Deceiving product literature

[xja]

I own Office XP and saw that Outlook 2003 supported ink messages on a Tablet
PC. It specifically says on the Outlook 2003 product page:

"Go mobile. If you own and use a Tablet PC, you can use ink markup to
annotate e-mail messages in your own handwriting with a pen input device. You
can write notes for personal use or e-mail messages to send to others."

I purchased Outlook 2003 (I had NO need for the 2003 version of any of the
other apps so did not purchase Office 2003 upgrade). Well, it turns out that
to use ink in a message, you need to have Word 2003 also! You have to use
Word 2003 as the email editor to use ink in a message (in Outlook 2003 I
can't even use Word XP at all as a message editor.)

If I am wrong and there is a way to use ink in an Outlook 2003 message
without purchasing Word 2003, please let me know. Otherwise, I just spent
$100 on upgrade to get one particular feature that I can't even access.

Very upset.

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http://www.microsoft.com/office/com...bd93d2240&dg=microsoft.public.outlook.general

 

[Brian Tillman]

I own Office XP and saw that Outlook 2003 supported ink messages on a
Tablet PC. It specifically says on the Outlook 2003 product page:

"Go mobile. If you own and use a Tablet PC, you can use ink markup to
annotate e-mail messages in your own handwriting with a pen input
device. You can write notes for personal use or e-mail messages to
send to others."

I purchased Outlook 2003 (I had NO need for the 2003 version of any
of the other apps so did not purchase Office 2003 upgrade). Well, it
turns out that to use ink in a message, you need to have Word 2003
also! You have to use Word 2003 as the email editor to use ink in a
message (in Outlook 2003 I can't even use Word XP at all as a message
editor.)

Where, exactly, is the product page you were reading? Here's a direct quote
from
http://www.microsoft.com/office/editions/prodinfo/tabletpc.mspx

"Note To annotate your e-mail messages in Outlook 2003, you must use Word
2003 as your e-mail editor."

How is this unclear to you?

If I am wrong and there is a way to use ink in an Outlook 2003 message
without purchasing Word 2003, please let me know. Otherwise, I just
spent $100 on upgrade to get one particular feature that I can't even
access.

So take it back to the store and get your money back.

 

[xja]

Where, exactly, is the product page you were reading? Here's a direct quote
from
http://www.microsoft.com/office/editions/prodinfo/tabletpc.mspx

"Note To annotate your e-mail messages in Outlook 2003, you must use Word
2003 as your e-mail editor."

How is this unclear to you?

That's the OFFICE product page. I was looking to purchase OUTLOOK. I had no
interest in the entire Office bundle. Should I be expected to look at the
Office product page to identify the requirements for the Outlook standalone
product? That makes no sense. The Outlook 2003 product page is at:

http://www.microsoft.com/office/outlook/prodinfo/overview.mspx

and says (with NO reference to Office or Word 2003 requirement):

"Go mobile. If you own and use a Tablet PC, you can use ink markup to
annotate e-mail messages in your own handwriting with a pen input device. You
can write notes for personal use or e-mail messages to send to others."

So take it back to the store and get your money back.

That would be great except the store doesn't accept returns on opened
software.

 

[Brian Tillman]

That's the OFFICE product page. I was looking to purchase OUTLOOK. I
had no interest in the entire Office bundle. Should I be expected to
look at the Office product page to identify the requirements for the
Outlook standalone product? That makes no sense.

It sure does, since Outlook is part of Office.

The Outlook 2003 product page is at:

http://www.microsoft.com/office/outlook/prodinfo/overview.mspx

and says (with NO reference to Office or Word 2003 requirement):

Look at the URL you just typed. See the word "office" in it? That should
give you a clue. Besides, the page you cite is a "Product Overview" which
means, by definition, it doesn't contain enough information for a purchase
decision. It contains information to hint at some of the features, which
you should lead you to investigate further. Since the reference to "ink"
involves the Tablet PC, then your next visit would be to a Tablet PC page,
like that which I cited.

That would be great except the store doesn't accept returns on opened
software.

No, but they should give you a store credit, even if they won't give you
your money back. Due diligence is always a good idea.

 

[xja]

You're right, I didn't work hard enough and examine all the other unrelated
web pages at the entire Office web site, even though I was only buying
Outlook, which is sold as a standalone program. I was foolish to think that
Microsoft would never tout a feature on the Outlook standalone product page
without noting that it wasn't available in the standalone product. I can't
believe I forgot that buying Microsoft products requires doing "due
diligence"... next time I will retain my lawyers at $300/hr to do a thorough
search of all publicly available information ever published by Microsoft (I
am sure that is not that much) to find any buried requirements.

Your approach to marketing disclosure is scary. Please tell me that you
don't represent Microsoft. Even scarier, please tell me that you don't work
for a pharmaceutical company.

 

[Brian Tillman]

Your approach to marketing disclosure is scary. Please tell me that
you don't represent Microsoft. Even scarier, please tell me that you
don't work for a pharmaceutical company.

I work for neither. I work for an aerospace company. Now are you scared?
;-)