Tips, tricks, tools, and techniques for Microsoft Office

PRIME Utilities for Office is a software suite from PRIME Consulting dedicated to improving your Word and Excel productivity. The CD provides a set of tools for Word and Excel 97, 2000 and 2002. The features vary slightly based on which version of Word and Excel they complement. In addition, Office 2000 and 2002 users can install DocLauncher, a clever and handy file manager/application launcher. The setup program installs the version matching the Office version you're using. I tested the features of the Office 2000 editions.

DocLauncher is perhaps the most interesting and will save you the most time. Think of it as a replacement of the Most Recently Used files list, coupled with the ability to create lists of favorite files you want at your fingertips. Accessible from the System Tray or from within Word or Excel, DocLauncher can quickly add your current document (or any other file on your hard drive) to your list of favorites.

When launched from the System Tray, DocLauncher provides a list of recently used files (you set how many to see), a far cry from Word’s nine-file limit. The utility can also launch another Office application (PowerPoint, FrontPage, Outlook, Access, or Excel when you're working with Word, for example) or view information about a file (such as the date it was created and modified, its description, and document keywords). You can take action on a file: e-mail it as an attachment; rename it; perform backup or restore operations; open, open read-only, copy, delete or print a file; and you can compress it in ZIP format. DocLauncher can display the folder in which the selected document resides -- a time saver when you know related files are stored in the same folder but can't remember its name.

The tools in PRIME for Excel are a mixed bag. Some, such as creating a folder, are simply Excel features with a better interface. Nothing new, just better looking. Many features do things more quickly (such as deleting the currently opened file) or perform actions that you can't do in Excel without programming. Other features include clearing the history list (to maintain your privacy), viewing (but not changing) properties of objects on Excel's toolbars, menu bars, and pop-up menus, and changing the row height in small increments. There's a feature-rich icon editor so you can create (or change) toolbar buttons, a utility to manage range and cell names, and a complete toolbar to quickly change settings hidden within Excel's dialog boxes (such as flipping between A1 and R1C1 cell notation).

For Excel 2002 users, PRIME includes an address mapper (similar to the Word 2002 feature that displays a map for any U.S. address), a tool to change the background cell color (using brighter colors than on the standard Excel palette, with colors named to assist colorblind users), and a shortcut to permanently add files to the New Workbook Pane's "Open a workbook" or "New from template" list without having to delve into the Registry. The Excel Window Manager lets you open, split, or close windows in bunches, while Zoomer lets you control the preset zoom percentages.

Contained in the PRIME for Word utility is a shortcut for creating a booklet (it sets margins and adds a border around your pages), a bookmark manager, and a tool for finding the template upon which the current document is based. Like PRIME Utilities for Excel, the Word utility includes a Window Manager, the ability to clear the history list, and Quick Click buttons (shortcuts to show or hide fields, print a selection, and toggle picture placeholders, among others). For Word 2002 users, the address mapper takes less time than Word's built-in feature, plus it can work with your address book.

If you use the keyboard to navigate menus, you may wish to make some changes to the Word menus after installing PRIME for Word. For example, the sequence Alt+E, C that used to copy text is now also defined as PRIME Clear Undo List, an annoying shortcut choice made by the developers. As with any extra toolbars and macros, the utilities slightly delay the launch of Word or Excel.

How much time you save depends on how you use Office. In the well-organized user guide (which you can read at ftp://ftp.primeconsulting.com/htstwo.zip), the authors say that if you use each function just once a day, you'll save over 130 hours a year. That may be optimistic or it may even out in the end. There are some tools I simply will never use, and others I'll use more than once a day. I find DocLauncher much easier to manage than Favorites, and along with the tool for viewing the folder of the currently displayed document, I've saved dozens of mouse clicks. On the other hand, when memory got tight, PRIME Utilities started to misbehave and would occasionally freeze my Windows 98 system.

PRIME Utilities for Office costs $49.95. A complete list of features, plus screen shots, is waiting for you at http://www.primeconsulting.com/software/.

-- James E. Powell

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