Office 2000 Developer Edition
Office 2000 Developer Edition
| by Dale Farris, President, Golden Triangle PC Club August 2000 Office 2000 Developer is the flagship version of all the Microsoft Office 2000 packages, offering a complete line of office applications, as well as the fundamental programs used by professional developers to build custom solutions using Microsoft Office. Office Developer includes all the applications in Office 2000 Premium (Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint, FrontPage, Publisher, PhotoDraw), as well as highly specialized programming tools and documentation for building, managing, and deploying Office-based solutions. If you're a developer for Office 2000, this is the suite for you. The particular tools added to the Developer edition are listed below. NOTE: A separate review of the Microsoft Office 2000 line is also accessible in this web site. Click on the Reviews link in the home page of this site to take you to another link to Software and Hardware Reviews, with a list of links to this and many other software programs. Office 2000 is the most programmable version of Office to date, with enhancements that enable developers to customize and integrate Office more than ever before. Office 2000 Developer is the edition of Microsoft Office designed to meet the needs of professional developers building solutions with Microsoft Office and Visual Basic for Applications (VBA). These developers recognize the benefits of reusing rich application functionality to quickly build solutions that customize and integrate Office with line-of-business applications and data. Microsoft Office 2000 and Customizable Applications Today there is a tremendous focus on "thin clients" and browser technology. However, it is important to recognize that most productivity and line-of-business applications are still "rich client" applications that deliver the power of the Microsoft Windows platform. These applications on the desktop have evolved, and most Windows-based applications are starting to integrate with the Internet and the Web. They are also continuing to provide functionality to customize applications to meet specific business needs. Microsoft delivers on their vision of customizable applications by establishing the Component Object Model (COM) as the standard for exposing application functionality. Also part of the vision, Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) delivers a common programming experience across programmable applications. These customizable applications can be integrated with existing investments in information technologies. They can also be used to provide a buy-and-customize alternative to solutions that are built from scratch. However, in order to fully take advantage of this power in the Developer edition of Office 2000, users will need to be highly skilled in all the basic applications in the suite, as well as have very strong skills in and experience with programming, especially in using VBA. Developer Features The Developer edition is mainly targeted to serious programmers wishing to create original source programs designed to run in Office 2000 applications, and is not relevant for the casual user who primarily uses a word processor, a spreadsheet, or occasionally needs to create simple slide show presentations. With these specialized tools, developers can create custom add-ins for any or all of the Office 2000 programs, then reuse the same code across all of Office 2000 for fast, custom application development. The built-in Error Handler tool turns existing code into code that is easier to debug, while at the same time providing end users with more professional applications. A drag-and-drop database for storing and retrieving code modules, functions, and snippets, the Code Librarian comes pre-loaded with sample code. You can also customize Code Librarian's code samples to jump start an Office 2000 solutions development. You can use the Workflow Designer for SQL Server (formerly known as Access Workflow for SQL Server) to build solutions that automate tasks, designate task order and assign permissions. With this tool, you can track and modify business processes from team to team, and build web-based solutions that work seamlessly online or offline and allow sharing of information. Use the Data Environment Designer to visually create reusable data-access components, without having to remember SQL commands. The Data Report Designer allows you to use drag-and-drop fields from the data environment to build reports quickly and easily. The Visual SourceSafe tool provides source code control from within the VBA development environment. You can reconcile file changes and prevent accidental code overwriting using Check In/Out file locking and visual differencing. Visual SourceSafe is fully integrated into the VBA development environment Printed documentation, such as Microsoft Office Object Model Guide and Office 2000/Visual Basic Programmer's Guide, are included with Office 2000 Developer. Programming resources include the MSDN Library, pre-written code for standard routines in VBA, and the Visual Studio development system. The Microsoft Data Engine (MSDE) is a 100% SQL Server 7-compatible database that makes it easier for developers to build solutions that connect Office solutions to data and scale to SQL. The enhanced FlexGrid control has been integrated with the Data Environment Designer for easy on-screen display of hierarchical data. When the new hierarchical FlexGrid control is bound to an object created by the Data Environment Designer containing nested record sets, additional display options become available. These options make it possible to display grouped, related, and calculated record sets. The MS Office 2000 Family (Including the Developer Edition) With their newest release of the standard in office applications, Microsoft has not only significantly upgraded this suite, they have also created different software configurations of the suite with different price points. Each version is called Office 2000, and these are the different choices now available, all with the 2000 moniker: Standard Edition, Small Business Edition, Professional Edition, Premium Edition, and the Developer Edition. The following are the primary applications included in each version. The basic Standard Edition contains Word, Excel, Power Point, Outlook and Internet Explorer. The Small Business Edition contains Word, Excel, Outlook, Internet Explorer, Publisher (Microsoft’s nifty desktop publisher), and the Small Business Tools. In the Small Business Edition, Power Point is removed. The Professional Edition contains Word, Excel, Power Point, Outlook, Internet Explorer, Publisher, the Small Business Tools, and Access, Microsoft’s relational database. The Premium Edition includes all these, plus Front Page, Microsoft’s web page developer, and Photo Draw, a photo editing program. The "ultimate," Developer Edition contains all these, plus the
Programming tools used by developers to create applications. The prices of these various editions, ranging from an upgrade to a brand new install, are as follows: Standard Edition, upgrade $210, new install, $500 Edition Notes: The Premium Edition is a new product, introduced with Office 2000. In the Developer Edition in Office 97, the programming tools included Printed Developer Application, Replication Manager, Royalty Free Microsoft Access Runtime, and Visual Basic for Applications 5.0. Office 2000 programming tools add CD ROM Add-in Designer, Package and Deployment Wizard, Visual SourceSafe, and Visual Studio. If you haven’t a clue what these programming tools are, or feel you are likely never to need them, then the Developer Edition is obviously not for you. These are Microsoft’s official street prices, MSRP Seattle, and if you were to walk into the showroom of most any retail software vendor, you will likely pay these prices. Also, most all mail order catalog prices will not differ much either. Remember, this is one of the most important "mother lode" revenue streams for Microsoft, and there is not much leeway in retail pricing with this suite. Students, universities, or other such organizations that qualify for discounted pricing are the only ones eligible to take advantage of any Microsoft approved reduction in these prices, called "academic" pricing, and students would be wise to set up an account with approved vendors like PC People (http://www.pcpeople.com), or CampusTech (http://www.campustech.com) to qualify for the only real discounted pricing Microsoft arranges with Office 2000. Hard Disk Space Recommendations Each edition requires different amounts of available free space, depending on whether a user selects individual options in a custom install, versus a typical, full install that requires the most amount of free space on a hard drive. Here are the minimum hard disk space requirements for a full install for each edition: Standard Edition, full install, 189 MB These full install hard disk space requirements are quite a load on any system, and are significantly different from the Office 97 requirements. A full install of the standard edition of Office 97 required 167 MB and for a fully configured Developer Edition, 210 MB. (Office 97 had no "Premium" edition available.) So, make sure you are certain how much free hard disk space you have available before you install Office 2000, and be sure to always keep at least 200 MB free. System Configuration To use Microsoft Office 2000 Developer, you need: Features included with the applications packaged in the Developer Edition are new and many. Word 2000 is now a fairly capable HTML editor, containing a frames editor and design themes that match those in Front Page 2000. Excel 2000 lets you publish and view dynamic spreadsheets, charts, Pivot Tables and Pivot Charts within IE 5, and you can query Web pages and pull data from the Web into Excel worksheets. Front Page 2000 is a WYSIWYG Web site authoring and management tool, and has become the pre-eminent HTML editor on the market, rapidly becoming the standard with many Web page developers. Access 2000 now has Data Access Pages that let you create Web pages with tables, reports, queries, or data entry forms (called Objects) tied to data stored in an Access database. IE 5 lies at the heart of Office 2000, indicated by the fact that it must be installed. Even in a custom install, you cannot de-select IE 5. In IE 5 you can edit Office 2000 documents within the browser, insert comments, and subscribe to Web documents. Power Point 2000 is now primarily geared for the Web, letting you target specific versions of browsers, and it will also automatically optimize graphics and generate frames and a navigation bar for Web-based presentations. Photo Draw 2000 is a new business graphics program that combines photo editing and illustration, and Publisher 2000 is Microsoft’s desktop publishing program designed for the single office, home office (SOHO) market. Outlook 2000 is the built-in group communicator and personal information manager, and in this version, it lets you save personal calendars to HTML, perform group scheduling over the Internet, and schedule Internet broadcasts. Installation and Setup Features Office 2000 uses an entirely different installation process that may intimidate
some users. Windows Installer, actually an addition to Windows 95/98 and Windows NT
4, is invoked to control this very different install routine. By breaking down the suite
into logical components, this process is designed to offer such advantages as allowing you
to install only the applications and features you will need (always including IE 5). The Windows Installer gives individuals and workgroups greater control over installation of Office 2000, and from a single dialog box you can pick which features to install, as well as features that should be installed only when you first use them or that should run from the program CD. For example, one might want to have the clip art files accessible only from the CD to save space, such as on a laptop, or to set all the Word templates to be installed when you need them. Of course, the user will obviously need the original CD ROM disc handy, as activating a feature not installed in the beginning will require access to these files when the user attempts to do this. When you are working inside an Office 2000 document and request a feature that has not yet been installed, Office 2000 automatically installs it for you, assuming you left the program files on the same CD ROM drive. Each time you launch an Office 2000 application, it will perform a self examination and automatically reinstall any critical files that have been deleted. This may take a while, cannot be bypassed, and may cause some alarm, as this is automatically invoked and the user cannot control it. During installation, Office 2000 also automatically removes previous versions of Office, and the new Removal Wizard lets you pick the Office 97 applications you want to remove or hang onto. When you upgrade to Office 2000, the setup program can automatically pick up all your Office 97 settings and preferences and apply them to the new version. For network installs, Information Systems staff may want to put Office 2000 on a centrally located server and create basic installations across the network. The Office 2000 Resource Kit is available from Microsoft and includes several tools for customizing Office 2000 for unattended installations in a networked environment. File Compatibility Office 2000 deploys the feature that includes file formats that are backward compatible with Office 97, as well as better handling of multiple language versions. The key here is true HTML file compatibility, a feature that will continue to become more prevalent with time as Web documents become more a part of everyday work. In Word 2000, saving files as HTML has been improved, although one will not be able to develop all the rich, dynamic approaches found in today’s cutting-edge Internet sites, but it will handle a basic Web page quite well. With the more complex page layouts and designs, Word 2000 will provide warnings that explain which features would be lost (far less than in Office 97), a feature certain to continue to improve over time. If a user expects to develop a lot of Internet files, and spends a lot time in this type of work, then they should consider the Front Page 2000 component in Office 2000 as the application to use in this case. All the Office 2000 applications are backward compatible with Office 97, except for Access. Microsoft obviously learned from their earlier mistake with Office 95, as folks soon learned the file formats were not backward compatible, making it difficult to move to the new version. Management Several new tools assure the suite stays up and running. The self-repairing feature is designed to run each time you launch an Office 2000 applications, checking to see if any critical files are missing and automatically reinstalls them. If for example, the Word.exe file, the critical executable file that runs Word, were deleted, the next time you try to open a Word file, Office 2000 would automatically reinstall the missing executable for you. A feature called Detect and Repair performs an audit of your installation and
reinstalls any missing pieces, usually more relevant for missing templates or fonts.
Synchronization of Office 2000 installations with different pc’s is also a new
feature. If a user gets a new laptop, they can pack up and transfer their Office 2000
preferences from their desktop to their laptop. What Should You Do? Answering this question is not as easy as it might seem, since different users of Office have different needs and expectations of the suite, and in this newest upgrade, it is not a simple issue of overwriting newer files onto older files, as was the case in past upgrades. This version presents many new and more complex issues that must be addressed before deciding whether to upgrade. For those seriously involved in programming and
developing solutions designed to run in Office, the Developer Edition of
Office 2000 is an absolute must-have product, that would likely be used by
many in such an environment. Acknowledgments Thanks are in order to the many editors of the online versions of PC Magazine,
PC World, PC Computing, and Windows Magazine, for their excellent
material regarding Office 2000 that was of great assistance in the preparation of this
review. |