Office 2007: A revolutionary revision

Gary Krakow Columnist • E-mail

The big day is at hand and all eyes are on Microsoft for tomorrow's launch of two eagerly-awaited new software titles — Windows Vista and Office 2007.

While both are big deals — and both are major accomplishments — one of the two is extra special. It's the one you're going to want to own today. The one that will noticeably change the way you work.

Vista, Microsoft's new operating system, builds upon Windows' strengths and is an evolutionary product. The user interface for Office 2007, however, is a ground-up reworking of Microsoft’s ubiquitous software suite that includes Outlook, Word, Excel and PowerPoint. It's something special. It's revolutionary.

(MSNBC is a Microsoft - NBC joint venture.)

Microsoft calls Office's key new design element the Ribbon, which is an easily accessible, feature-rich, set of tool bars that run across the top of every document.

This feature is terrific. The Ribbon lays out most of the software's formerly hidden features. No more wading through esoteric dialog boxes or a maze of pull-down menus. The overall look, feel and demeanor of Office 2007 applications has been transformed and improved.

Office 2007 At a Glance Office Home and Student: Includes full versions of Word 2007, Excel 2007, PowerPoint 2007 and OneNote 2007 (electronic notebook). Will retail for $149. Office Standard: Included Outlook 2007, Word 2007, Excel 2007 and PowerPoint 2007. $399 for full version; $239 for upgrade.  Office Small Business:  Includes Accounting Express 2007, Outlook 2007 with Business Contact Manager, Word 2007, Excel 2007, PowerPoint 2007 and Publisher 2007. $449 for full version; $279 for upgrade. Office Professional: Includes the same six programs as Office Small Business edition with the addition of Access 2007. $499 for full version; $329 for upgrade. Office Ultimate: Full office suite includes Access 2007, Accounting Express, 2007, Excel 2007, InfoPath 2007 (electronic forms), Groove 2007 (info sharing), OneNote 2007, Outlook 2007 with Business Contact Manager, PowerPoint 2007, Publisher 2007, and Word 2007. $679 for full version; $539 for upgrade. There are also three versions of Office 2007 that are only available through volume license purchases: Office Basic, Professional Plus and Enterprise. Check out the Office 2007 Web site for details of which programs are included in each version.  Each program — Access, Excel, Groove, InfoPath, OneNote, Outlook, PowerPoint, Project, Publisher, SharePoint, Visio and Word — also are available separately.

The drop-down file menu in Word, Excel and PowerPoint has been replaced by a large, round Office 2007 logo button in the upper left-hand corner of the screen. There you’ll find the most common commands as well as a list of the last open documents you’ve worked on. If there’s a command you usually use that isn’t easily accessible in the Windows button or any of the toolbar tabs you can add it to a new, user configurable Quick Access Toolbar.

I have had the chance to live with final versions of both Office and Vista for a few weeks now. I’ve been using them long enough that they have become second nature to me.  I no longer think to myself, “Wow — this is a great new feature.”  I just use it.  Even so, I marvel at how much easier Office 2007 has made my work.  (For the record, Office 2007 also works perfectly with Windows XP.)

For this job, I primarily use both Outlook and Word. The new global mail search feature is a welcomed addition. It helps me find important messages instantly without having to figure out where I stashed important information. That feature alone is worth the price of admission.

I also love the user-configurable toolbars at the top of every Word document. I was able to add shortcuts for some of the special MSNBC.com commands so that they now appear at the top of any document. Same for easily locating most of Word’s edit tools in the new tabulated system featured at the top of every page.

These toolbars save me a lot of time. Multiply that time saved for each little improvement and you’ll begin to see why I like this new Office suite.

Here are some of the highlights of Office 2007's big four titles:

Word

• The Office Button (upper left hand corner) replaces the File menu. It provides easy access to a set of tools for working with a document. In addition to commands for sending, saving and printing, the Office Button includes features for finalizing the work, adding protection, sharing it with others or participating in a workflow process. 
• The new Live Preview feature allows people to see changes before making them. 
• Blogging now provides enhanced picture support. If the blog provider supports adding pictures to your blog, you can now upload your images there.  (I didn't even know you could use Word to blog!)
• The Save As PDF or XPS format option gives you the ability to share your documents with people who may not have Word.
• Contextual Spelling Checker helps you avoid common mistakes and misuse of similarly spelled words. (Like where and wear, etc.)
• The Document Inspector feature helps you detect and remove unwanted comments, personally identifiable information, hidden text, or other information from documents so that private information stays that way.

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