Microsoft reverses XP sub scheme

"If you are no longer employed by a retail partner at the end of the subscription period, you can choose to update the Subscription Product service. Additionally, the Subscription Product qualifies as an upgrade path to a non-subscription version of OfficeXP available at retail, " is part of the message MS is telling its partners.

Sources close to Microsoft's plans think that the firm now has all its ducks in a row for when subscription occurs in a year from now.

Hey - and you can win a "prize" - be a Microsoft employee for a day! [Share options for a day too? Ed.]

Let's see exactly what the Great Satan of Software sayeth:

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INTRODUCING OFFICE XP
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THE SMARTER WORK EXPERIENCE
Thank you for your interest in the teamMicrosoft Live! Office XP event. Throughout the presentations, we collected a variety of questions that were asked at each of the events. We wanted to provide you with the most popular questions and answers to continue to help you better support your customers. We have also included a number of links for you to explore these topics in more depth.

UPDATING YOUR OFFICE XP SUBSCRIPTION
This applies to the Office XP product distributed at the teamMicrosoft Live! Office XP events.

The initial subscription period begins on the date you first activate your copy of the Subscription Product and ends three hundred and sixty five (365) days thereafter. By attending a future teamMicrosoft Live! event, we will update the length of your subscription at no charge. In order to qualify, you must continue to be employed by an authorized retail partner and provide proof of ownership of the Subscription Product.

If you are no longer employed by a retail partner at the end of the subscription period, you can choose to update the Subscription Product service. Additionally, the Subscription Product qualifies as an upgrade path to a non-subscription version of Office XP available at retail. In both of these cases, you are responsible for the costs relative to the selected update path.

OFFICE XP
Built and designed for the knowledge workers of today and tomorrow, Office XP offers significant enhancements which benefit everyone in the workplace and provide unique personal, collaborative and organizational experiences.

A DOZEN REASONS TO UPGRADE TO OFFICE XP
- visit...http://www.microsoft.com/office/evaluation/fastfacts.htm
This is a GREAT resource to help you sell Office XP!

OFFICE XP PRODUCT GUIDE
- visit... http://www.microsoft.com/office/evaluation/indepth/xpguide.htm
Q. What is the upgrade path for Office XP?
A. To be eligible for an Office XP suite or individual application upgrade, a customer must be a licensed user of one of the following:
-- Any Office 97 suite to an Office XP suite
-- Any Office 2000 suite to an Office XP suite
-- Any Office 97 or Office 2000 application to an Office XP application
(i.e. Word 97 to Word 2002)

Customers cannot upgrade to an Office XP suite using the following applications: -- Microsoft Office 95 or earlier
-- Individual office applications (i.e. Word 2000)
-- Microsoft Works (any version)
-- Competitive productivity suites

Q. Is Office XP compatible with Windows 95?
A. Office XP is NOT compatible with Windows 95.

Q. Are files created in Office XP compatible with previous version of Office?
A. Yes. Files created in Office XP are compatible with Office 2000 and Office 97 files.

Q. What about Access 2002 file formats? Are they compatible with previous versions?
A. Access 2002 uses the Access 2000 file format as the default file format for new databases. This will enable customers to use Access 2002 and maintain capability with existing Access 2000 solutions. However, keep in mind that users will not be able to share an Access 2002 file with versions prior to Access 2000.

Q. Will we see the subscription model in the stores and, if so, when?
A. The product subscription model will not be available at the product launch. We will continue to examine this model and you may see it employed in the future.

Q. What are the system requirements for Office XP?
A. The minimum system requirements are:
-- Computer with a Pentium 133-megahertz (MHz) or higher processor
-- RAM requirements depend on the operating system used:
* Windows 98, or Windows 98 Second Edition
24 MB of RAM plus an additional 8 MB of RAM for each Office program (such as Microsoft Word) running simultaneously
* Windows Me, or Microsoft Windows NT 32 MB of RAM plus an additional 8 MB of RAM for each Office program (such as Microsoft Word) running simultaneously
* Windows 2000 Professional
64 MB of RAM plus an additional 8 MB of RAM for each Office program (such as Microsoft Word) running simultaneously Hard Disk
-- Hard disk space requirements will vary depending on configuration; custom installation choices may require more or less hard disk space.
* 245 MB of available hard disk space with 115 MB on the hard disk where the operating system is installed.
* Users without Windows 2000, Windows Me, or Office 2000 Service Release 1 (SR-1) require an extra 50 MB of hard disk space for System Files Update.
* On systems running Windows NT 4.0 with SP6, the version of Microsoft Internet Explorer must be upgraded to at least version 4.01 with SP1.
Q. Who developed the speech recognition engine in Office XP?
A. Speech recognition in Office XP was developed by Microsoft Research and Development. It is not a third-party application.

Q. Are the system requirements for speech recognition different?
A. Yes. To run speech recognition, a customer needs the following: -- Pentium II 400-MHz or higher processor -- 128 MB of RAM or more
-- Close-talk microphone and audio output device
-- Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0 or later
Q. Which languages are supported by Microsoft's speech recognition?
A. Currently Office XP English US, Japanese, and Simplified Chinese versions of Office XP will support speech recognition.

Q. Are Smart Tag features limited to just the set included with Office XP?
A. No. One of the benefits of Smart Tags is customers or businesses can build their own Smart Tags. Using the Smart Tag Software Development Kit (SDK), a developer can create custom Smart Tags that provide application-specific solutions.

Q. What happens if a customer does not activate their copy of Office XP?
A. A user has 50 grace launches before they must absolutely activate an Office XP product. If they do not activate within 50 launches, the product will go into reduced functionality mode. In this mode, they cannot create new, or edit any existing documents. Existing documents can still be viewed and printed, as the actual document files themselves remain unchanged. If a user is in reduced functionality mode, they may still activate their product at any time to gain the full functionality of Office.

Q. How does a customer activate Office XP over the telephone?
A. If a user activates over the phone, they will simply call a toll free number displayed in a screen. A customer service representative will ask for the Installation ID number displayed on the same screen. They will enter that number into a secure database and return a Confirmation ID to the user that they will need to input into the screen. Once that number has been entered, the activation process is complete.

Q. I heard that customers can receive notification from Microsoft about product updates if they activate Office XP?
A. Customers may choose to register (optional) at the same time as they activate (required) Office XP to receive additional product benefits such as notification direct from Microsoft about product updates. If they choose to register Office XP, they will be required to provide some level of personal information such as an email address. Microsoft asks for this information so that they can fulfill their obligation to provide customized services and benefits based on what customers request during registration. No personal information is passed unless a customer chooses to send it.

Q. Will I ever have to activate Office XP again?
A. In certain situations, such as if you move the product to another PC, or if you overhaul your PC by replacing a substantial number of hardware components, you may have to activate your product again. Re-activation in either case is as simple as the initial activation.

Q. Does the Activation Wizard apply to all copies of the product?
A. No, only retail boxed product and academic boxed product.

Q. Will the Activation Wizard be present in future products?
A. Yes. The Activation Wizard will be present in the next release of Windows, called Windows XP. The launch date for Windows XP is October 25, 2001.

Q. What new features in Outlook help users and organizations safeguard against malicious viruses?
A. There are several security methods employed by Outlook:
-- Blocking e-mail attachments associated with unsafe files.
-- Preventing programs from gaining programmatic access to a user's address book or sending mail on the users behalf. Users are notified and given the option of continuing with the action. This prevents propagation and spreading of the virus to other users.
-- Giving administrators options to customize the above settings to meet the security needs of their organization.

Q. Can I use Outlook for my Hotmail and/or POP3 Mail?
A. Yes, you can now use Hotmail and POP3 mail. After configuring the accounts, just select the "Accounts" button when composing a message.

Q. What happens to the applications that are not in the Office XP family, i.e. PhotoDraw that is no longer being produced?
A. The application will still remain functional; it will work like it has in the past.

POCKET PC
http://www.pocketpc.com Q. What makes the Pocket PC a great compliment (sic) to an Office user?
A. Pocket Outlook enables you to access your personal and corporate e-mail accounts from your Outlook Inbox. And because Pocket versions of Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel are integrated into your Pocket PC, you can open, edit, and send Word and Excel e-mail attachments.

Q. Can the Pocket PC support MPEG format as well as Flash?
A. Yes, it supports both MPEG and Flash formats.

Q. Is the Remote Display Control for the Pocket PC used in the Office XP demonstrations available for public use?
A. Yes, this tool was recently made available for the public. With the Remote Display Control application, you can display actions on a Pocket PC, including user input, remotely on the display of a desktop or laptop personal computer. This is a great tool for demonstrating the power of the Pocket PC to a large audience. For more information, please see http://www.microsoft.com/mobile/pocketpc/downloads/powertoys.asp

MAPPOINT 2002
http://www.microsoft.com/office/mappoint/ Microsoft MapPoint combines powerful map-making and analysis functionality with the simplicity of Office. Use MapPoint to quickly identify geographic locations, visually analyze your business data, and effortlessly create, customize, and integrate maps into Office documents.

VISIO 2002
http://www.microsoft.com/office/visio/
Bring the power of clear, visual communication to your everyday work. Whether you manage people, projects, or networks, there's an edition of Microsoft Visio that will meet your business needs. And all editions share a set of intelligent diagramming tools and a common graphics engine that help you convey your ideas successfully-no matter what they are.

TRAIN SIMULATOR
http://www.microsoft.com/games/trainsim/
Microsoft Train Simulator brings the power and excitement of some of the world's most famous trains to your PC, placing you in the role of engineer or passenger with unprecedented realism, exciting real-world rail challenges, and the tools to recreate almost any railroad experience in the world.

TRAIN WITH MICROSOFT AND WIN PRIZES!
http://www.microsoft.com/retail
In addition to Microsoft Live! events, Microsoft has an online training site called teamMicrosoft Online Training. By visiting the site, you will learn about Microsoft software, hardware and services. Each time you pass a quiz, you will be entered into monthly and quarterly prize giveaways:
-- For the month of June we will be giving away 50 copies of Microsoft Train Simulator
-- The Microsoft Office XP group is giving away three-day trips to Redmond, WA to be a Microsoft employee for a day
n The current quarterly prize is a La-Z-Boy Explorer e-cliner
-- n You could also win an Ultimate TV with one-year subscription!
Don't wait, visit the site today at http://www.microsoft.com/retail * teamMicrosoft Online Training is open to U.S. residents ages 18 and over who are currently employed in a sales function with a CCS authorized retailer (as listed on store name pull-down menu on Register page). See http://www.microsoft.com/retail for details.

THE MICROSOFT RETAIL SALES DESK
The Retail Sales Desk is your number one resources for assistance while selling products. The Sales Desk answers questions about upcoming events, product availability, product capability and promotions.

Microsoft Retail Sales Desk 877-MS-SALES (for resellers only)
You can also email your questions to the Sales Desk at salesdsk@microsoft.com
MICROSOFT PHONE NUMBERS
http://support.microsoft.com/directory/phone.asp?sd=gn
Microsoft Sales Information Center
800-426-9400 (for consumers)
Microsoft Product Support Sales Line
800-936-3500
Electronic Personal Use Program (ePUP) 800-289-2480 (order tracking & registration questions)