The revenue figures look funny, subpoenas are flying, and the mug shots of top executives who sold billions in company stock stare out from the cover of the latest Fortune magazine like criminals in a lineup. It's a dark time for corporate America, but Microsoft Corp. thinks it has an answer -- one that can shed a bright light on all the numbers. And, of course, position the company's Office software package at the center of a new universe Microsoft is working hard to build. That universe is called Web services -- a new standardized formatting system that enables any software to exchange data with other programs. The door through which Microsoft hopes all this new-found data will flow to us, as end users, is Office and its Excel spreadsheet program.
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