As Microsoft
“For Office 2003 users, a new benefit is the ability to access the most
Linnett said Microsoft has committed to updating the site daily, based on
“All customers using products dating back to Office 97 will be able to
Linnett said the site will make available hundreds of custom templates for
“This is a subsection of Office Online dedicated to providing Office “With Tools on the Web, we prepares for the Oct. 21 launch of the
next generation of its Office suite, the company Monday unveiled Office
Online, a retooled version of its ‘Office Tools on the Web’ site which will
integrate directly with Office 2003.
Like the highly-popular Office Tools on the Web, Office Online is intended
as a comprehensive repository of Microsoft Office user resources. One of
the biggest changes, according to Microsoft, is a new live connection that
will allow Office 2003 users to access the site’s resources directly from
within their applications.
up-to-date content directly through task panes in the Office System
programs so they won’t have to leave the document, spreadsheet or
PowerPoint deck they are working in to get the information they need,
saving time and frustration,” said Chris Linnet, group manager of Office
Online. “For example, a customer working with pivot tables can ask a
question right from Microsoft Excel, and Search will not only return
answers to the question, but also training courses — all in one set of
results.”
customer feedback. He noted that the company has more than 100 staff
members dedicated to updating the content and improving the user experience
for customers. The site will continue to cater to users of older versions
of the Office suite.
access the information they need through the browser, as they have done in
the past,” Linnett said. “Previous users will notice that we’ve migrated
all existing content to the new site, and have added volumes of new media
and materials as well.”
all Office programs, as well as a collection of more than 130,000 pieces of
clip art, photos, animations and audio files. It also kicks off with more
than 50 new self-paced training programs, and Linnett said the team would
add courses continually based on customer feedback.
“For IT departments, this means they can focus less on individual training
and focus more on business critical tasks,” Linnett said. “Office 2003
customers will be able to take advantage of new self-paced multimedia
training courses covering all of the Office programs, including practice
sessions, right in the programs.”
He added that the site will also feature downloads of the most recent
Office updates and information about new products.
Office Online is also geared to helping Microsoft’s partners, through the
new Office Marketplace.
customers with information about products and services from partnering
customers outside of Microsoft that will further enhance their Microsoft
Office System experience,” Linnett said.
featured 12 partners who received tens of thousands of referrals per month.
With Office Online, the number of partners and tools has already increased
10-fold. So far, the most popular partner services have been a PDF to Word
converter, an e-postage add-in, Excel add-ins that add different charting
capabilities to Excel, Factiva (business news) research and reference
service, and specialized Word templates.”
Microsoft Debuts Office Online
