Microsoft Innovates with Office 2007
As a member of our IT staff with responsibility for training, I’ve been tasked with looking ahead at Office 2007. I tried the beta and liked some of what I saw, but recently I actually installed it and have been using it in place of Office 2003. What I saw before I liked. Now that I’m using it, I’ve realized that Microsoft actually did something in Office that I don’t think they’ve really done in a long time, innovate.
The Obvious
Starting with the obvious, ribbon bars, they’ve completely altered the user interface. When I first saw this, it seemed like a training nightmare. However, the more I use it, the more I realize that these are actually not so bad. Microsoft has taken time and effort to make the interface easy to understand and quick to use.
I originally thought that a person who’d never used Office would love the interface while an old-timer who’s used to doing things a certain way would have trouble. Now, I’m not so sure. With the exception of the file menu (which is that big circle button in upper left), much of the interface is intuitive. With the exception of a few complicated processes (e.g., Mail Merge), I don’t think most are going to have a problem adapting to this interface and will be much happier with it once they do.
Other Coolness
Okay, so that’s the most obvious innovation. But I’ve been surprised to find much more. Here’s a list of some of cooler things I’ve seen:
- Publish blogs from Word. The interface is simple and somewhat inflexible, but it’s a start and probably enough for someone wanting to get started in blogging but intimidated by actually creating stories.
- Categorize your email. Ever wanted to be able to tag your email in Outlook? You can now customize tags and assign colors and even use the same tags for email, events, and calendars.
- Get feeds, subscribe to online calendars, etc. You can now subscribe to your favorite blogs, news sites, online calendars, and other information from Outlook. These are treated like folders and are automatically updated.
- Preview attachments right in Outlook. If you didn’t like opening another program to see an attached image or document sent by email, you don’t have to anymore.
- Change views and zoom quickly in Word. This bar is in the bottom right corner of your Word window.
- Better fonts. Ever get tired of Arial and Times New Roman? Microsoft has switched to cleaner looking fonts that look like they belong in the 21st century. The oldies are still there if you need them, but now you also have Calibri to replace Arial and Cambria to replace Times New Roman.
Disclaimer
Now, I’m going to get into trouble with my Linux and Mac friends if I don’t make a quick disclaimer. I call this innovation, but a lot of these features have been available in other programs for a while. Mac has had a nice blogging and web site creator in iLife for over a year. Online subscriptions to Calendar and other feeds have been around for several years.
However, the recent update certainly brings Office into the “Web 2.0” world, which was sorely lacking before. Office had been a little stagnate, and while it did much of what we needed in business—it had only taken baby steps forward. I think the way Microsoft has pulled these features together into a single suite is innovative in some areas and certainly synergistic in others. These changes make Office 2007 a very interesting tool again.
