Microsoft Office 2007 Professional Review

I have been a loyal Microsoft Office user since the introduction of Office 95.  Before boarded the MS Office train, I used Word Perfect for DOS; it was simple to use and understand.  But when the wholesale move to the Windows GUI took place in the mid-nineties, Word Perfect didn't translate well; the Windows version was slow, clunky, overly busy and prone to frequent crashes.  So I stopped using it and made the switch to Word then part of the Office 95 suite of applications.  I have bee a MS Office user since and I used Office 2003 Professional before making the move to Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2007, which I have been Beta testing for about a year now.    

I can report that this new MS Office version is quite a sea-change from the current version.  While Office 2003 was just a minor face life of Office 2000, with a few teaks under the hood, Office 2007 is a major overhaul of Microsoft's signature suite of office applications.  I am fortunate enough to be able to Beta test the new version of Office on two separate computers for the last four of so months, and what I have seen and experienced is a radical departure in the way Microsoft approaches office applications.  But first the hardware:      

The Office 2007 Suite of Applications

Microsoft offers an unprecedented eight different versions of Office 2007 allegedly designed to fit the way a business or individual user intends to use the applications  In all Microsoft has announced an astounding 34 (13 of which are new) Office suites, programs, servers, services and tools that will form part of its 2007 Microsoft Office family of products.  The suites are detailed below:

• Office Basic 2007: available only through OEM; price not available;
• Office Home and Student 2007 (New): Full Package Cost $149.00;
• Office Standard 2007: Includes Excel 2007, PowerPoint 2007, Word 2007, and Outlook 2007; Full Package Cost $399.00; Suggested upgrade price $239.00;
• Office Small Business 2007: Includes Accounting Express 2007, PowerPoint 2007, Excel 2007, Publisher 2007, Outlook 2007 w/ Business Contact Manager, Word 2007; Full Package Cost $449.00; Suggested upgrade price $279.00;
• Office Professional 2007; Includes Access 2007, Accounting Express 2007, PowerPoint 2007, Excel 2007, Publisher 2007, Outlook 2007 w/ Business Contact Manager, Word 2007Full Package Cost $499.00; Suggested upgrade price $329.00;
• Office Professional Plus 2007: Includes Access 2007, OneNote 2007, PowerPoint 2007, Excel 2007, Grove 2007, Publisher 2007, Outlook 2007, Word 2007, Communicator 2007, InfoPath 2007; Available only through volume licensing; price not available;
• Office Enterprise 2007; Includes Access 2007, PowerPoint 2007, Excel 2007, Publisher 2007, Outlook 2007, Word 2007, Communicator 2007, InfoPath 2007; Full Package Cost $399.00; Suggested upgrade price $259.00.
• Office Ultimate 2007; Includes Access 2007, Accounting Express 2007, PowerPoint 2007, Excel 2007, Publisher 2007, Outlook 2007 w/ Business Contact Manager, Word 2007, Communicator 2007, InfoPath 2007; Full Package Cost $679.00; Suggested upgrade price $539.00.

Office Professional Plus 2007 (Microsoft Recommended) System Requirements:

• 500MHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor or higher
• 256MB of system memory.
• Support for DirectX 9 graphics with a WDDM driver, 128 MB of graphics memory (minimum), Pixel Shader 2.0 and 32 bits per pixel.
• Hard Disk: 1.5 - 3.0GB of hard drive capacity.
• Drive: CD-ROM or DVD-ROM Drive.
• Display: 1024x768 or higher resolution monitor
• OS: MS Windows Vista, MS Windows XP w/ SP2, Windows 2003 w/SP1
• Audio output capability.
• Internet access capability.

My Viewpoint

The first thing I noticed upon opening Word was the new Windows Vista inspired work space.  The look is smother and more subtle than the suite that proceeded it.  Gone are the now familiar toolbars and menus; these have been replace in all applications-Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, Publisher, Groove, and Outlook-with ribbons which host a number of function buttons, icons and graphics.  The ribbons are designed to put commonly used functions at the user's fingertips, without having to delve into embedded menus.  As such the Ribbon bars are placed on the screen in groups underlying their functions.  For instance the Ribbon Bar labeled "Font" contains all of the commonly utilized font functions; i.e. the bar contains not only the familiar bold, italics, and underline buttons, but the font chooser pull down menu and a number of other "Font" related functions.

Now whether you like these changes or not is in large part influenced by how you use the various application/components of MS Office, how familiar you are with the old interface, and how open to change you are.  Learning the new interface will entail some lost productivity time spent searching for those functions that were part of the old toolbar system, but have (almost) completely changed under the new Ribbon Bar motif.  

Some will no doubt love it and some will hate it!  My wife for instance hated Office 2007 so much that I finally removed from her computer and re-installed Office 2003; she is much happier.  I on the other hand have gotten used to the new interface, because I use it constantly, both at home and at work.  So I have developed a level of comfort she does not enjoy.

The Ribbon Bar concept took a little getting used to, but I was able to master the design after a couple of hours of clicking and observing.  The Ribbon Bars do take up more desktop real estate than the menu bars of old, but the functionality is more logical.

It should come as no surprise that the application with the most change overall is Word, followed closely by Outlook, which features seamless integration with the new version of Microsoft Exchange, Exchange 2007.  

A significant portion of Word's main Ribbon Bar is devoted to styles, the principle characteristics of which are highlighted in preview icons. These are designed to give the user a "what you see is what you get" (WSWIG) feel, making the application of said styles more seamless and intuitive.  Select some or all the text in a document and hover over a style icon and Word immediately applies the style in a "preview" mode-this is a huge improvement over Word 2003 wherein applying styles was less than intuitive or easy.  In this preview mode the selected text adopts the style characteristics of whatever style icon you hover above, but the style isn't applied until you click on the style icon. Moving the mouse cursor off the icon without clicking will return the text to its original state.

While Microsoft has made it easier to apply styles, the same functionality does not hold true for all of the Ribbon Bars; while the (very useful) preview mode is also available with other icons such as font and font size, it is not available for the paragraph-control icons.  These include bulleted lists, text alignment, and margins.  I am happy to report that TrueType Fonts are shown as they actually will appear on the page in their associated pull-down menu. 

New File Format

Extended Markup Language (XML) is fast becoming the standard in which all files are manipulated, transported, and saved across a broad spectrum of applications.  Microsoft integrated support for XML into Office 2000, and Office 2003, but the file extensions on it signature applications-Word, Excel, and PowerPoint-remained the familiar (.doc, .dot, .xls, and .ppt).  That will change in Office 2007, where according to Microsoft, Office Excel 2007, Office Word 2007, and Office PowerPoint 2007 will all adopt the XML-based format.  "The new file format, called Office Open XML Formats, addresses these workplace issues with changes that affect the way that you approach solutions based on Microsoft Office documents."

Interoperability with older versions of Office (Office 97, Office XP, Office 2000/2003) can be maintained by installing the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 file formats available for download at the Microsoft download website.

Other new file specific features include the ability (finally) to save a document in PDF format as well as Microsoft's propriety XPS format (Microsoft version of Adobe's PDF).  Word uses a new default font called Calibri, shunning the stalwart Arial.  According to Microsoft Calibri is a highly readable font, whereas users have had problem with Arial.

The File menu is gone; now you have to somehow guess that the big icon in the upper left corner is its replacement. One feature we're happy to see: The "most recently used" list is no longer limited to the last nine files. Likewise, Track Changes now won't flag as "different" text that is simply moved, which is smart. We also like the new comparison layout that lets you more easily determine the differences between two documents.

Concluding Viewpoint

In the Microsoft tradition of more, is well more, Office 2007 has grown to unprecedented size and scope, introducing several new products with this release.  But, the question remains, is it worth an upgrade?  Only you can decide which version is right for you and your business however, the changes Microsoft has made to the stalwart business suite are more than cosmetic.