Office 2007 General Question (Office 2007)

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Albeit, Office 2007 is being taught in schools, higher education, and it’s being used by some large corporations. But truly, does anyone think it will catch on for everyone?

1. Do you think they will realize that folks liked 2003 better and make the next version similar to older versions like 2003?
2. Did they think that we had no use to create our own toolbars and menubars anymore (unless we all become advanced programmers and understand the mumble jumble of IU directives in their how-to section)?

I have packed the QAT bar with everything (including my macros) simply because I’m tired of trying to hunt the item down in the new ribbon’s options. Productivity goes to “zero” for a seasoned user. 3 clicks here, 5 clicks there…when it all used to be 1 click.
I’m can’t figure out why the only protection for an Access database can now only be done with large amounts of coding knowledge. (unless you simply lock them out, and that’s not an option when you have groups of people who need access, different passwords etc…to access different parts of the db…something that was easy to do in 2003…including creating your own popups, menus and toolbars when you did allow access to the objects of the database. I’m learning all this can now only be done now with some advanced IU fancy work.
Is it just me? I have worked with Office and the VB window enough over the last dozen years to have finally fine tuned a classroom structure around them, right through advanced teaching…and they have totally ripped that to shreds with this new version.
I am sure Advanced programmers are not having to difficult a time making the new Office 2007 version suit them, however we are not all advanced programmers…what was Microsoft thinking with this new version.
The only ones to benefit to me are new users who don’t know anything about the applications to begin with…I have to admit, maybe they will find things faster with the oversized buttons and grouping feature of the ribbon, but for those of us who have used this program for-like-ever…it’s like stepping back to square one.
Is there a forum in here to discuss this change? Hear others opinions? Find work arounds? Hear what’s coming down the pipes from Microsoft in the future releases?
I for one am beginning to detest Office 2007 and the limitations Microsoft has put on what we can and can’t do in it anymore without a large amount of coding.

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I myself have not spent much time with Office 2007; I have it on my personal PC only, at work I’m still using 2003.

Anyway, I can’t imagine Microsoft going back. The companies selling add-ons to people who preferred the old setup appear to be making the same bet.

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We have 2007 on our laptops BUT, we use 2003 on the desktops. We seldom use 2007 as it is such a pain, even though we do trie to use it from time to time.

DaveA I am so far behind, I think I am First
Genealogy....confusing the dead and annoying the living

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Glad to see someone else thinks it’s a “pain”.

I have it on my office desktop as I have to do higher ed training in it, so I have to know how it works, what bugs it possesses, and how to show folks the basics to advanced things we did in Office 2003 now in Office 2007. I still teach Office 2003 98% of the time, but there are Office 2007 classes sprinkled in for the masses who buy a new computer, find a functioning trial version of Office 2007 on it, and need training to learn how to use it. You can’t even buy 2003 in the stores no more, only online. It’s a ruse.

I’m finding it’s not quite as easy as 2003 was. I love 2003. It took me a great amount of time, study and research (years) to create structured classes that delve into everything from the basics to advanced with some coding. Now I am finding I must rewrite the entire book, with more steps and less content, (because I’m NOT delving into the IU with students I only have for one week or 20 hours).

I only hope that Microsoft would “really listen”. When something isn’t broke…don’t fix it. The only adaption I have found nice to have in 2007 is the ability to save as .pdf or .xml. Other then that…just annoying as all get out.

Thanks for the feedback…hope to hear more. From those who like it and why? And from those who find it as annoying as I do.

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The biggest problem is that from the Microsoft perspective it was broken. The hierarchical menus kept getting more & more complex with each new version of Office. Also, a very large part of the feature requests they received were for things that already existed in Office but were buried in a sub-menu. pschmid.net – pschmid.net: Putting You & I back into Office 2007’s Ribbon UI – The Office UI Bible is an organized list of links to Jensen Harris – An Office User Interface Blog. There is a ton of good information there. Also at Patrick Schmid’s site is pschmid.net – RibbonCustomizer™. There is a and a paid version. As a way to get used to the Office 2007 interface you could use Lester’s WPF blog : Classic Menu Addin for Office 2007 as a temporary way to go back to menus.

I use Office 2007 at home & work. I’m not what you;d call a heavy duty user but I do use it every day. I had very little troulbe accliimating to the new UI. I also think that Microsoft will not go back. There may be some adjustment but not a reversal.

Joe

--Joe

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Joe,
Thank you for taking the time to share all these links. I have bookmarked each one and will read each thoroughly. Some of these sound like they will make me a happier user of 2007. I admit it’s not all bad…just annoying to have to relearn so much (at my age)
Have a question someone might could answer…
I have Office 2007 at work in the office, a dual load of Office 2003 and 2007 on my students computers in the classroom, but at home I still have 2003 even though I have purchased Office 2007 to install…I do not want to lose my Frontpage 2003 in the process. As Frontpage 2003 was a separate install on the original Office 2003 CD, do you think loading Office 2007 will wipe it out? I am learning Dreamweaver, I know Microsoft has stopped supporting Frontpage, but I still am planning on using it for the 8 websites I run for a good while, and need it to continue upkeep on those websites…has anyone lost their Frontpage 2003 app after an Office 2007 install?
Thanks for the response…
And thanks again Joe for the great links

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No, you won’t lose FrontPage after an Office 2007 install. I am currently using Office 2007 and FrontPage 2003 with absolutely no problems.

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Thanks a lot for the FrontPage answer when installing Office 2007. That will help me stop procrastinating eventually and load Office 2007 at home sooner or later.

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You are quite welcome. You won’t lose FP. You might also want to check out Microsoft® Expression® web. This is the follow-on to FP. Claims to generate very standards compliant web sites. You can get it for a very reasonable upgrade price since you have FP.

Joe

--Joe

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I will look at Expression. Thank you

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I’m no fan of the ribbon either. In Excel I find I keep hunting for the commands I need. Luckily I’m a keyboard addict and the good old menu shortcuts of XP and 2003 still work with 2007.

But the ribbon is a great improvement for intermediate users. I like the ribbon a lot when I’m in Powerpoint for example. I do a powerpoint maybe 4 times a year, so that proves my point for a bit

What I do like a lot is all the new features they packed Excel with: conditional formatting, data tables, better pivot tables, more rows/columns, ……….. If only they had built a proper UI for editing charts and had waited with the release until all bugs had been fixed…

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Plus, with the ribbon if you press the ALT key you get an overlay of the keyboard commands (ALT+letter).

Joe

--Joe

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Wow – the alt tip is a great one. I’m a keyboard addict as well, so to know the keystrokes is a time saver. I also like the ribbon.
Thanks for the tip.

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In my opinion, all MS software that contains the Registration/Activation Wizard is a pain and is broken. I was just forced to downgrade from Windows and Office 2K to Windows and Office XP since the AntiVirus software I was using stopped supporting Windows 2K and the only AV software I could find that claimed to still run on W2K caused W2K to not boot any longer. So, now I am not only forced to risk the Registration/Activation Wizard deciding that I don’t have a valid installation and refusing to give me access to my data, but I now have a user interface which I do not like as well as 2K.

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Hundreds of millions of people all over the world have been using Office and Windows versions with the registration and activation wizard since 2001, so that’s more than 6 years now. Some users have experienced problems, as with any kind of software, but their number is surprisingly small. The overwhelming majority has never had any problem caused by registration/activation.

With Windows XP, you can choose to use the Windows Classic interface, which makes it look almost exactly like Windows 2000.
The changes in interface from Office 2000 to Office XP and 2003 are relatively small, and many of them are for the better; there are usually workarounds for changes you don’t like.

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Well, it has been almost a week since I read a post somewhere here in the Lounge about a problem someone was having that was caused by the Registration/Activation Wizard. The fact that a lot of people have been using it for 6 years does not mean that a bug won’t crop up tomorrow that will shut them all down. These are the same programmers that produced Windows security code after all. I have told XP to use the classic interface, but it is still different in ways that I so far do not like. I am sitting here right now looking at the new IE 7 interface that has move everything on the tool bars around, changed the icons and look, and removed the control that use to allow me to change things around to the way that I like.

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Yep – and it’s been almost an hour since I read about a traffic fatality (I guess we should all refuse to use automobiles?).

“The fact that a lot of people have been using it for 6 years does not mean that a bug won’t crop up tomorrow that will shut them all down”. Absolutely correct Legare. And simply because you and I have been alive and walking this earth for the past 6 years does not mean that either you or I are going to wake up tomorrow morning. I guess that’s Microsoft’s folly as well??

So your point is…………………………..?

As for IE7, there are alternatives – NOBODY is forcing you to use IE. In fact, I don’t believe that anyone is forcing you to use ANYTHING that is branded Microsoft.

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Hi,

In addition to the change in the UI and the new features added, there are several features that no longer work. In Hans’ words – dumbed down; I called them Missing In Action.

There have been a few posts about such features and some posts have links to other discussions of features MIA. See for example post 688178 or post 687886 and the posts in the latter thread. At least some of the items I’ve seen are ones I’d use.

Fred

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Yes, I knew about the ALT trick. And I am an avid keyboard shortcut user which helps with the new UI of 2007. I have made the QAT carry all my most needed tools, because it is the fact that I have to go hunt them down, and many seem to be placed in the oddest places.
I think my biggest problem is going to come when I hit Access 2007 full force. I have always had the ability to create my own switchboard (from scratch), creating command buttons (with passwords) to allow authorized users to access the forms I’ve allowed them to use, and what I have seen so far I will NOT be able to create my own toolbars, my own popup menus, and limit access to items I don’t want them to have, as well as keeping them off the new side bar and browsing around in things they don’t need to be viewing….without a lot of unnecessary work llike creating tables for such things and enormous chunks of coding (and not all vba). I have followed a few handouts, and for what it’s worth, what I used to be able to teach my Advanced Access 2003 class to do in a few hours is going to take “days” and a thorough knowledge of coding to do. I think I could have lived with the changes in 2007 as long as they pertained to Word, Excel and PowerPoint, but when they monkeyed up Access after I had this app down cold teaching it, I have got to start all over again and I feel like an absolute babe in the woods. UGH!

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