In This Week's Report:

*** Special Report: Office 97: Is it Really Worth the Upgrade?
*** Internet News With an Edge
*** Reader's Request: Financial Aid on the Web

URLs in this issue:
Microsoft Office 97: http://www.microsoft.com/office/
Anchordesk: http://www.anchordesk.com
FinAid: http://www.finaid.org/

*** Special Report: Office 97: Is it Really Worth the Upgrade?
This week Microsoft released their newest version of their bread and butter program (how do you think they can afford to give Internet Explorer away?!): Office 97. The major new focus of Office 97 is its quick and easy integration with the Internet, which, of course, makes it fair game for me to review.

After getting over the shock of the installation size (over 100 Megs!), I sat down with Office 97 and put it to the test: does Office 97 make your Internet life any easier? The answer is mixed - many of the new bells and whistles on Office 97 are just that, and their novelty wears off within the first few minutes (like a new animated Office Assistant which is actually just an annoying pumped-up version of "Help".) Microsoft Word and Excel both have new looks which make them easier to use, but as I used them I had the feeling that there wasn't anything really new or compelling to warrant the upgrade.

What I did really like about Office 97 is its newest family member, Microsoft Outlook. Outlook is Microsoft's new approach at a personal organizer, which integrates a calendar, contact manager and e-mail program. Outlook is a big step in the right direction, but I'm not dumping Pegasus Mail just yet. Outlook seriously lacks some of the more advanced e-mail features, such as automatic message filtering and easy mailing list support which I have grown to depend on in Pegasus Mail.

So, is Microsoft Office 97 worth the upgrade? Not really. Office 97 doesn't live up to the promise of improving your Internet life, and the improvements, while nice (including Outlook), really don't warrant shelling out the dough for the upgrade. If you do decide to upgrade, be warned - Office 97 is a space hog: it takes up a lot of room and eats a ton of memory and processing.
Microsoft Office 97: http://www.microsoft.com/office/

***Internet News With an Edge***
A while back I stopped by a site called AnchorDesk and signed up for their daily news report. Almost every day since I have found myself gobbling up their report and then hopping over to their web site for more. AnchorDesk is Internet news with an edge. Rather than just reporting the news, it stands on firm ground giving opinions and commentary. This type of bold journalism is refreshing for an industry that is typically afraid to go out on a limb and (gasp!) maybe be wrong. If you follow Internet news and want more than just what happened and how, check out AnchorDesk, yet another great publication from Ziff Davis!
AnchorDesk: http://www.anchordesk.com

*** Reader's Request: Financial Aid on the Web***
I get a lot of reader e-mail asking me for help finding a good resource on the Web for financial aid. This week I took the challenge and found a great financial aid site. FinAid is filled to the rim with financial aid information to fit whatever your educational goals may be. Be sure to check out the FastWeb section, where you can actually search a database of scholarships to find ones you might qualify for.
FinAid: http://www.finaid.org/

Best Regards,
Geoff