Prepare for the arrival of Office 2007 January 25, 2007
Posted by admin in : Expert Advice from the ITS HelpDesk, Hardware and Software Sales, New Technologies , add a commentAs you may already be aware, Microsoft will soon release Office 2007 (expected release date: January 30th). This updated version of the Office suite will feature an entirely new look for the popular programs. PowerPoint, Word, Excel, Access, and Outlook are included in Microsoft Office 2007.
Perhaps one of the biggest changes is the elimination of the many tool bars and menus that are typical in the current and previous Office versions. Office 2007 introduces the “Ribbon“, which will contain “Tabs”, “Groups”, and “Commands”. These three components will contain functions that are specific to the program you are currently in (for example, Word may not have all the same buttons/tabs as PowerPoint), but Microsoft says that once you learn the “Ribbon” in one program, you’ll have no problem with the others.
Office 2007 aims to make everyday tasks easier by displaying the most commonly used buttons (such as copy and paste) in prominent places. The new Office programs also feature “preview” functions, so you can tell if you like a change before you make it. For example, do you really want the text to be blue? Or do you want it to be red? Now you can see how it will look before you select it, which will remove the inconvenience of having to select “Undo” if you decide it wasn’t the look you were hoping for.
For a more in-depth look at what the new Office Suite will offer, check out the Office 2007 Overview. Additional training materials (free for a limited time) are available at: http://www.microsoft.com/learning/office2007/default.mspx .
If you would like to download a trial version of Office 2007, visit: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/products/HA101741481033.aspx.
Office 2007 will allow users to save files in older formats so that they are opened easily in Office 95-XP. The new Office suite uses an XML-based format, which will increase the security of files and reduce the file size. Unfortunately, if you save files in the new format, a converter will need to be installed before older versions of Office can open the files. For example, when an Office 2003 user tries to open an Office 2007 file, he/she will be asked if they want to install the converter to be able to open the file. ITS plans to include this converter in the computer labs as soon as possible, so that students who upgrade at home won’t run into problems when they try to open their files on-campus. Until it is available, faculty/staff/students who use Office 2007 may want to consider saving their files in an older format to ensure that they can be modified on-campus. To save your files in an older format in Office 2007 choose “Save as” and change the “Save type as” to the desired version (Office 2003 is the version of Office most widely available on-campus). Access 2007 files can’t be opened with older versions of Access, even with a converter. Staff can find the file format converter while on-campus at “L:\ITS Recommended Applications\File Format Converters” and off-campus on Microsoft’s site.
ITS recommends these minimum requirements for installing Office 2007 on campus computers: Windows XP Operating System with SP2; Pentium 3 with 500 MHz Processor and a minimum of 512 MB RAM (Dell GX270 minimum). For full specifications, please consult http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/suites/HA101668651033.aspx.
ITS plans to slowly implement Office 2007 for faculty and staff on University-owned computers over the next year, beginning in the Spring semester. There is no estimate for when Office 2007 will be available in the on-campus computer labs. Currently, ITS does not sell or take pre-orders for Office 2007. ITS estimates that Office 2007 will be available for students, faculty and staff to purchase at a discounted rate by Spring semester 2007. This is an estimated date however, and may change. Watch for an email announcement of the exact date when Office 2007 will be available for purchase from ITS!
