Microsoft Office 2007 Professional Review

A few months ago we saw a preview of Office 2007 during a Tech conference at work and I volunteered to pilot it before they released it company wide.  I absolutely love it!  The only reason I can't give it 5 stars is because of the three reasons I listed below.  I believe everyone knows what Excel, Word, and Powerpoint are, so I'm just going to list some of my favorite new features instead of tell you all about it.

On the Downside:

1. I know some people who aren't very computer savvy are going to have a hard time adjusting
2. There is a slower load time with all the programs now.  Sometimes it's real quick, sometimes it's real slow
3. Not everything translates to 2003, even if you save it as a 2003 file.  I had a pretty colored excel sheet, sent it to my boss and she only saw the text, no borders and no colors.  I found that I have to seek out which colors are compatiable with Office 2003 and only use those.  I'm just hoping the world moves to 2007 so that all these new features will be even more useful.

Improvements in All the programs

• Ribbons: Toolbars and Menus have been replaced with Tabs and Ribbons.  I like this.  You can see a lot of options on each ribbon and it's very conveinent.  It takes some getting used to, but I prefer it over the toolbars we used to have.  Options are more visible now, so I find myself doing things I never tried before.
• Live Preview: There are many styles and visuals in all the programs such as colors in excel, slide designs in powerpoint or fonts in word.  You can mouseover any of these to preview it on your document without actually applying any changes. 
• Online Guide: The online interactive guide is neat.  They show you Office 2003, you click on a function you used to do in 2003, and then the guide will show you how to do it in 2007.  It's very helpful since they changed all the menus and a lot of the terms around in Office 2007.
• Recent Documents: Instead of showing just 4 or 5 recent docs, there is room for around 16!  I love this.  I go through a lot of files throughout the day so it's nice to see this many recent docs.  Also, you can "pin" a doc so they will always stay in the recent docs list.  Very cool.
• Default Font: I always hated Times New Roman, which used to be the default font for Office.  I'm not sure what the actual name of the font is now, but it's much prettier than Times New Roman.  Now I never have to change the font like I used to do for every document before.

Improvements in Excel 2007

• Sort/Filter by Color: I often highlight cells as I am reviewing documents and always thought it would be nice if I could sort by color later on.  Now I can!  Filter by any color in the column, or sort the same way.  There are also various more sorting and filtering options.
• Color/Image Coding: You can auto color code a range of cells just by highlighting the cells and choosing what you want.  For example, highlight a range of numbers and choose the Arrow Image.  Now all the highest numbers will have a green arrow pointing up, the lowest will have a red arrow pointing down, and the middle numbers have a orange arrow pointing sideways.  There are various color codings and image sets already set up for this, and you can also create your own.
• Tables: You can turn any range of data into a table by highlighting it and hitting "insert table".  Now it's much easier to color every/other row, make a special header, and add a Totals row.

Improvements in Word 2007

• Word Count: In Word 2003, I had to find this in a menu everytime, then it popped up in a window which I had to close.  After making changes, I had to repeat. Now I got what I always wanted!!  They show the dynamic word count in the status bar.  It updates as I type. I love it!
• Full Screen Reading: Click this shortcut to clear the screen and just see your document in a book like format.  Read your work without being distracted by toolbars and instant messages!!
• Margins: It is so easy to change margins.  Word defults to really large margins, now I can easily select "narrow margins" or other options with a click of a button.  It's easier than typing in the margins for each side.

In The End
You decide!  If any of these improvements sound beneficial to you, you should look into upgrading.  If these don't seem like features you really need or use, then stick with 2003 as long as you can.  Since I use excel everyday at work, these features have definitely made my life easier.  There are many I haven't mentioned because I am still discovering them myself!  Check it out and Enjoy!!