Amazon.com Product Description

Microsoft Office XP Professional Special Edition Upgrade includes the 2002 versions of Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, Access, Publisher, andFrontPage.

New context-sensitive smart tags pop up with options you need--right whenyou need them. No digging through menus. Tasks that once required multiplesteps are just one click away with the new task pane. New and improved tools in Access allow you to build and manage lists and databases, or analyzeinformation from databases such as Microsoft SQL Server.

The new version of Outlook in Office XP Professional condenses all your personal and professional e-mail into one central location, even your Web-based e-mail accounts like Hotmail. With AutoRecover, your work is saved at regular intervals while you work. PowerPoint includes animation effects and custom slide transitions. An editable print preview assures that your printed slides anddocuments come out right the first time.

Microsoft Publisher 2002 provides professional page layout and text toolsto help you create compelling marketing materials for your business.FrontPage 2002 lets you create exactly the Web site you want withgraphics-rich, hyperlinked, sound-enabled Web pages. New tools andfeatures like automatic Web content, PowerPoint-like drawing capabilities,a streamlined user interface, and optional HTML and XML reformatting makethis a complete Web site creation and management tool. ... Read more

Reviews (109)

Great product!
Microsoft Office XP is a large improvement over Office 2000. Not only is the [slightly] new interface more refined, but the smarttags and more features are great. The difference between Office 2000 and XP is very similar to that of Office 97 and 2000; there are suttle changes that you do not notice until you actually need them. And when you need them, they are great to have! If you are upgrading to Office XP, then you should definately get the Special Edition (I have no idea why it is called that; it should just be called premium). I use Publisher and FrontPage almost everyday, as well as the normal Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Access (basically, I utilize every part of Office XP). I highly prefer this product over Corel WordPerfect Office 2002, or any other competitors. I am aware, there has been some concern over the Product Activiation Wizard; frankly, I do not have a problem with it. As long as it does not disclose personal information (which it does not), I don't think it's a big deal. I think that it is a good way for Microsoft to keep people from installing multiple copies of their software. Don't get me wrong; I do not like Product Activation at all, but I think that people are overreacting about the privacy concerns of it. Another thing people might be concerned about is compatibility. As far as I know, the only products whose files cannot be opened in previous versions of the same product is Publisher; a new format for saving the file was introduced in Office XP and therefore it is not compatiable with Publisher 2000 or earlier. Other than that, I definately think that Office XP is the best office suite I have used!

Office
Well, actually I like Excel and hate Word. The other programs included I have little or no use for.
I use Excel all the time for engineering calculations, including writing VBA macros to automate things that I can't do easily in the cells. It's very useful, like having a calculator that remembers everything you've done, writes it down, but allows you to change inputs and recalculate everything automatically. Unfortunately, there is a bug in the help files, so I can't get Visual Basic help anymore. The IT guys at work fixed the regular help but never could get the macro help to work again. Very annoying.
Word is terrible compared to WordPerfect. What I used to be able to do with a couple of keystrokes, now takes minutes of navigation thru menus and dialog boxes. Outline formatting, numbered lists, etc. are especially frustrating in Word because nothing is obvious. You shouldn't have to get a college degree in word processing in order to learn to write a specification and get the formatting correct. One annoyance is that paragraph formatting is hidden in a selectable little space at the end of the paragraph, so if you try to delete the last few words by hitting shift-end and delete, you will delete numbering, formatting, etc. of that paragraph. Also, the thesaurus that came with WordPerfect was much better.
In general, Microsoft Office tries to be everything for every possible user, automates many tasks to do things that it thinks I want to do even though I don't, and makes it hard to figure out how to undo them.
I am using WordPerfect wherever possible and trying StarOffice.

Real problems with this one..
Installed the upgrade over Office 2000 on a well equipped XP Professional system. Liked it well enough but after an online update, File->Open began taking 20-30 sec per level to navigate to the file. Unfortunately, installing this package seems to put the 'better' file menus in and everything came to a crashing halt. Worse news is that it wouldn't uninstall nor reinstall/fix (something got corrupted). A Msoft A+ beat on it a long time then finally reinstalled XP (unfortunately an all too common occurance, for lots of reasons) and all was well until I installed Office XP again. The problem recurred but this time, a system restore cleaned it up. Still using Office 2000. Now using Office XP as a gold coaster. I've heard of this happening on other systems.. something in the networking maybe.. We're using a Linux server w/Samba drive. Works great with everything else..

If you want to write...
Microsoft Word on XP is the industry standard and next to Quark Express one of the most important tools of the trade.

Nothing comes close to Microsoft Word. MSWORD is as important as the invention of the pen and most importantly is compatible with nearly everything. Open up any written document. Save to any written document type. The import feature is almost flawless.

Thank goodness I get a university discount
When I saw the cost of this, my jaw dropped. I didn't think it would cost so much for Word, PowerPoint, FrontPage and Excel.

I went to the university bookstore at my school to see if I could get any kind of discount on it. Thank goodness Indiana University has a contract with Microsoft!

About the program now that I've complained about the cost enough...

WORD
This is the program I use the most because for being a word processing program, it is very versatile. I can write term papers and what not with it, but I can also credit news letters complete with graphics. I have also used it to create invoices with neat graphics.

FRONTPAGE
I know HTML (one of the languages webpage makers write webpages in), so I pretty much only use this program when I'm trying out something new, like frams. I have also used it to figure out HTML codes for colors, frames, and tables. I had a college instructor who used it to do her entire webpage and it looked pretty good.

EXCEL
I used Excel to keep track of the money I was spending on gas for 6 months, how many miles I was traveling, where I was traveling, and the cost of gas. I know it sounds like of nerdy, but it really helped me save some money on gas, knowing exactly where to stop when I was on a trip. I also has how many miles I was putting on my car in that 6 months (10,000+ miles), which explained the wear and tear.

POWERPOINT
I am just beginning to learn this. I didn't realize what a valuable program PowerPoint was until people in some of my college classes gave presentations with it. Man, my poster board presentation was nothing compared to theirs. It is actually a pretty easy program to learn, but the 'little extras' like the animation and extra graphics can take a bit of time.

OUTLOOK
I use this program to check my school e-mail because I have AOL at home. I like not having to go to the university's website, navigating my way to the mail page, signing it, and going through at least one more link, just to get to my e-mail. This program goes straight to my mailbox with no links, no navigating.

ACCESS
When I tried to use access to create a database of my CDs, I had a lot of problems. It is probably the only program in this software suite that I think is a total waste of disc space. I have had to use it before, but for me, I can just use Excel to make lists, it is much easier to use.

I am really glad that I have Microsoft Office. It has made school a lot easier. I can e-mail documents to my school account, download them, and know they will work with the school software. That saves me from having to reformat the assignment whenever I want to work on it at school. ... Read more

Reviews (8)

Good but save your money
Okay maybe if your connection is slow or you don't have access to broadband you can buy this CD,but if not why bother?
OpenOffice.org is freely available online as is Firefox.
I use and love both so don't get me wrong here,but the price is a little too much but then again it goes to the developers.
Ooo is a great alternative to Microsoft Office and even Star Office.It does everything the same for free! I often do my homework and essays with Ooo Writer. And Firefox is what I am using to write this very review!It's one of the best Mozilla-based browsers besides the Mozilla Suite/Netscape 7 itself.

Open Office and FireFox, wonderful software, excellent value
Open Office reads and writes in MS Office 97/2000/XP formats for Word, Excel and PowerPoint and can export documents to PDF format.
One of the best advantages is inexpensive upgradability.I purchased Office 95 ($400+ dollars) in 1996.When Office 97 came out, my Office 95 software would not open office 97 formatted documents.I toughed it out till I purchased Office 2000 ($500+ dollars) now Office XP and 2003 have came out (do we see a pattern here)?I suspect that it will be much less expensive to buy a $30 upgrade to Open Office to read and writedocuments created by upcoming versions of Micro$oft Office.
FireFox: "ad ware" resistant, pop up blocker and tabbed browsing... love it.

Great products, great price, great source!
Open Office and Firefox are two of the very best of their kind.Both give users the ability to work with the same files, websites and so on that they're used to, without the worries of bad macros, spyware, and other problems associated with the proprietary products these replace.Better yet, they're both faster, more powerful, and more up-to-date than those old dinosaurs.Perhaps best of all, these programs look and operate the same on Windows, Mac, Linux and other platforms, making it much easier if you or your family needs the flexibility.

The fact you can buy this set for a tiny fraction of the cost of just the Office suite it replaces is almost secondary to all the other features -- Open Office would be tough competition for Microsoft even if it cost the same as MS Office.

Linspire, the publisher of this collection, is highly respected for making open-source software widely accessible; if you like Open Office and Firefox, their Linspire Linux is among the best.

Open Source Packaged and Marketed as It Deserves
OpenOffice.org and Firefox are both fantastic products lacking one simple ingredient. Despite their technical merits, the marketing efforts for these products have not been impressive... until now.

With Oooff, that has all changed. The products are finally sold next to other respected name brands on store shelves and through online retailers, like Amazon.com. Oooff is expanding the distribution channel of these open source products. Oooff will expose computer users that pay large sums for Microsoft Office and use the vulnerable, dull and underpowered Internet Explorer to the powerful alternatives they didn't know existed. Without a doubt, making open source software accessible is the first step in restoring a healthy and competitive software industry.

Oooff is a great idea and contains excellent products. This is a good buy and will give you the comfort of knowing that by purchasing this product,OpenOffice.org and Firefox will have an even brighter future. Kudos to everyone at Linspire, and the developers for OpenOffice.org and Mozilla Firefox! :)

Great for Windows and Linux
If you use Windows this is the way to go.Free web browser that more than 10 Million people worldwide have switched over to.None of the security problems that Internet Explorer has.Popups blocked out of the box without not extra software.The office side saves you over 200 dollars paying for Microsoft Office.And it is completely compatible with Office formatted documents and more.If you have a college student on a budget that needs a office suite then this is for them. ... Read more

Features

• Get step-by-step instructions and study real-life examples to become an expert Excel 2003 user
• Begin editing spreadsheets and developing functions for them
• Work with databases and XML tools, and begin publishing spreadsheet info to the Web
• Add graphics, create charts and embed XML documents in your spreadsheet

Features

• Prints barcodes in 3 easy steps -Choose a Label Type, click on Bar Code & Personalize, and hit Print
• Comes with standard label templates, and multiple choices for barcodes
• Many different barcode types available -Postnet 5, 9, or 11 (with delivery point), Code 39, Code 128, Codabar and more
• Print interleaved 2-of-5 barcodes for product and inventory needs
• Includes 1000 TrueType Fonts -- 500 for Windows, 500 for Mac

Features

• 10 tutorials covering advanced Office XP application topics on 5 separate CDs
• Helpful voice narration, colorful graphics, and clear instructions make learning easy
• Accurate simulations, examples, and self-paced training make learning fun
• Offers 4 to 8 hours of training per course, organized into specific learning objectives
• Search any topic and get immediate training on just the subject you need

Amazon.com Product Description

Upgrade to a new product with a familiar working environment, increased power, and more features, including Paradox 9 and NetPerfect. With the addition of voice recognition, Internet publishing, database, and more the WordPerfect Office 2000 Professional Edition is good for corporate users. Format documents with ease and compatibility with the WordPerfect Office 2000 line. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Excellent suite, but instruction somewhat hard to come by
I've read recently that Corel is essentially giving up the fight to win control over the office suite software market. They're apparently acknowledging that Microsoft Office is the _de facto_ standard, and are going to be continuing this product line more or less as a legacy commitment to their installed user base. Future upgrades are to be more and more conversion happy, making sure that your Microsoft Office files can be edited in Corel and then exported back to Microsoft without a hitch.

Some might see this as an unfortunate abdication, but I tend to view it as a smart choice in a changing situation. In the Windows market, they clearly have been beaten by superior advertising and third-party interest in their Microsoft competitor. It is comparatively difficult, for instance, to find many books to help you unlock the full potential of Quattro. It is also hard to find many specialized spreadsheets for Quattro. This stands in stark contrast to the abundance of instructional materials, plug-ins, and function-specific spreadsheets available for Excel.

Happily, this is not the case with Paradox, the included relational database, and Word Perfect. There are more than enough instructional materials around to help you become proficient in these parts of Office 2000. Both have many devoted followers, and you'll have no problem quickly getting up to speed with the largely intuitive programs.

Out-of-the-box usability is thus a mixed bag. Some parts of the package are well documented, some are obscure, but still Corel has the advantage of the superior product. They also have the advantage of having maneuvered themselves as the first Linux office software solution. And it's guaranteed to work well in Linux because Corel have developed their own Linux OS.

Plus, the Corel website is one of the best and most helpful places to be on the net. Try saying that about Microsoft's cumbersome, charge-you-around-every-corner site. When you buy a Corel product, you really do become a part of a family of other users who inhabit the ultra-friendly, ultra-useful Corel.com. Beyond that, though, Corel itself puts tons of instructional materials on its website, so you're likely to find the answers to your questions, if you're willing to do a little digging. Some with slow web connections might find this arrangement unbearable, and will logically choose Microsoft simply because they can find out how to use the software a little easier. This is an important consideration for some people, but I tend to look more for long term usability, rather than ease of initial use.

By choosing to stay in the Windows game by improving their product's portability, and by more aggressively marketing Word Perfect as _the_ Linux solution, Corel is playing a smart waiting game. Since the upgrade version of this software is less than $200 the risk you might take by joining Corel is a negligible one. It's affordable enough to be running alongside Microsoft Office, and it's hedging your bets on Linux' importance over the next decade. The more you use it, though, the more likely you are to find that you keep opening up because you actually _want_ to, not because it's a good investment.

The best Office Suite out there!
I don't know why every one is buying Microsoft Office. People have told me that it's easier, but, respectively, I know that's not true! Microsoft says that WordPerfect is inferior because it isn't WYSIWYG, which they say is because one "has to" use the code editing feature to make quality changes. That's a falicy, because the code editing feature is there to make it so that you can more easily see where the codes start and end and then edit them so that less memory space is taken up with codes. I made the same document in both suites and edited both the best I could after initially making it and the WordPerfect version not only looked better, but was two to three times smaller in the memory it took up. I know that hard drive space is not much of an issue today, but I would think that any conscientious business person would still find ways to save space and money and would certainly like to have better looking documents. So why not give WordPerfect Suite 2000 a chance? Microsoft may have more options but WordPerfect gives you more power to actually edit your document. ... Read more

Features

• It features all kinds of interacive screens and lessons that will help you become an Access database manager
• Find out how to build & finish a database, running a sort and pulling data from it, and creating queries
• Design an auto-report, set up proper form layouts
• and zoom in on reports
• You'll be building complete database applications in Access 2002 in no time!

Features

• This vast collection of office applications includes tools for business, desktop publishing, office management and system support
• Microsoft-compatible office applications for word processing, spreadsheets, databases, presentations, HTML editors and drawing tools
• All kinds of desktop publishing applications -- from office document templates to flowchart makers and mail list managers
• The wide range of business tools offer a legal forms creator, contact management & customer relations tools, and a full-featured accounting system
• Anti-virus and firewall tools, CD & DVD burners, spam blockers and pop-up stoppers, backup tools and cache cleaners to keep your system running optimally

Features

• Get the most out of this accounting and management tool with a step-by-step guide to all its features
• Find out how easily you can create customized forms, invoices, estimates and more
• Set up easy-to-use payroll, tax forms, inventory, time tracking and more
• Assign price levels for different projects and track your job-costing
• Create and follow a monthly budget in just a few clicks

Reviews (3)

Useless
Not worth one star.
This is undoubtedly the worst instruction manual I have ever seen. A book would be light years faster than this monster. If you enter a search word it takes absolutely forever searching through the disk.
Then you find inane statements.
I loaded the entire CD onto my hard disk and that is not much an improvement. Why it is even marketed?

Mastering Quickbooks 2003 Pro
For the price the product is pretty good. It teaches you the features of Quickbooks well. I purchased another CD ROM for $6 that covers very little. This is definitely superior. I'm sure you can spend about $100 for a better one.

Very Poorly Done
Don't waste your time with this one. All it does is read out loud the instructions already written on the screen. There's no explanation given for the important decisions it asks you to make. (i.e. fiscal year vs. calendar year, examples of how a catagory might be used) ... Read more

Amazon.com Product Description

Smart Business Pack is ideal for any small business or home office user who wants to save time and money. The Business Pack bundles 15 useful programs, including Mail List, Invoices, Business Cards, Database, Label Maker, Check Designer, Brochures, Stationery, Greeting Cards, Web Page Designer, Newsletters, Photo Editor, Business Legal Forms, Post Cards, and Type Stylist. The program also includes 1.5 million bonus photos and images. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Office Ready Family Essentials
Don't buy this product. It won't work with office 2000 without a patch-I got patch and still didn't work. Canon does not support software. If you call the number given by canon, the number is disconnected. This product never worked properly from what I can tell and Canon never cared. If you are running xp, forget it, it won't even install. Bottom line, don't buy this product, and I would never buy anything from canon again. ... Read more

Features

• Write a better resume with the tools & templates here -- create resumes and cover letters for any type of job
• Post your new resume on every major career resume, and print out copies for your interviews
• Easy resume importing tools help you update & edit your resume with a click
• Store your new resume in a secure location and send it to new job postings easily
• Use the Salary Finder to show you the money you should be earning, and learn how to negotiate for it

Reviews (1)

An Office Suite?
When I shop for an office suite, I look for a word processor, spreadsheet, database and the like. package contains business card designer, web-page assistant and other feather-weight programs that look like they're designed for the computer novice. It looks to me like "Office Suite" is not exactly the correct category for this product.

Mike ... Read more

Features

• Get step-by-step guidance on how to use new Access features, like SharePoint Services and XML integration
• Create new table & datasheets, and work with multiple tables quickly and easily
• Build bound & unbound forms with complete data validation
• Work with the Stored Procedure Designer to modify your SQL statements stored in SQL Server, without having to use T-SQL
• Access data from multiple databases in forms, reports, and data access pages, linking tables from other Access databases, Microsoft Excel spreadsheets and other sources

Reviews (7)

Newbie to Pro, this is for you
I have been a WP user for a few years now, and was initally hesitant about upgrading to 10. However, it has been a very worthwhile experience. All the features that make WP great are still here, including, of course, the inimitable and invaluable Reveal codes, and several features have been markedly improved. Publish to PDF is now very good indeed, a feature that for the vast majority of users will save a significant sum of money by obviating any need to purchase PDF-generating software. The templates and macros that come with it mean that even first-timers can quickly feel at home, and Corel's incredibly generous licensing means that if you own practically any wordprocessing suite, you're elgible for this incredibly powerful package. Unlike one other reviewer, my installation was completely trouble-free. If you're looking for an escape from Redmond's clutches, or if you are looking for a really powerful, flexible office suite, or both, you can't go past WPO 2002

A BIG disappointment
I'd like to give this no stars at all.

As a long time user of Corel programs, it pains me to say Corel's Office2002 program is by far the worst software I have ever used. It is plagued with problems, among them:

1. The serial number accompanying the Upgrade program is incorrect. You have to call Technical Services to get a valid one.

2. Corel says the program requires 128MB RAM. At that level, the program will not run unless you close all other programs, including the Windows status bar. Also, it will not print documents. I had to buy more RAM for my system to resolve these problems.

3. If you are installing it over an older version of Corel's Office, both versions appear, and conflict with each other. When I uninstalled the old version after installing the new one, the new program wouldn't run. This required another expensive call to Technical Services to resolve.

4. Corel is in Canada - calls to them are charged at the international rate. Also, several times I got "all our service representatives are in a staff meeting, please call later" during the day (0800-1700 Eastern Time). The phone charges to get the information needed to install the program and get it at least minimally functional cost almost as much as the price of the program.

5. The advertizing for the program says Paradox will open Microsoft Access files and Presentations will open Harvard Graphics files. It does not say these functions are not in the normal installation procedure. Corel will send instructions, not included in the original documentation, to install the extra import filters needed to open Harvard Graphics. They will also send instructions for a very complex, time consuming procedure needed to convert an Access file every time you use it.

6. The program is very unstable - it crashes on an average of every 30 minutes. When it crashes, it usually crashes the entire system, and the automatic save does not work - you lose everything from your last manual save.

7. You have to open the Windows Task Manager and manually close the "Printserver" multiple times while using one of the application programs.

8. You cannot print multiple documents in one continuous operation. You have to close the WordPerfect program, and reboot the computer before and after each "print" operation.

9. WordPerfect 10 is incapable of opening older WordPerfect documents that contain graphic images. It won't open the document, and corrupts the file so that it is unreadable by any program. I lost a half dozen files with a logo before I realized what was happening. When I need to update one of those files, I have to transfer it to another system with an older version of WP, or open it in MSWord, delete the figure(s), save the text, then recreate the figure(s) in WP10.

footnotes . . .
Apart from "reveal codes", without which I feel lost, one of the things I like best about WordPerfect is that it manages to get 98% of footnotes on the right page - as against Word which is always putting footnotes on the next page, or spilling them on to two - and on occasions three - pages. If you prepare camera-ready copy, or if you are writing a thesis and don't want to annoy the examiner unnecessarily, this is a big plus.

Wordperfect beats Word Hands Down
This review is strictly on the WordProcessor. I've yet to encounter anything good that Word does near as well as Wordperfect. Tables, formating, merges etc.

If you want to promote capal tunnel syndrome with obsessive mouse use, WORD has a substantial advantage. Its fun to watch the WORD 'experts'. With an absolute minimum use of quickkeys, the WORD Expert is constantly putting their offhand on the hip, leaning back and fooling with the mouse- a true model of efficency {NOT!}. Mircosoft assumes the user is too dumb to learn quick-keys and insteads touts "Ease-of-Use" mouse work.

WORD is like AOL, everywhere and charging prices based on the label rather than the quality.

WordPerfect: Better Control In Document Prep
Anyone who is serious about controlling what happens with a document should choose WordPerfect. It is the most complete wordprocessor when it comes to control of page design. Don't let the ease-of-use people fool you. The so-called trade-off for ease with Microsoft Word (which I do not concur with) will result more often with frustration when it is time to assemble something serious like a thesis or resume. If you want a more feature-rich application, WordPerfect is the one to choose. If you are afraid of controlling the structure of your document, let someone who isn't do your typing for you, but have them do it in WordPerfect. ... Read more

Features

• Perfectly reproduces your professional documents, preserving the correct columns of text, tables and graphics
• Retypes all the text in a scanned document, and imports all formatting, for a perfect Digital copy
• Extremely easy to use, thanks to the intuitive new interface
• Multiple Output formats - create a document, spreadsheet, graph or PDF File with just a click
• Ignore Exterior Area limits recognition zones for faster, easier scanning

Features

• Open, edit and save important office documents -- then share them with other easily
• Set up a complete set of contacts, from names & nubers to addresses & e-mail information
• Easy scheduling tools help you make every appointment and meeting
• Design databases for easier information management and searching
• Create slideshows and presentations with just a few clicks