Pages: 1

 

2007-03-25 04:14:00
Vub
The Power of Two
+188|6948|Sydney, Australia
So does anyone have it? Some thoughts perhaps?

OK, Microsoft is holding a promotion whereby university students can get MS Office Ultimate 2007 for 75 AUD (60ish American dollars; 40 euros, 25 pounds) which is a good deal considering the normal retail version costs over 1000 AUD. Anyway, I decided to get it and try it out, here are my thoughts:

[*] They've decided to use the Mac font, well it looks alot like the Mac font anyway
[*] The new ribbon takes a bit of time to get used to
[*] Alot of features are hidden and can only be visible once you do something that requires it
[*] It's alot more intuitive
[*] Microsoft has this uncanny way of trying to make everything so dumbed down, but then again us generation X'ers can't understand how complex a computer can appear to be to an older person
[*] Ultimate eye candy! Although there are three colour schemes (blue, silver and black) it's still not as customisable as it should be
[*] If you've used Office 03 alot you will find the new interface to be a bit confusing at first, but it's good to see that you can now do superscript and subscript without having to search for it. (It's useful if you're trying to write mathematical or scientific formulae, trust me)
[*] I haven't had any crashes with it so far, it seems quite stable, let's hope it stays that way
[*] The splash screen is undifferentiated which annoys me, call me pedantic or contrived, but I feel Microsoft should try to differentiate their products a little better
[*] A new Office button has placed the most useful commands into one drop down menu (kind of like the Windows start menu now)
[*] Menu transition effects look quite good
[*] If you don't have a Vista PC you'll enjoy the new look, otherwise it's same old same old
[*] The entire program was 502 Megs (you were meant to download it) so that means the product key cost me 75 bucks
[*] Microsoft Groove and OneNote are extremely random products, and I don't see how they can prove to be very useful for the average home user. They're sort of like a cross between MSN and Outlook

Overall, I recommend it (although to be honest it doesn't really have alot more features than its predecessors, just a new look) and I bet they're trying to build a cult following around it. However, if you will have to pay 1000 bucks for it, then reconsider.

That being said though, any $1000 software available for $75 is worth it in my books.

Last edited by Vub (2007-03-25 04:16:12)

2007-03-25 04:35:20
TimmmmaaaaH
Damn, I... had something for this
+725|6893|Brisbane, Australia

agreed pretty much. I got it "cheaply" too....It does kinda give a new look on XP, it is still shiny etc. I like all the new smart art and perspective/glass/etc effects.
https://bf3s.com/sigs/5e6a35c97adb20771c7b713312c0307c23a7a36a.png
2007-03-25 05:33:13
Cheez
Herman is a warmaphrodite
+1,027|6892|King Of The Islands

/Offtopic
You use subscript/superscript for Equations?

I used the Eq editor. No idea where its stored in 07, but its a lot better. As you can see you can put in all your Greek characters and fractions and maths symbols and such.

https://www.rdg.ac.uk/SerDepts/su/Topic/WordProc/WoPW7equ01/eq1.gif
My state was founded by Batman. Your opinion is invalid.
2007-03-25 05:53:54
max
Vela Incident
+1,652|7021|NYC / Hamburg

I have to agree with most you said. I do find the ribbon and the tabs a bit hard to work with in the beginning but now I've pretty much got the hang of it. IMO if you cannot get it cheap and still have office xp/2003 its not worth it, because there is nothing really there that will improve work efficiency much. It does look very cool though.
Oh, and has anyone found any use for groove and one note yet? All I find myself using is word, exel, powerpoint and outlook.

Last edited by max (2007-03-25 05:55:29)

once upon a midnight dreary, while i pron surfed, weak and weary, over many a strange and spurious site of ' hot  xxx galore'. While i clicked my fav'rite bookmark, suddenly there came a warning, and my heart was filled with mourning, mourning for my dear amour, " 'Tis not possible!", i muttered, " give me back my free hardcore!"..... quoth the server, 404.
2007-03-25 06:22:31
Sarrk
O-O-O A-O A
+788|7109|Brisbane, Australia

max wrote:

I have to agree with most you said. I do find the ribbon and the tabs a bit hard to work with in the beginning but now I've pretty much got the hang of it. IMO if you cannot get it cheap and still have office xp/2003 its not worth it, because there is nothing really there that will improve work efficiency much. It does look very cool though.
Oh, and has anyone found any use for groove and one note yet? All I find myself using is word, exel, powerpoint and outlook.
Hello? Internets? Everything is "cheap" here.
2007-03-25 06:24:42
max
Vela Incident
+1,652|7021|NYC / Hamburg

Sarrk wrote:

max wrote:

I have to agree with most you said. I do find the ribbon and the tabs a bit hard to work with in the beginning but now I've pretty much got the hang of it. IMO if you cannot get it cheap and still have office xp/2003 its not worth it, because there is nothing really there that will improve work efficiency much. It does look very cool though.
Oh, and has anyone found any use for groove and one note yet? All I find myself using is word, exel, powerpoint and outlook.
Hello? Internets? Everything is "cheap" here.
I got office "cheap". Some people don't believe in "cheap" however and want to buy it for the full price in a shop.
once upon a midnight dreary, while i pron surfed, weak and weary, over many a strange and spurious site of ' hot  xxx galore'. While i clicked my fav'rite bookmark, suddenly there came a warning, and my heart was filled with mourning, mourning for my dear amour, " 'Tis not possible!", i muttered, " give me back my free hardcore!"..... quoth the server, 404.
2007-03-25 06:28:12
aujt74
Member
+11|7149|Scotland!
Groove is a peer to peer application MS bought a while back, its for creating shared workspaces in business enviroments, so its of very little use to home users. OneNote can be useful, but its main purpose is note taking for Tablet PC's - taking down notes, annotations to diagrams and the like for lectures, research or meetings. Still, not having a TabletPC (yet...), I have no use for it, or Groove either. Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Outlook, and maybe Access is all you need.

Cheez: In Word you can insert equations on the Insert ribbon. In Excel you need to insert a Microsoft Equation object, or MathType object depending on what software you have installed.
2007-03-25 06:33:05
Vub
The Power of Two
+188|6948|Sydney, Australia

max wrote:

I have to agree with most you said. I do find the ribbon and the tabs a bit hard to work with in the beginning but now I've pretty much got the hang of it. IMO if you cannot get it cheap and still have office xp/2003 its not worth it, because there is nothing really there that will improve work efficiency much. It does look very cool though.
Oh, and has anyone found any use for groove and one note yet? All I find myself using is word, exel, powerpoint and outlook.
I can see my efficiency drop significantly in the short term as I unlearn the locations of the all the functions and reestablish a feeling for where everything is.
2007-03-25 06:54:04
max
Vela Incident
+1,652|7021|NYC / Hamburg

Vub wrote:

max wrote:

I have to agree with most you said. I do find the ribbon and the tabs a bit hard to work with in the beginning but now I've pretty much got the hang of it. IMO if you cannot get it cheap and still have office xp/2003 its not worth it, because there is nothing really there that will improve work efficiency much. It does look very cool though.
Oh, and has anyone found any use for groove and one note yet? All I find myself using is word, exel, powerpoint and outlook.
I can see my efficiency drop significantly in the short term as I unlearn the locations of the all the functions and reestablish a feeling for where everything is.
but even once you know where everything is, do you think you will be more efficient? I cannot really imagine how it would really help. I spend like 1% of my time in the menus, the rest is thinking and typing
once upon a midnight dreary, while i pron surfed, weak and weary, over many a strange and spurious site of ' hot  xxx galore'. While i clicked my fav'rite bookmark, suddenly there came a warning, and my heart was filled with mourning, mourning for my dear amour, " 'Tis not possible!", i muttered, " give me back my free hardcore!"..... quoth the server, 404.
2007-03-25 07:03:34
Vub
The Power of Two
+188|6948|Sydney, Australia

max wrote:

Vub wrote:

max wrote:

I have to agree with most you said. I do find the ribbon and the tabs a bit hard to work with in the beginning but now I've pretty much got the hang of it. IMO if you cannot get it cheap and still have office xp/2003 its not worth it, because there is nothing really there that will improve work efficiency much. It does look very cool though.
Oh, and has anyone found any use for groove and one note yet? All I find myself using is word, exel, powerpoint and outlook.
I can see my efficiency drop significantly in the short term as I unlearn the locations of the all the functions and reestablish a feeling for where everything is.
but even once you know where everything is, do you think you will be more efficient? I cannot really imagine how it would really help. I spend like 1% of my time in the menus, the rest is thinking and typing
Well, for example, with many of the drawing options and font options letting you actually preview what it looks like in the ribbon, it may be faster to choose and design. And, with all the options displayed in a ribbon rather than as commandmenu options, they're all laid out in front of you, and you don't have to go search for them as much. But having said that, it will still take some time to get comfortable with the new organisation.

OK yeah no one spends that much time on the menus, so the benefit overall will be small, but in some areas it will be more significant.

Last edited by Vub (2007-03-25 07:05:03)

2007-03-25 08:38:24
Hurricane
Banned
+1,153|7084|Washington, DC

I've been using Office 2007 since the beta when it was "Office 12"... my how it's changed (the first beta was very laggy lol).
2007-03-25 09:03:17
max
Vela Incident
+1,652|7021|NYC / Hamburg

Hurricane wrote:

I've been using Office 2007 since the beta when it was "Office 12"... my how it's changed (the first beta was very laggy lol).
yeah, it was terrible. although I blame my old P-m 1.2 GHz for that partially
once upon a midnight dreary, while i pron surfed, weak and weary, over many a strange and spurious site of ' hot  xxx galore'. While i clicked my fav'rite bookmark, suddenly there came a warning, and my heart was filled with mourning, mourning for my dear amour, " 'Tis not possible!", i muttered, " give me back my free hardcore!"..... quoth the server, 404.

 

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