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Why should I upgrade to Office 2003 when I only use 2% of Office’s capabilities as it is? Does that question sound familiar to you?

This topic came up recently in a conversation I had with a lady by the name of Donna Poskey, a marvelously talented Microsoft Account Executive. She hears this occasionally from clients who are using much earlier versions of Office. And I hear it as well, from individuals and companies alike. If you teach, develop with, or write about Office, or are known as the power user in your circle – you probably hear it, too.

If you don’t use a cell phone (or even if yours weighs a few pounds), if you wouldn’t own a microwave because you can’t see a need to be in such a darn hurry to heat a cup of coffee or defrost a steak, if you don’t use email because the postal service is just fine for your business communication… this article won’t do much for you. When the electric light bulb was born, there were some folks who thought a candle handled all of their needs just fine. It’s all relative.

The point is that Office 2003 is not unlike the electric light bulb… or even the cell phone. You might be getting along alright without it, or with a much older version … but just imagine what you could be doing now!

So, what’s so impressive about the current version of Office? Stability, security, productivity tools, collaboration tools, developer tools ... for starters. (Feel free to post a comment or drop me an email if you have questions about any specific features or anything you want from Office that you don't think it can do (or do well).)

This is not at about having the newest and the coolest. The purpose of advances in business software is productivity, efficiency … getting more done, with better results, in less time. Do you start a research project by going to the public library and searching rolls of Microfiche—or do you Google?

I recently asked a large law firm how often they have to strip and reformat, or recreate documents from scratch when they exhibit problems. “Always” was the answer. “That’s the standard solution.” Well folks, that just makes me sad! In nearly ten years of troubleshooting complex document problems across several versions of Office, I can still count on one hand the number of documents that needed to be stripped or recreated. With Office 2003, the average ‘problem’ document takes a few minutes to fix. But, even on Office 2000 or 97, complex, burdened solutions like doing the work all over again is just unnecessary.

Perhaps you’re thinking that your documents are very simple—letters and memos—so this doesn’t apply to you. You might say the same type of things about Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, etc… But then, stop for a moment and think about this:

What business tasks do you do regularly? I mean everything. Taking notes in meetings; making lists of to do items or tracking the progress of projects; calculating income or expenses—even managing your personal finances. Do you give presentations? Do you manage a staff? Do you have regular reporting responsibilities? Do you sell, market, research, create, purchase, support, or advise? Do you communicate in writing with colleagues or clients?

If you answered yes to any question in the preceding paragraph and you only use a few percent of Office’s capabilities—there’s no question that you’re spending time every day on things you could be doing faster and better.

If I sound like a salesperson, it’s only because I get frustrated to see how much most people under-use the capabilities of Office. When was the last time you finished everything you both needed and wanted to do in the course of a day and were happy with all of the results? Speaking for myself—I can’t recall. Days go fast… anything that can help me be more productive, that can simplify the stuff I have to do and leave more time for the stuff I want to do… things that help me produce better results in less time… those things are invaluable. That’s why the progress of the software industry impresses me.

But, regardless of what version of Office you use—if you’re a two-percenter … there are ways you could improve your productivity and probably your results.

Consider this an open challenge. How do you use Office? And what do you do each day without it?

Talking with a couple of single friends recently, one of them asked how far each of us was willing to travel for a relationship. I said not at all. In my opinion, a good relationship is supposed to simplify your life, not complicate it. Maybe that’s why I like Office as much as I do.

Posted by Stephanie

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Tracked on March 28, 2006 07:07 AM