The University PC labs have been upgraded to Office XP.  This includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, FrontPage, Access, and Outlook Express.  If you have been using Office 2000, you should find the programs very similar including the toolbars and menus.  There has been no change in the file format for Word, Excel,  PowerPoint, or FrontPage so you are able to open, edit, and save existing documents.  The default format for Access is Access 2000, but you have the option to use the new file format (Tools > Database Utilities > Convert Database > To Access 2002 File Format).

The most noticeable change is the addition of the Task Pane to the right of your documents, spreadsheets, or presentations when you open the programs.   In Word, for example, the task pane looks like:

Another feature in Office XP is the addition of Smart Tags which allow you to quickly adjust information pasted from one application to another.  For example, after pasting text from FrontPage into Word the Smart Tag appears and you can quickly select the format of the pasted information by making a choice from the pulldown menu.  You will see Smart Tags with different options in Excel and Powerpoint.

For additional help with Office XP applications, select Help from the menu or from the Task Pane.