Features:

• Delve into databases with ease
• New context-sensitive smart tags
• New task panes
• New Outlook condenses all your personal and professional e-mail into one central location--even Web-based e-mail
• Includes Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, and Access

Microsoft Office XP's empowering document design tools, integration of voice recognition functionality, and impressive network- and Web-based sourcing capabilities should be enough to convince those interested in saving time and consolidating effort to take the leap.

In keeping with Microsoft's much-ballyhooed .NET strategy, Office XP introduces several features that utilize the vast infosphere inhabited by the 21st-century desk jockey. Smart tags beckon underneath recognized objects like misspellings or symbols, offering a stock quote here, a synonym there, or "Would anyone care to configure my auto-correction list?" The task pane looks similar to Microsoft Internet Explorer's Explorer Bar, and acts like an open tool chest pulled up alongside each application in the suite, providing readily configured searches for information or multimedia files. Putting up a team Web site that tracks projects and serves as an information hub requires only the use of one of the included templates, ready to be customized and uploaded to the server.

The Send for Review feature further streamlines the collaborative process by allowing the sender to view revisions made by multiple parties within the framework of the original document. Outlook now features a color-coded calendar and easier meeting management, along with instant messaging and variable e-mail account access. All user system errors can be tracked globally, and then network security settings modified remotely while anti-virus and debugging IT resources are diverted accordingly.

After firing up Microsoft Word, typing "Dear Somebody," and hitting the Enter key, we made a startling discovery. Up popped Clippy, Microsoft's publicly pink-slipped office assistant. Clippy might have aptly announced, "Rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated," but instead predictably observed, "It looks like you're writing a letter." Once the groans of disbelief had subsided, we quickly right-clicked and banished Clippy to the silicon ether, presumably forever.

System requirements:

• Pentium 133 MHz or faster (Pentium 3 recommended)
• Microsoft Windows 98, 98 Second Edition, Me, NT 4.0 with Service Pack 6 or greater, or Windows 2000 or greater; on systems running Windows NT 4.0, the version of Internet Explorer must be upgraded to at least 4.01 with Service Pack 1
• Note: Add 8 MB RAM to the following memory requirements for each Office application open simultaneously: 24 MB RAM (Windows 98); 32 MB RAM (Windows Me, NT Workstation, or Server 4.0); 64 MB RAM (Windows 2000 Professional)
• 210 MB hard disk space is required for the default configuration of Office XP Standard with 115 MB on the hard disk where the operating system is installed; customers without Windows 2000, Windows Me, or Office 2000 SR1 will require an extra 50 MB of hard disk space for the System Files Update; custom installation choices may require more or less hard disk space
• CD-ROM drive
• Super VGA (800 x 600) or higher-resolution monitor with 256 colors