Tips and Tricks for Microsoft Office 4.2 - Part 4 of 5

ID: Q125269

The information in this article applies to:

• Microsoft Office for the Macintosh, version 4.2

SUMMARY

The following information was published as part four of a five-part series in the 12/12/94 issue of MacWeek.

TIPS AND TRICKS FOR MICROSOFT OFFICE VERSION 4.2

Dear Mac User:

This is part 4 (of a five part series) of tips and tricks on the new Microsoft Office Standard version 4.2 (which includes Microsoft Excel 5.0, Word 6.0, PowerPoint 4.0 and a Microsoft Mail 3.1 workstation license). We hope you find this information useful as you upgrade your organization to Office 4.2.

                                                    -The Microsoft Mac Team

PART 4: WHAT'S NEW IN THE OFFICE APPLICATIONS?

What's New in the Office 4.2 Applications?

Microsoft Office Standard version 4.2 contains hundreds of new features that address your needs. The four major design goals were to make Office:

• Easier to use by including features such as ToolTips to identify toolbar buttons, context-sensitive shortcut menus, and Tip Wizard to make capabilities more easily discoverable.
• Consistent and better integrated to leverage your learning across programs and platforms. Menu structures, toolbars, shortcut menus and command keys are much more similar. Drag a chart from Microsoft Excel right into your Word document.
• A platform for your custom solutions with Visual Basic for Applications in Microsoft Excel, WordBasic, and support for AppleScript(TM) in both Microsoft Excel and Word.
• Optimized for Macintosh by adding support for AppleScript, PowerTalk, QuickDraw GX Printing and of course, the Power Macintosh native. Plus we've improved QuickTime support.

Tips On New Features To Help You!

It's easy to just add more "bells and whistles," but Microsoft makes a science of listening to you. In fact, more than 70% of wishes made for the three main Office programs have been answered in Office 4.2. Here are some examples:

Microsoft Excel 5.0:

• In-cell editing and rich cell text formatting.
• Automatic subtotals: Insert in a sorted list with a couple of mouse clicks.
• Auditing tools: Microsoft Excel visually traces formulas showing dependencies.
• Hands-on charting: Directly select, resize and format any part of a chart to get the look you want.
• PivotTable dynamic views: Analyze numbers from multiple perspectives, such as sales data by region, product line, or salesperson.

• Revision marking: Track revisions made by multiple editors, and accept or reject each one.
• Macro language: Build your own solutions using WordBasic, a powerful language with over 800 macro functions to programatically expose all of the features within Word.
• Fully editable Print Preview: Display dozens of fully editable "thumbnails" at once.
• Full file compatibility with Word for Windows: Edit and share documents, and share custom solutions with no translations necessary.
• Easy table editing: Have Word automatically format tables!

• AutoContent Wizard: Get past the blank screen by using a built-in presentation outline, such as "Recommending a Strategy" or "Selling a Product, Service or Idea".
• Pick A Look Wizard: Easily pick templates, and customize slides and support materials.
• AutoLayouts: Just point and click to insert a new slide that looks just like the one you want.
• Hidden Slides: Come prepared to answer the tough questions with back up information.
• Drag and Drop: Reuse existing content in new presentations by simply dragging and dropping.

CUSTOMER'S TIP!

"Microsoft Word 6.0 is an effective upgrade: It's consistent with the other applications in Office, and allows you to get up to speed very quickly. One of my favorite features is AutoFormat - it's outstanding for complex documents!"

"The PivotTable in Microsoft Excel 5.0 allows me to draw relations from large quantities of raw data and break down massive amounts of data in a remarkable amount of time. The graphic capabilities are very impressive and enable me to make decisions much more rapidly and efficiently."

  - Frank Calabrese
    Manager, Desktop Computing
    Bose Corporation

Need More Information?

• By Phone: Please call Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400 in the US or (800) 563-9048 in Canada, and request the product enhancement guides, which review feature updates in detail.

  Excel 5.0 Product Enhancements Guide PN 098-56691

  Word 6.0 Product Enhancements Guide PN 098-56066

  PowerPoint 4.0 Product Enhancement Guide PN 098-57886

• By Fax: You can call the Microsoft Sales Fax Service at (800) 727-3351 and request data sheets for any of the programs in Microsoft Office.
• On-line: See our AppleLink(R) forum - Third Parties (H-O): Microsoft: Office. Copies of this ad series are included there for your reference.

REFERENCES

"MacWeek," 1.16.95, "Tips and Tricks for Microsoft Office Version 4.2," page 25, The Microsoft Mac Team

Additional query words: 4.20 12-12-94 December 1994 12, 12

Keywords          : offmac 
Version           : MACINTOSH:4.2
Platform          : MACINTOSH

Last Reviewed: February 6, 1998