Dec

4

Office 2007 - A Few Notes

December 4, 2006 |

The Ribbon in Office Word 2007
I have been using Microsoft’s Office 2007 beta version for a few months now. I might write a longer review at some point, but here are a few notes and observations after writing a number of lengthy documents in Word and creating a few short PowerPoint presentations:
  • the new ‘ribbon’ interface is pure brilliance. I didn’t believe it when I first heard about it, but after using it, it makes perfect sense
  • I love how the keyboard shortcuts are displayed over the menu (for example, press ‘Alt’ and the menu will pop up the next available options - say ‘Alt’ then ‘R’ then ‘C’ to add a comment) - great for increasing speed and helping my memory to remember these shortcuts
  • the new default fonts look very good - it’s going to take a while before teachers realize that ‘Cambria’ is the new ‘Times New Roman’ though
  • this version is going to make OpenOffice look completely outdated and slow down it’s adoption(not that that matters to a power user, but the general public is going to look at OpenOffice and consider it last year’s technology)
  • the add-ons I used before all still work (most importantly Endnote)
  • the instant word number display at the bottom is very much appreciated (especially how it updates with the number of selected words instantly)

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1 Comment so far

  1. Kaj Kandler on December 20, 2006 11:10 am

    Not sure if Office 2007 will slow down OpenOffice in its success. The compelling advantages are ODF, OpenSource, low cost and enough features for 90% of users.

    I’d rather have access to my documents in 20 - 30 years even if my software supplier goes belly up, than having the latest technology today with lots of features that I’m not using.

    Also, I’d like to have software that I can use as long as I want to use it. Not that the supplier does tell me it is out of support and cracks down on me when I install it on my new computer.

    The improvements in 2007 come at a very steep price and this price is too high for me.

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