Office should have small buisness integration capacity

[MAK]

I am a small business owner and have felt frustrated with the direction of MS
Office these past few years. I used to buy every new Office edition but
stopped with Office 2000. What I really need is some more small business
integration capacity...ie: the ability to design a business template (logo,
colors, fonts, etc.) and have the ability to integrate this template into
every program (letters, email, web site design, database interface, etc.). I
would also love to have a better integration of between communication,
database, and financial capacities.

 

[DL]

I cannot say I've had any problem with 'logo templates' and their
integration, though if you dont use plain text for email this can lead to
problems for some recipients.
As for communication/db, depends how deep you wish to get into the inbuilt
vb programming

 

[Rob Schneider]

The integration you seek is possible, though the "degree" is probably
the issue. I suspect you expectations are too great if you base
everything on Office. Sounds like you need a besoke application
developed which integrates to the extent you required communcation,
database, and financial. Of course, that will cost money (probably a
lot). Your choice.

p.s. keep graphics/logos out of email. keep email as plain text, for
the benefit of your customer.

Hope this is useful to you. Let us know.

rms

 

[MAK]

DL, thank you for your response. I do use only plain text in my emails and I
really don't want to get too deep into the inbuilt vb programming. What I
would like to be able to do is to use the same design template that I have in
let's say FrontPage for my web and then be able to use that same design
scheme for my Publisher Designs, my Word and Fax letterheads, and my database
and spreadsheet GUIs without having to re-create it in every program (ie:
Some kind of global template choice for all office programs).

 

[Mark]

Rob, thank you for your response. I do use only plain text in my emails and I
really don't want to spend a lot of money on developing a bespoke app. Maybe
my expectations are too great but it seems strange to me that each of the
Office programs appear to have different template designs and lack the
ability to choose a global template for all your programs. For example: What
I would like to be able to do is to use the same design template (ie: Spirals
plus my own logo) that I have in let's say FrontPage for my web and then be
able to use that same design scheme for my Publisher Designs, my Word and Fax
letterheads, and my database and spreadsheet GUIs without having to re-create
it in every program (ie: Some kind of global template choice for all office
programs). Maybe MS has added this since Office 2000 but I have been unable
to find it in any of their literature or by checking out trial apps.

 

[Rob Schneider]

Well, you have to remember that all the Office apps have pedigree's as
separte applications which date back well before they were combined
under the banner Office. Even today, while the look and feel is similar
and COM/OLE allows a lot of interchange of data, Word is not Excel is
not PowerPoint is not Access is not FrontPage is not Publisher. They
are very complex applications that are just different to do different
things.

It's not "strange". It's the way it is and I don't see it ever changing
to the degree you appear to wish it to be.

For example, Publisher is pretty much a stand-alone and can't get stuff
out of there. I consider it a "freebie" that has just been packed into
Office. (I tried Publisher as I got it "free" with Office, but gave up
on it becuase my documents were held hostage in a inferiour program).

I use Office 2003, and what you want isn't there. If you were to use
one package, e.g. Word, as the "container" for all you stuff, e.g.
embedd your spreadsheets into a Word Doc, or an Access query in an Word
Doc, etc. then you can achieve what you want. But then maybe you don't
want Excel to be inside a Word. But then putting a Word doc inside a
Excel sort of doesn't make sense either. Hence the dilemna to put all
this together into one "global" template.

It just won't happen, in my IMHO. And if by chance it did happen, it
would be so lowest-common demonininator that the power of complex Office
apps is lost.

Maybe lower-powered app's will do what you want. Check out Works.

 

[MAK]

Rob, thanks for your great in-depth response. I definitely see your
point...guess I am expecting too much. I thought at the least each app could
have a similar template choice, for example, have a spirals template in all
the apps designed specifically for that app. I have looked at Works and you
are right, the more fully integrated suites do sacrifice depth... Ph well, as
in all of life, everything has it's pluses and it's minuses...even computer
software!

 

[DL]

It maybe that you could create a template, eg jpeg or some such, for yr
logo/header info. - You may have to use a seperate app ie non office, then
link/embed this into yr various office templates.

 

[MAK]

Thanks for the suggestion DL...I have tried something like it but found it
very time consuming to get all the design elements to match up in the
different programs. It is definetly possible...just wish it was a bit easier.