This spring, Office 2000 debuts in its new groupware and Web publication incarnation. To help you understand Office’s new slant, we loaded up the Office 2000 beta and put it through its paces. Here’s what we found and how it relates to OS/400.
Sometimes, competitors strike at you from unusual angles. Take Lotus Domino, for example. At first glance, you might think that Domino’s most dangerous competitor is Microsoft Exchange. After all, Domino and Exchange are the big guns in the groupware sea, and, for many shops, the choice lies clearly between these two products. But you always have to watch out for the surprise underdog competitor. In groupware, that distinction belongs to Microsoft’s new Office 2000 product, which is not-so-quietly morphing itself into a groupware application. While earlier editions of Microsoft Office were lightly networked office automation packages, Office 2000 offers some surprising new features for networking, groupware, and Web site maintenance. Here are some of those features:
• Integration between Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, FrontPage, Access, and Internet Explorer 5.0
• The ability to “round-trip” Web pages between Internet Explorer 5.0 and Office applications
• New features to interface Office applications with discussion groups, including the ability to create threaded Web discussion groups within an Office document
• Semiautomatic and automatic updating of Microsoft Office 2000 data in your Web
• Workgroup creation features to specify users who can update Web pages on your
Although these features may not be as powerful as Exchange or Domino, they form the crux of a low-end groupware application. Office 2000 allows Microsoft’s large installed base to step into groupware simply by upgrading software.
pages server
In this article, I look at Office 2000 from a groupware perspective. I examine Microsoft’s design strategy and how it interfaces with OS/400. You’ll see that Domino and Exchange aren’t the only fish in the groupware sea and that—for smaller groupware applications in AS/400 shops, posting AS/400 data to the Web, or for those looking for a temporary workgroup solution as they assess their strategy—Office 2000 can be a strong contender.
Office 2000’s Unofficial Baggage
Integrating your office automation suite with the Internet and your Web server is a powerful combination, but there are a few catches. First, it is a Microsoft-based solution, so Office 2000 works best with Microsoft products. Although Internet Explorer 5.0 isn’t officially a part of Office 2000 (see sidebar “Which Office 2000 Product Should You Choose?”), it is an integral part of Microsoft’s strategy to turn Office into a low-end groupware product. Many of Office 2000’s groupware feature are predicated on having Internet Explorer 5.0 active.
Similarly, you must also install Microsoft’s Office Server Extensions (the successor to Microsoft FrontPage Extensions, available on your Office 2000 installation media) on your Web server to use many of the new features. Your browser also must support Microsoft’s Component Object Model (COM) for ActiveX controls. Of course, these features will work great on Microsoft’s Internet Information Server (IIS) and Internet Explorer 5.0, but the jury is still out as to how well they will function with other servers and browsers. Although some network administrators may be understandably queasy about installing Microsoft extensions on a non-Microsoft Web server, if you have a “pure” Microsoft Internet environment, Office 2000 should fit in beautifully.
Office 2000 and Discussion Groups
The biggest groupware feature of Office 2000 is its ability to use your applications and a discussion server to insert threaded discussion groups directly into an Office document. Inside these discussions, users can add comments, navigate between comments, edit and reply to existing comments, and subscribe to existing documents.
To access the discussion group feature from Internet Explorer, click on the Discuss button when an Office-created Web page appears (see Figure 1). If you haven’t already specified a discussion server, Internet Explorer 5.0 asks for the server name you want to use and a “friendly” (short) name that you can refer to when accessing the server. After you configure the discussion server, you can annotate your Web page, as shown in Figure 2. Because Web discussion comments are stored on your discussion server—not in your HTML Web page—you can use Internet Explorer 5.0 to comment on a document from anywhere on the Internet. What’s more, anyone who has access to your discussion server can view your comments and post additional comments of his own.
In addition, users can subscribe to a document or folders of documents and be notified by email triggers when any of the documents within a folder change. Users also can choose how frequently they receive change notices (e.g., immediately, once a day, weekly) to prevent excess email.
Office 2000 applications are also discussion group-enabled, so you can add to a discussion from Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook. You configure your Web discussion server from the Online Collaboration option of your application’s Tools drop- down menu (see Figure 3 for the Microsoft Excel version). If you have Microsoft NetMeeting installed and configured on your computer, you can start a meeting from within NetMeeting’s Online Collaboration option or schedule a meeting through Microsoft Outlook.
Round-tripping Starts with Internet Explorer 5.0
If Internet Explorer 5.0 is your default browser, you can use it with Office 2000 to round-trip Web pages between your browser and the application that created them.
When you round-trip a Web page, it means that an HTML document can move freely between the Internet Explorer 5.0 Web browser and the Office 2000 application that
created it. This is done through the use of the Edit button in Internet Explorer 5.0’s Standard Buttons toolbar (see Figure 1). If you are authorized to update a Web page, you can click on the Edit button while viewing that page and send the HTML document back to its “parent” Office 2000 application for further modification. Because the HTML file is coded automatically with the name of the Office 2000 application that created it, Internet Explorer 5.0 can read that coding and—if you are authorized to maintain the page—turn on the Edit button. In addition, you can click on the pull-down menu on the Edit button (Figure 1) and send it to another authorized application for update. If you create a Web page in Word, for example, you also can edit it in Windows Notepad or Microsoft FrontPage through the Edit pull-down function.
After a document is round-tripped back to an Office 2000 application, you can modify it and save it directly to an Office-defined Web Folder that points to the proper URL location on your Web server. You can do this even if that Web server resides on the AS/400 Integrated File System (AS/400 IFS). Also, you can create a nested workgroup sub-Web in FrontPage 2000 that allows you to assign permissions to specific groups of users for authoring and maintaining Web pages. This enables you to (somewhat) easily automate Web page creation and to post Web page modifications on the fly from an Office 2000 application.
Office 2000’s Web Components
Office 2000 offers some new Office Web components—a Spreadsheet component, a Chart component, and a PivotTable component—that are designed to make it easier to publish spreadsheets, charts, and databases to the Web.
The Spreadsheet component provides basic spreadsheet functionality in the browser. You activate the Spreadsheet component by saving your spreadsheet as a Web page and then selecting the option to publish it as an interactive Web page.
The PivotTable dynamic views component enables users to sort, group, filter, outline, and pivot data in your browser from a spreadsheet range, a relational database (such as a Microsoft Access, Microsoft SQL Server database, or, possibly, OS/400), or from any data source that supports multidimensional OLE DB. When an Excel user saves a PivotTable or QueryTable dynamic view as an interactive Web page, that page contains a PivotTable component.
The Chart component is the interactive piece of the Web components that allows the user to update a Web page without round-tripping the HTML code back to the server.
Office 2000 also offers the ability to create Data Access Pages that maintain a live database link (binding the link) to an HTML page. You use Data Access Pages, along with the other components, to import and update Microsoft Access data into your browser.
In addition, Access 2000 can now use OLE as a front-end to Microsoft SQL Server versions 6.5 or 7.0, making Access more compatible with AS/400 shops in a Microsoft environment.
In addition to these key groupware items, Office 2000 also offers the following features:
• Workgroup Web Templates within FrontPage 2000 sets up the basic structure of a workgroup Web and allows a group of users to navigate and style Web pages consistently.
• Outlook 2000 Internet Group Scheduling lets users schedule meetings with other Outlook users over their intranet or the Internet.
Where Office 2000 Meets OS/400
Aside from being a low-end competitor to Domino, you may be wondering where the hook is to OS/400. Here’s my take on the situation.
If you decide to start using Office 2000 as a groupware application, the improvements Microsoft has implemented, along with recent improvements in OS/400 functionality, can make your AS/400-Microsoft Office-Internet integration a lot simpler. I see two main AS/400-centric benefits from Office 2000.
First, you can round-trip HTML files between Office 2000 and a Microsoft IIS that is installed on an Integrated Netfinity Server for AS/400 (INSA, the new name for the Integrated PC Server, IPCS). Because Microsoft is providing this capability for its IIS servers, this feature also should be available for those servers running on an INSA as long as you create Web folders for the server in FrontPage 2000.
More important, Office 2000 opens up a higher level of AS/400-to-Web integration. Microsoft is tightly integrating Office 2000 with Internet Explorer 5.0, and IBM is tightly integrating its Client Access for Windows products (Client Access for Windows 95/NT V3R1M3 and above and Client Access Express for Windows) with Microsoft’s OLE DB
specification. This integration puts the AS/400 is in a great position to benefit from Microsoft’s innovations. When IBM released the OLE DB provider and the AS/400 SDK for ActiveX and OLE DB (formerly Project Lightning), it became easier to integrate AS/400 data into Windows applications—including Microsoft Office—by using OLE. Office 2000’s groupware integration with the Web (including the ability to graphically authorize access to, create, update, post, revise, discuss, and manipulate Web pages), allows OS/400 data to share in these benefits through OLE DB. With most Office 2000 applications supporting OLE (including Access 2000), Microsoft has created a graphical bridge to automatically display and manipulate OS/400 data inside a Web browser.
Office 2000 and Internet Explorer 5.0 are now a graphical client/server display environment for AS/400 data. All it takes is a little imagination and learning how to import OS/400 data into your Office 2000 applications via OLE DB. Microsoft will take care of the rest. This is an exciting new concept for AS/400 shops that use Office, and I recommend exploring this option. It can meet a lot of needs.
Warnings and Recommendations
I wrote this article using the Microsoft Word 2000 program in the second Office 2000 beta. Several times I round-tripped it as an HTML document between Internet Explorer 5.0, Word 2000, and FrontPage 2000. Unfortunately, on several other occasions, the beta seized up and crashed my system like the Hindenberg on a Saturday night. I mention this to remind you that, even though Office 2000 is based on an existing product, it has enough new features and functionality that I consider Office 2000 a brand-new product rather than an upgrade. As such, proceed cautiously as you test, debug, and deploy it to your users. Also, be sure to watch the Web for service packs after the product is released.
That warning given, I must also say I like the direction Microsoft is taking with Office 2000. Although some may see it as further encroachment into tying their browser, applications, and operating system together, I think it serves a worthwhile purpose for the Windows desktop community. In addition, the groupware and Web publishing features, while not enormous threats to Microsoft Exchange or Lotus Domino, represent some exciting new possibilities for posting AS/400 data on the Web. These possibilities make Office 2000 a great addition to your AS/400 network toolbox, no matter what groupware package you are running.
Related Reading
“Making PC Application-to-AS/400 Programming a Snap with IBM’s AS/400 SDK for ActiveX and OLE DB,” AS/400 Network Expert, January/February 1999
“Programming in Visual Basic Using the IBM AS/400 SDK for ActiveX and OLE DB,” MC, October 1998 and MC (Web Edition), October 1998, www.midrangecomputing.com/mc/98/10
Upcoming Related Articles
“Slam-dunking AS/400 Data into Microsoft Excel with OLE DB,” MC, May 1999
Related Web Sites
Microsoft Office Web site: www.microsoft.com/office Microsoft Universal Data Access Web site: www.microsoft.com/data Microsoft OLE DB Web site: www.microsoft.com/data/oledb
Midrange Computing Products
“Building AS/400 Client/Server Applications Using OLE DB,” a Midrange Computing instructional video
OK, What’s This Going to Cost Me?
The various Office 2000 products are expected to have the price structure listed below. These prices were announced on Microsoft’s Web site in January (www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/1999/jan99/ tgppr.htm) and may change by the time the product is released. Pricing may also be subject to volume discounts and various promotions and deals, so your final cost may not reflect these preliminary prices:
• Office 2000 Standard and Small Business Editions—$209 for upgrades from prior Office versions, $249 for upgrades from competing products, and $499 for new users.
• Office 2000 Professional Edition—$309 for Office upgrades, $349 for competitive product upgrades, and $599 for new users.
• Office 2000 Premium Edition—$399 for Office upgrades, $449 for competitive upgrades, and $799 for new users.
• Office 2000 Developer Edition—$609 for Office version upgrades; $649 for competitive upgrades; and $999 for new users.
To keep Office 97 sales brisk while people are waiting for Office 2000, Microsoft is offering a free Office 2000 upgrade if you buy Office 97 between January 1, 1999 and Office 2000’s official release date. To receive this freebie, however, you need an electronic coupon that is available from Microsoft at its Microsoft Office Technology Guarantee Web page (www.microsoft.com/office/97/office/documents/techguar.htm). See the Microsoft site for details.
— Joe Hertvik
Which Office 2000 Product Should You Choose?
Microsoft Office 2000 comes in five different packages. To streamline the selection process, Microsoft has made each Office 2000 package a subset of a larger package. This simplifies Office 2000 purchases because you can start with the smallest package and work upward until you reach the package that fits your application and pricing needs. To evaluate Office 2000 product offerings, Microsoft has posted an Office 2000 decision Web site called “It’s Up 2 U 2 Choose” (www.microsoft.com/presspass/chooseoffice/). This site provides a product overview of the Office 2000 product line and explains what is contained in each package.
Each Office 2000 product contains a slightly different application mix designed for different types of users. The five Office 2000 products and their corresponding application mixes are as follows:
Office 2000 Standard Edition—This is the basic office application suite for creating and publishing information. It includes the following applications:
• Word 2000
• Excel 2000
• PowerPoint 2000
• Outlook 2000
Office 2000 Small Business Edition—This is a second starter edition aimed at small companies. It includes the following applications:
• Word 2000
• Excel 2000
• Publisher 2000
• Outlook 2000
• Small Business Tools analysis software
Office 2000 Professional Edition—This package builds on the Standard and Small Business editions by offering all the products contained in both of those packages plus Microsoft Access 2000.
Office 2000 Premium Edition—This is the high-end offering of the Office 2000 product line, containing everything in the other editions plus additional software. The Premium edition contains the following packages:
• Word 2000
• Excel 2000
• PowerPoint 2000
• Outlook 2000
• Publisher 2000
• Access 2000
• FrontPage 2000
• PhotoDraw 2000
• Small Business Tools analysis software
Office 2000 Developer’s Edition—Specifically targeted at software developers, this package contains everything in the Premium edition as well as tools and documentation for building, managing, and deploying Office-based applications.
Although Microsoft doesn’t officially list Internet Explorer 5.0 as part of its Office 2000 package, Internet Explorer 5.0 is bundled with each package. This is because many of the best Office 2000 groupware features (such as discussion groups and round-tripping Web pages to their authoring Office application) need Internet Explorer 5.0 to work.
It would have been nice if Microsoft had just offered the Premium and Developer’s packages to cut down on confusion. However, my recommendation is—depending on your budgetary structure—to evaluate only the Professional, Premium, and Developer editions for an organization. You can deploy the Developer to your Office Application developers, and you can use the Premium package for your Web site creation teams. The Professional edition can be deployed to everyone else. Because the Professional contains everything in the Standard and Small Business editions, plus Access 2000, you can safely use it as an upgraded substitute for either of those packages. This will simplify your decision-making, purchasing, and software tracking process by cutting down on the number of Office 2000 packages you need to deal with.
— Joe Hertvik
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