By Caroline Horton

We usually never run utilities like Norton AntiVirus, Norton Utilities, Quarterdeck’s CleanSweep etc. in the background. It always seemed that the computer booted slower and all the programs loaded and ran slower.

Since Microsoft released Office 97, there has been some concern about the use of computer resources. The major concern was when MS Outlook was loaded and MS Word was running as the default e-mail editor. This intrigued us, because we are naturally curious when statements like this are made. The people making these statements usually are unaware of the true overhead (resources) used by various programs. This being said, we went ahead and tested some common programs and combinations of programs to determine the amount of resources consumed.

If you check with most computer professionals, the standard performance change of 8% – 10% will not be noticeable (with a 200MHz system a 20% – 30% hit, probably will not be noticed).

Quarterdeck’s CleanSweep – 9%

Norton Utilities – 10%

Norton AntiVirus – 10%

Combining Norton Utilities and Norton AntiVirus produced a performance hit of 20% (ouch).

Okay, now that you have read this, you are thinking – ‘yeah, I knew those big programs were bogging down my system.’ Read on for the test results, maybe you will think otherwise!

Microsoft IE v3.02 – 6%

Microsoft Outlook – 8%

Microsoft Word 97 – 7%

Microsoft IE v3.02 and Microsoft Outlook – 14%

Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Word 97 – 14%

Microsoft IE v3.02, Outlook, and Word 97 – 19%

Now picture what all those helpful little utilities are really doing to your system when running the productive programs.

Quarterdeck’s programs have not been getting the most favorable reviews in this column during the last few months – so not to break a streak, Quarterdeck’s Fix-It, will receive a short but not memorable review. It appears that Fix-It uses the same hooks as Quarterdeck’s WinProbe95.

Fix-It has a problem that needs fixing, pun intended! The program does not perform as expected, it sort of gave the mouse spastic attacks and caused some other problems. After all that has been said about Quarterdeck’s programs in this column lately – more space will not be dedicated to a company that refuses to rewrite their programs!

Microsoft’s OSR2, commonly called Windows 95B has been tested and abused on our machine. At this point, OSR2 appears to be the most stable version of Windows released thus far.

In this vein we have tested Microsoft’s Office 97 Professional Edition and have found it seriously lacking. From installation, which was delightfully easy, all the way to mouse spasms running Quarterdeck’s Fix-It – Office 97 performed without a hitch. The only thing it lacking was our ability to use all of the features included.

Office 97, which includes; Word 97, PowerPoint 97, Excel 97, Access 97, and Outlook 97, has the look and feel of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer or is it the other way around. Like asking which came first the ‘chicken or the egg.’ The menu bars have no discernable buttons until your mouse lands on one of the icons.

The first time Word 97 was started – the question formed where were the buttons and some of the icons were not turned on. Seems Microsoft was protecting us by not allowing the use of functions not needed. Huh? Well to put it simply, if you are looking for a feature you were not familiar with and did not know which icon to select – your choices were limited to options available.

The new Office Assistant will flirt with you, occasionally winking and trying to get your undying attention. (This feature can be turned on or off, by selecting the question mark on the menu bar.) This overly friendly creature is smarter than imagined and very intuitive. Recently, while creating a table for submitting medical bills, duplicate entries were being made and a little box appeared offering to make the entry. The antics of the Office Assistant, shaped, like a paperclip is somewhat entertaining.

If you never have used Microsoft Word or one of the other programs included in the package listen up. You should be aware that once you understand Word and the menu commands, you know how to use the other programs in the Suite. The only differences between the programs are the commands specific to that program. For instance, Excel’s menu allows for spreadsheet commands, Access’s menu allows for database commands.

Features included are:

OfficeArt program – allows you to create 3-D graphics and drawings.

Enhanced AutoCorrect – fixes multiple word errors automatically.

Access DataBase Wizard – permits you to automatically build tables, queries, forms, and reports using more than 20 customizable templates.

Natural language formulas in Excel – let you use your everyday language to create formulas using a Formula AutoCorrect Wizard, which automatically fixes formula writing mistakes.

Table Drawing Tool in Word – helps you draw tables, with customizable cells, rows, and columns to fit your data. (Really great)

Bookshelf Basics – includes The American Heritage Dictionary, The Original Roget’s Thesaurus, and The Columbia Dictionary of Quotations. If you have Bookshelf for Office 95, it can be accessed also.

Microsoft Internet Explorer – if you use AOL it can be accessed using MS Internet Explorer, which is faster than AOL’s interface and directly links to the Office Suite.

You receive 3,000 clip-art images and 150 fonts to get you started.

You can turn on the AutoCorrect feature and set the parameters of typing style. Word then automatically corrects or offers suggestions as you type. Such as – in technical writing it will alert you to first person words and correct punctuation.

One of the GREAT new features of Office 97 is Outlook! This program is a true office manager. It keeps track of your electronic mail, appointments, addresses, contacts, tasks, and documents all in one window. This window is customizable and links directly to the Internet, Internet Explorer, Word, etc. All of the addresses entered can be directly accessed by Microsoft Word, Microsoft Fax, and MS Internet Explorer and you can select Word as your default e-mail editor.

The new fonts and font treatments available include; Blinking Background, Las Vegas Lights, Marching Red Ants, Marching Black Ants, Shimmer Text, and Sparkle Text.

In a previous article, reference was made to the new "Wheel Mouse" from Microsoft, well it really eases movement in Office 97. The Wheel Mouse and Office 97 were designed to work together. Many people complain about Microsoft, but the technology produced by Microsoft continually is aimed at making your desktop more powerful, while at the same time less complex and more user friendly. Wait until you see Internet Explorer v4.0 and Memphis (Windows 98). Windows 97/98 is a prime example, people take pot shots at Microsoft about the delivery date and then complain if somebody finds a bug that slips through testing.

Microsoft ships many thousands of Beta copies out for testing, collects the results, fixes the bugs and issues new Beta version updates until it appears all the bugs are worked out. Sometime down the line after shipping someone performs a function not thought of by the programmers and thousands of Beta testers and immediately the program is buggy. With the millions of lines of code and all of the built in features, the combinations and permutations of a bug become tremendous.

Once Microsoft becomes aware of a bug they offer a fix, and everybody becomes aware of the bug. Corel has similar problems in fact, the beta testers told Corel not to release the last years version upgrade because it had too many bugs. The simple solution would be to go back to the clunky old word processor with no features except a spell checker that you run after the fact, or to accept the fact that problems occur.

If you compared software to automobiles and had the numerous problems with software that you did with your car along with the dollar investment, then you might have reason to complain.

Enough already with the soapbox – Office 97 has too many features to list them all here.