Announcing PRIME for Word 97

by TNPC Staff

We have just released a new version of PRIME 97 for Word. Version 1.1 includes three major new utilities and numerous enhancements (free to all registered users). Not to mention it folds into a giant flying robot! :-) If you're currently running a shareware evaluation copy of PRIME 97 for Word version 1.0, just select Help / About PRIME 97, click the Update tab, then click the Auto Check for a Software Update! button. This will automatically download the new version.

The three new utilities are:

  • PRIME WorkBar
  • PRIME Bookmark Popup
  • PRIME Command Bar Manager

We covered Bookmark Popup in TNPC #1.14 and we'll review Command Bar Manager in a future issue. The new flagship utility we'll talk about here is WorkBar.

First, some history. Word includes an obscure but intriguing built-in feature called the Work menu (which we discussed at length in our Office 97 Annoyances book). It's an extra menu on your main menu bar entitled "Work" (located to the right of Help) that initially has but one entry, "Add to Work." After you click "Add to Work" for the current document, it gets added as a menu command, the caption for which is its fully qualified path and filename. As you add new documents, they're simply tacked on to the bottom of the list, and there's no way to dynamically reorganize them or safely remove them. We love the idea of the Work menu, but have never been impressed with its limited features. So we wrote a better one. Heh heh heh.

Adding a favorite file to PRIME WorkBar is as easy as clicking the new Add to WorkBar command hanging right off your main menu bar. PRIME WorkBar gives you an Organize dialog for arranging the order of your files, removing them from the list, or browsing with a common File Open dialog for files to add other than the current document. Even better, WorkBar allows you to automatically sort favorite files alphabetically as you add them (or not, at your preference).

PRIME WorkBar can be displayed as a menu or a toolbar, and supports the following file actions (either by Ctrl+clicking on a favorite file or using the Organize dialog's Actions button):

  • Open
  • Open as Read-Only
  • Print
  • Quick View
  • Explore File
  • Explore Folder
  • Create Shortcut

PRIME WorkBar supports a wide variety of file formats, and will launch a file's parent application for you automatically. So you're not limited to only Word documents on your Word WorkBar. For example, your Word WorkBar could include a 1999Party.xls Excel workbook entry. The file types supported are: Access, Binder, Excel, PowerPoint, Word, and shortcuts. You can personalize WorkBar to show just filenames (no paths) or fully qualified filenames (with paths). There's much more to WorkBar than we have space to cover here. Once you've tried it, we guarantee you'll never be able to imagine using Word without it. WorkBar is *the* most revolutionary and productivity-enhancing Word utility on the planet!

Special thanks and kudos to Ralph Montgomery, our Most Valuable Beta Tester during the testing cycle on version 1.1 of PRIME 97 for Word. Ralph will be receiving a free autographed copy of the Office Annoyances series book of his choice. Congratulations, Ralph, great job!