One of the very first things that you will notice about Office 2000 is the changes done to the interface in all programs. Most notably, you will see changes in how menus and toolbars operate. There are also changes to the Help system that make it more interactive and more compatible with the World Wide Web. Finally, a feature that comes as a welcome addition to Office users: the Office Clipboard.
If you are tired of seeing long menus containing items you rarely use, Office 2000 has found a solution for this. Menus can now be shortened to display the most recently used commands. To see the remaining commands, a drop-down arrow appears at the bottom of the menu. Best of all, these menus are intuitive enough to sense which commands under a particular menu you use most often. When you use a particular command, it will become part of the shorter menu. Items not used as frequently will be hidden unless you expand the menu. (You can alter these or even turn them off under the Tools|Customize menu in most Office 2000 programs.)
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When you click on the double-arrow at the bottom (or hover the pointer over the menu for more than 3 seconds) the entire menu is displayed. Click here for a video demonstration of this. (136 KB) |
You also have the advantage of creating your own menus. Although this is not a new feature, Office 2000 makes it much easier. The Tools|Customize command will help you create the new menu. Simply go to the Commands tab and choose the "New" category.
You can then drag the "New Menu" button to any toolbar or the Menu bar. By clicking on it, you open an empty box below it, to which you can then add any toolbar button or menu command. (right-clicking on the "New Menu" button allows you to rename it. Click here for a video demonstration. (381K)
We have already seen how menus have been automated and economized so that you can make the most efficient use of them. Toolbars have undergone similar changes. You can reduce the amount of space that toolbars take up while still having access to the needed buttons. Under Tools|Customize, clicking on the Options tab allows you, for example, to place the standard and formatting toolbars on the same line. It is good to keep an eye on either end of a particular toolbar, as shown below:
At the far left end is a handle that allows you to move the toolbar wherever you want it. (It can even be floating in its own window.) You may have noticed that this Standard toolbar is missing some buttons. These buttons can be seen (and even added) to the toolbar by clicking the arrow at the far right side.
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You can click on any of these buttons to use it. The "Add or Remove Buttons" section allows you to turn on and off the buttons you wish to see on the toolbar. Also, like menus, the buttons you use most will show on the toolbar, while lesser-used buttons are hidden. Click here for a demo. (203K) |
Two major improvements to the Help system involve the Office Assistant and tight Web integration. The Office Assistant now floats freely on the screen, making it slightly less obtrusive. Also, unlike previous versions of Office, you can have the information in help come up in a separate window while the program you're working in is on the other side, like this. (Click the thumbnail image to see the full picture. CAUTION: the picture is very large.)
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This Office Assistant is named Rocky. When you click on him, you can type in a question, as before. However, an option now exists where you can look for information on the Web if the Assistant doesn't have what you need. Of course, you can still animate them by right-clicking on them. Click here for an animation of Rocky. (338K) |
In most programs, you have the ability to copy or cut an object to the Clipboard, then paste it in a new location. Office 2000 now allows up to TWELVE items to be cut or copied to the Office Clipboard, making them available for use. When you cut or copy an item, you get a new toolbar that looks like this:
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Every item you cut or copy gets added on to the Clipboard Toolbar. (NOTE: to see the Clipboard Toolbar, you may need to right-click an existing toolbar and choose it out of the shortcut list) To paste the item, click where you want the item to go and click its button. |
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