For everyday office work, I use the
Microsoft Office Pro package, a "suite"
of programs that includes Excel, Word,
Access, and Powerpoint. All of the
applications are "giants" in every
respect, but like giants everywhere, they
aren't very gentle to your computing
environment. For starters, the office
suite takes up more than 50 megabytes
of hard disk space, and the owner's
manuals occupy 8 inches on my shelf.
While the individual applications are
very powerful, they are at the same time
very difficult to master — something
like my Japanese hand planes. Even
with Microsoft's helpful on-screen
Wizards leading the way at each step,
working with Word or Excel can be a
daunting experience for the new computer
user.
On