Microsoft Internet Assistant is a free add-on that makes Word for Windows the easiest, most powerful tool for creating exploring, and sharing information on the World Wide Web, a global network of servers on the Internet.
Microsoft Word Viewer is a free application that enables users who do not use Microsoft Word for Windows to easily view and print Word documents.
Internet Assistant for Microsoft Word and Microsoft Viewer will be posted under the "free stuff" heading of the Microsoft Word Home Page of the World Wide Web. Microsoft's Home Page can be accessed at the URL http://www.microsoft.com/msword by anyone who is connected to the Internet. Microsoft Network members can also find these products on the Microsoft Word Forum on MSN. They will also be available on floppy disk directly from Microsoft at (800) 426-9400 ($5.50 shipping and handling charge will be applied). Internet Assistant will be available first for North American versions of Word. It will be fully tested for all other English versions of Word and then will be adjusted to work with French and German versions of Word.
Microsoft Word Viewer allows users to share their documents with people who might not use Microsoft Word. If someone creates a document in Word format with hyperlinks and posts it on the Web, another person who does not own Word can download Word Viewer for free and then use it in conjunction with an Internet browsing tool (like Netscape or Microsoft Internet Explorer) to view that document. One can create documents in Word format with Internet Assistant that have rich formatting (like text that wraps around graphics and multiple columns) that surpasses the level of formatting possible with HTML authoring.
Anyone who knows Word automatically knows how to write documents for the Internet because Word now automatically generates hypertext markup language (HTML), the standard file format of World Wide Web documents. Users no longer need to learn the HTML format or spend time manually inputting HTML tags to create documents for the World Wide Web. Word does it for them. Internet Assistant also makes creating hyperlinks between documents easy as cutting and pasting across documents.
Users can embed OLE objects (like spreadsheets, tables, presentations, etc.) within a Word document just as always. Users can then create hyperlinks to these richly-formatted compound documents and thus overcome the limitations of the HTML format.
You need Microsoft Word for Windows version 6.0a or c. Also, you need to have appropriate hardware, physical connectivity to the Internet, and a service provider to provide Internet access. Check with a local reseller regarding appropriate hardware and an Internet service provider in your area for more details. Click here for information on Internet Assistant for Word for Windows 95
Yes. Once you have an Internet connection, it's easy to connect to and browse the Internet because you can do it right from Word's familiar interface, eliminating the need to use different authoring and browsing tools. Users also have access to the most popular Internet services because Microsoft Internet Assistant comes with built in support for the key Internet protocols (HTTP, FTP, Gopher).
Microsoft Network will be allowing users to interact with many of the features on the Internet. Our tools are targeted at the customer who wishes to produce and publish materials for Web Servers. As Microsoft Network customers will, over time, be able to view Web information, the natural connection is, again, allowing the customers to use tools they own and tools they know.
We are currently working on Internet Assistant for Word 6.01 for the Macintosh and Power Macintosh. We hope to have something available for our Macintosh users by the end of 1995.
As millions of people have begun to discover on-line publishing, our users wanted us to bring the ease of use and power of Word to the Internet. Internet Assistant allows Word users to tap into and benefit from the exploding world of on-line publishing by putting unlimited resources within reach and by allowing people to easily make their documents available to broad audiences. The Word Viewer is an effort to increase the size of the audience for Word documents and to introduce the power of Word to those computer users who have not yet experienced the world's best selling word processor. Together, Internet Assistant and the Word Viewer make Microsoft Word the easiest, most powerful tool for creating exploring, and sharing information on the fast-growing Internet.
Web viewing support requires an existing Internet connection, including TCP/IP support and a WINSOCK.DLL. Internet connectivity can be obtained separately from an Internet service provider.