Stephen Withers
Tuesday, 21 July 2009 08:04
Opinion and Analysis
Page 2 of 3
SP2 also fixes an issue that could stop the pointer from being hidden in Slide Show mode.
Snap to Grid is now off by default, presumably as a result of making dynamic guides easier to use across the suite.
Excel also sees substantial changes. Improved calculation speed - up to 24 percent, according to Microsoft - will be at the top of many user's lists, though eliminating various situations where the program would crash will also be welcomed.
Microsoft has also addressed a range of minor niggles, such as out of memory conditions when using the fill handle on a large selection or when using the PivotTable wizard, linked cells between workbooks not updating correctly, and filtered data not copying correctly to PowerPoint.
Several Excel fixes involve other versions or programs. Examples include the loss of text links in shapes when a spreadsheet is opened in Excel 2004 or earlier, the loss of page setup settings on opening a spreadsheet last saved under Windows, the non-display of WordArt in Excel 2004 documents, and changes to column widths when an Excel 2008 spreadsheet is opened in Excel 2003.
Word gets a speed boost for startup and scrolling. Microsoft claims outline view scrolling is now up to ten times faster, and there are also fixes for display glitches that previously occurred when scrolling through documents containing bullets or numbering.
A problem for those using audio notes is that prior to SP2, audio was not included in AutoRecover files, so recordings could be lost if Word crashed. That's now been put right, so the audio should be waiting for you once the program is relaunched. That's one less thing to worry about while attending a lecture or other presentation.
Talking of crashes, mailmerging records that contain pictures should now work without crashing.
Page 3 has more Word changes, plus news of Entourage.
