Entrepreneur's Complete Guide to Software

One of the big ideas behind Windows was that all your programs would have similar interfaces and interact with each other. Those who like that idea will appreciate office suites-groups of programs from a single company that look more alike and interact better together than programs chosen at random. Because software companies live by upgrades, they are eager to get you hooked on as many products they own as possible-and that can mean suites are a sweet deal for your business. You can save money buying an entire suite-usually containing word processor, spreadsheet and presentation programs-over purchasing individual programs. In fact, you can often get in on an office suite for its upgrade price with a "competitive upgrade offer"--a special price offered to users of a competitor's products.

Microsoft Office 97 Professional Edition, $599, upgrade $309 (Windows 95/NT), Microsoft Corp., (800) 426-9400, http://www.microsoft.com

The upgrade to Office Pro 95 is actually the bestseller, and you can qualify for the upgrade price if you own suites from any of several other vendors, as well as earlier versions of Microsoft Office or Works. Office Pro 97 uses 191MB of your hard drive and contains Word 97 (word processor), Excel 97 (spreadsheet), Power-Point 97 (presentation), Access 97 (database), Outlook 97 (information manager) and Bookshelf Basics (references). The Standard edition, priced at $100 less, leaves out Microsoft Access and Bookshelf Basics.

What's new in this version of Microsoft Office? In Word 97, there's animated text; an icon that takes you to your Web browser; and when you type an e-mail or Web address, the URL becomes a hot link. More of your typing gets AutoCorrected, and the new AutoComplete feature offers suggestions when you begin typing a date. The Excel 97 spreadsheet has Formula AutoCorrect, text rotation and the ability to embed ActiveX Controls into spreadsheets. Database manager Access 97 lets you filter by highlighted data or by form, and you get many more wizards. The presentation program, PowerPoint, has more designs for your slide shows. Various other Office applications let you create hyperlinks to other documents, to specific places in documents or to Web sites, and you can translate files to HTML to create Web pages.

There are other worthy new features, and you'll read about more of them under our word processors, spreadsheets and database managers categories, where applications from Microsoft swept the bestseller spots. If the last Office products you really loved were Excel 3.0 and Word 2.0a (or 6.0), this version of Office will drive you nuts until you tame its "helpful" features. But if you crave animated text, documents that second-guess you, and hypertext everywhere, you'll love Office 97. The most useful improvements are in Access 97, where much-needed wizards make the product immediately accessible to beginners.

Other Products

Microsoft Office 97 Standard Edition, $499, upgrade $209 (Windows95/NT), Microsoft Corp.

What's Hot

• Red Hat Software Inc.'s Applix-ware 4.3 ($199 Office Suite, $495 Developer's Version) for Linux is the hottest office suite. Linux users can enjoy the same pre-packaged, one-stop-and-it-works-together shopping that Windows and Macintosh users have long taken for granted, making it easier for businesses to migrate to lean, multihardware-platform Linux. Graphical Applix-ware includes a word processor, spreadsheet, graphics (paint, drawing, animation), integrated e-mail, Web page au-thoring, Extension Language Facility, macros, a 780-page user's manual, and a complete version of Red Hat Linux Operating System 4.1. Applixware users can read and write files in Word, WordPerfect, Excel, Interleaf, Frame, TIF, CGM and dozens of other file formats. Call (888) 733-4281, or visit http://www.redhat.com
• Microsoft Office 97 Small Business Edition ($499; upgrade $209) for Windows 95/NT has Word 97, Excel 97 and Outlook 97 but trades the Access 97 database and PowerPoint presentation programs for Publisher 97-the best desktop publishing program around for small businesses. Publisher isn't as complicated as professional publishing programs like PageMaker or Corel Ventura, but it lets you create great brochures, newsletters, business stationery and other documents important to a business. Microsoft's Office 97 Small Business Edition also includes Small Business Financial Manager and Automap Streets Plus. This is definitely the best suite for businesses that do their own publishing and don't need a database manager or presentation program.
• Lotus SmartSuite 97 ($399) for Windows 95/NT includes spreadsheet Lotus 1-2-3, Lotus Word Pro, presentation program Lotus Freelance Graphics, personal information manager Lotus Organizer, database manager Lotus Approach, and Lotus ScreenCam, a program that lets you record what you see on your monitor, including all your Actions, and share it with others who don't have Screen-Cam. If you're not already accustomed to the look and feel of Microsoft Office, it may make sense to leverage SmartSuite's excellent competitive upgrade price of $149 to get this package with sophisticated features. The suite lets you save files to HTML and even save ranges of spreadsheet cells to Web page tables. Look for Lotus SmartSuite 97 for OS/2 Warp 4 by year-end. Call (800) 343-5414, or visit http://www.lotus.com
• Corel WordPerfect Suite 8 Professional ($479; upgrade or competitive upgrade $249) for Windows 95/NT includes Corel WordPerfect 8, spreadsheet Corel Quattro Pro 8, Corel Presentations 8, Corel Barista (a Java tool), Corel Versions (document revision software), Envoy 7 Viewer (which puts virtually all file types in the same viewer format), Netscape Communicator 3.0 Web browser, Bitstream Font Manager, 1,000 fonts, 10,000 clip art images, and Corel WordPerfect Suite Software Development Kit. Contact Corel Corp. at (800) 772-6735 or http://www.corel.com

This article was originally published in the November 1997 print edition of Entrepreneur with the headline: Entrepreneur's Complete Guide to Software.