Vannevar: So there’s a new version of Microsoft Office?
Peter: There's an update to Microsoft Office 97 called Service Release 1 or 'SR-1' to its friends.
V: Is there anything exciting in it?
P: It’s the usual Microsoft two handed game – on the one hand they’ve added some new features to crow about while at the same time slipping in a pile of bug fixes.
BUG FIXES
V: Bug fixes! Please, please tell me they’ve fixed that deceitful pretence when you export to the Word 6/95 document format?
P: Microsoft took a lot of heat about the fact that when Word 97 saved a document to Word 6/95 format, it really saved to Rich Text Format (RTF). They claimed this was easier for customers, but quickly discovered that it caused all sorts of trouble. It’s called a ‘customer migration challenge’ and is claimed as a major fix in SR-1.
V: What other bug fixes are there?
P: There’s no definitive list of bug fixes from Microsoft, you can have a look at their Knowledge Base article Q150613 but note their phraseology ‘key updates ’ this means that far from all the bug fixes are listed. There was more information, such as a full list of Word 97 fixes, but it was withdrawn soon after SR-1 came out and has never been republished. We’ve made our own unofficial list of fixes. Probably the fix that most users will notice immediately is that inserting a picture does not default to ‘Float over Text’ anymore.
V: That means Word 97 SR-1 now acts the same as earlier releases when dropping a picture into a document.
P: Yes, ‘Float over Text’ is useful, but making it the default runs contrary to what we’ve learnt to expect. This is a welcome change one that Woody, Jim and Lee asked for in Word 97 Annoyances.
V: Does the release of SR-1 mean that there are no more bugs in Office 97?
P: Ha! If only that where true. There are plenty of problems left in Office 97 -- in fact the YODA column in Woody’s Office Watch issue 2.36 pointed out some problems that could have been easily fixed but were not. In fact, SR-1 even introduces some new bugs - but many more are fixed.
And there’s an important recalculation bug that all Excel 97 users should be aware of. It is NOT fixed in English language releases of SR-1 and you must get a separate patch but keep in mind that you must have SR-1 already installed to use this patch. There is not, and apparently will not be, a patch for the original Excel 97, despite the seriousness of the problem and consequences.
V: Anything else?
P: There’s a Word 97 Web Authoring
Update that supposedly improves the features of Word 97 in editing HTML pages –
and its not included in SR-1. Since you read Woody’s
Office Watch you’ll know how unreliable and flakey the web authoring in Word 97
is. The update makes little difference that I can see to the fundamental flaws in grafting
a HTML import/export function onto Word. I get a lot of complaints about editing web pages
in Word 97 from Woody’s Office Watch
readers – in issue 2.46 we suggest alternatives to using Word as a web page editor
V: And this applies to all Office 97 users?
P: All, except anyone who got their copy of Office 97 bundled with their computer purchase. These people can't get the full update because of contractual arrangements between Microsoft and the computer maker. See OEM Woes for all the sad news.