G
gxsaurav
Guest
This thread is an update to my old thread, the user review of Office 2007 beta 2, most of the images & text are still the same, infect this thread is the same
Microsoft has released the new Office 2007 RTM on MSDN, it will be available publically on Jan 30 2007 onwards, MSDN subscribers can download it right now.
This review is not about the features etc, as they are already known from a long time, such as the ribbon UI, & new collaboration features etc, instead this review is about the user experience & usage
The office 2007 install is now quite streamlined, & although the installation of office 2003 was already quite easy, this is easier, just select what u want to install, & it will install
New file formats, which are now xml based, are there, but I don’t think using these now is a good idea, as many users all over still use .doc instead of .docx. U can set the default file format to save via word options->Save
All the general & finishing option can b found in that big Office orb on far left size, Microsoft supported save as PDF option in Office 2007 beta 2, but it is now removed from the RTM due to licensing restriction by Adobe. However this same functionality is given in the form of a separate add-on to Office 2007, which u can download from here, or a much better option is to use PDFCreator, a free open source virtual printer for your computer, by which u can print to PDF in any application in the OS
The Word options or Excel Options can also be checked from this orb menu
*img244.imageshack.us/img244/6788/20vh1cy7.th.jpg
U will find the general options to do whatever u want in their corresponding tabs, like u will find the reading view in the “View” Tab. Inserting Pictures can be found in the insert tab, this way the user actually uses features which were previously in Office but under many menus, now it’s very easy to work on all office applications. In the Quick access toolbar there is an option now, to minimize the Ribbon, further increasing the viewport area, to get the ribbon again, just click on any tab & it will show, work on it, click outside & the tab will minimize
Outlook 2007, the Mail client of Office suite, resembled outlook 2003 on first glance, but now it has instant search in it, if u have Windows desktop search installed, however it will bug u every time, to install it, unless u disable this notification
Tools ->Options->Others->Advanced option -> Disable WDS notification
Contacts are now shown in a cool card like structure, which is lot better than before, u can double click on it to get the detailed look
I haven’t worked on other applications yet, except for PowerPoint. This article was written on Word 2007 itself, with the embedded source code for the images uploaded on imageshack, i just copied them here
The installation size of Office 2007 may very, be sure to delete the MSOcache folder after installing office, in my case it took 590 MB as temporary files were copied
Here are a few pics of word & outlook on my PC; I blurred the private information
Word 2007, full ribon
*img132.imageshack.us/img132/5148/word6khal2.th.jpg
Word 2007, minimized Ribon
*img244.imageshack.us/img244/2029/fulllayoutwz5.th.jpg
The UI problems with Windowsblind are now fixed, with all the apps
Outlook 2007 default layout
*img95.imageshack.us/img95/3219/outlookdefault3dsee8.th.jpg
Microsoft has released the new Office 2007 RTM on MSDN, it will be available publically on Jan 30 2007 onwards, MSDN subscribers can download it right now.
This review is not about the features etc, as they are already known from a long time, such as the ribbon UI, & new collaboration features etc, instead this review is about the user experience & usage
The office 2007 install is now quite streamlined, & although the installation of office 2003 was already quite easy, this is easier, just select what u want to install, & it will install
New file formats, which are now xml based, are there, but I don’t think using these now is a good idea, as many users all over still use .doc instead of .docx. U can set the default file format to save via word options->Save
All the general & finishing option can b found in that big Office orb on far left size, Microsoft supported save as PDF option in Office 2007 beta 2, but it is now removed from the RTM due to licensing restriction by Adobe. However this same functionality is given in the form of a separate add-on to Office 2007, which u can download from here, or a much better option is to use PDFCreator, a free open source virtual printer for your computer, by which u can print to PDF in any application in the OS
The Word options or Excel Options can also be checked from this orb menu
*img244.imageshack.us/img244/6788/20vh1cy7.th.jpg
U will find the general options to do whatever u want in their corresponding tabs, like u will find the reading view in the “View” Tab. Inserting Pictures can be found in the insert tab, this way the user actually uses features which were previously in Office but under many menus, now it’s very easy to work on all office applications. In the Quick access toolbar there is an option now, to minimize the Ribbon, further increasing the viewport area, to get the ribbon again, just click on any tab & it will show, work on it, click outside & the tab will minimize
Outlook 2007, the Mail client of Office suite, resembled outlook 2003 on first glance, but now it has instant search in it, if u have Windows desktop search installed, however it will bug u every time, to install it, unless u disable this notification
Tools ->Options->Others->Advanced option -> Disable WDS notification
Contacts are now shown in a cool card like structure, which is lot better than before, u can double click on it to get the detailed look
I haven’t worked on other applications yet, except for PowerPoint. This article was written on Word 2007 itself, with the embedded source code for the images uploaded on imageshack, i just copied them here
The installation size of Office 2007 may very, be sure to delete the MSOcache folder after installing office, in my case it took 590 MB as temporary files were copied
Here are a few pics of word & outlook on my PC; I blurred the private information
Word 2007, full ribon
*img132.imageshack.us/img132/5148/word6khal2.th.jpg
Word 2007, minimized Ribon
*img244.imageshack.us/img244/2029/fulllayoutwz5.th.jpg
The UI problems with Windowsblind are now fixed, with all the apps
Outlook 2007 default layout
*img95.imageshack.us/img95/3219/outlookdefault3dsee8.th.jpg
Last edited by a moderator:
