by Mike Sheward

Created on: January 06, 2007   Last Updated: May 12, 2007

It's only natural that when a new piece of software hits the market we want to grab it from the shelves, run home and install it straight away. This isn't a bad thing, newer versions of software offer us extra features, are (usually!) less prone to errors and more secure. Microsoft Office isn't your typical piece of software however it's a vital piece of many businesses infrastructure and has millions of home users worldwide. Several other software packages are also designed to operate with Office. Upgrading to Office 2003 from Office XP wasn't a big deal; all most users noticed was a slightly different user interface that still had the familiar icons and toolbars.

Office 2007 is a very different animal, and the transition from Office 2003 to 2007 will be much more challenging. Businesses should seriously plan their Office 2007 rollout and prepare staff for the changes.

In Office 2007 applications the familiar toolbars have gone and have been replaced by a large area at the top of the screen known as the ribbon, the ribbon has tabs that are used to select the various command buttons. It is a good innovation but it will take a while for users to get used to the new layout. The ribbon is the first thing you will look at as a new user and will probably cause you to say "Oh I don't like this". On the top of the Ribbon is the quick access toolbar which features the undo, redo and save commands.

There is a mini toolbar, which pops up when text is selected and contains the most commonly used formatting tools. There are also contextual tabs that appear over different objects, such as pictures. Another feature of Office 2007 is the Live Preview system, this allows you to temporarily apply formatting to text by rolling your mouse over it. The original formatting is restored when you move your mouse away. This is again a very nice feature but may cause some initial confusion.

Office 2007 features SmartArt that you can use to easily create things like organisational charts, it is not a replacement for our old friend clipart. Clipart remains very much intact.

Once you and your staff have got used to the new user interface you are probably going to think that Office 2007 is great and all is right with the world once again. That is until you send a file to another company who are still using Office 2003, you will get a stroppy email back saying they are unable to open the file. Office 2007 uses a different file format from those used in previous versions, and you will need to take steps to ensure compatibility. You can save Office 2007 documents in the older file format, this requires a couple of extra clicks which can prove problematic for certain users! It is also possible for users of older versions of office to download a pack from Microsoft that allows them to open the new file format, something you should definitely be doing if you are sticking with an older version of Office.

There is also a free download that allows Office 2007 users to save to PDF. PDF is the file format used by Adobe Acrobat Reader, a piece of software installed on millions of PCs worldwide. If you have documents you want people to "read only" then the PDF format is very useful.

Office 2007 is a good product and is by far the best version of the software. It is important to bear in mind the issues with compatibility and remember that it will be a few days before everyone gets up to speed with the new user interface, so make sure you train your people well!

You can get a free trial copy of Office 2007 from Microsoft, see their website for more information.

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