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| | Microsoft Office 2007: What's NewMicrosoft Office 2007 SurveyNow that Microsoft Office 2007 has been available for over a year now, have you upgraded? Are you still happy with Microsoft Office 2003? Are you curious about what other companies and individuals have done? Take the survey--share your thoughts on Office 2007. Results will be made available here and to all e-zine subscribers. Microsoft Office 2007 Articles & ResourcesMake this a Favorite in Internet Explorer: press [Ctrl] + Z to add this page to your Favorites. Come back to find more Microsoft Office 2007 resources and highlights of new features!
A New LookAfter a series of lackluster Office upgrades, Microsoft Office 2007 is a significant update paired with a steep learning curve. The RibbonThe dramatic design changes will take some time to explore and adjust to. Instead of the multitude of cascading text menus and skinny taskbars found in earlier versions, Office 2007 puts most of the action on the ribbon. Found in the same location as the taskbars, the ribbon is packed with tools and commands that graphically display features that change as you click the menu-bar tabs. (Portion of the Excel 2007 ribbon shown below).
The Office 2007 ribbon includes a useful new feature called live preview which displays how choices such as a different font will look in a document before you actually apply the change. The intent of the remodeled interface is that it will be more logical to work in Office 2007. As there is no option to use the previous (or classic) menu and commands, you must learn the ribbon interface if you upgrade. When is the Right Time to Upgrade?Upgrading is costly. On top of the price of software, add new and upgraded hardware, training and support, plus the cost of lost productivity as Office users deal with new processes, different file formats, and other disruptions. It is also standard policy in many organizations to delay upgrades until at least the first release of bug fixes (also called Service Packs). Why change? I have delivered training, seminars, and coaching for a number of major roll-outs of updates to Microsoft Office (and other applications). My experience has been that unless there are specific compelling business reasons to upgrade such as new, must have features in Office 2007 , most updates are not motivated by user needs but, frankly, by IT issues such as changes in licensing agreements, refresh (update) cycles for laptops and desktops, or improved security features in a newer version of Windows. That's often why I hear Office users ask, "Why are we changing again when everything is working just fine?" In an ideal world, all users would be provided with advanced notice and a clear upgrade plan and logical strategies for updates to Office 2007. As many upgrades occur instead when new equipment is added, don't be surprised if you are running a different version of Microsoft Office than your co-worker down the hall. For a smooth transition when you do upgrade to Microsoft Office 2007, contact The Software Pro® for customized preview seminars, training, and coaching. Check back for other Office 2007 highlights! Other Resources from Microsoft
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