New Microsoft Office XP Tools Bring XML Web Services To Knowledge Workers

REDMOND, Wash., Jan. 14, 2002 — As part of the ongoing Microsoft® .NET strategy, Microsoft Corp. today announced the availability of two new tools that will enable new user experiences by integrating the power and efficiency of XML Web services and the familiar computing environment of Office XP. Both the Office XP Web Services Toolkit and the Smart Tag Enterprise Resource Toolkit enable developers to deliver XML Web services data directly into Office XP, making it easy for users to access important information in the applications they use every day. These offerings further deliver on the Office XP goal of enabling strong business value for organizations, new solution opportunities for developers and exciting new user experiences for knowledge workers.

Office XP and XML Web Services: Key Steps in Microsoft’s .NET Vision

These new Office XP tools are important steps in realizing the Microsoft .NET vision because they enable developers to combine the best of XML Web services with the rich services of Office XP to deliver new, exciting user experiences.

“XML Web services are valuable to all types of users and will eventually pervade the computing environment in the home and the workplace. A key to enabling this is connecting XML Web services to the Office experience,”
said Steven Sinofsky, senior vice president of Office at Microsoft.
“These Office XP tools are yet another example of Microsoft equipping software developers with the tools they need to leverage today’s technology and create new opportunities for commerce and productivity gains.”

Companies such as Plural Inc., an information technology professional services firm, are excited about the potential of Office XP and XML Web services as they search for ways to leverage their existing software investments to increase their bottom line. Plural is creating a number of solutions that integrate corporate data with Office XP to provide end users with quicker access to key metrics and data.

“By integrating XML Web services with Office we will bring a new level of data access and analysis capabilities to our customers,”
said Charles Maxson, director of Microsoft technologies at Plural.
“Bringing the power of XML Web services directly to the user is a natural way to drive overall productivity gains and enable smarter, broader decision-making.”

Along with the release of the new Office XP tools, the .NET Best Awards, first announced at the Professional Developers Conference last October, will be extended to recognize the best integration of XML Web services with Office XP. Details can be found at http://www.gotdotnet.com/ .

New Microsoft Office XP Tools Enable Quick, Easy Development

The Office XP Web Services Toolkit enables developers to discover and integrate XML Web services into Office XP solutions directly from within the Visual Basic® for Applications editor. The toolkit will be available as a free* download from http://msdn.microsoft.com/office/ on Jan. 14 and will enable developers to do the following:

  • Quickly discover XML Web services using the standards-based UDDI (Universal Description, Discovery and Integration) service

  • Integrate XML Web services directly into Office XP solutions with a single click

The Smart Tag Enterprise Resource Toolkit provides a roadmap on how best to plan, architect, implement and deploy robust and scalable smart tags within the enterprise. The toolkit will be available as a free* download from http://msdn.microsoft.com/office/ on Jan. 14 and will include the following:

  • A robust sample, with complete source code, which illustrates how XML Web services can be used to structure and develop an enterprise smart tag solution

  • A set of whitepapers on planning, implementing and deploying enterprise smart tags, along with a set of tools that enable developers to more efficiently develop smart tag solutions

About Office XP

Office XP provides a much smarter work experience for individuals, teams and organizations. Office XP makes productivity simple for individuals by helping them get the most out of Office and giving them tools they can rely on. Office XP enables collaboration for everyone by revolutionizing the way people work with others on documents and introducing SharePoint™
Team Services to manage projects and activities via the Web. Office XP also provides a flexible way to solve business needs by delivering rich business solutions and improved security and reliability tools businesses need to deploy and manage Office.

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq
“MSFT”
) is the worldwide leader in software, services and Internet technologies for personal and business computing. The company offers a wide range of products and services designed to empower people through great software — any time, any place and on any device.

* Connect-time charges may apply.

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