Questions About Some Software

**MauerPower** · December 4th, 2003, 05:27 PM

I want some feedback on some software that I am thinking about getting.

Office 2003 - Is there a major difference between Office XP and should an upgrade from XP to 2003 be performed?

Trillian Pro 2 - I currently use Trillian Pro 1 with Patch D and was thinking about upgrading this as well. Are a lot of the bugs that were present with the initial release fixed? And if I somehow managed to get an "unofficial" release (you know) of Pro 2, would there be any connection problems that I would encounter?

My final inquiry is about a program that checks your other programs installed and looks to see if an update is available. This would be like Cnet's old CatchUp program. Is there currently a program that will accomplish this and what are the recommendations for the program(s).

I appreciate any helpful information given.

**DwarfBaby** · December 4th, 2003, 06:14 PM

Absolutely Not as far as Office is concerned. Unless you enjoy dishing out wads of cash for features you are almost certain not to use. From what I understand the biggest improvement has to do with XML compatibilility and better integration between the different Office products(Excel, Word, Access, etc...), however most of what I've seen is fluff. MS also claims Word 2003 is better at writing HTML files, but then again who uses Word for HTML pages anyway.

If you weren't upgrading I might tell you to buy the latest and greatest but the cost does not cut it. Unless you weren't planning on paying for it. :cross

Also Office 2003 has much more nagware crap added on and not just the damn paper clip that was supposed to be killed off. And it will randomly try to access the Internet even when not running until you completely block it with your firewall or completely allow it access.

Just my two cents

**g-smooth2k** · December 4th, 2003, 06:52 PM

You can get the Trillian 1.0 patch E from http://trillian.net.ru/downloads/tri....0-patch-e.exe

**Malicious Intent** · December 4th, 2003, 07:50 PM

I use Office 2003. I'm only a light user, just for university essays and such and I havn't had it for long. So far I've noticed hardly any difference. Its very blue, unless you have the classic colour theme.
Thesaurus is down the side with clip art and clipboard now. Its much more user friendly as well, provides definitions if you want.
As far as I can see, it takes a few seconds to upgrade (and add the patch that has already been released), so what have you got to lose? (Naturally I'm assuming you are very rich). At first I thought the toolbars looked cluttered. The 3D effect is a bit overdone. The bars are raised and curved with a shadow and so are each on the buttons on that. You soon get used to it.
i'm sure "research" is really good as well. If only I knew what it did. I'm not going to look it up though!

**tidal** · December 4th, 2003, 08:17 PM

one very nice thing i found with office 2k3 is that if you need to write in another language it makes the transition to that language very simple and switching back and forth between languages is a breeze. sometimes the task pane is helpful but usually not...good thing i didn't pay for it :bling