Office 2007 Enterprise

Microsoft Office has undergone several changes ever since its introduction in 1989. The recent incarnation of Office, version 12 also known as Microsoft Office 2007 Enterprise version, is (in)famous for doing away with the traditional menus and toolbars, which Office has been known for since the beginning.

Long-time users of Office may initially balk at the drastic facelift of the interface, especially those who are intimidated by the array of buttons with seemingly complicated features. The major concern of most users is the amount of time wasted with tinkering and adjusting to the new upgrades on old favorites. The question now, is Office 2007 really worth spending time and money on?

The answer is yes.

The Microsoft Office 2007 Enterprise edition contains the five perennial applications in the Office bundle: Word, PowerPoint, Outlook, Excel, and Access alongside several additions Groove, InfoPath, OneNote, and Publisher. The most notable change in Microsoft Office 2007 Enterprise edition is the new interface featuring a tabbed toolbar called the Ribbon.

A series of tabs that show panels containing the application’s various tools and features take the place of menus and toolbars in Office core applications. To navigate, you simply switch between tabs on the toolbar. It’s interesting to note that despite the hype surrounding the new Ribbon interface, not all the applications have undergone the upgrade. Outlook for instance is in limbo between the new and old interface while OneNote is stuck with the old school menu-and-toolbar interface.

The downsides of the Ribbon interface are minimal at best. For instance, the Ribbon is permanently mounted on top of the application window, which could be problematic for some applications and users with low screen resolutions. You can’t move the Ribbon interface to the sides of the application window but you can opt to minimize/hide the Ribbon just by double-clicking on the current tab.

Users who don’t like unnecessary command buttons cluttering up their work space may be disappointed to know that the Ribbon does not allow you to add/remove commands. Developers attempt to remedy this with the Quick Access Toolbar, located to the right of the Office Button, which lets you customize commands to your heart’s content.

The Ribbon takes some getting used to at first but once you adjust to the new interface, you’ll realize that it’s better and more user-friendly than the old interface. It helps that the new interface also allows for fly-over help that displays each feature’s function plus its keyboard shortcut when you hover your cursor over the icon.

The beauty of the Ribbon interface is that all the features of the application are out in the open, allowing you to discover all sorts of features that would normally be hidden away in the old interface.

Another note-worthy, albeit less publicized feature of Office 2007 is the presence of new document formats in Word, PowerPoint, and Excel dubbed as OpenXML.

This feature lets documents generated by Office 2007 to be interoperable across multiply platforms without affecting the pre-existing appearance of the document/spreadsheet/presentation. You can still access the old formats by clicking on Save As and selecting the 97-2003 option.

Minimal upgrades have been made to the core Office applications, although this does not imply that they are insignificant changes. Of the lot, Excel and PowerPoint have received vast improvements in terms of producing professional-looking content. Excel can now generate contemporary-looking 3D charts complete with effects.

Best of all, you can share the charts with Word and PowerPoint without affecting its appearance. PowerPoint now offers more professional-looking themes that can give a more polished look to your presentation.

Overall, the Microsoft Office 2007 Enterprise version is a worthy investment on your part. If you think you know the core applications of Microsoft inside out, this version of Office will prove you wrong. Don’t let the new upgrades intimidate you because you might miss out on new features that can further enhance your Microsoft Office skills.