Monday, September 3, 2007

Getting used to Office 2007 menus

The new Office 2007 interface is a major overhaul over previous versions, and in my opinion, it's great. It's designed to maximize productivity, and to reflect the changes in todays hardware, particularly that of the rise in popularity of widescreen monitors. It's designed to have the things related to what you are doing right NOW to be in front of you, just one click away, rather than having to go through the same 3 click process multiple times. Still, the biggest criticism I hear of it is that it is different, no one likes change at first, especially from a product that has stayed the same for over 10 years. Once you get used to the new interface, chances are you'll see the productivity gains, however at first, it can be a slow down. Here's a tool I found on Microsoft's website, aimed at helping with the transition. The guides to the 2007 office system interface, has flash files (and executable flash files for offline use) which show you an office 2003 menu, and let you click in it just as you used to, after selecting something, it will then show an animation of how to do this in office 2007. Neat! If after using that you still are fed up with the interface, there's always the add in tool, which gives you office 2003 menu in office 2007, however this isn't the ideal solution - as it costs money (has a time limited trial though if you wish to test it), and doesn't train you in the new changes, it just covers them up. My advice is to use the flash guides, and take the step, you'll see that it was worth it.

No comments: