I'm happy with my current version of Office. Why should I upgrade to Office 2000?
We answer that question in several ways on this site.

• What's New for You: Tell us which version of Office you currently use, and we'll give you a comprehensive list of what's new—or improved—for you in Office 2000.
• Feature Tours: If you'd like to do your own assessment, these detailed walkthroughs show you specific Office 2000 features in action.
• Business Solutions Demo: A variety of business situations demonstrate how Office 2000 can help teams respond quickly to real-world challenges.
• Which Suite is Right for You: If you do decide to upgrade and are wondering which Office suite best meets your particular needs, this brief interactive questionnaire can help. Based on your responses, we'll recommend the right Office suite: Premium, Professional, Standard, Small Business, or Developer.

Resources that will help you get comfortable with the product include improved Help; tips, tricks, and downloads on the Microsoft Office Update site; and learning materials on the Microsoft Press site.

How difficult is it to install Office 2000?
Office 2000 includes an intelligent wizard that steps you through the installation process and allows you to choose either a standard installation or the one that most closely mirrors your current installation. Either way, your previous personalized settings will be retained. If you choose to customize your installation, it's easy to pick and choose which features are installed. You can also opt to have features installed "on demand" without having to re-run the installation program.

Is Office 2000 compatible with my existing software and hardware? Can my computer run Office 2000?
Most computers that currently run Office 97 can run Office 2000, and if you're running Office 95 or Office 97 and are experiencing no compatibility problems, you should not encounter any when upgrading to Office 2000. Microsoft extensively tested this new version with a broad range of hardware and software to ensure that it operates well with other products. To determine the specific resources your computer needs to run Office 2000, see our system requirements page.

Will I have any problems sharing files with people running previous versions of Office?
All Office 2000 applications except for Microsoft Access 2000 use exactly the same file formats as Office 97, so you will have no problems sharing files when using those applications.

We changed the file format for Access 2000, the database tool in Office 2000, to bring it into compliance with Unicode and thus add support for new multilingual capabilities. Access 2000 includes file converters so you can freely exchange files with co-workers and colleagues using previous versions of Access.

For more information, read our Office 2000 and File Sharing in a Heterogeneous Office Environment White Paper. And note that because Office 2000 adopts HTML as a peer file format, you can share your documents as Web pages as well.

Is Office 2000 ready for the year 2000?
Office 2000 complies with all the standards specified in the Microsoft Year 2000 Compliance Statement. You can find that statement in our Microsoft Office 2000 and Year 2000 White Paper. Also, be sure to visit the Microsoft Year 2000 Readiness Disclosure & Resource Center for the latest updates on this issue.

How does Office 2000 address the needs of users with disabilities?
Office 2000 expands and improves upon the features that earlier versions of Office have provided for people with disabilities. Among these enhancements: more robust keyboard support, an improved high-contrast mode, and a new file view that allows users to view 50 percent more files in the Open box dialog while minimizing visual clutter. Plus, our development team has worked closely with third-party companies to develop Office 2000-compatible accessibility tools. For details, read our accessibility white paper.

In what languages will Office 2000 be available?
Office 2000 will be available in more than 35 languages, including:

Arabic Basque Brazilian Portuguese Bulgarian* Catalan Chinese-simple Chinese-traditional Croatian Czech Danish Dutch English Estonian*

Finnish French German Greek Hebrew Hungarian Italian Japanese Korean Latvian* Lithuanian* Norwegian Pan-Chinese

Polish Portuguese Romanian Russian Serbian* Slovakian Slovenian Spanish Swedish Thai Turkish Ukrainian*

*Office 2000 will be "enabled" in these languages: Users will be able to edit and view English-language software in local language script.

For detailed information on operating system dependencies that affect international language versions, and on configuring users' computers in an international environment, see the Office 2000 Resource Kit.

What's the quickest way to get a team up and running with the new collaboration features of Office 2000?
We recommend you visit the workgroup Web area of this site. There you can order or download the 60-Minute Intranet Kit, which will help you quickly set up an internal Web site where team members can collaborate on documents and projects. You'll also find links to information and resources for making the best use of your new site and the other team-related capabilities of Office 2000.

Where should I go for Office downloads?
The Office Update Web site is your one-stop resource for patches, downloads, add-ins, service releases, and updates.