#2 - So can we screw up Windows & Office the same week?

Microsoft also introduced a new version of its grand lady Office. Being creative, the Microsoft staff came up with the new name as Office 2007. The pitch I heard direct from Microsoft was that the new version of Office will help you be more productive by taking less time in doing many tasks. Well that is a good goal and sure enough when the product was put through a demo, the tasks that were shown, did take less clicks.

There are 2 big howevers. 1. The interface has been changes so that the traditional menu system (you remember File, Edit, View Insert...etc) has disappeared and is replaced by a ribbon system with tabbed features. This will take a bunch of time to get used to. You can bring back the traditional menus, but they are not visible out of the box. 2. The new default file format is something called XML. No more .doc, .xls, .ppt. Well you can do Save As and get them to the old formats, but it isn't the default out of the box. Resellers screamed that this alone would doom Office 2007 with many users. Microsoft's response was to come up with a compatibility software tool that can be downloaded and run on your older versions of Office. This tool allows for compatibility with the XML format.

Word 2007 has some nice new features including easier formatting and more context sensitive choices. Excel is virtually the same as is PowerPoint. Outlook 2007 actually doesn't look or feel like the rest of the Office Suite. It looks remarkably similar to Outlook 2003 with some enhanced tabbing. Of all the Office programs, I would guess Outlook 2007 would have been the best implemented upgrade.

So what are the chances that you will upgrade to Office 2007? I'm thinking not so good. The new Office requires at least Windows XP service pack 2 or Windows 2003 server. Have Windows XP original or Windows 2000? Forgetaboutit! Of course it will work with all the Windows Vista flavors. Minimum cost is $149.00. I'm not recommending it as an upgrade at this time, but if you need it in the workplace, I'll be glad to sell an upgrade to you.

Have a great weekend!