The 2007 Microsoft Office system

By Jessica Padykula

I've been using Microsoft Office for a while, so I was a little reluctant to test the new version, just based on the fact I was comfortable with the old one. Admittedly though, there were always areas of Office — be it in Excel, Word or PowerPoint — where it seemed to take longer than it should to find the tools or commands I needed. It can be frustrating to know there are countless great tools at your fingertips, and not know where to find them!

Luckily, with Office 2007, Microsoft has redone its user interface, making it much easier for people like me to find exactly what we're looking for.

The first thing I noticed about the new user interface was the ribbon, a panel running along the top of each Office application in place of standard menus and toolbars. Each application has its own ribbon, showing the most common commands. This made it much easier for me to find what I needed — when I needed it. The best part is I even found some features and tools I'd never seen before, but always thought would be helpful when creating spreadsheets, charts and other documents. Kind of like a treasure-hunt for geeks!

The next thing that made my Office experience easier were something called Contextual Tabs. These tabs only appear when you need them for what you are working on. As I was inserting a photo into a letter to a friend (Yes, some people still send snail mail), a tab appeared containing all the tools I might need for placing the photo where I wanted it. Once I finished, the tab was gone.

My personal favourite feature has to be Live preview. When I wanted to know what the heading of my latest work document would look like with a different font, I simply highlighted it, scrolled through the font list and watched as the text changed with every scroll. I got to see the changes before committing to them, which made the process easier.

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