The basics
Microsoft has scheduled a radical 2007 makeover for its ubiquitous productivity suite, Office. The impending release, expected early next year, will further distinguish Redmond's tools from the competition's. Office 2007 will reveal a dynamic new interface and smaller, XML-based file formats. We've installed the private, beta 2 test version of Office 2007 and have been playing with the features for a week.
See for yourself
What will the next editions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook have in store for you? For a sneak peek at the suite's progress, see our slide shows of Microsoft Word 2007 beta 2, Excel 2007 beta 2, Outlook 2007 beta 2, and PowerPoint 2007 beta 2.
You can test-drive this preview of the Office 2007 system. And you can track Microsoft's progress via pictures of the earlier build, Office 12 beta, from last fall.
Ribbon
Microsoft rebuilt Office from the ground up, and most features are located in different places than in versions 2003 and earlier. Gone are what Microsoft considers too much of a good thing: the buried location of more than 1,000 features within top-down menus. Now you can access functions front and center within a tabbed Ribbon across the top of the interfaces of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Access. We expect this new look to challenge longtime users with a steep learning curve. The intent is to make the apps more intuitive, but the opposite is true for certain features if you want to fall back on old habits. For example, Insert Comment is no longer found within the Insert menu but within the Ribbon's Review tab. While we had problems initially getting oriented, we found our bearings for most of the major functions within a couple of days.
Dynamic
We have mixed feelings about the Ribbon's ability to surface and hide features according to your task at hand. Though designed to make it easier to find tools, the Contextual Tabs sometimes left us befuddled. For instance, to view the full gamut of changes you can make to an image within Word, you must first select the image. What if, say, you're working in Word and wish that you could insert an image, rotate it, and wrap the text around it to make a newsletter? If you haven't already inserted and clicked on a picture, then the Format tab will be out of sight, and you'd never know those image-tweaking features existed.
System requirements
System requirements for Office 2007 aren't finalised yet, but so far Microsoft says that you must run Windows XP SP2 on a 500MHz PC with a 2GB hard drive and 256MB of RAM (512MB for Outlook with Business Contact Manager).
Suites
Microsoft has reduced the number of suites originally planned for the Office 2007 System to seven, ranging from Basic to Enterprise. Most consumers will likely opt for Basic (containing Excel, Outlook, Word) or Standard, which throws in PowerPoint. The Small Business package adds Publisher as well as the Business Contact Manager version of Outlook.
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Mani
05/07/2007, 10:05 AM
rating
10/10
gr8 to work on oo7
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passizle
09/02/2007, 02:03 AM
rating
2/10
If it aint broke...
Pros: none
Cons: Everything. I was exited to see what MS had in store. the 2003 office system was so well planned and thought out. It was very seamless. How can Microsoft kid themselves in this way. I can see some marketing comanies buying into this system, but the MS faithful general user will find this product to obtrusive to use. I would not use it if Bill gave it to me for free...
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sig
30/08/2006, 08:42 PM
rating
5/10
not yet quite good
Cons: it is so slow i got bug in different stages while saving
why the default format is different than doc
i missed my important meeting
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V
28/08/2006, 04:00 PM
rating
2/10
What is the point?
Outlook Issues
1Does not let you open more than one outlook profile simultaneously.
2Often retrieves data from one account into another within the same profile.
3Does not close down reliably so when you attempt to switch between outlook profiles(since it won't let you open both simultaneously) it opens the same one even if you wait a minute.
4. Using the search function in sent folders or your entire mailbox still returns only the FROM field - not sure why MS people don't ever think we want to know who it went TO- Is this such a hard thing? Yes you can customize columns after EACH search to get the TO field but I'm pretty sure when I'm seaching MY SENT folder I already know who the e-mail was FROM - what I need to know is who did it go TO.
2 BCM - A GREAT PRODUCT - Completely GIMPED by MS.
All it needs to do is sync the most important contact info - name, address, phone number, e-mail address with contacts in outlook so that it is available via OWA and WM5 - no simple copy tool included - making it completely useless for any remote data work.
3. MS Access - no OLE or wrapper or built in handler for JPGs and other picture formats. Why make a database that can't natively handle pictures. How can you do a decent catalog, inventory, personnel list etc, if you make it so complicated that you have to use code for pictures? Might as well hire a Oracle programmer if you aren't going to make a simple database for non-techies.
Excel -
Doesn't easily remove data/links. Copy and paste a table showing prices on any product - e.g. E6700 processors. Now go ahead and delete the rows or data. The "buy now" link is still there - isn't it?
Word -
Doesn't let you easily change spacing between paragraphs and sentences - e.g. this paragraph 1.2 next sentence 1.5 etc. If you want to vary randomly and between lines different when jumping to a new line.
Pros: You don't have to buy it if you have and older version of Office
Cons: Price - lack of improvments
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Ryan
22/08/2006, 04:18 PM
rating
6/10
BUT IT DOES HAVE NEW FEATURES!!!
Honestly,we'll upgrade because we need a new computer anyway(Get new laptop every 3 years.)
Pros: Like the editing features are very different and much easier to use on images.
Cons: No customisation available with whole colour outline and everything.Only black or blue you can currently choose from...
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Jix
18/08/2006, 10:39 PM
rating
2/10
Slow and Not Practical
The change of Office 2007 is too much and only mainly focuses on the interface design.
Pros: nice looking like what you should enjoy after 2007.
Cons: no efficiency gain over Office 2003. Totally waste time and money.
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16/08/2006, 12:32 AM
rating
2/10
Office Professionals now for dummies
So many missed oportunities. Could have had automatically formated nesting formulas. Could have allowed for easier customisation. Could have dispensed with the graphical antialiased shaded interface and provided professionals with a barebones sensible interface, this is a step backwards and this overly simple and uncustomisable interface should be restricted to microsoft works. Better to use OpenOffice or Office 2003 than this
Pros: nothing the old version didnt have
Cons: No file menu, in fact no menus at all.
confusing uncustomisable tabs built for simple users
tabs change automatically.
excel is built for graph designers instead of a data analysis tool.
Antialiasing doesnt suit excel numbers
no "classic" interface mode.
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Baker PC Services
06/08/2006, 09:30 AM
rating
10/10
Perfect upgrade for an ageing system.
The new Microsoft Office 2007 Beta 2 provides a good insight into what we will be experiencing next year. The online test drive provided a fast and easy way to trial the program without having to download 3GB of files. Very interesting and modern program.
Pros: Ribbon interface; easy layout; fast access and editing; very modern
Cons: Ribbon interface can be fiddly and wrong; menus sometimes distracting
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