WORD97 vs. WORD 2002

[MB]

I have gotten used to WORD 97 and use it quite a bit. I also have WORD 2002
on my computer.

Is there any advantage to switching to the newer version? What does it offer
over and above WORD 97?

Mel

 

[Steve Wylie]

Hi Mel

Oh, tons of stuff! For a start, the tables function is much improved. And
you can do booklet printing/printing multiple pages on a page without the
use of macros. You can have the Autocorrect function linked to the Spelling
dictionary if you wish, so when you type and make a mistake, Word corrects
it even if it isn't in the Autocorrect list (well, mostly). There are lots
of little changes, like the Font dropdown list actually displays the name of
the font printed in the actual font itself so you can see what it looks like
without guessing. And you can have tables "floating" on a page with text or
other tables around them.

We used Word 97 at work for some 2 years and when we upgraded to Word 2000
it was a breath of fresh air. Most of the big improvements happened between
97 and 2000. Although Word XP does have the extra bonus that you can expand
the Open/Save dialog at will if it isn't big enough for you.

Just upgrade Mel. You won't regret it. Promise!

Steve

PS Excel and Powerpoint are a darn sight better in their XP incarnations
too.

 

[Evi]

Things I didn't like with 2002 was the Drawing Canvas (which can however be
switched off if you don't have a use for it).

One or two things I found disconcerting at first but then found useful when
I got used to them eg Word Art being put in line with other text by default
and thus unable to slide around in the way I was used to. But this did mean
that you could make your Word Art really appear as part of your text rather
than a graphic.

The mailmerge was easy to get lost in, if you strayed away from the Wizard.
Formatted fields in the source (eg currency field in Excel) lost their
formatting when inserted into Word and had to be deliberately formatted
using the field code. Mailmerge probably took me the longest to get used to.

On the other hand, the data source's program (Access by default) didn't
actually have to open for you to use it so everything ran more quickly.

The booklet printer wasn't that impressive but the Print 2 to a Page saved
messing about trying to get 2 A5 size items to fit onto an A4 page. The
online clipart gave an enormous choice without the need to resort to using
the CD.

The Help file, compared to 97 was minging (as my daughter terms it, ie not
good)and the VBA help was even worse. On the PC's at college it seemed very
slow to open and Clippit seldom seemed to come up with a helpful answer.

The numbering was very good when it worked but if it decided that it really
didn't want to Continue from the Previous list (I'd inserted an Autoshape)
then I really was unable to persuade it to do so yet in Word 97 this
presented no problems.

I didn't get a chance to try out the notorious Master Documents so I don't
know if they managed to fix this feature in XP. Anyone know?

I didn't like the layout for Outline view as much. The toolbar had a
drop-down box to let you choose the different views of Heading Levels which
was slower than just clicking the number button.

On the whole, I'm not madly enthusiastic, except about the clipart.

Evi

 

[Cindy M -WordMVP-]

Hi Mb,

I have gotten used to WORD 97 and use it quite a bit. I also have WORD 2002
on my computer.

Is there any advantage to switching to the newer version? What does it offer
over and above WORD 97?

It's much more stabile, for one thing. Word 97 was the transition from Word
6/95 to Unicode format, new graphics handling, new numbering... And a lot of
things didn't work quite right. Most of this settled down in Word 2000, and on
into 2002 improvements were made.

In addition, if Word crashes while you're working, your less likely to lose
everything. Office XP introduced a truly uncanny recovery system.

OTOH, there are definitely things that take some getting used to, and the
"Track changes" stuff was changed in ways that aren't optimal (some of this
has been fixed in 2003).

Evi mentioned mail merge, and there are a number of issues with that. If
you're concerned about mail merge, the Word 2002 section of my website's FAQ
will give you an idea what you can do about that.

On the VBA/programming side, lots of new events have been introduced that
weren't available in Word 97.

Word 2002 is lots better with embedded Excel tables and charts, as a rule,
too.

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Sep 30 2003)
http://www.mvps.org/word

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[Bob Buckland ?:-\)]

Hi Evi,

The Master Documents feature is still notorious
in Word 2002 and 2003 <g>

============

I didn't get a chance to try out the notorious Master Documents so I don't
know if they managed to fix this feature in XP. Anyone know? >> ...

--
Hope that helps,

Bob Buckland ? MS Office Products family MVP
*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*

http://go.CompuServe.com/MSOfficeForum?loc=us

MS Office 2003 'Parts' Explained
http://microsoft.com/uk/office/system.asp

Chart of What's in Each MS Office 2003 Edition
http://microsoft.com/uk/office/editions.asp

Have a little fun with Office
http://microsoft.com/uk/officexp/xtra/

Get a Microsoft Certification of your Office App Skills:
http://microsoft.com/traincert/mcp/mous/requirements.asp

Search the MS Knowledge Base & FAQ:
http://support.microsoft.com

Choose the newsgroups focused on your MS Office applications:
via Browser:
http://communities.microsoft.com/newsgroups/default.asp?icp=prod_office
by Newsreader: (Outlook Express)
news://msnews.microsoft.com

 

[Evi]

Well that's some consolation for still having Office 97

(Mind you I am suffering dreadfully from PowerPoint envy when I see all the
extra features in PP XP)
Evi

 

[TF]

Don't be. PowerPoint is the work of the devil. I have yet to a PPT
presentation that doesn't bore the viewer's to sleep. Microsoft should
refuse to see it to anyone involved in sales or marketing!

--
Terry Farrell - Word MVP
http://www.mvps.org/word/


Well that's some consolation for still having Office 97

(Mind you I am suffering dreadfully from PowerPoint envy when I see all the
extra features in PP XP)
Evi

 

[Cindy M -WordMVP-]

Hi Tf,

I have yet to a PPT
presentation that doesn't bore the viewer's to sleep. Microsoft should
refuse to see it to anyone involved in sales or marketing!

And wouldn't that be the fault of the presenter, not the application
?

Cindy

 

[TF]

Sort of - but I blame the application for making it too easy! <VBG>

Terry

Hi Tf,

I have yet to a PPT
presentation that doesn't bore the viewer's to sleep. Microsoft should
refuse to see it to anyone involved in sales or marketing!

And wouldn't that be the fault of the presenter, not the application
?

Cindy

 

[Cindy M -WordMVP-]

Hi Tf,

Sort of - but I blame the application for making it too easy! <VBG>

<LOL> Same observation many of us make about Word and using direct
formatting instead of styles!

Cindy

 

[TF]

Too true.

Terry

Hi Tf,

Sort of - but I blame the application for making it too easy! <VBG>

<LOL> Same observation many of us make about Word and using direct
formatting instead of styles!

Cindy