 The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group Running Word 97 and Word 2000 On the Same Computer Brett Lockwood brett@melbpc.org.au |
As a freelance editor I use Word extensively to prepare material
for publication - that is, I edit material on-screen before it is imported into a desktop
publishing application. Word 2000 is not widely used yet in the editing and publishing spheres,
either on the Mac or the PC platform. In part, the uptake of Word 2000 depends on the desire to use
other Office applications. If you wish to use Excel 2000, or Access 2000, you end up with Word 2000
also, as you would buy the Office suite. However, though editors are mostly still using Word 97 and
Word 6/7, authors I have worked with often use Word 2000, and dependent upon the type of formatting
in their documents this can mean that I must also use it.
In this article, Word 97 refers to the PC platform and Word 98 refers to the Mac platform. Word 97
for the PC is in fact Word 98 for the Mac; in other words the software functionality is the same -
almost exactly the same. There was no Word 97 release for the Mac, just as there was no Word 98
release for the PC. Confused?
Word 97 and 2000 Compatibility
Concerning the PC platform, Word 97 will open and read Word 2000 (PC) documents, and although some
Word 2000 (PC) features are lost upon conversion to Word 97, these are features unlikely to be used
by editors. Whether or not they are likely to be used by you is another matter. They are also
features that can be turned off in a simple procedure in Word 2000 (PC). That is, features in Word
2000 (PC) not supported by Word 97 can be deactivated so that people working with both versions can
have confidence that their documents are totally compatible. This is obviously handy for anyone
working with material that is to be published. From this perspective, people who work by choice
with Word 97 are faced with no great urgency to upgrade. Whether Word 2000 (Mac) and Word 98 have
the same compatibility option, I am not sure. I think it is likely that they would. I have not test
driven Word 2000 for the Mac.
Upgrade Issues
There are advantages in moving to Word 2000. Editors are not, first and foremost, computer
operators. In fact, desktop editing constitutes an additional substantial skill layer to what is
already a multiskilled profession. So the completely rejigged online Help system in Word 2000 (PC)
will be welcomed by most desktop editors. It makes information more accessible and exploits
hyper-linking extensively to facilitate Help topic-to-topic transfer. It is very useful for people
who need to use Word regularly but who do a lot of other things as well. And of course with an
absence of supplied hard copy manuals now the norm, a good online Help system is really important
for users (though, as I read recently in PC Update, you cannot learn an application via online
Help: this is absolutely correct). Word 2000 (PC) online Help looks radically different, and it is.
I was startled by it to begin with, but it is better than Help in Word 97. Another improvement in
Word 2000 is extended multilingual support. Language dictionaries for Word are now available for
over seventy languages, and language formatting and spell checking are now very powerful tools.
They have been powerful for quite some time, but Word 2000 takes them to another level,
particularly language support. Word 2000 also incorporates other improvements useful for
editors.
Word 2000, apart from online Help, does not function in a dramatically different way to Word 97,
but the differences are substantial enough to make attractive the option of running both versions
side-by-side on one PC to help Word users avoid the learning problems, delays and worries likely to
be experienced with a sudden transition. These notes may assist editors who would like the comfort
factor of using Word 97 and Word 2000 interchangeably whilst learning the ins and outs of Word
2000. You can have your cake and eat it too! I am not certain whether the advice below applies to
Mac users. I assume that it would. The Office 2000 Mac documentation would have this information. A
phone call to an Office Mac reseller would probably get you the answer too. The installation
procedure would be a little different, but the scenario would be the same.
Also, these notes apply to single-user licenses for Word 2000. They do not necessarily apply to
multi-user (corporate) installations (which may or may not be network installations), though it is
possible that the configuration discussed here could be effected on a corporate or network
installation. Put otherwise, these notes apply in the first instance to stand-alone installations
of Office 2000 on PCs.
Install Word 2000 after Word 97
If Word 97 is already installed, you must select the "custom" option when installing Word 2000. If
Word 97 is not on the PC and you wish to use it, it is advisable to install it before installing
Word 2000 (when installing Word 97, the two service release patches - SR1 and SR2 - must be
installed as well). A "custom" installation of Word 2000 also provides the option of not installing
Internet Explorer version 5.x Web browser (this is installed automatically with the "standard"
installation).
Custom Install Issues
The custom install allows you to create the folder name of your choice for Office 2000. The normal
(standard or default) installation sets up Office at C:\Program Files\MicrosoftOffice.
A logical folder setup for the custom install would be C:\Program Files\MicrosoftOffice2000. This
differentiates it from the folder containing Office (or Word) 97, which is essential. Decide on
your folder name prior to installation. Altering it later is inadvisable. Advice on this can be
found in the Office 2000 booklet.
The custom install presents many options. Take your time and look through them. You can always
uninstall or install Office components at a later date, but given that hard copy manuals no longer
accompany Office, the inspection of installable components is one of the few points - in my
experience the only point - at which an (admittedly skeletal) overview of Word's facilities can be
obtained without going out and getting a third-party manual, which would probably not contain such
a listing anyway (I've never seen one). I learnt quite a bit by spending 20 minutes examining the
installable components information. My suggestion is that "if in doubt, install it" (MSIE5
excepted). Installing every Word component takes about 100 MB of disk space, and disk space is now
very affordable. Read the Microsoft documentation. With a custom install you have several install
modes available. Choose one that actually installs the files on your PC. This sounds nonsensical,
but makes sense on reading the install notes in the Office 2000 booklet.
Install all the proofing tool options. Word 2000 English edition can proof text in Italian and
Spanish as well as English. Proofing tool use is increasing amongst editors. (If you want to proof
text in additional languages then look into the Microsoft Office 2000 Proofing Tools CD). This is
another reason to use the custom install. The standard or default Office 2000 install does not
install all of Word's proofing tools. Fonts are installed into a common folder: you don't have to
concern yourself about a fonts folder for 97 and a fonts folder for 2000. However, to be on the
safe side, if you have some fondness for certain fonts you are using in Word 97, copy them
elsewhere while you install 2000 and then install them again, if you need to, into the fonts folder
using the File, Install New Font menu on the font folder menu bar.
Registering Word 2000
After installation, you must register Word 2000 before using it fifty times or it stops working.
Also, you can register your copy for use on one desktop computer plus one portable (laptop)
computer. Thus you have only two registrations to play with.
You can register directly over the Internet upon installation, or by phone or fax, or by surface
mail. With the latter three options you get a number to enter into your computer. Internet
registration is simple and fast and fully automated. With postal registration, remember the
fifty-use limit and register fast!
I couldn't find anything in the documentation about registering. After installing Word 2000 I
started it up and played around some and then closed the program. Bingo! The registration
information appeared. I followed my nose and registered over the Internet without complications
within one minute.
Choosing To Run 97 or 2000
Now for the tricky bit. When you want to run Word 97 instead of Word 2000 you must start up Word 97
before you open a document. A good way to set up this procedure is to add a Word 97 shortcut to
your desktop. Then you just double-click on this shortcut to launch Word 97 and then go on to open
your documents. To create a shortcut to Word 97 you locate the WINWORD.EXE file for Word 97. There
are various ways to do this; one is to use the "file find" facility in Windows Explorer (using the
menu sequence of Tools, Find), remembering that WINWORD.EXE for Word 97 has an icon comprising of a
light blue (turquoise) italic "W", and WINWORD.EXE for Word 2000 has an icon with a bordered bold
dark blue "W". Put the shortcut right in the centre of your screen where it is hard to miss.
On the other hand, when you want to use Word 2000, you should launch it from the Start menu, or by
double-clicking on a Word document file. In other words, if Word 2000 is installed on a PC that
already has Word 97 installed on it, Word 2000 takes precedence as the version launched when the
standard modes of starting Word are used, which makes sense. If you get your head around this bit
you will be OK.
Also, starting Word 2000 after using (opening and closing) Word 97 produces a message saying that
Word 2000 is being "configured" and there is a delay of maybe ten seconds. There is a cancel button
on the message window. I suggest you don't use it. Instead, if you open Word 2000 when you really
wanted to open Word 97 (which will happen from time to time), let it completely start up, then just
close it down and start up Word 97 instead.
You can always confirm the version of Word that is currently open by clicking on "Help" on the Word
menu bar and choosing the "About Microsoft Word" option. And you might want to keep your Word 97
and Word 2000 documents in different folders, though this is not essential. Also, I have been told
that both Word 97 and Word 2000 can be open (run) at the same time. I am wary of this and I haven't
tried it. It isn't necessary. But I have found that this "twin" installation uses separate
NORMAL.DOT files (separate Normal templates), which is handy to know and supports the idea that you
can run both versions at once.
I have found that running both Word 97 and Word 2000 is very useful as a way of learning the
differences whilst maintaining productivity. I have had no trouble with this configuration. I've
been using it for several months now, and recommend it as a means of greatly dampening the upgrade
leap. As you would suspect, there is no time limit (built-in expiry date) for use of this Word
configuration. You can go on using Word 97 and Word 2000 interchangeably for years if you want to.
I probably will.
About the Author:
Brett Lockwood (brett@melbpc.org.au; http://www.wordbytes.com.au) is a freelance editor and training
officer for the Society of Editors (Victoria).
Reprinted from the May 2001 issue of PC Update,
the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia
