Microsoft Office XP Professional (version 2002) Screenshots Microsoft Word Screen Microsoft Excel Screen Microsoft Outlook Screen Microsoft PowerPoint Screen Microsoft Access Screen The Final Say! Gameplay N/A Graphics N/A Sound N/A Value N/A Microsoft Office XP Professional - reviewed by Andrew Bistak & Tory Favro Review Date: 07 May 2002 Review Score: 9.9/10  Distributor: Microsoft

When presented by Microsoft with this awesome software, we wondered if we had bit off a bit more than we could chew. After all, impulsegamer is known for it's in-depth games reviews, not serious software! However we have had readers for some time asking for these types of reviews so we will of course oblige you. When presented with Office XP Professional we were also sent a review copy of Windows XP Professional (2002 version). So to do the software justice we ducked out and bought a Seagate 60GB (7200rpm) hard disk and did a totally fresh install of all software given to us. This way we reviewed the titles without being encumbered by other software getting in the way. The first thing was the absolute ease of installation. The cd auto started and simply asked for the cd key and then which programs we wanted installed onto the hard drive and which we wanted to run from the cd. We opted to do a complete install onto the hdd. About 5-9 minutes later the job was done and we were ready to use Office. One of the good things about the process was that you only have to give Microsoft the country the software is being used in. Registration over the internet is something that we recommend as the PC does the work for you, rather than phone Microsoft and having to rattle off numbers to them. The changes in the new versions of software are immediately apparent. It is surprisingly pleasant to experience the ease of use and the sheer power that Office XP Professional provides. Even the beginner user of Word and Excel will not feel daunted as there is plenty of support in the package to get you up and going as well as online help from the Microsoft home page and user groups. So many things have been changed for this version of Office that I am sure that some of the high faluting sites will cover them all, however for the most part it is just the sheer simplicity and power of the software that absolutely staggers. One of the amazing things about office is the new implementation of voice recognition software. This will change the way you do you work. In fact is review is completed using voice recognition software. and initial period of training is required and you will find some mistakes however this is a small problem compared to the amount of work the you're going to get completed as a result of the software into in fact, this review was completed using voice recognition software, and when all was said and done we were very pleased with the result. the software required an initial training.  The only problem we can say with voice recognition software, is the fact that some people will become complacent and thereby make some silly mistakes. So far as we can see, voice recognition has been implemented into all programs and is very effective.  This feature is not designed to take care of all functions of the keyboard however used in conjunction with the keyboard, voice recognition will maximize your output. We think in this particular case Microsoft  certainly listened to it's user base, and made necessary changes to all problem parts of the software.  Everything just seems to make more sense.  Take for example to ease and efficiency of Microsoft Outlook. the preview pane clearly illustrates what  status they currently have, and what account you are  sending the emails from.  Not only that but there are user-friendly items such as when you type in an email address. For example, I know about five andrews and when I type "andrew" in the To bar, Outlook will give me the option of which Andrew I wish to send the email to. It's just clever, clever things like that, that make Office XP Professional stand out from all other products.

In the workplace and home, Office XP continues to impress with several other new innovations as well.

Send For Review collects  multiple copies of the same document and can sort through them giving you one concise and complete document, thereby enabling you effectively to take and continue your work anywhere. We attempted this on a number of occasions with pleasing results.

Multiuser Documents finally take the frustration out of the networked business environment where files are stored on a server for public access. When the file is open by a user, normally the file is read only to everyone else or inaccessible. With Office XP several people can work on the same document or file at the same time without waiting for the document to become unlocked.

There are many other features available in Office XP Professional, however the last one we'll cover here is the task pane which is so simple yet makes work easy. Basically your application will open the same as ever, but to one side on the screen is the task pane. The task pane shows you what files you were most recently working on and can allow you to fully navigate your PC's file structure with ease.

With so many innovations at your fingertips Office XP is worth the hefty purchase price (at the time of writing, Office XP Professional retails for approximately $1299.00 although for students, a academic version can be purchased for about $260.00). Of course it's worth bearing in mind that this package and it's innovations are possibly going to be of more benefit in the work/office environment. Experience the benefits of Office XP Professional today!

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