I have one word for office 2007. Failure. Stick with open office or MS office 2003 because this sucks. they ot rid of half of the features and rearaged the menus. Can you belive that MS got rid of drop down menus. there are no features I can't do half of the things I could do in in the older versions and they must have seen how much this sucks because they changed Word, Excel, and Powerpoint but they left Outlook and Publisher alone. But it is so anoying they even changed the defalt sizes and fonts to some new thing so evey time I type a paper for school I have to change everything. They even made a new file type called .docx just for their new programs but all it is is a zip file containing the file and any settings changes.

I believe your post can be summed up in a lot less than that:
Microsoft is full of morons who think 'different'=='better', so they decided they should change everything and it would sell better. They were dead wrong.

Furthurmore, I find your statement of 'Stick with open office or MS office 2003 because this sucks.' offensive, because it suggests that I am stupid enough to switch to MS Office from OpenOffice. If I didn't want OpenOffice, I'd use AbiWord.

Actually, I like the new Office 2007. It has ALL of the features the old versions did (and more) - and I find it is much easier to find the most commonly used ones. Which is why it is being praised as a huge leap forward in GUI design. The ribbon == excellent. The only thing it is missing is the incremental search add-on, which MS has decided to scrap for some unknown reason - here's hoping they bring it back!

As for the new file format, what is the problem? Microsoft has released a patch so older versions of office can use the format, and office 2007 can save in "compatibility" mode using the old office formats. Sounds like a win-win to me... Regarding the "all it is is a zip file" - what do you think the OpenOffice formats are? *gasp* a ZIP file with XML files in it! ZOMG! How is using ZIP compression a negative?

@Tari: The goal wasn't to make it different, it was to simplify the gargantuan maze of menus - and in that regard they succeeded wonderfully. Although I agree with you, I still use OpenOffice, but my dad needed office for his new computer, so he picked up Office 2007, which is why I now have it. The "Home" version is licensed for installation on 3 computers, so I got Office 2007 for free .

My comp teacher loved this. He has been working alongside MS and is getting his MS Certification over the summer, but absolutely loves MSO 07. He was even saying "If you get the chance, buy this. It works great and it makes al that you do much simpler, especially when you finally learn how to use it."

And Tari, I gotta agree. MS is really stupid. At one point, they even used the taskbar idea that was in the Mac OS and put it on Windows (3.1?). But no, they did not change the entire thing, just 99.9%

I'm sticking with MSO 03 for now.... Parents are too cheap to buy any new software anyways

What are you talking about? Mac OS doesn't HAVE a taskbar. It has the taskbar-ish Dock, but no taskbar. Likewise, I'm not sure why you are so quick to call MS stupid. I'm thinking you are running Windows right now, and you already admitted to owning/using Office 2003. So if MS is "really stupid", and yet you buy all their crap, logic would dictate that you are "really really stupid", as you are paying for what you are calling "really stupid". Of course, if MS is "really stupid", would you care to explain how it is such a ridiculously rich company? Oh, right, because MS is NOT stupid .

@Kllr:
OK, that makes more sense. I've never really had reason to use Office at all (really just typing things at school, and the most complex thing I've had to do with that is inserting symbols), so I guess I can't really say anything about either with veracity. I suppose that once you get used to '07, it will be easier to use than '03, but I have no reason to do so.

I would love the new layout if I could find anything. Yes, it may be better once you get used to it but right now it is a pain in the A**. In MS Excel the only way to acces most of the options is right clicking and it gets annoying having to right click for everything. I like some of the changes but I hate not being able to look at more than one toolbar. the right click menu never cahnged they just made that the only way to get to half of the formating controls.

Now don't kill me for this, just stating my opinion:

A) I was talking about the OLD Mac Os, you know.... Like the Minis? The little square box that was in basically every school? It had a taskbar at the top, and eventually MS used the same idea. I think in 3.1 they integrated it.
B) I never said their products were stupid, just what MS does sometimes.
C) Yes, I am running Windows, and am using IE7, yes they are good.

When you mess with something that a lot of people have been using for a while (2+ years of 03 for me) and then revamp it so much that even though it looks good, it is a little harder at the beginning, I really don't like that. It should be easier to use a newer version when switching from an older version and knowing what you could and could not do in the older version. It should be an extremely easy transition. Adding in stuff is good, taking stuff out that wasn't needed is good. Messing with menus and making it harder on users that have come to know and love is bad.

So:
Making it better for new users=good
Making it better for old users=good
Making it really easy for new users=good
Making it harder on old users=bad, not "crap, this is the worst program I have ever tried" bad, just a general bad

I'm probably at one point going to get MS 07, it may take a while and lots of cursing at the computer, Microsoft for making it this way, and lots of Mountain Dews finishing a paper, but I hope I will learn to love it as I love 03 now.

No, see, thats your problem. You aren't looking in the ribbon. All the formatting controls are in the RIBBON AT THE TOP. Just take a few minutes to go through each tab of the ribbon and familiarize yourself with it - jeez, its really not that hard...

@Angel: The Mac Minis run the SAME OS that every other Apple runs, and the "bar at the top" is not a taskbar at all. The taskbar is what has all the currently running windows in it (which Win 3.1 didn't have at all). Besides, Windows has never had a bar at the top that was similar in function to the one which Apple uses. Windows chose to go with the "each widow gets their own menu bar" design rather than Apple's "one menu bar for EVERYTHING!" approach (which is the bar that resides at the top of the screen).

As for your claim that the new Office 2007 is harder than previous versions for previous versions - what is backing up that claim? My dad and I both got accustomed to the ribbon quickly and easily, as did you comp sci teacher. That makes TheStorm the only one so far in this thread that has had problems making the transition, but I think he is just too lazy to try and familiarize himself with something new...

Oh, and IE7 sucks - quit using that hunk of crap, jeez...

What I'm backing up is not what I have experienced, but what people around me have experienced, not with MSO 07 itself, but more of new MS stuff in general. It took my parents weeks to accept IE7 (yes, I know it sucks and stole stuff from FF (like I said, MS's software is good, MS's ways of obtaining new ideas isn't)), and that would probably be the same way for MS 07. Its new, so they'll be scared, confused, and total disoriented. You are backing up your claim with you and your dad. OK, I can see that. But my parents are bad enough with 03 (I am asked for help almost every time they get on), and upgrading now would be a pain in the butt for me. I do most of the comp stuff, and upgrading, and then them asking me every other time they get on how to do something isn't helpful.

And about the taskbar thingy, I was talking about teh little bar at the top that starts stuff, like the "FILE" menu and the stuff like that. I was looking and remembering stuff from class, and I had found the pics a while back that to me made it look like MS was using the same idea. I was looking at pics like this (Windows 3.1) and this (Mac)


[ubernoob](I'm totally serious)
And I know some OS's can only be run under certain hardware requirements. If the Minis run the same OS as every other Mac, do you mean they have the capability to run every other Mac OS or do you mean that every other Mac after the Mini can run the Mini OS? Wouldn't OSX and Leapord need different specs for different stuff?
[/ubernoob]

I have only used office 2007 a few times, and it was fine. I hate how people call a company bad because they think one product is bad, criticize the designers, not the company, for the failure (with a big company like Microsoft it is bad to stereotype the entire company, if they had a product that was really interesting to you, would you want to not get it JUST because you think their office suite is bad? ) Ok, I ran a bit offtopic, but oh well...

Also, while I like the software, their format (at least the old one) was way to large... I had a file that I saved once in .odt and it was about 5 kb, I saved one as .doc and it was something like 50

This may be because I saved both from Open Office (do they have a problem saving .doc?), or maybe .doc just supports more (more fonts etc.?)

When I get my Toshiba tablet in August with Microsoft Office 07 on it, then I'll comment.