict reading -- though maybe far fetched - allows for another
interpretation.

If I remember correctly Dwight...you DO have a mechanical engineering degree.  So..according to this definition you can call yourself an "engineer."  Keep in mind...I am NOT saying you can PRACTICE as an engineer without a license...but there is nothing to keep you from calling yourself an "engineer"....just as there is nothing from IBM calling the people who work for them "engineers"....which is pretty much where the IEEE thing is coming from.  If you read that page from IEEE...it is clear they are talking about the PE reserving the title of "licensed" or "registered" engineers.  While they do make the point that there are states that put restrictions on the term "engineer" they still use the "OR" word to define what THEY mean by engineer.  If Charlie was posting that to the listserve to make the argument that RESNA should require the PE he found the wrong argument...because IEEE pretty clearly says ABET "OR" PE.