Happened to have the opportunity to get a firsthand preview of Microsoft Office 2007 -- and while I didn't get to see everything under the hood, there were a number of very useful redesigns, tweaks and improvements to Microsoft Word and Excel (didn't get to see much about Outlook and PowerPoint).
Much ado on the Microsoft site about the new Office user interface -- "The Ribbon" (below).
And it does work better for me once you begin the get the hang of it.
The traditional menus and toolbars have been replaced by the Ribbon, a new device that presents commands organized into a set of tabs. The tabs on the Ribbon display the commands that are most relevant for each of the task areas in Word 2007, PowerPoint 2007, Excel 2007 or Access 2007.
For example, Word 2007 has tabs for writing, inserting, page layout, working with references, doing mailings, and reviewing documents. In addition, Word has a number of innovations that makes working with text much easier, such as pop-up boxes to change fonts (size, type, etc.), that results in more time spent writing, rather than formattting. In addition, tabs have seemedn to replace drop-downs menus throughout.
Excel 2007 has a similar set of tabs that make sense for spreadsheet work: creating worksheets, inserting objects like charts and graphics, page layout, working with formulas, managing data, and reviewing. These tabs simplify accessing application features because they organize the commands in a way that corresponds directly to the tasks people perform in these applications.
To me, the most notable improvement in Excel was that spreadsheets can now be directly printed; the silly step of "setting the print area" has been eliminated. Also evident were a number of improvements that at least bring this ap up to date.
Latest word has availability in March 2007, but if you want to try the beta, visit the Microsoft site. A word of caution is in order: Remember this is a beta so be careful about usiing this software with any data that you can't afford to lose or have damaged.
Update: It's now released and you can get your copy of Office 2007 pretty cheaply on Amazon.
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Office 2007 is probably the worst office ever.
The improvements to Conditional formatting alone in Excel. Multiple conditions, traffic lights linkd to values.
Every application has great improvemnts. Shame Project and Visio have no new interface
Unbelievably horrible changes in Office 2007. I have one laptop running Office 2007, and several other computers running Office 2003 and Office 2000.
I have used MS Office since the days of Win 3.1, and this is absolutely the most stupid move by Microsoft (even worse than the Vista cluster----). Did the MS idiots even think of including any previous Office users in these changes?
Previously, I have been able to migrate to new versions of Office, and immediately go to work with old documents and spreadsheets, and learn the new features along the way. Not so with Office 2007. Plan to spend 95% of your time trying to find any useful functionality, while puking over the Tella Tubby interface. Then plan on spending another 4% trying to get your documents saved someplace where you want them or will be able to find them.
For anyone ready to leave Office 2003, I can only recommend going to Open Office. Microsoft really screwed the pooch on this change.