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New Microsoft Office 2003 Beta 2 Screenshots

Time: 12:22 EST/17:22 GMT | News Source: ActiveWin.com | Posted By: Robert Stein

For those of you who missed these yesterday: Thanks Anon for sending these in. Here are a variety of shots, including those of Outlook, Excel, Word, etc. Check it out!

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Displaying Comments 1 through 24 of 24

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#1 By sphbecker (1135 Posts) at 2/25/2003 12:20:06 PM

So when are they mailing the CDs?

#2 By AWBrian (1916 Posts) at 2/25/2003 12:54:20 PM

EARLY March, 2003.

#3 By sodablue (5245 Posts) at 2/25/2003 10:09:43 PM

Ouch. Looks like this got posted to the front page of /.

#4 By Jcak (54 Posts) at 2/26/2003 1:37:28 AM

All of the ActiveWin hosted screenshot links give me a 404 error.

#5 By monkeydog (825 Posts) at 2/26/2003 8:39:07 AM

Please to increasing the pictures on the Thumbnails click!
We have altogether pictures of.

#6 By juancamaney (1 Posts) at 2/26/2003 12:57:32 PM

a new office 2003!!! exciting:
-reboot your machine 2003 times to install
-if you change anything else in your computer, need to call M$ for permission to continue using office. This takes like 2003 hours.
-now wasting 2003 GB of disk space with easter bunnies, useless media and poorly coded software
-with 2003 all new bugs to make you curse M$
-the first 2003 docs you create will be inexplicably sent to M$ and deleted from your hard drive
Isn't it much better than openoffice (which is free and has the same much of the same features that you actually use) ?
Jeez

#7 By JamesWjRose (205 Posts) at 2/26/2003 1:12:15 PM

Thanks Juan,

I appreciate the laugh. After all you WERE being funny weren't you? After all, talking about a product that, most likely, you don't have (as it's not even in official BETA yet) against a product (OpenOffice) which is complete.

Much laugher here, thanks.

(oh, and to the others here, yes I know I'm swallowing the bait. But this whole religous thing against MS, or any other company is simply too funny. Some people seem to think that other companies write code with NO bugs, AHAHAHAHAHAhahahahahahah. Just TOO funny. But to each their own I guess. There will be NO replies from me on this.)

Peace,
James Wj Rose
New York City

This post was edited by JamesWjRose on Wednesday, February 26, 2003 at 13:15.

#8 By diabulos (81 Posts) at 2/26/2003 1:42:22 PM

I know it is a beta software, but I don't like where they are going with the interface, here I was, thinking XP was the begining of a new MS with tasteful interfaces, attention to detail and an improved sense of style focused on usability and just enough visual eye candy to make the everyday work a bit more glamorous and lush, and then they come up with this, it does not even follow the XP standard!, way too bold colours scheme, cheap looking graphical motifs...c'mon Gates, we know PCs kick Macs ass in performance and overall everything, but most Steve Jobs always be the lesser rich neighbour, with a big ego, but the one with TASTE?
And for what, for a bunch of add-ons that I don't need which will crash anyways....one day Office will be the death of MS, too bloated, it lost track of its purpose, instead of learning some useful lessons from the likes of Lotus notes (great idea, got too big and complex) it just believes in adding features for no reason other than 'we think customers want it'

#9 By JWM (736 Posts) at 2/26/2003 2:20:28 PM

#8 They have to bloat the software. Office is their biggest monopoly fueled cash cow. I agree with you on the interface. Since people have to use their software I guess they feel they have no need to work and make it look nice.

#10 By Mr. Dee (3468 Posts) at 2/26/2003 3:56:30 PM

Office 2003 is the best suite to come out MS. And why is that? Its so customizable! If you don't like the new look you can choose a theme or revert back to the Office XP Flat Professional, which I love. Many new components make up the suite into a knowledge power house with XML Schemas for people who need constant access to their information and better ways of sharing their information. Office 2003 might look the same from screenshots, but when you are using the actual product its a different experience and I'm talking about beta 1 here. There are so many more features for beta 2 to come this will be the last Office a majority of users will ever need. Lets not judge a beta, wait until the full final product is released. If you want to say something bad about the product, at least be a beta tester. Lets not forget it only supports Windows 2000 & XP and you don't have to reboot after installing the suite, just start using the programs. So juancamaney, please shut up and becareful of what u say.

#11 By bkedersha (1 Posts) at 2/26/2003 4:07:08 PM

Geek Fight! MS Office is nice. BUT! MS better start lowering the price, otherwise companies will switch some of their staff over to OpenOffice is save cash. The icy cold tip of competition is creeping up MS's butt!

#12 By Mr. Dee (3468 Posts) at 2/26/2003 4:33:24 PM

Open Office 1 million users and they still have MS Office
Star Office 100,000 users and they still have MS Office
Microsoft Office XP 73 Million users and still growing.

#13 By JWM (736 Posts) at 2/26/2003 4:58:49 PM

#12 That just proves they have a monopoly (based on the need to be compatible). You would never see Toyota, Sony, or Nike have over 90% of the market. Standard business document file formats need be handed over to standards committee like HTML. Then at least MS would have to give it away for free to stay competitive. The MS Office format has become the de facto standard format used in business. What if MS created the highway system? Should we then have to buy Microsoft cars to be able to drive on the highway? How long is this monopoly going to exist? I personally cannot wait till we have a competitive software industry based on open standards and not based one company's proprietary standard. The current situation creates more expensive software and less innovation. Currently the only innovation is from MS competing with itself.

This post was edited by JWM on Wednesday, February 26, 2003 at 17:00.

#14 By n4cer (2054 Posts) at 2/26/2003 5:28:04 PM

The *.doc format hasn't stopped innovation from other companies. The companies, themselves, stopped innovation. Other companies are still free to innovate in terms of UI, featureset, or even in creating their own file format that could be more advanced/flexible than MS' *.doc format. MS did this long ago, and still does. There is no reason why other companies can't innovate and improve their office suites/word processors beyond their current limited state.

The same applies to any other software.

#15 By Blynk (53 Posts) at 2/26/2003 5:35:11 PM

#13

Dude, seriously, the "whole monopolies are going to be the end of the world" line is getting old. I'm a big proponent of fair competition and will be the first to admit MS MAY have been a bit over zealous years ago. However, personally, I think while we typically associate monolopies w/ the devil incarnate, in the case of MS its actually a God send to a certain extent. We now have a single entity pushing hard to create standard, seamless, cohesive, and easy to use sets of systems that solve real problems.

Now, I'm glad there are alternatives such as *nix, OSX, etc. because like I said, competition is a catalyst for innovation on behalf of all involved parties. With that being said though, I think whinny companies that don't do anything but sit in court rooms aren't really helping in this model. Regardless of what new idea they have come up with only to have that idea then "stolen" from them and included in another companies product, they shouldn't simply give up, stop innovating and call their lawyer, they should fight back. If they succeed, then now the world is a better place because there is new innovation.

Bickering lawyers in a court room only slow's this cycle down and drains resources on all parties involved. The world will never be a perfect place in which everyone is happy all the time so we should simply deal and innovate. Bottom line is, strategy is key early on for a software company and there is always a bigger fish. If you don't want to get squashed, find a way not to get squashed. As was prooven in Netscapes example, crying foul and giving up (they didn't give up completely but they certainly didn't do much to innovate and survive) doesn't really get you anywhere. If anything people, stop gripping and do something productive.

....damn hippies....

- Blynk

This post was edited by Blynk on Wednesday, February 26, 2003 at 17:37.

#16 By JWM (736 Posts) at 2/26/2003 5:51:40 PM

#15 "As was proven in Netscape's example, crying foul and giving up (they didn't give up completely but they certainly didn't do much to innovate and survive) doesn't really get you anywhere."

Even if Netscape did create a better browser than IE it wouldn't make them money because MS gives IE away for free (and it comes with the OS). We both agree that the HTML and Office formats are de-facto standards formats for the business/consumer industry. When MS creates a program for an open standard (HTML) they give it away for free, when MS makes a program for a proprietary standard (Office) they charge 2 to 3 times what it would be with competition. I'm not sure why you are worried about competition. If people buy and use Office because of its features and not because they just want to be compatible, then Office shouldn't lose any market share.

#17 By Blynk (53 Posts) at 2/26/2003 6:03:09 PM

See giving away a web browser is a part of that thing I was talking about earlier; Strategy. Would you still want to pay for a web browser, I know I sure as hell don't. Secondly, as of this next version of Office, their document formats will be as "open-standardish" as you can get. So now in a sense, nothing is proprietary. What I find to be of interesting note is that when MS was gettings it's arse handed to it by Netscape for having an inferior product (IE 3-), it responded tactically and executed flawlessly. However, there are now free business application available (a la OpenOffice) and all they can manage to do this far ride on the coat-tails of MS product line.

On the /. forums yesterday when they mentioned the new UI for Office 2K3, I saw soooo many comments like "hey its good to see what our UI for OpenOffice will look like next year". I think early on in a new products life-cycle, there is definitely a degree of emulation while you play "catch-up", but it's nothing to be proud of. If I wanted to develop a competeing solution, I wouldn't be trying to make my product a duplicate of my competitors, I'd want it to be better.

- Blynk

#18 By JWM (736 Posts) at 2/26/2003 6:46:16 PM

#17 "Would you still want to pay for a web browser, I know I sure as hell don't."

I would rather pay for something and have competition. When there is no competition you get inflated prices like Office has.

This post was edited by JWM on Wednesday, February 26, 2003 at 18:49.

#19 By AWBrian (1916 Posts) at 2/27/2003 8:15:52 AM

JWM, Microsoft has made the Student/Teacher Academic Edition of Office XP available from all retail outlets like Best Buy for example. $149.00 sounds pretty good to me. It also sounds like MS is making an attempt at making a lower priced Office (academic) more widely available.

If Microsoft DID make Office even less expensive for the general consumer, it would probably dominate the market even more than it already has, creating yet a larger monopoly than it already has. (I wouldn't complain however :-)

#20 By DarkClipper (3 Posts) at 2/27/2003 9:03:52 AM

#19 The price is nice, but you can't upgrade to future versions. You'll have to buy Office 2003 or, if MS comes out with it, a new Academic version.

Office is the premiere productivity suite out there (no matter what sputter comes from #6), but it would be nice if it was less expensive.

#21 By JaggedFlame (2581 Posts) at 2/27/2003 9:55:08 AM

Blynk, you got the nail on the head about monopolies.

JWM, it's not as simple as "monopolies are bad" and "make everything compete". There are advantages to monopolies, too.

As for inflated prices, no. Office costs that much because it's intended for business users. When Joe User goes to Best Buy and gets Office for $500 instead of Works for $79, that's his own damn fault.

#22 By magilla (30 Posts) at 2/27/2003 10:59:10 AM

If SUN was the major player out there instead of MSOFT would they be considered a monopoly by the UNIX people? Let me see..... SUN requires a SUN keyboard, SUN mouse, SUN hard drive, SUN RAM, and the SUN OS to name a few all for them to consider that under warranty (otherwise they won't fix it). (I know SUN is the exception and is not what all UNIX is about. UNIX is good and we all need it, even microsoft knows that.) Microsoft's power comes from their own innovation. They have changed the way we all live. Accept it, live with it, and instead of dwelling on it do something more positive out there as we all need it. As for the new FrontPage, it looks great. I don't need it, but I will get it.

#23 By JWM (736 Posts) at 2/27/2003 12:07:30 PM

#19 "If Microsoft DID make Office even less expensive for the general consumer, it would probably dominate the market even more than it already has, creating yet a larger monopoly than it already has. (I wouldn't complain however :-) "

I'm not saying they should lower the prices for no reason. If the file format was open like HTML, they would have to lower the prices to compete with other companies Office products.

#24 By JWM (736 Posts) at 2/27/2003 12:13:56 PM

#21"As for inflated prices, no. Office costs that much because it's intended for business users. "

You MUST own Microsoft stock. LOL It cost that much because, from lack of competition, MS can charge that much.

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