Microsoft Office 2007

Very Impressed

Monday, February 25, 2008 by Leo the Lion | Discussion: WinCustomize Talk

I have just purchased Microsoft Office 2007 Enterprise version and wow!.....am I impressed.

I got one heck of a deal on Ebay and paid just over 200 bucks for a full legit Enterprise version.......when it retails between 500 and 700 bucks in the stores.

I've had Office XP since it came out and I missed out on the 2003 update so when I went for 2007 it felt as though it was going to be a 'bit of a leap' and a fast learning curve but after about a week of finding my way around and some help from some of the tutorials on the Microsoft Office website I feel like I've transitioned pretty well.

I love the soft blue interface which is so much easier on the eyes.

The 'ribbon' effect makes it easy to find what you're after and 'fast preview' is a godsend.

It seems like I am able to accomplish 'a lot more, a lot quicker' which has got to be good when it comes to productivity.

There's plenty still to learn as 'Groove and One Note' are still new to me but I am especially impressed with Outlook with the new Outlook Connector.

I don't know what others thoughts are but when you see so much 'knocking' of Microsoft going around I'd just like 'well done' guys on a very polished product.

20 Reply 6 Referrals
DonDodds
Reply #1 Monday, February 25, 2008 1:55 AM
I use Word XP for (sigh) print layout*. Is Office '07 any better in handling frames/text boxes and art? Does it have native .pdf support or do you still have to run it through Distiller?


* - I know, I know. As I told a coder buddy of mine: "it's like using Dreamweaver to make MySpace pages."

Leo the Lion
Reply #2 Monday, February 25, 2008 2:00 AM
Is Office '07 any better in handling frames/text boxes and art?


Yep, it certainly seems to be. Give the free 60 day trial from Microsoft a run. I think you'll be impressed too.   

DonDodds
Reply #3 Monday, February 25, 2008 2:06 AM
Woo, excellent idea. Thanks.

Leo the Lion
Reply #4 Monday, February 25, 2008 2:15 AM
Good Luck, Don. Microsoft are offering ALL the versions for a 60 day trial here WWW Link

So pick the one that suites your needs and use it for 60 days for free. Then, if you like it shop around and hopefully you'll find a bargain, like I did.   

And the answer to your PDF question is YES......see these two add-ins:-

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=4D951911-3E7E-4AE6-B059-A2E79ED87041&displaylang=en

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=F1FC413C-6D89-4F15-991B-63B07BA5F2E5&displaylang=en

DonDodds
Reply #5 Monday, February 25, 2008 2:28 AM
Yes! That's great news. Thank you very much for your sleuthing on my behalf.

DonDodds
Reply #6 Monday, February 25, 2008 4:34 AM
Okay, I installed the "Home and Student" package, since I don't need much more than Word.

This is the most surprisingly well-done software package I have ever used, full stop. I've actually uninstalled Office XP already. I ain't rich, but even I can scrape up $150 in the next couple months. That native .pdf converter works better than Acrobat Distiller. The test pages I ran through came out clean, small, and clear.

The interface is a major step forward. Sure, it looks a little cutesy, but I found everything I could think of right off the bat. The combination of office button and ribbon is a marvel of software human engineering, and it doesn't even seem to impinge on the work area, even though I know it's larger than the old bars.

Say what you like about bloatware, but this isn't. It boots, loads, saves, and prints faster than Office XP. The "publish as .pdf" plug-in attached itself quickly.

Excellent work, Microsoft.

Inge18
Reply #7 Monday, February 25, 2008 6:25 AM
Oooh, until I read this thread I thought I was the only one adoring Office 2007. Thanks guys! The ribbon is so much easier to use than the old menu stuff.

And you should definitely check out OneNote. You can put everything that looks like a note in it. Websites, snippets, thoughts, plans, mind maps, to-dos ... every sort of information you don't know where to put: put it in OneNote.

Leo the Lion
Reply #8 Tuesday, February 26, 2008 3:10 AM
Thanks, Inge. I gave OneNote a whirl today. I tried to organize myself and all the tasks that I had to do today and found it great. There are times when you are at your PC and some great idea comes into your head and you need to scribble it down before you forget it and then suddenly imagination gets on a roll and you just add to it. This is where OneNote comes in and it's just like one big 'sticky' which you can play with. I like it and kudos to Microsoft for putting it in. Now back to more exploration of Office to see what else it can help me achieve   

DonDodds
Reply #9 Tuesday, February 26, 2008 3:54 AM
Check this out: I'm working on a very graphics-heavy document. I was struggling in Office XP, fighting the interface more than I was producing material. As a test of Office 2007, I went ahead and compiled the same product - and had it put together, edited, bookmarked, and published as a .pdf in about 30 minutes for 50 pages.

Damn.

c242
Reply #10 Tuesday, February 26, 2008 4:39 AM
I love Office 2007, too. Think it is the best they have ever done.

As a losely related side-note there seem to be plans to integrate the ribbon concept into new Windows versions also.

Jouketje
Reply #11 Tuesday, February 26, 2008 5:18 AM
I love office 2007, i wish that interface came to visual studio. Imagine..

Leo the Lion
Reply #12 Tuesday, February 26, 2008 7:22 AM
I love Office 2007, too. Think it is the best they have ever done.As a losely related side-note there seem to be plans to integrate the ribbon concept into new Windows versions also.


Yep, there have been rumours around that it is going to play a part in the new Internet Explorer 8. It seems that the new interface has been kept well under wraps but it may make an appearance in a couple of weeks   

DonDodds
Reply #13 Tuesday, February 26, 2008 7:23 AM
No kidding. When I was showing how it worked to my roommate, she asked a simple question: "Okay, what if you want the text centered?" I hadn't used centering on Word '07, so I had to hunt for it. Took me all of two seconds to find without cheating by right-clicking. The other thing that got me was the smart formating. Click on a word and hit the formatting you want, and it'll apply it to the whole word. No more laboriously highlighting everything!

Daiwa
Reply #14 Tuesday, February 26, 2008 8:13 PM
Thread caught my eye - how does O2k7 handle O2k Word & Excel files? Seems I'd run across a post somewhere indicating there were some conversion/import issues.

dan.wright
Reply #15 Tuesday, February 26, 2008 9:04 PM
Just gotta say I agree, lovin' the new Office version. Takes but a few minutes to get used to the ribbon and once you do, you just love it.

Leo the Lion
Reply #16 Tuesday, February 26, 2008 9:51 PM
Thread caught my eye - how does O2k7 handle O2k Word & Excel files? Seems I'd run across a post somewhere indicating there were some conversion/import issues.


Not sure what you mean by O2k7 and 02k  But if you are talking about compatiabilty between versions there are add-ins here:-

WWW Link

WWW Link

  

ama02
Reply #17 Tuesday, February 26, 2008 11:36 PM
I only had MS Word 2003, then I started using Office 2007 when they had the public beta. I liked it so much that I bought the Small Business Suite when they released it, mainly to get both Word and Publisher. I haven't used the other apps, other than Word and Publisher, but I'm very happy with them. I am using Publisher more often these days.   

DonDodds
Reply #18 Wednesday, February 27, 2008 12:38 AM
Thread caught my eye - how does O2k7 handle O2k Word & Excel files? Seems I'd run across a post somewhere indicating there were some conversion/import issues.


Yes, sometimes graphics get shauffled around and have to be manually re-laid out. However, Office 2007 natively seems to handle art better anyway, so it shoudl only take a minute or two. It can also load and save in all previous formats, but you'll have to be careful when combining this ability with the new features. Some translate back to Office 2003 and XP, but many do not.

Daiwa
Reply #19 Wednesday, February 27, 2008 10:16 PM
Thanks very much, Don. I'm not concerned about needing to translate backwards, just would want to be sure that my existing Word2k documents can be opened by Word2k7 & saved in Word2k7 format without much reformatting effort. No images, just columns, tables & shading. Problem is, I have a few thousand that I work with regularly & having to reformat each one as I work with it could be an issue. I may give the trial a spin to see.

DonDodds
Reply #20 Thursday, February 28, 2008 9:11 AM
That's the best solution. Office 2007 will install alongside your current programs (except for Outlook, which I'm given to understand hasn't seen much upgrade anyway) so you can give it a spin. Note that, if you're pressed for time, you can load, edit, print, and save as any previous version of Office, so you don't have to reformat/lay out.

With a bit of experimentation, it appears that the big difference I've seen is in how page breaks and large text boxes are handled.

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