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I can say through my own personal experience that veteran MS Office users should definitely upgrade to the 2007 version. As in any major change in software configuration, there are (temporary) downsides. For example, the new user must become accustomed to a different but remarkably intuitive interface. At first I had to grope around a little to find features that are now out in the open rather than buried in familiar menus and tool bars of the older version of MS Office. However, the learning curve was not steep, and there is always the venerable right-click and help menu that gets the new user unstuck and back on track.

Since owning the new version of Office 2007, I have extensively used five of its applications: Access, Excel, Word, PowerPoint, and Outlook. Here is a rundown of my new experience with these applications:

Overall look of Office 2007

All applications have a new menu structure. The traditional drop-down look has been changed to tab selections that takes a little time to get used to, but is more graphically intuitive than the text-only version. The new "Office Button" at the top left of the menu ribbon is now common to each application and makes file management much easier. The new interface can be quickly customized through a quick access tool bar at the top of the menu ribbon, which cannot be customized.

Next, Office has a slick help interface. I have used it frequently in searching for help in doing previously accessible tasks that are embedded elsewhere in the new version. The 2007 version also gives the user a quick access to the Microsoft web site for additional help and template downloads. Warning: The MS web site checks to ensure the requester is using a legal copy of the software and will not download templates unless the user's copy is legal. (Whether or not they send the FBI to your home is anyone's guess!) Also, look for some great tutorials on the web site.

Finally, all MS Office 2007 files can be easily converted so that they are compatible with earlier versions. I did experience a problem with MS Access 2007 when converting a file to Access 2003. The command buttons on my forms did not work and had to be reprogrammed. Also, you have to take the trouble of converting a file if you're sending a 2007 file to someone with an earlier version of office. The easy way out is simply to save the file as an earlier version, which can be quickly done through the "Office Button."

Access

The venerable Access database platform has a new, more user-friendly

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