Office 2001 features for the Mac

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June 16, 2000
Web posted at: 10:46 a.m. EDT (1446 GMT)

by Stephen Beale

(IDG) -- Microsoft has announced new Mac-only features to expect in Microsoft Office 2001, which is slated for release in the second half of the year. Microsoft previously announced a new e-mail/PIM application, code-named Alpaca, that will be included in the suite.

The new features are designed to improve productivity by simplifying common tasks in Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Microsoft has been steering the program toward serving SOHO users, who comprise the bulk of its installed base on the Mac.

Project gallery

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This is a new default start-up screen for all three applications that presents previews of customizable templates for Word documents, Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint presentations, organized by category. When you open a template, Office also launches the appropriate application for working with it. The feature is designed for users who might not be sure which application is best for a particular project. Microsoft has added new templates and improved wizards for setting up projects. The wizards, also accessible from the Project Gallery, modify the template as you enter information about the project you've selected.

Formatting palette

This palette provides quick context-sensitive access to text-, graphics- and document-formatting features in Word, Excel and PowerPoint. As you select items in a document, the palette presents the appropriate formatting options. The palette, which can be moved around the screen, incorporates the formatting toolbar from Word 98. As a result, Word 2001 includes only a single-row toolbar by default.

Image effects

Office now provides simple built-in tools, accessible from all three applications, that let you import and edit images from TWAIN-compliant scanners and digital cameras. The tools include new artistic image filters that Microsoft calls Picture Effects.

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All three applications can look up the definitions of highlighted words in documents.

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New in Word

In addition to these Office-wide features, Microsoft also announced new features for each of the Office applications. Word will include a Click and Type feature that lets you insert text in a document by double-clicking where you want to type. Word then adds the appropriate line breaks, tabs and alignment to accommodate the new text. You can also add text to headers and footers simply by clicking in those areas; in Office 98, you have to enter headers and footers through a command in the View menu.

Word 2001 will also feature a new Mac-only Data Merge Manager to simplify mail-merge operations. Word will provide a single window for setting up mail-merge projects; Microsoft said you can use as few as 10 mouseclicks to set up a project that required more than 50 clicks in previous versions. The Data Merge Manager also makes it easier to produce envelopes and labels.

New in Excel

Microsoft says that 60 percent of Excel spreadsheets are simple lists of CD collections, inventories and the like. To simplify the task, Excel 2001 includes List Tools, a feature that makes it easier to handle lists in the spreadsheet program.

If Excel thinks you're setting up a list, the program asks if you want to convert it to the new list format, which merges the cells in each row into lines that you can move individually. It also adds a floating List Manager palette. List Tools keeps header rows at the top of the screen as you scroll through and also adds headers to printed multiple-page lists. A Total Row command at the end of the list lets you calculate the sum or average of data in a particular column.

Excel also improves its AutoComplete feature, which uses your initial keystrokes to guess what you're trying to enter in a cell. When you being entering text in Excel 2001, it presents a drop-down menu with items that match the input. The list narrows as you enter more text and expands as you backspace.

Excel 2001's new Calculator is designed to provide a simple formula-entry interface for novice users.

New in PowerPoint

Office 2001 also includes new features for PowerPoint. A new Tri-Pane View combines the Slide, Outline and Notes views. You can add QuickTime transitions between slides and save PowerPoint presentations in a special QuickTime movie format. The movies, which can be reopened and edited in PowerPoint 2001, can be viewed with the QuickTime Player on systems that don't include PowerPoint. You can add MP3 files as soundtracks.

PowerPoint 2001 also includes a new AutoFit Text feature that resizes text to accommodate available space on the slide.

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