Microsoft Word 2007 Home and Student Edition (PC) (CD-ROM)

The Next Step of Control The title can be read in two ways. If you think that Microsoft are here to control you then you will think that this is the case with this product, however, this is down to a very narrow view point. I am a Senior Lecturer and work with a range of students who can be very confident with computer but also can be very nervous with them. Yes if you are use to the earlier versions of Microsoft Office then you might feel frustrated that the items you want are not in the same place, however, on a personal front then I feel they have made it a lot more common sense. If you want an older version style then why do you want an upgrade to a more modern one? Surely it would be a waste of money and people would be complaining that there is nothing new for the money spent, whereas at present it is a completely different style and a lot more user friendly. Dealing with one of my specialism subjects, people do not like change as they are forced to come out of their comfort zone. As a result of this then people will complain and want to go back to what they feel comfortable with. If this is the case then I would suggest that you do not consider this package, however, if you are wanting to have a user friendly and better overall package then this is your package. One element which was a little frustrating was that if you saved the documents and then opened them in an earlier version then all what was seen was machine code. I know that this is always a problem with software when older and newer version are on offer, however, I would have thought that Microsoft would have resolved this in such a manner you do not have to be a technical person to resolve this. There is no problem with respect to an earlier version being read by this version. It is for this reason that I have not given it all of the stars.

You would be mad to buy this The title says it all. You really would be mad at the moment to buy this package. Why? Well do a search on Amazon for "Microsoft Office 2007 Home and Student Edition" At the time of writing this review that package costs £81.48. It includes Word 2007, Excel 2007, Powerpoint 2007 and One Note 2007 - thats 4 products in one box. You also get a licence to install them onto 3 Computers! As a result this pack is very poor value for money

Not worth the money As a business user I don't really have anything good to say about Office 2007. The new interface now requires 3-4 mouse clicks where 2-3 were needed previously. Many of the keyboard shortcuts no longer work or don't work the way they used to (I don't use the mouse very often). It's not possible to customise the menu structure to any extent as Microsoft have imposed the "ribbon" structure with it's fixed content. Many of the highlight colours just don't stand out e.g. highlighting text is pink on a white background but highlighted buttons are a sort of yellow colour. There are also only 3 colour schemes available, blue, silver or black. None is particularly attractive and none is particularly clear. Differentiating between several windows often not easy because they are all similar colours. As a heavy office user, I found the new version of office restrictive and un-instinctive, as if Microsoft have told me how i will work and what commands I will have easily available instead of me being able to select my own. Oh, and you can't even customise a macro button image now! Instead you have to use the ones provided which are an anonymous bunch at best. you are restricted to a single row of custom buttons - the "quick access toolbar" but if you want the traditional icons on the bar (font, size, style) then you can only fit another 10 or so on the bar - which is restricted to a single line only. when visible, the ribbon occupies a massive amount of space (about 30mm of vertical height) thus restricting the amount of text that can be seen. There appears to be no option to relocate the ribbon, it's always along the top. Hiding the ribbon then needs a double click to bring it back. I am struggling to express how frustrating I find this software. I am currently in the process of requesting a refund from MS and going back to Office 2003. Note that I can't find anything that 2007 does which 2003 didn't already do for me. If you are the sort of person who needs to have a new ringtone every week then you might like the interface but it's very poor for business and serious users. Should have been issued with the option for reverting to the 2003 interface - oh, but then it would not have been and "upgrade" at all.

A major upgrade but steep learning curve I'd describe myself as an expert Word user. I've been using it since its DOS days, through Word For Windows and right up to the most recent version. The upgrade to Word 2007 has to be the greatest leap since the one from DOS to Windows. The new features of Word are proving useful, such as the new approach to styles, the grid for positioning objects, and improved publishing and reviewing tools. Instant preview of formatting features is very useful to me, as it dispenses with the annoying try-undo-try method of experimenting in a document. However, I wasn't prepared for the huge changes Microsoft has made to the interface - the menus and toolbars. The new user interface dispenses with familiar pull-down menus and rows of icons stacked into toolbars, and presents instead an entirely new approach to the presentation of tools, using a single 'ribbon' of controls where toolbars used to be, grouped into named collections, such as Clipboard, Font, and Styles. Above the ribbon is what looks like pull-down menu titles, but these just swap the ribbon's content to suit the chosen activity. This seems like a clunky way of doing things, but the ribbon manages to make far more tools available and visible at a time, meaning an end to trawling through menus and submenus. If the ribbon is in the way, you can collapse/hide it. Also new to 2007 is the Office button - which is home to many file-related tasks such as opening, saving, printing and publishing. (Oddly it isn't used in the main Outlook 2007 window!) The down-side of all this novelty is that activities that used to be second nature to me I now have to re-learn using the new methods. For example, document properties are now in the Prepare section of the Office button menu. It has taken me a couple of weeks to get used to working with the new interface, but I like it because, once you get used to it, it is actually a nicer way to interact with Word. I write a lot of software for Word too, using the built-in VBA programming language. Thankfully, almost all my old code works fine in word 2007. As Word no longer supports toolbars, you'll find your toolbar icons now appear in the Add-Ins ribbon. Unfortunately, as usual, Microsoft has done almost nothing to improve VBA, but at least compatibility is not a problem. I've heard that Word 2007 runs some code slower than previously, though Word generally seems to make the computer work a bit harder. Personally, my code works just as fast as it used to. Some reviewers have howled about file incompatibility, but they are mistaken. Word 2007 can easily be configured to save old style DOC files. I publish all my work as DOC, but all my pre-published documents are stored in DOCX files, which are much smaller and more stable than DOC ever could be. Due to a spat between Microsoft and Adobe, Word doesn't support 'Save as PDF' out of the box, but this feature is a free download from Microsoft's website, along with the (also free) 'Save as XPS' feature. Overall I'm pleased with the upgrade. Microsoft has done a grand job on it, but if you take the plunge and upgrade, allow a week or two to become familiar with the new interface!