What is the difference between them? I need Powerpoint for a class I am taking this summer, so I go to the student software site. There are two different office programs with Powerpoint - Microsoft Office XP Professional for Windows, and Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2003 for Windows. Both are the same price, which is better? Is MS Office hard to install? I have Win XP already.
Wel;, if they’re the same price, go with 2003. Outlook 2003 is far better than Outlook 2002 and is alone with upgrading from an ealier version of Office. All of the other products are about the same, but new versions include some minor tweaking and usability features that I like.
Office isn’t hard to install. As you might expect, MS has worked long and hard to make Office work very well.
The only thing I can think of that might be a problem is if you ever plan to “downgrade” your OS from XP to 9x Office 2003 won’t work - Office 2003 runs on 2000 and XP only. But please God, don’t ever make this mistake of going back to 98. 
Office is easy to install. You simply put in the CD, wait 'til the installer loads up, and then click “OK” several times.
I use Office 2003 at home; Office XP at work. Mostly, I use Word and Excel. I like 2003 better. XP does some annoying, quirky things that 2003 doesn’t seem to do. But I’m looking to upgrade from Office 2000 on a few pcs at work, so I’ll be quite interested to see what others have to say.
Thanks a bunch. I ordered Office 2003. Now I hope Powerpoint is easy to learn.
Powerpoint is easy, but let me give you some advice.
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Keep it simple. I’ve sat through too many presentations that had too much eye candy - animated fonts, text zooming around the screen, animated GIFs - that it hurt my eyes. Remember, it’s your overall presentation that’s important, not your Powerpoint one.
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Keep it short. I’ve been to presentations where people actually groaned out loud when the presenter was starting Powerpoint and you could see “Slide 1 of 754” on the screen.
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Don’t cram too much on the screen. Powerpoint is great for graphs and showing “talking points”, but remember that it won’t look as nice on a projector from the back row of the conference room or class room. I once had a presenter come in and tried to display a whole page of text on a Powerpoint slide - no one could read it.
Of course, this is all my opinion, but I guarantee if you made a poll of it, most people would agree with me.
Thanks for the advice, Rex Fenestrarum. I know how to use Word (not fluently, but I get by) Photoshop, and PSP. I will definitely not overuse graphics and gimmicks - I’ve seen enough horrible webpages to know that is not desirable. One of my former professors did goofy powerpoints - sound effects, animations, the works. They were cute, but a PITA to print out.
Hey, you’re welcome. I hope I wasn’t too condescending or anything - I meant no offense. It’s just that PP is one of the few things that “average employees” can get creative with and sometimes they flat-out overdo it.
ANother good tip… Powerpoint should not be the entire text of you rpresentation. Use the 5 by 5 rule… a maximum of 5 lines of text and 5 words per line when possible. It’s a guide for the presentation it’s not meant to take the place of a Word document.
I’m not offended, you gave me good advice. I need reminding when given a new program, I do like cutesy things, ooh - kitties and bunnies! Flashy things!
Thanks BurnMeUp, I’ll keep that in mind. Now if I could only get over my stage fright (it’s a public speaking class )
Excellent point. One thing I detest is a presentation consisting of someone reading their PowerPoint presentation word for word from the screen. If that’s what it was, you could have just printed off the presentation and saved us all a lot of time.
On the other hand, PowerPoint is excellent at illustrating a point you might not have time to discuss otherwise. For instance, while you’re talking about the rising cost of health care, you could show a line chart of health care costs per year.