Microsoft Office 2007
A Software Review
by Sharon Rump
Member of the Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc.
As with previous versions of Microsoft Office, the current offering comes in many different "flavors" and there are so many choices that you can find the one that just fits your needs and pocketbook.
The most basic version is Home & Student suite and contains Word 2007, Excel 2007, PowerPoint 2007 and Office OneNote 2007. The first three programs are the core basics of the Office Suite and have been upgraded to include some fantastic new features. OneNote is a more recent addition and is a digital notebook where you can collect and organize all sorts of data and information. Retail Price - $149 (no upgrade price)
The Office Standard Suite includes all of the above and also includes Outlook 2007 for email. This version does not include OneNote. Retail Price - $399/Upgrade - $239.
Microsoft Office Small Business 2007 includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook 2007 with Business Contact Manager, Accounting Express 2007 and Publisher 2007. Retail Price - $449/Upgrade - $279
Microsoft Office Professional 2007 includes everything in the Small Business Suite plus Access 2007. Retail Price - $499/Upgrade - $329
Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007 includes everything in Professional plus InfoPath 2007, Groove 2007 and OneNote 2007. Retail - $679/Upgrade - $539
The first major decision one needs to make is to determine which of the above versions is packed full of all of the features that you need to accomplish all that you want to. Since I was fortunate to have the Ultimate 2007 version, I can put all of the new programs through their paces and have everything at my fingertips which will either make my life easier or more frustrated trying to figure out how to do everything.
This review will cover several programs that are included in the Office Ultimate 2007 Suite and will be continued next month.
The most useful and popular program in the Office suite has always been Word and that is where I will begin. I use Word on a daily basis to do all of my word-processing and have been delighted with all of the new features that have been added over the years. This year there is a total remake of the user interface which spills over into other programs as well.
When I began the installation, I was given two choices. An Upgrade option would allow me to upgrade the current installations of any of the programs that were currently installed on my system. A full installation allowed me several options which included removing previously installed versions of individual Office programs or removing all previous Office installed programs which is always the best option to insure that you don't carry forward any problems. One message that I did receive related that there could only be one copy of Outlook on a system and that the old version would have to be removed in order to install the new version. To use the programs after installation a validation must be performed to insure that the program was a legal installation. The new "ribbon" feature of Word (see screen shot) took me a while to get used to but is a fantastic addition. The look and feel of the tools that are available is totally redone and Microsoft feels this is a step in the right direction to make the program easier and more efficient to use. All of the tools change to reflect what you are trying to do. They are grouped in a more "user friendly" method, each tab a collection of tasks that can be chosen to make your text look exactly like you want it. There is a real time preview which lets you visually see what the changes will look like before you actually activate the change. This is an incredible new feature that allows you to be more creative and have a more professional looking finished document. Microsoft has included a new concept that it calls building blocks which are simply predesigned and preformatted elements that you can insert into your document without having to think too much about how to create something that is a little more than just plain vanilla text.
As you insert different content into your document, the ribbon changes to reflect the tools available for each element. I was quite impressed with the tools available for inserting pictures. While working with my document to spruce it up, I found that there were some options that I had read about that weren't available. Upon further research, I found that I was working in a compatibility mode which would allow my program to work as if I were using Office 2003 and preserve the original .doc file extension that would make my file usable by others who were not fortunate enough to have the new version. What I did find out was that there were many features of the new program that would be unavailable in this mode. When I switched to the updated file format (see screen shot), all of the features that I had read about were available (and believe me, there are many) and I was able to create a document that popped off of the page with images that were styled so easily I couldn't believe it. It almost makes the need for an image editing program unnecessary for anything that you insert within Word 2007. Again, the live preview allowed me to see all of the changes that I was making so that I could change my mind on the spot if I didn't like the change. When I finished the document I was able to save it in the original file format that I had begun with and I did not loose the formatting that I had put in. Awesome!
Another feature that I found useful was the "smart art" tool which allowed me to insert diagrams into the document and have them formatted with colors and fonts of your choosing. This feature makes child play of something that would have taken many steps to create in earlier versions. You can insert diagrams of lists of information, process through various stages, cycles, hierarchical relationships or pyramids to add a bit of pizzazz. The live preview allows you to see how the information will be presented and you can change it as you want without having to start over again. It is so easy to add another element to a list or diagram and everything will be readjusted to the correct relationship.
One very strong element of Word 2007 is the themes that are included. There are vast selections of colors which are coordinated for you, fonts and formatting that are all preset options you can try on for size and change with the click of the mouse.
Word 2007 includes tools for sharing your documents which previously required an additional program. You can create PDF documents that anyone can read from directly within the program. There is a plug-ins that offers this feature as well as the ability to convert the document to XML format. This is one of the formats that is popular for web and sharing across platforms. While this feature is one that is something that I will probably not use at this time, as I become more proficient with using Word 2007 and publishing on the internet, it might become a very useful element to have at my fingertips.
One of the new features on the internet is blogging. Word 2007 has the ability to create blogs directly within the program and be configured to automatically post the document that you create including all of the rich formatting that you have created using the new tools available. When I become proficient in this area I would imagine that this will make the entire process so simple even a beginner could accomplish it with ease.
There are many features for sharing documents across a network that I have not explored. These are features that are more useful in a work environment. Reading all of the capabilities that are included enforces my thoughts that Office 2007 includes features that make it an attractive suite for the beginner as well as the professional and every level in between.
I was very impressed in all of the help that is available on the Internet to make learning the various components in Office 2007 much easier. There are tutorials using videos as well as written text. I found it very helpful that you can download a small file that will put an extra item on the ribbon to go directly to the Internet to the area where training videos and demonstrations are posted for Word 2007. Microsoft is really making it easy to learn all of the neat new features that they have included. One small thing that has been added that is a wonderful change is the feature that lists the amount of words in the document that you are creating on the bottom of the screen. This way I know that I am over 1500 words and it is time to end this review. Next month I will continue with all the new features found in Excel 2007.
Copyright 2007. This article is from the May 2007 issue of the Sarasota PC Monitor, the official monthly publication of the Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc., P.O. Box 15889, Sarasota, FL 34277-1889. Permission to reprint is granted only to other non-profit computer user groups, provided proper credit is given to the author and our publication. We would appreciate receiving a copy of the publication the reprint appears in, please send to above address, Attn: Editor. For further information about our group, email: admin@spcug.org/ Web: http://www.spcug.org/
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See http://www.spcug.org for all reviews from the Sarasota PC Monitor, go to the Newsletter Section.