Word 2007 -- How Alone Am I?

[Jannr]

I know I'm not alone, but I'm wondering how "not alone" I am in thinking that
Word 2007 must have been "designed by committee," in terms of that phrase
denoting a negative. I honestly would like someone who uses Word for the
majority of their work day to tell me if they have found any advantages. I
realize new software always takes time to learn, but this seems
counter-intuitive to me and laborious to use, wasting time. For the record,
I temped for a long time and was used to switching from all versions of Word
to to WordPerfect, as well as using and switching between dozens of other
software programs. I am fairly savy on catching on quickly, but this, well,
as they say in the Land of Oz, is a horse of a different color.

[Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]]

Pretty darned alone...

http://blogs.msdn.com/jensenh/

--
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. All
unsolicited mail sent to my personal account will be deleted without
reading.

After furious head scratching, Jannr asked:

[Jannr]

I have no idea where the "After furious head scratching" came from, however,
apparently you must not be reading any of the posts regarding Word 2007 to
say I am "Pretty darned alone . . ." When searching for answers I ran across
a lot of frustrated people; including business people who say it is not cost
effective. So, and understanding you are an MVP of Outlook, not Word 2007,
tell me what is/are the advantage(s)? I asked an honest question, albeit
with exasperation, and you gave sarcasm.

[Val]

It's a horse with a different number of legs, and the head on both ends!

You're not alone.

I've suffered through losses of functionalities from version to version, and
this one just chaps my @%% too much. Now I can't even easily find the
things that don't work the same any more.

Val

"Jannr" <Ja...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:1221ADF6-144D-45DB...@microsoft.com...

[Jannr]

I realize I should have checked out the blog first, it all makes sense now
"Millie."

[Jannr]

Thank you for the (no pun intended) validation. If you check out the blog
listed at the end of "Millie's" sarcastic response, you will not be
altogether surprised at why it is so self-serving and non-responsive to a
genuine question. In my short experience, the Vista platform and Word 2007
has caused "crashing and burning" from frozen printers, to knocking out the
entire email system, to saved documents that are suddenly corrupted when you
try to open them. And, for "Millie," this has been at multiple offices --
not just one with an IT problem.

Do you find that going to help gives you information to solve the problem
you do not understand and/or recognize and you end up back at "help" to
untangle those instructions? BTW: I've started finding the keystroke
equivalents at home on XP 2003 and sending them to myself at work -- it is
helping.

J-

[Beth Melton]

I felt the same way when I first started using Office 2007. My trusty menus
and toolbars were gone and it seemed like it took more clicks to accomplish
a task than the previous versions. I hated it, I hated every minute I spent
with it. BUT then I started discovering the new features that were
introduced and ever since then I've never looked back. The key is two-fold.
1) If you are trying to use the applications exactly as you did in the past
you may find it more cumbersome. 2) While some tasks take more clicks other
tasks, many tasks that used to involved several changes have been reduced to
a couple clicks. I found the time-saving steps are a bit of a trade-off.
Take the Margin galleries for a quick example. If you need to modify your
margins, several frequently used options are available on the Page Layout
tab in the Margins gallery for Word and Excel. All you have to do is open
the gallery, click your selection, and the margins are changed for you.

I suspect once you learn how to efficiently use the new UI then you'll
discover as I did, and numerous others who hated it initially too, things
you wondered how you ever lived without. :-) Here are a few tips and
resources that may help:

- Learn more about the Quick Access Toolbar (the small toolbar next to the
Microsoft Office Button that has Save and Undo on it by default). It's easy
to customize and add those commands you frequently use. To add a command,
right-click the command, either on the Ribbon or those found under the
Microsoft Office Button, and then click "Add to Quick Access Toolbar". To
add an entire group, such as the Font group on the Home tab, right-click the
group name instead of a command in the group. To remove a command,
right-click it and you'll see the Remove command. To reorganize commands,
right-click the Quick Access Toolbar and then click "Customize the Quick
Access Toolbar". I set mine up in the beginning so it looked exactly like
the first part of the old Standard toolbar and the first part of the
Formatting toolbar. What a difference that made!

- Right-click *everything*. Unlike previous versions, some commands can only
be found by right-clicking a command. This includes the Galleries as well.

- Use Interactive Guides to help you find commands you're unable to locate.
They can be found in Help or by using these links:

Excel : http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel/HA101491511033.aspx

PowerPoint: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/powerpoint/HA101490761033.aspx

Word: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word/HA100744321033.aspx

- Spend a little time on Office Online. It contains a wealth of resources
from tips and tricks to training.

Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email cannot be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Coauthor of Word 2007 Inside Out:
http://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/books/9801.aspx#AboutTheBook

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/

"Jannr" <Ja...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:1221ADF6-144D-45DB...@microsoft.com...

[Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]]

What - can't use AutoCorrect?

--
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. All
unsolicited mail sent to my personal account will be deleted without
reading.

After furious head scratching, Jannr asked:

| I realize I should have checked out the blog first, it all makes
| sense now "Millie."
|
| "Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]" wrote:
|
|| Pretty darned alone...
||
|| http://blogs.msdn.com/jensenh/
||
||

|| --Â

[Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]]

And I guess after, what, all of 30 minutes you were able to digest the fullness of Jensen's blog? Guess you are a better speed reader than I gave you credit for.

Oh, and the signature thing, it is on every post - don't get your panties in a twist.

--
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. All
unsolicited mail sent to my personal account will be deleted without
reading.

After furious head scratching, Jannr asked:

| Thank you for the (no pun intended) validation. If you check out the

[Jannr]

I've no idea why you feel compelled to be so vitriolic to a complete stranger
in cyberspace; I don't think it says much about the content of your character
-- you've made this a personal attack versus a discussion involving two
people with opposing viewpoints; I asked a genuine question in an effort to
learn something positive in Word 2007 and got a non-resposive blast from you.
Or perhaps I missed something in your statement "You're darned alone" that
would have guided me to some thing valuable I was missing in the new program?

As for your comments regarding the "signature thing," when you are in a
public discussion forum I suggest you leave petty, witchy comments out of it
if you wish to be taken seriously. Although having offered no substantative
information relative to using Word 2007, your credibility is somewhat suspect
already.

[Jannr]

Beth, thanks so much for your time in helping me to see some different values
in Word 2007. What you wrote will be very helpful. Much of my frustration
stems from going to help for answers only to get information that references
things in a new way that sends me back to help to understand the "help" I am
getting -- thus I'm going in circles. What I don't understand is why certain
things have been renamed, i.e., in the control panel why "display" became
"personalization" -- I felt like a complete idiot as it took me forever to
find it until I discovered several other people including a tech who had the
same problem, as well as why certain things needed to be eliminated, like
easy access to information re what keystrokes activate what commands (I'm
finding more and more people have come to realize that keystrokes are faster
than removing your hands from the keyboard and using the mouse). I'm all for
advancing and improving the functionality of Word but at the same time it
does seem that to a certain extent it is being revised with the non-business
user in mind versus those of us to whom it is a staple of our work day -- at
least that seems to be the consensus in my field of law.

Again, thanks Beth for a productive response to my question.

Jann

[Beth Melton]

You're welcome. :-)

I think they changed the wording as an attempt to add more clarity for new
users. I agree, it's frustrating when you are familiar with the old terms.

You can still use the keyboard, all of the keyboard shortcuts that were
available in Word 2003 still work in Word 2007. You can also use Alt key
navigation, called Key Tips. If you press your Alt key you'll see Key Tips
display above each command in the Ribbon and for each tab. Commands on your
QAT are assigned a Key Tip by the position of the command. Alt+1 is for the
first command, Alt+2 for the second, and so on.

You'll also see the keyboard shortcut identified in the Screen Tip for many
of the commands. Not all are identified, though, even if it has a shortcut
assigned. In that case, you can look up "keyboard" in Help for various lists
of keyboard shortcuts. Here is a link that may help:
http://office.microsoft.com/client/helppreview.aspx?AssetID=HP101476261033&QueryID=uusB5xNEL0&respos=6&rt=2&ns=WINWORD&lcid=1033&pid=CH100965071033#2

All-in-all, after using Office applications for over 20 years I do think
Office 2007 is worth the time to learn. I'm not just saying that, either.
There was a time I was saying quite the opposite. lol There are so many
great aspects that I wish the rest of the world would take the leap so I can
start implementing the new features.

If you want an example of a couple features I find the most exciting in
Word, I think Content Controls and Building Blocks will provide more
efficient methods of document creation - this is where you really start
finding time-saving steps. Using a content control, a type of data entry
contol, you can bind it a data source. The data can be used elsewhere in the
document and even extracted for database import. If you want an example of
this, create a new document based on one of the Reports in the Installed
Templates, click the Microsoft Office Button and then click New. Equity
Report would make a good example.

The reports contain content controls in the document and in the
headers/footers. Fill in the information on the cover page, such as the
title, year/date, subtitle, company name, etc. Scroll through the document
and note how the data you added to the first page was automatically updated
on subsequent pages. AND you can modify the data anywhere in the document.
Better yet, updating the document to reflect the changes is not necessary.
Then, on the Insert tab, click Cover Page and select another cover page.
This will swap out the current cover page and all of the previously typed
data will display in the new cover page.

If you want a little more insight on what is happening exactly in the
template and cover page, they contain bound document property fields which
are displayed in Content Controls. You can find these fields under Quick
Parts on the Insert tab. Once inserted, if you modify the data in the
content control it's automatically added to the Document Properties. So if
you add the same document property field again there's no need to add or
modify the data and you can view and modify the document properties outside
the application and update the file contents. Similar to how the bound
document properties work, you can create your own data bindings and fields,
if you will, for specialized documents using content controls.

Since you are in the legal field, consider how your legal documents could be
created using similar methods - a few clicks to insert content that is
already pre-populated AND formatted. Combine this power with the power of
SharePoint and I could continue typing for at least another printed page!
lolol

Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email cannot be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Coauthor of Word 2007 Inside Out:
http://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/books/9801.aspx#AboutTheBook

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/

"Jannr" <Ja...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message

news:EA2AAD1F-875B-4BF5...@microsoft.com...

[Jannr]

One more question -- when I open the directory in Word (control O), there
used to be an icon (an up "arrow") that would let me go up one level to the
previous place you were in the directory -- I've not found this in yet. I
seem to have to go back to the "tree" along side the directory. I know I'm
not explaining this well. Can you help?

Jann

BTW, I am doing better, many thx. :)

[Beth Melton]

Are you using Windows Vista? If so, then click the name of the folder you
want to jump to at the top of the dialog box (they have little arrows to the
left of the folder names). I actually like this better than the Up One Level
option since I can see which folder I'm navigating to and I can jump to any
of the folders in the path in a single click.

Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email cannot be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Coauthor of Word 2007 Inside Out:
http://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/books/9801.aspx#AboutTheBook

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/

"Jannr" <Ja...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message

news:13568C11-B494-4995...@microsoft.com...

[red]

After much trial and error just trying to do a simple thing like create a
resume, and send it off to prospective employers. Unfortunately the file
extension created in office 2007 doesnt allow many people to open it. I had
to go back and resave everything as a word doc. now if i could go back and
save my 150.00 bucks! Its not amater of learning a new program but why cant
we have something universal?

Ive concluded that the only true wysiwyg is the old fashioned pen and
paper... microsoft does this so that everyone has to update its all about the
cash baby! They dont just want your money they want all of our money.

"open office" is a great alternative and its FREE also compatiable with ms
office

[Bob Buckland ?:-) At Beautiful Downtown]

Hi Red,

If you have a retail edition of MS Office then you may want to see if the refund procedures here apply:
http://microsoft.com/mscorp/productrefund/refund.mspx

===========
>>"red" <r...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:C694371C-416C-4889...@microsoft.com...

After much trial and error just trying to do a simple thing like create a
resume, and send it off to prospective employers. Unfortunately the file
extension created in office 2007 doesnt allow many people to open it. I had to go back and resave everything as a word doc. now if i
could go back and save my 150.00 bucks! Its not amater of learning a new program but why cant we have something universal?

Ive concluded that the only true wysiwyg is the old fashioned pen and
paper... microsoft does this so that everyone has to update its all about the cash baby! They dont just want your money they want
all of our money.

"open office" is a great alternative and its FREE also compatiable with ms office <<

--

Bob Buckland ?:-)
MS Office System Products MVP

*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*

[red]

I like the new interface and will continue to use it however, it would much
prefered if a little time was spent on makeing peoples lives easier, simple
opperations for simple tasks. I appreciate the time MS spends developing
software, the problem is the money bug, less time should be spent on how to
get more of our money and more time spent on functionality. I like the new
office 2007 and Vista, but really? is it much more then a new skin for xp
with a few new features and more security. I used office 97, office 2000, now
2007. I had win 98se upgraded to Me then a short time later an upgrade to XP
was available. Three times money was wanted from us in three years! hmmm.
Appreciate the fact XP did a nice long run, even though i never spent my
money and stuggled along with my old ME. The computer is still running strong
but cant support any new software should I upgrade it to xp or throw it in
the garbage. The landfills are full of theese old boxes and we pay to dispose
of them. Anyway i think were off topic.

[Beth Melton]

There are actually quite a few new features in Office 2007. I'd have to say
substantially more than found in previous upgrades. Off the top of my head,
and a quick look around the apps to help my memory <g>, here's a list of
some of the new features.

All apps:
New file formats
Themes (help streamline formatting across the applications)
Charting has been completely revamped.
New graphic tools. SmartArt and new graphic features are *very* cool.
PDF creation
Document Inspector
Live Preview
Quick Style formatting options

Word:
Content Controls
Building Blocks
Quick Style Sets
Additional Style management tools
New Bibliography feature
New Equation editor
Contextual spell check
Several exiting features have added minor enhancements.
Additional details:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word/HA100742241033.aspx

Excel
New Page Layout view
More rows and columns (finally!) 1,048,576 rows by 16,384 columns
Enhanced Tables feature
Enhanced Conditional formatting
Autocomplete for functions
External connections manager
New Remove Duplicates functionality
Enhancements to named ranges
New functions
Additional details:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel/HA100738731033.aspx

PPT
Photo albums
Slide Libraries
Custom Slide Layouts
Enhanced effects
Enhanced Presenter view
Numerous formatting features were enhanced (font formatting, tables, text
boxes, etc)
Additional details:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/powerpoint/HA100742261033.aspx

There's even more I'm sure I'm not thinking of right now.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile/Melton
What is a Microsoft MVP? http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/gp/mvpfaqs

Guides for the Office 2007 Interface:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/training/HA102295841033.aspx

"red" <r...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message

news:83F85FB0-756A-42E4...@microsoft.com...

[Lucy Thomson]

Hi Beth

I was just about to get a list together of new features in 07 for a project,
so this is great thanks - very serendipitous :-)

Just FYI, in PowerPoint the photo album feature isn't new (been available
since 2002 and as an add-in for 2000) but it is improved as pictures now
come in as pictures, not autoshape fills. My fav new thing is the selection
pane.

For anyone interested, Echo has a great list of all the new PowerPoint stuff
here:
http://www.echosvoice.com/2007.htm

Lucy

--
Lucy Thomson
PowerPoint MVP
MOS Master Instructor
www.aneasiertomorrow.com.au

"Beth Melton" <bme...@mvps.org> wrote in message
news:e11cOh$mIHA...@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...

[Beth Melton]

It's definitely not an extensive list -- some of the minor changes are just
as important. :-)

I love the new selection pane in PPT and Excel too. Too bad we still don't
have it along with the complete set of new graphics features in Word. :-(

I completely forgot about the Photo Album ability in previous versions -
thanks for the reminder. :-) (Would MS consider that a plus in
'discoverability' <grin>? )

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP
https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile/Melton
What is a Microsoft MVP? http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/gp/mvpfaqs

Guides for the Office 2007 Interface:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/training/HA102295841033.aspx

"Lucy Thomson" <lu...@NOSPAManeasiertomorrow.com.au> wrote in message
news:uELmumEn...@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...

> Hi Beth
>
> I was just about to get a list together of new features in 07 for a
> project, so this is great thanks - very serendipitous :-)
>
> Just FYI, in PowerPoint the photo album feature isn't new (been available
> since 2002 and as an add-in for 2000) but it is improved as pictures now
> come in as pictures, not autoshape fills. My fav new thing is the
> selection pane.
>
> For anyone interested, Echo has a great list of all the new PowerPoint
> stuff here:
> http://www.echosvoice.com/2007.htm
>
>

[xaniacomputing]

You may be interested in the thread I posted here
http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/forums/index.cfm?action=showthread&threadID=322700&ForumID=1&sr=1.

Microsoft clearly don't care about vusers - just about making money. Try to
talk to them and it costs money. Even their much vaunted free support in the
first month simply refuses to let you in unless you pay even more money. If
anyone can find a way through this maze, it would be a wonder. Fortunately,
I only need to jump though tis hoop this one last time - by the next one,
I'll have retired. But someone really does need to find a way through to
these people. Any bids!!