With Microsoft’s "Ultimate Steal" program launching today, I thought it was appropriate to base today’s "MyFive" on Office 2007! Here are five reasons why I love the new Microsoft Office 2007.
–Reasons to Love Microsoft Office 2007–
- Ribbon Toolbar - The new ribbon toolbar in Office 2007 replaces the traditional menus and toolbars, and it’s awesome – once you get used to it of course. If you’re used to a previous version of Office, give it a chance. The ribbon is one of those things I can’t imagine not having because it saves me so much time – particularly in Microsoft Word. Everything seems easier to find, and you can even minimize the ribbon if you feel like it’s taking up too much room.
- Mail Merge – This one may not rank high on your list, and perhaps it’s because you don’t know how to use it, but it’s extremely helpful if you have to send the same document to multiple people. In Word 2007, there’s a "Mailings" tab on the ribbon which will guide you through the process, and we’ve got a "How-to" guide which you can find here that will help as well.
- Format Photos in Word – It’s actually pretty amazing what you can do with photos in Microsoft Word 2007. There’s a great selection of "Picture Styles" that you can apply to your photos, and you’ll get a live preview of what your photo will look like before a style actually gets applied.
- Keyboard Shortcuts – Another big change with this version of office are the keyboard shortcuts. While there were keyboard shortcuts before, they’ve been taken to a whole new level. There’s so much you can do with the shortcuts and they save time! You can nearly do anything you’d like without the use of your mouse in Office. All you have to do is press the ALT key and you’ll see little labels pop up which will show you "key tips" or what letter you need to press for a particular tab in the ribbon. And then once you select a particular tab, you’ll get a new set of "key tabs" for the new menu that gets displayed.
- If you’re a student, it’s cheap! – Getting Office 2007 for $59 is a reason in itself. With Microsoft’s recently launched "Ultimate Steal" promotion for students, you can’t help but love it.
I’m glad someone else likes the ribbon too!
That Ribbon rocks, and its one of the things I hear people praising the most. I’m glad the person who came up with the idea of the Ribbon is now working on the Windows team, too!
I’m thinking that there are lots of Office 2007 users that do like it, it’s just the ones that don’t that are more vocal about it.
With all laptops moving to 15.4 or other wide format screens the Ribbon (AKA large toolbar, it is nothing more) takes up too much space. I took a look at the video that shows the Ribbon autohiding, which is nicer than having it there all the time. For a power user that was already familiar with how to do Mail Merge, the Alt shortcuts, and is the support person for MS Office; I seriously dislike MS Office 2007. The interface may be nice for newbies. It could have been designed as just a skin, with the option to use the old interface. I will be using OpenOffice more often. If I have figure out a new interface I may as well go with a extremely capable free program and spend the time learning it vs the over priced (same features, new skinned) version of Microsoft Office 2007.
Those are my 2 cents. But as usual no one listens to me anyway.
DB
I understand where you’re coming from DB, but what it really comes down to is how well you adapt to change. I’m a big power user that loves to see big change when it will make me more productive, and the new Office 2007 ribbon does just that. I’ve even discovered some features that I would have never known about otherwise.
I’ve been using Office ‘07 for several months now, but I never noticed all the keyboard shortcuts, and all the little tooltips that pop up when you press the ALT key. After reading your post, I had to check that out immediately. It’s brilliant and useful!
Thanks for the tips.