Office 2007?

[Warbo]

I am by no means a guru on word or excel, but I have just bought office 2007 and find it dificult and ill-logical to use. Do people who have been using it for some time find it better than the 'classic' layout? Can you revert to the old style layout?

Maybe I need a little bit more time with it, but so far it seems extremly non user-friendly! What is the consensus?

[mutt]

In case you didnt notice, it saves files with an "X" in the extension, DOCX, PPTX etc. These are not easily read by people with older versions of the program. If you convert your presentation (or whatever) into a compatable version, then you lose all of the additional formatting.

Is it logical to use, lets say you get used to it :(

Mutt

[BRL]

I have had mine for a while now and you just get used to it.

[ZH875]

I have removed Office 2007, and gone back to Office 2003.

In my opinion, Office 2007 is just a waste of £17.41.

[Saab Dastard]

you just get used to it

Probably so, but then I recall seeing an experiment where someone wore spectacles that inverted their vision - after about 3 or 4 weeks of nausea, disorientation and utter misery, their brain learnt to compensate, and they started to "see" normally. They then had to do the whole thing in reverse to get back to normal. :yuk:

So yes, one can get used to anything, but is it worth the pain?

Now there's the question!

It took me 20 minutes to find how to print a document the first time I used Word 2007.

The only time I used Word 2007...

SD

[stevef]

There are a few aspects which make it better than the earlier Word versions but on the whole, I find it very scrappy to use, even after six months. If I hadn't spent nearly £100.00 pounds on it (Office Home & Student), I'd go back to using Office 2003.

[bnt]

I used Excel 2007 quite a lot at work: the end of the 65536 line limit - it can use 1048576 lines - really helped. I also use keyboard shortcuts a lot, and most of them still worked, and it helps with menu shortcuts if you hit "Alt".

However, I'm a student now, and the PCs at university have Office 2003, and I'm starting to use OpenOffice at home. I may as well get used to OO, because I won't be spending my own money on Microsoft's products from now on, if I can help it.

[Basil]

Allegedly an Excel Bug in Office 2007.
(http://www.smh.com.au/news/technology/excel-glitch-it-doesnt-add-up/2007/09/28/1190486537233.html?sssdmh=dm16.281478) From Sydney morning Herald:
Microsoft's Excel 2007 spreadsheet program is going to have to relearn part of its multiplication table.
In a blog post, Microsoft employee David Gainer said that when computer users tried to get Excel 2007 to multiply some pairs of numbers and the result was 65,535, Excel would incorrectly display 100,000 as the answer.
Gainer said Excel makes mistakes multiplying 77.1 by 850, 10.2 by 6425 and 20.4 by 3212.5, but the program appears to be able to handle 16,383.75 times 4.
"Further testing showed a similar phenomenon with 65,536 as well," Gainer wrote Tuesday.
He said Excel was actually performing the calculations correctly, but when it comes time to show the answer on the screen, it messes up.

[bnt]

Not alleged - I verified it myself, and M$ have acknowledged it. They say it only affects the display of numbers, not the underlying numbers: correct, strictly speaking, but it also affects e.g. filtering, the single Excel feature I used the most in the last few years. There was another thread on it here.

[Keef]

A friend of mine bought a new PC. I warned her to insist on XP, not Vista.
I forgot to say "Office 2003".

It came, three weeks ago, with XP and Office 2007.

I have to go round there this week to remove Office 2007 and install Office 2003. She's been tearing her hair out trying to get it to do the jobs she did all the time with 2003. She's normally a polite, well-spoken lawyer but her opinion of Microsoft Office 2007 would blister anyone's ears.

[Whirlygig]

Keef, if it wasn't for the fact that I'm not your friend (I don't mean that in a nasty way; just factual!!), I could have been your friend! If you see what I mean.

I recently bought a new laptop and insisted on XP but forgot about the Office Suite. I am, although I say so myself, an Excel Queen, but I find Excel 2007 very cumbersome.

How can I get software to realise that I AM more intelligent than it is!!!

I'm just trying to find a legal way of getting Orifice 2003 on my machine without spending money!

Cheers

Whirls

[mutt]

Whirly,

Have you considered Open Office @ openoffice.org

Mutt

[Keef]

I don't know if Microsoft offer a "free downgrade". I suspect not.

eBay was our friend in this case (£18). She just wants a machine she can use, and which will accept the vast array of Word autothingies (for her legal work) that she has on her previous machine. Office 2007 can't do that - or she and I, after much effort and Googling, can't find how to.

[Warbo]

I recall seeing an experiment where someone wore spectacles that inverted their vision - after about 3 or 4 weeks of nausea, disorientation and utter misery, their brain learnt to compensate, and they started to "see" normally. They then had to do the whole thing in reverse to get back to normal.

Well said! I should imagine the key commands would be the same, but I am a 'point and click' user. My real underlying question is: WHY? What the **** was wrong with the old layout/logic?
I was under the impression that if you tried to unistall, then install an earlier version you would run into trouble, but clearly that is not the case from what I've read here.

BTW, while I'm on the MS gripe bandwagon, I have run into a lot of problems using PPT that was saved on one version and running it on later versions. WTF is that all about? Why, oh why, would they do this to anyone? I lean to the right, don't support socialism, everyone has a right to make money, etc etc, but this sort of capitalilst greed/arrogance makes me angry. Just like Telstra if you live in OZ.

Actually, who mentioned Telstra? (Oh, me..) Now my blood is beginning to boil. Billions of blue blistering barnacles!

Thanks for the help everyone. Still bewildered, but happy that there is safety in numbers.

[BusyB]

Using Office Mac 2004 how can I open word 2007 docs. Or rephrased, what can I open Word 2007 docs with?:ugh:

Thanks

[Background Noise]

There is a converter for docx files to make them readable in 2004 available from MS - HERE (http://www.microsoft.com/mac/downloads.aspx?pid=download&location=/mac/download/Office2004/ConverterBeta_0_2.xml&secid=4&ssid=36&flgnosysreq=True)
Its a converter not a plugin for Office so I think you have to drop your docx onto the converter prog, then open it in office - also its a beta release. Some 2007 features may be lost I guess. Office 2008 for mac is supposed to be out in Jan 2008 and will also use the xml format so will be natively compatible with 2007.