Microsoft Office 98, Macintosh Edition (R)
Release Notes, Early Testing Release
Copyright 1997 Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

Welcome to the Early Testing Release (ETR) for Office 98, Macintosh Edition. This document
contains important information about this Office release.

[Contents]

- General Issues
- Installation and Compatibility
- Top New Features in Office 98
- Using Word 98
- Using Excel 98
- Using PowerPoint 98
- Using Online Help
- Other Notes
- The Office 98 Value Pack

[General Issues]

* This testing release of Microsoft Office 98, Macintosh Edition, is the first external release of the product. As with any pre-release version, the safest way to test Office 98 ETR is to install it on a Macintosh that you do not rely on for everyday work. If that is not possible, you should be aware that while Office 98 and previous versions of Microsoft Office programs generally coexist, there are some areas of overlap. For example, if you use OLE servers such as Graph and Equation Editor in your documents, the new editions included with Office 98 may be inserted or used for editing existing objects.

* Office 98 ETR is a pre-release version, which will expire on 12/1/97, after which it will not launch.

* You should not install this ETR on a Macintosh on which you are also running any version of the Microsoft Exchange client for Macintosh or Outlook for Macintosh.

* You should make a backup copy of any document you will open in Office 98 ETR before you use this ETR to edit it.

* Please open, page through, and print the files you use most often, as well as the most heavily formatted documents you have created. Report all instances where an Office 98 program does not present data correctly.

* The Office 98 commercial release will run on Macintosh systems with PowerPC upgrade cards. However, you should test this ETR on a native PowerMac system.

* If a program in this ETR should crash or hang, or if a feature fails to execute, you should first try to increase the memory partition by 1000KB and repeat the action. If you wish to do macro programming in VBA, you should increase the memory partition for the host program by 5000KB. We continue to fine-tune this area.

* Many of the issues described in this readme reflect current areas of incomplete functionality with the ETR and will be resolved before Office 98 is released.

[Installation and Compatibility]

* Office 98 requires no setup or installer. Instead, you simply drag the "Microsoft Office 98" folder from the ETR CD to your hard drive and then launch a program.

* When you launch a program, you will be asked for the 10-digit CD Key. For this ETR of Office 98, enter the following as the CD Key: 000-2436114.

* Do not install Office 98 over an existing installation of Office, Word, Excel, or PowerPoint. Instead, install it in a new folder.

* Office 98 can be installed on the same machine as previous versions of Office, Word, Excel, or PowerPoint. In these cases, it is best to first back up all folders in which you store documents. When installing Office 98, choose a folder other than the folder where you have installed previous versions of Office programs. This ETR software is not a qualifying product for the yet-to-be-released Office 98 upgrade package.

* Office 98 adds fonts that are commonly found in files created in Office 97 for Windows. In this ETR, you must reboot your system after installing to make these fonts available to Office 98.

* In the final release, you will run the Microsoft Office Installer and choose Remove All to uninstall Office. In the ETR, doing this still leaves some files behind. To completely remove Office 98 ETR from a machine, drag the Microsoft Office folder to the Trash, and then remove the following files from the System Folder:
- Remove "Configuration Manager" from the Control Panels folder.
- Extensions folder: remove Microsoft Hyperlink Library and Microsoft Reference Library. If you do not have Office 4.2x , Microsoft Internet Explorer, Exchange client, FrontPage, or another Microsoft application installed, you may also remove Microsoft RPC Runtime Library, Microsoft Component Library, Microsoft OLE Automation, Microsoft OLE Library, and Microsoft Structured Storage.
- Remove the file "Standard OLE Types 2" from the Type Libraries folder.
- If you are not using a version of Microsoft Internet Explorer, remove the MS Libraries folder.
- Preferences folder (this list will depend on which programs and features you use): Embedding Preferences, Excel Chart Gallery (8), Excel Settings (8), Excel Toolbars (8), Graph Chart Gallery (8), Microsoft Office Settings (8), MS Office ACL (8), Office Registration Cache, PowerPoint Settings (8), PowerPoint Toolbars (8), VBA Preferences, Word Address Book Settings, Word Font Menu Cache (8), Word Font Substitutes, Word Settings (8).

* To use Office 4.2x OLE servers after uninstalling the Office 98 ETR, you will need to reinstall those components. You can do this by running Office 4.2x Setup in maintenance mode.

[Top New Features in Office 98]

The top Office 98, Macintosh Edition, features are:

Shared features
* Office Assistant
* OfficeArt drawing tools and drawing layer
* Improved Mac-likeness: platinum appearance, Apple drag-and-drop support
* Save as HTML in all programs (disabled in Word and PowerPoint for the ETR)
* Visual Basic for Applications throughout Office 98

Word 98
* Automatic writing in Word 98: spelling and grammar checking as you type
* Table drawing tool and table editing
* Word 5.1 view

Excel 98
* Page break preview
* New cell formatting features, such as merged cells, angled text, indented text
* Shared workbooks and change tracking

PowerPoint 98
* Custom animation settings
* Animated chart builds
* Meeting Minder

[Using Word 98]

* The Word 6/95 Binary Converter, which allows Word 98 to save files as binary Word document files, is not included in this ETR. Instead, when Word 98 saves as Word 6, it is really saving in Rich Text Format (RTF). If you must exchange files with users of earlier versions of Word, we recommend that you choose Rich Text Format in the Save File as Type pop-up menu in the Save dialog box. The Word 6/95 Binary Converter will appear in the second (technical) beta release and will ship as part of Office 98.

* Some templates and wizards are slow and/or unstable. They are included, but we advise that you use them with caution.

* The Word Internet Assistant was not complete in time for this ETR and is not included. It will ship in the technical beta release.

* The HTML Converter, which allows Word to open and export files as HTML, is not included in this ETR. It will be included in later test releases, as well as the commercial product.

* The Excel and Works converters will be in the commercial release, but were not ready in time to be included in this ETR. If you want to use data from these formats in the Word 98 ETR, please copy Microsoft Word 3.0-5.0 and Microsoft Works 4.0 converter files from your Office 4.2 installation to the Text Converters folder, located inside the Shared Applications subfolder of your Microsoft Office 98 folder.

* As-you-type grammar checking is turned off by default. A known bug in the grammar engine will almost certainly cause Word to become unstable and crash. Because a crash could cause you to lose work, please test this feature only with sample documents. If you are interested in testing the grammar checker, we are interested in your feedback: Does turning it on make the computer feel sluggish and unresponsive? Does it interrupt typing?

* Word may crash randomly when the Office Assistant is active, especially when providing assistance with dialog boxes or alerts. Please report any crashes you encounter.

* In this ETR, Word 98 disables your Mac's Sleep settings while it is running. You should not manually invoke Sleep while running Word, as you may crash and lose data.

* Graphics in a document may draw over a toolbar or the status bar when the document is scrolled up or down.

[Using Excel 98]

* In this ETR, having Balloon Help on while launching Excel may cause the program to crash.

* The Analysis ToolPak (ATP) is not included in this ETR. Files containing ATP functions will not calculate correctly. If necessary, you can use the ATP add-in that shipped with Excel 5.0 with this ETR. To do so, use the Add-Ins command on the Tools menu.

* To run the Internet Assistant Wizard (accessed through the Save as HTML command on the File menu), you should increase the Preferred Size for Excel's memory partition to at least 6500 KB. (In Finder, select the Excel icon in the Office 98 folder, and then choose Get Info on the File menu.)

* Village Software Templates are not included but will be available in the final commercial release.

* MS Query and ODBC are no longer installed by default with Microsoft Office. Instead, these components are available in the Value Pack folder on the ETR CD, in the Data Access subfolder. Please read the separate Data Access Readme before installing these components.

* To make MS Query work, you must first manually define a Data Source Name (DSN) for each database you wish to query. Instructions for defining a DSN are provided in the Data Access ReadMe file. In the final commercial release, DSNs are automatically generated when using MS Query.

* Parameter Queries currently works when you boot MS Query standalone. If you launch MS Query from Excel, you cannot use Parameter Queries.

[Using PowerPoint 98]

* Please open, print, and run in slide show view those presentations you use frequently, as well as your largest, most heavily formatted presentations. Please report any problems!

* To print from PowerPoint, you should turn on background printing or use Desktop Printing (this option will require that you have a small amount of free hard disk space available).

* PowerPoint 98 may become unstable if you run slide show continuously for a long period of time. We recommend that you not use the continuous loop feature of slide show for very long.

* In this ETR, PowerPoint 98 will not import any graphic images in files saved in PowerPoint for Windows versions 3.0, 4.0, or 95. Images are replaced in slides by blank pictures at the correct locations, but the pictures themselves are not stored in the new file. Most pictures in PowerPoint 97 for Windows files will be imported, except those that were originally CGM or EMF formats.

* The button in the lower-left corner does not appear for a full-screen slide show. This button will be added before we release the final version. Please use the shortcut menu to access this functionality (hold down CONTROL and click).

* Underlined text does not appear with underlines in slide show view (hyperlinks are affected as well).

* The Save as HTML feature was not completed in time for this ETR. It will ship in the technical beta release.

* The new version of Clip Art Gallery was not ready in time for this ETR. It will be included in the final product.

* You may encounter problems when inserting or opening various text files. Word 4-5, RTF text only, and plain text work okay. Other text file formats will not open correctly. PowerPoint 98 will not open Microsoft Excel 3.0-5.0 and Microsoft Works 4.0 converters, even if you add them from your Office 4.2 installation as described earlier.

[Using Online Help]

Online Help for Microsoft Office 98, Macintosh Edition, is still under construction. You may notice the following:
* Help Contents screens are temporary (they will be organized by subject matter in a later release).

* The Help Index is not yet complete.

* When using Help in Visual Basic Editor, close the Help window after reading and before switching away. Leaving a Help window open while working in the code editor may cause your machine to lock up.

* The Office Assistant does not yet respond to questions about VBA Help.

* Some procedures and art may not be entirely accurate, and some features may not yet be documented.

* Text and art may not be formatted correctly in pop-up windows that display from illustrations in topics.

* Some links from one topic to another and from topics to Web sites may not work.

* MS Excel Solutions Help may not work with the Customize button on the templates.

* Balloon Help may not be available or may not be correct for some menu commands and dialog box controls.

[Other Notes]
* If you connect to the Internet via modem, inserting a hyperlink in an Office document will attempt to open a PPP session. You can click "Cancel" and continue to work. This will be fixed in the commercial release.

[The Office 98 Value Pack]

* Items in the Value Pack are currently installed individually. In the commercial release, a more unified approach to discovering and installing the contents of the Value Pack will be available.

* Microsoft Internet Explorer for Macintosh, and Outlook Express for Macintosh (formerly Internet Mail and News) will be included with Office 98 in the Value Pack folder. We have not included them with this ETR, but you may download them for free from Microsoft's web site:
- Download Internet Explorer 4.0 for Macintosh from http://www.microsoft.com/ie/mac/ie40/
- Download Internet Explorer 3.01 for Macintosh from http://www.microsoft.com/ie/download/?/ie/download/ie.htm
- Download Outlook Express for Macintosh from http://www.microsoft.com/ie/ie40/oe/main.asp
- Download Internet Mail and News 3.0a for Macintosh from http://www.microsoft.com/ie/download/?/msdownload/ieplatform/imn/imn.htm