I am going to go over some of the features that I have found most useful in Word 2007. I thought to help with this I would write this piece using Word 2007 BETA, and so far so good.
It took me a while to find where the 'About' option had gone to, finding that I needed to add it to my toolbar, so the location of some functions aren’t completely obvious.
I have had no formal training on the new Office 2007 product, so I am just learning it as I go. This is something which I suspect most users will probably do.
I like the overall look and feel of the application, but this is going to take a bit of getting used to! The ribbons are however, clear and well laid out.
For those of you that have read my post on ‘Microsoft Vista and the 2007 Microsoft Office System’, you will know that Microsoft say users will take on average 2 days to 2 weeks to get used to the new way of working with this software. Once you have got a handle on it in one application, however, the knowledge will port to the rest of the Office suite - as with previous versions.
Options Menus
The Tools>>Options menu has gone, but similar options relating to security can be found by using the new File menu (the round Windows logo button) and by clicking on ‘Word Options’ and selecting Trust Centre. It is worth looking at this new options window as a lot of the default formatting, add ins, saving and displaying options are contained within it.
Ribbons
Each section of a ribbon is clearly labelled regarding what buttons are contained within it. Below is a screen dump of the references ribbon as an example:
In later BETA versions it is going to be easier to collapse the ribbons so that only the menu names can be seen (e.g. Home, Insert…). Selecting one of these options will open the ribbon. This has been done so that less space is taken up by the ribbons. In order to do this users can right-click anywhere in the ribbon to bring up a context menu which includes an option to "Minimize the Ribbon". This is in addition to CTRL+F1 and double-clicking the selected tab. For further information on the development of ribbons, please see Jensen Harris’ blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/jensenh/archive/2006/07/24/676371.aspx
In addition to the ribbons there are also other context sensitive menus, one of which appears when you highlight some text and place the mouse cursor over it:
Additionally, as you can see, inserted pictures can be formatted (shadow effect). I have looked in Office 2003 and if this functionality is available (I know some functionality can be applied, but not all the 2007 options), then it is well hidden! In Word 2007 I was able to click on my picture and a format tools ribbon menu appeared. Selecting this gave me many options to choose from.
Screen Tips (aka Tooltips)
The Screen Tips are also much more informative than in the past:
As you can see, the Screen Tips now include pictures as well as a full description. In some cases hyperlinks have also been added. (The Screen Tip displays can be changed on the Word Options menu>>Personalise, to be less informative or switched off completely).
Live Preview
This is a great new feature that allows users to preview any formatting before actually committing to it.
To insert a table use the Insert ribbon and drilldown on Tables, a grid appears and moving the cursor over the squares builds a table into the document. Once you are happy, click the square and the table is inserted. If you change your mind, click away from the menu and no table is inserted.
This applies to formatting the table as well. Once a table has been inserted, highlight it and a Design ribbon appears. Under the Table Styles section is a list of many different colours and styles for your table. Again, moving the cursor over them changes the format of the table to match the option being highlighted, this is only a preview and your table will not be changed until you click on the desired option.
Status Bar
The status bar is the information bar shown at the bottom of Word to detail the page number, language etc. This can now be configured by right clicking on it - and there are many different options to pick from:
However, be careful not to switch them all on, as you won’t be able to see them all!
Saving/Opening Files
I am very pleased with the “Recent Places” option when saving/opening documents. Especially as I save many documents to the same network folder, it saves a lot of clicking around or use of shortcuts. It also saves recent file/folder openings from the main Vista Operating System as well.
Summary
Overall I have found that a lot of the options within Word have been exposed thanks to the new ribbons and options menus, some were in previous office versions, but I had never seen them before! One of my favourites is the previewing functionality. (NB this functionality is available throughout the 2007 Microsoft Office System, not just Word.)
I would advise that people are not put off by the change in interface. The learning curve is not as big as it may seem at first, and everyone that uses Word regularly will find great benefit in the 2007 Microsoft Office System.
If a software upgrade is on the cards, then I recommend that you wait for your upgrade until this new suite has been released.
Next Release
The BETA 2 Technical Refresh is due for release soon, for more information please refer to Microsoft Watch: http://www.microsoft-watch.com/article2/0,2180,1994028,00.asp
Kirsty Lowe
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Posted by: microsoft word tool | August 23, 2006 at 06:35 AM