Technology Bytes:
Office 2007 and You

- Craig Johnson

Beginning Spring Semester 2007 (or, by the time you read this) - the computers at Metropolitan State University will have been upgraded to feature Microsoft Office 2007. This is the first major upgrade to Microsoft's premiere office suite in 5 years and Microsoft promises a wealth of new features and an improved user experience.

Press releases are touting Office 2007 as the greatest advancement in desktop and office productivity since the five day work week was implemented, and the Microsoft PR machine has been running full tilt, expounding the "improved user experience" through video demos, podcasts (ironic in its own right), and a massive print advertising campaign.

When Office 2003 was released, there was little reason to panic: everyone just "assumed" that documents and files created in older versions of Office would just magically "work". We really had no reason to expect otherwise.

Now, with the release of Office 2007, you can officially panic. A little bit, anyway.

Beginning with the user interface, the entire look of Office 2007 has changed. No longer do you launch the specific application you wish to work in – Excel for spreadsheets, Word for documents, etc. Instead, a single interface is used for all documents and files. A deeper, more detailed 'command bar' replaces the familiar 'taskbar' of Office versions of old, with a tabbed format that displays a secondary row of commands specific to the 'Command' tab that you've clicked on.

Those of us that are accustomed to taskbar menus and commands specific to the application we've opened, will need to get used to hunting for specific 'command modules' within the tabs and also get used to clicking a bit more to find the specific subset of menus relevant to the document, file or command we're attempting to implement.

Confused yet? So am I. But wait: there's more...

According to the Microsoft Web site, many of the 'shortcut' commands that many of us have become familiar with have changed for Office 2007. Which ones? Well, I'm not entirely sure. The link on the Microsoft Web site for the "Word 2003 to Word 2007 command reference guide" (http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word/HA100744321033.aspx?pid=CH100487431033) offers an "interactive Flash tutorial" - which, as of the paper's deadline, loads a blank page.

Then, there's the file compatibility issue: documents created in Office 2007 will not be recognized by older versions of Office - unless you have the "Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack" update installed. This update is available through Microsoft (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=941b3470-3ae9-4aee-8f43-c6bb74cd1466&displaylang=en) and allows you to open and edit Office 2007 documents in Office 2003. However, the update itself requires that Windows XP Service Pack 2 be installed as your operating system, and it also requires that you have all updates for Office and Windows installed and current.

It's also a 28mb download, and involves a rather lengthy update, install and reboot process. All in all, it's about two hours of your life that you won't get back, just to update and install the compatibility packs.

This is not to say that the Office upgrade is a complete hassle, however. According to some industry reviews, Office 2007 is the most stable version of a Microsoft product ever seen: meaning that the dreaded "Word Crash" should be a thing of the past…hopefully. In addition, Office will now allow you to save files directly into .pdf or .xps formats, meaning greater publishing flexibility for Word, Excel and Power Point documents. Of course, this, too, is available as a separate add-on at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=4D951911-3E7E-4AE6-B059 A2E79ED87041&displaylang=en%09%09%09%09%09&hash=QS6XQGC.

The long and short of this upgrade means that we students will need to acclimate quickly to the new Office workspace, environment and command structure. In addition to the links listed below, which offer information on Office 2007, interactive tutorials, downloads, and some Frequently Asked Questions, Metropolitan State will be offering free training on Office 2007, as well as other software applications available on campus.

Even if you consider yourself an expert in All Things Microsoft, I'd strongly suggest you take advantage of the opportunity to get some hands-on guided training. Change - especially in the software world - is often painful, and it's better to have that 'oops' moment in a training session, rather than five minutes before class with that 10-page paper you just pulled an all-nighter writing.

Office 2007 Features:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/products/default.aspx?ofcresset=1

Office 2007 Word Reference Guide:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word/HA100744321033.aspx?pid=CH100487431033

Office 2007 Excel Reference Guide:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel/HA101491511033.aspx?pid=CH100648241033

Metropolitan State Information Technology Services Training:
http://www.metrostate.edu/it/trainingoverview.html