Office 2007 Issues

While the Office of Information Technology is still evaluating Office 2007 many students and faculty/staff have purchased machines already configured with the Office 2007 suite. There are several issues to consider when upgrading or sharing files with colleagues / teachers / students who are already using Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Access.

Sharing files between Office versions

Office 2007 Users:

If you are currently using Office 2007 and sharing files with others who are still using Office 97, 2000, XP:
save your files in the 1997-2003 formats before exchanging them with others. Office 2007 has new XML formats and files saved this way cannot be opened by previous versions of Office for Windows or Macintosh. The best practice for sharing files is to set Office 2007 to automatically save in the 1997-2003 formats. Files saved this way can be opened, edited and saved in previous versions and on Macintosh computers.

Click on the Office button in the upper left hand corner of the screen
Click on the Word Options button in the lower right hand section of the dialog box
Select the Save panel from the left panel of the Word Options dialog box
Select Word 97-2003 document (.doc) from the 'Save files in this format:' drop down list
Click OK

Office 97-2003 for Windows Users

If you are currently using Office 2003 or older and sharing files with others who are using Office 2007:
download the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats,
which will allow you to open, view and save documents in the new xml formats (docx, docm, xlsx, xlsm, etc)

Macintosh Users (cross platform / cross version issues are a little tricker):

While Microsoft has released a compatibility pack for the Macintosh version of its Office suite, it is currently in beta.
Microsoft Office Open XML File Format Converter for Mac 0.2 (Beta)

Becoming acquainted with the new Office Interface (no menus)

Throughout the semester, Rick and Patrick will be offering workshops overviewing the features of Microsoft Vista and the Office 2007 Suite of Applications.

Some initial remarks:

Office 2007 is compatible with your current XP systems and Office 2003 will work fine with Vista

Getting up to speed with Office 2007

No menus and fewer toolbars – the new interface
(Designed to make the features of the application more accessible with fewer mouse clicks to speed up the document authoring process)
Ribbon with Tabs (task oriented), Groups & Commands
(Microsoft Office Button – command affect whole document)
Home, Insert, Review, View (plus three application specific tabs)

• Word – Page Layout, Reference, Mailings
• Excel – Page Layout, Formulas, Data
• PowerPoint – Design, Animations, Slide Show

Dialogue box launchers
Galleries and live preview
Contextual Tabsets

• (Table Tools, Picture Tools, Drawing Tools, Smart Art Tools, Chart Tools, etc.)

The mini toolbar (and traditional right-click menu)
The quick access toolbar (customizable)