Microsoft Office 2007: Wrap a Ribbon Around This Shiny New Office Suite A Significant Release with Somewhat Limited Appeal? Wayne Kawamoto
Can an improved Microsoft Office really increase productivity? Along with the release of Windows Vista, Microsoft has released its latest and greatest Microsoft Office 2007.
This new version adds incremental new features for high-end users, substantial interface changes, improved charting graphics, and long-needed PDF format conversions. It's a significant upgrade, but there's little here that will likely appeal to the legions of average users who mostly rely on Word and Excel to crank out documents, reports, and office correspondence.
This Office, with its new "ribbon" interface, looks different and requires that longtime users adapt to its new menus. While it's likely to infuriate and frustrate power users at first, those with an open mind or who simply have to make the change will quickly adapt to it.
New file formats can dampen one's plans to stay with an older Office version. The new formats not only add an "x" to each file name — "docx" for Word's "doc," "xlsx" for Excel's "xls" and more — the files hold more data and are less likely to be corrupted.
Of course, new file formats raise the liability of backwards compatibility. Those with older Office applications won't be able to open the newer files without a downloadable update for their release of Office. While the Office 2007 applications can save files in the older formats, they won't do this by default.
And speaking of file formats and long overdue, you can now convert documents into Portable Document Format file (PDF) format, as well as the XML Paper Specification (XPS) format, without relying on third-party tools.
Those who build PowerPoint presentations and create charts may like the new graphics that can build more professional-looking charts and diagrams that can take advantage of 3D effects, textures, drop shadows, highlights, and more. Finally, unlike Windows Vista, you won't need the latest and most powerful computer to run Office.
Let's take a closer look at what's new in the 2007 edition of Office, starting with the feature likely to get the most initial attention ... and potential criticism.
The attractive and intuitive "ribbon" interface, which replaces the traditional Office menus and toolbars, is immediately apparent. This interface was designed to help users quickly find commands by organizing them into logical groups that are accessed via tabs. Each tab, in turn, offers related commands.
As an example, in Word, you'll find tabs for "home," "insert," "page layout," "references," "mailing," "review" and "view," and under "home," commands related to clipboard, fonts, paragraphs, styles, and editing.
To reduce screen clutter, some tabs only appear when needed. For example, when you are working with an image, the "Picture Tools" tab almost magically appears. The downside to the new ribbon interface is that for those who don't care for the change, there is no way to replace the interface with the traditional toolbars and menus of earlier Office releases.
Long time power users will initially hate the new interface as their favorite commands will seemingly be nowhere to be found. Fortunately, for these users, the new Office applications still support familiar keyboard shortcuts. Overall, despite some getting used to, if you're willing to give it a chance, the ribbon interface makes for a great addition in Office 2007.
