bit-tech Shopping: Microsoft Office 2007 Professional

• E-mail/Contact Manager
• Note Taking
• Presentation
• Spreadsheet
• Word Processor

• Microsoft Windows XP
• Microsoft Windows XP Professional
• Windows 2003 Server

Rating: 10

Time with product: 3 Days

Strengths: Very easy to install. Activation easy as well

Weaknesses: Box is tough to open, microsoft needs to work on the packaging.

Summary: The application worked and installed over my older version of office. One thing I would recommend is changing the default file extentions in both excel and word. That way if you create a file someone with an older version has no problem opening the file format.

Rating: 6

Time with product: 7 Days

Strengths: Clean new look and feel, efficient layout, increased Access tools and features.

Weaknesses: Expensive, Few improvements to word, excel and outlook.

Summary: The office 2007 layout is very different, and it will take a little while to get use to. My first response was that I did not like it because I could not find the things I needed. This happens to me every time Microsoft changes their menus and layout. Over time you begin to see their logic and it becomes comfortable and efficient to work with. The improved tool set for Access was what caused me to pull the trigger. Having the ability to attach multiple document formats to access records without using OLE is a huge improvement. While Word and Excel look and feel very different, they function very much like the older versions. There has been some improvement in the ability to easily format documents. Several pre-established styles are attached to the main menu bars. Outlook also functions similar to the older version. The layout has improved some and now RSS feeds can be used within outlook. There are several other changes, but nothing major. My older PC with 4G of ram, and a 64 bit single core cpu handles Office 2007 fine. I don't know for sure, but if seems that outlook 2007 takes up less resources the prior version. Now that I have seen what Office 2007 has to offer, if it was not for the improvements to Access, I would still be using Office 2003.

Rating: 8

Time with product: 1 Months

Strengths: New interface is laid out fairly well; Still can use Office 2003 menu shortcuts; Outlook email accounts can have different default Sent Items folders!!!

Weaknesses: Some things harder to get to with the new interface; For a standalone user, not much is new.

Summary: There are clearly varied opinions on how good the 2007 upgrade has been for many people. For me, I see the suite as an evolution, but not revolutionary (from a user standpoint), maybe some of the underlying tech is revolutionary (like Open XML file formats). Features: Office was already suffering from feature bloat so, as a knowledgeable but probably basic user, the upgrade didn't offer a lot for me. Some features are definitely more refined (pivot tables in Excel are a lot easier to build, for example), but I have not run into anything new that is earthshattering. Interface: The new interface is nice. It makes some tasks easier to find. However, it also makes some tasks harder (more mouse clicks to move around from ribbon to ribbon). However, they nicely preserved Office 2003 menu shortcut keys. For users new to Office, I think the new interface will be easier to learn. Performance: On my Core 2 Dual 2.2 GHz laptop with 4 GB RAM, I really don't notice any performance problems. I initially had woeful Outlook performance, but after some Googling, I resolved all my issues and Outlook is running great. Overall, I feel Office 2007 was worth it as part of getting a new laptop. If I was just upgrading, I would not do it unless there is a specific feature you are interested in. It seems like a lot of the new features revolve around connected, enterprise users using collaboration features like Groove, Sharepoint integration, etc. My company does not have all that set up, so I do not know how much better 2007 might be from previous versions.