The Newer and Better Office 2007, or Is It?

With the release of office 2007 a few years back, there was a lot of excitement about it. People were dying to check out what was new and what had changed. I think I was among those who, for sheer excitement, wanted to throw away my office 2003 and replace it with the latest version.

However, the excitement soon died down and people soon came to their senses, I being one of them. A lot of people who had rashly switched to this new software soon had more bad things to say than good. Only a few people had something really good to say about it.

For a moment, in all fairness, it seemed Microsoft had erred, because they had failed to satisfy the masses. Most people, so used to their office 2003, felt lost in the new environment that came with office 2007. For the most part, the following are the reasons why most people felt lost and the reason why they felt the new application package was a miss:

1. The new environment was strange to many, and most of them were lost. The simple, straight forward toolbars were gone, and were replaced with more sophisticated looking ones. Most people moving to the new software was like moving to a new country where they had to start learning everything over again.

2. The new format of the document files was incompatible with earlier versions of office. Most people discovered that upon saving their documents in the new office applications, it was saved in a strange new format that could not be read on earlier versions of office. This was terribly inconveniencing to many people especially because a lot of people were still using the earlier versions. Imagine how shocking it was, after having typed your document at home, and having walked a good distance to the printing shop, only to be told that your document could not be open! Yes not surprising, a lot of people got rid of the new software and returned to their previous one.

3. Office 2007 being more sophisticated than the earlier versions required faster computers with bigger memories. After installing it on my Pentium 3 computer with a memory of 256MB, I experienced severe underperformance. Word, my favorite application, would take ages to load, and it would run so slowly. Managing graphics became an agony. Knowing that I was not ready for this software, I got back to my office 2003.

4. There are also a few compatibility issues. Other programs, once installed, work best when they configure themselves to work hand in hand with office applications. However, most of these programs turned out to be incompatible with office 2007 and for most users, this was a major draw back. So most of them returned to their earlier version where they could work best.

For these and perhaps a few other reasons, most people wrote off office 2007 as a miss. It seemed, at the time, that office 2007 was not really newer and better.

However, after staying with it for a while, I think it is a major improvement.

Most people wrote it off too quickly without fully understanding what it can do. Here, I have taken the time to divulge what the latest version of office can really do for you.

The following are the pros for office 2007:

1. It has a simpler interface. It has a simpler and more visual menu system. For the earlier version, most of the tools were hidden behind text menus. However, in this new version, all the tools are right before your eyes, stretched out horizontally above your work area as show below:

New Access Enviroment

Old Access Environment

2. The new format of the document files was incompatible with earlier versions of office. Most people discovered that upon saving their documents in the new office applications, it was saved in a strange new format that could not be read on earlier versions of office. This was terribly inconveniencing to many people especially because a lot of people were still using the earlier versions.

Imagine how shocking it was, after having typed your document at home, and having walked a good distance to the printing shop, only to be told that your document could not be open! Yes not surprising, a lot of people got rid of the new software and returned to their previous one.

3. Office 2007 being more sophisticated than the earlier versions required faster computers with bigger memories. After installing it on my Pentium 3 computer with a memory of 256MB, I experienced severe underperformance. Word, my favorite application, would take ages to load, and it would run so slowly. Managing graphics became an agony. Knowing that I was not ready for this software, I got back to my office 2003.

4. There are also a few compatibility issues. Other programs, once installed, work best when they configure themselves to work hand in hand with office applications. However, most of these programs turned out to be incompatible with office 2007 and for most users, this was a major draw back. So most of them returned to their earlier version where they could work best.

For these and perhaps a few other reasons, most people wrote off office 2007 as a miss. It seemed, at the time, that office 2007 was not really newer and better.

However, after staying with it for a while, I think it is a major improvement.

Most people wrote it off too quickly without fully understanding what it can do. Here, I have taken the time to divulge what the latest version of office can really do for you.

The following are the pros for office 2007:

1. It has a simpler interface. It has a simpler and more visual menu system. For the earlier version, most of the tools were hidden behind text menus. However, in this new version, all the tools are right before your eyes, stretched out horizontally above your work area as show below:

2. Is easier to customize your documents, and the newer file format enables one to go a step further. You can design cover pages for your documents, choosing from a wide range of already customized templates. In fact, it has more tools for formatting your graphics.

3. You can customize the program to suit your needs. If you are still comfortable with the older and more familiar document format that is compatible with earlier versions, you can set your program to save your documents in that format by default.

4. More and more programs are becoming compatible with office 2007.

So, as you can see, it is really a win win situation with the latest office application.

If you are among those who have written off the latest Microsoft office, then it is because you never really sat down to examine it and find out all the goodies that came with its release.

Please re-examine this software and find out what it can really do. In the end, you will discover what I did: that it is really newer and better!

Return from Office 2007 Divulged to Microsoft Office Software