Real life advantages of Office 2k over Office 97?

[dougjnn]

I'm about to build a new honking Tbird 1.2 gig computer, with an indecent amount of ram and gigs.

Gonna buy and run win2k from an oem place for $130.


Trying to figure out if it is worth tracking down a *cheap* source of Office 2000, or whether I should just stick with Office 97.

I'd probably like any improvements / new features in Outlook, but I've got Outlook 98 (not the cra*py version it shipped with), so I don't know how much is there.

It would also be nice if Word would stop doing its lose the mouse pointer trick every once in a while.

Other than that, I don't know what (if anything) I'm missing. I tried reading some of the computer mag write ups on this a while ago, but it all seemed highly bs to me. Stuff about tighter integration with the internet. Meaning what, exactly???

Figure you all will know!

 

[Workin']

I have Office 2000 and Office 97. As far as I can tell, Office 2000 just looks more like Windows 2000, no new functionality that makes my life easier.....

You'd probably be fine to just stick with Office 97. I see no compelling reason to upgrade.

 

[sohcrates]

i agree. i only upgraded because i like to stay on top of things....but all i noticed was that office2k has different icons for word, etc!

no one's gonna be critical of someone "still" running office 97...at least not YET!

 

[Elledan]

I've used Office 95, 97 and 2000.

Only thing I noticed is that each version is merely improved in a graphically way (it looks 'better') and introduces a whole new range of bloatware: tiny programs who try to 'assist' you.

I prefer to use StarOffice now

 

[MisFit]

Having used Office 95, 97 2000 and Star Office, I prefer using Software602 Office Suite, its free, saves text files as *.doc. They display well in Office 97 and 2000.
Its available for download at Office Suite
Personally I prefer it over Star Office also, its not as cumbersome to use.

 

[dougjnn]

Oh, oh. Now I'm running into a problem with Outlook 98.

Have any of you tried to migrate Outlook 98 to a new, upgraded computer? Or do a re-install? I tried and it looks like the (free) upgrade from Windows 98 (1) only partly saved to disk when I told it to (the installer program), and (2) the update site from which the rest of the upgrade was handled "live" while connected has been changed and perhaps shut down. Has anyone else run into this??? I'm now remembering that about the time Office 2000 came out, Microsoft stopped offering the free Outlook 98 upgrade. (Outlook 97 you understand is widely considered a complete POS, and got those sorts of reviews, whereas Outlook 98 was a vast improvement. Outlook 2000 seems to not be very different from Outlook 98).

This seems like a real "gotcha" by Microsoft to me, if there isn't a way around it.

Unlike some, but probably like most Anandtech regulars, I always save all my downloaded upgrades, new programs (free or charged for) in their original compressed form in a root file called 9Downloads, in an organized way. It becomes part of the data I back up. That way I can re-install them without hunting all over the internet, and forgetting what I have, if I have to do a windows re-install -- or if I migrate to a new computer.

I did that with the two big service releases to Office 97, the removal of the identifier key in all Office 97 documents, etc. I also thought I did that with the upgrade to Outlook 97, so that I could supplement the reinstalls from my purchased disk of Office 97 together with the install key, of course.

Has anyone else run into this??

 

[wyvrn]

misfit thanks for the info, I am downloading now

 

[MisFit]