Office 2007 for the end-user

Office 2010

2009-11-21T03:00:00.000-08:00

I am starting a new blog Office 2010 for the end-user

Images

2007-12-31T12:59:00.000-08:00

You can read these posts with images at http://www.chrisgreaves.com/Office2007User/.

Excel 2007 bug

2007-09-27T02:19:00.001-07:00

Woody Leonhard has a new post on one of his blogs.
Seems that there's a calculation bug in Excel 2007.
Sigh!

Upgrade!

2007-01-31T16:24:00.000-08:00

Our local Staples office supply store has the new flyer out today.

Upgrade to Office 2007 for various prices and options at $160, $290, $340, $400, $690.

I found the titles, the price increments and the blurb fascinating.

Titles

We used to have two editions, now we have five editions. Whereas "Professional" was the label for the top edition (basic plus Access), now you need to go "Ultimate". (I have visions of a juvenile on a roller-coaster with the hair blown back. Yeee-hah!). Beats being a productive professional.

The blurb says that with Ultimate you get to collaborate with colleagues around the world, and "quickly create forms for all your business needs". Hmmm. That has got to be worth a lot, right?

The "Office Home and Student" intrigued me the most. I'll tell you why towards the end of this post.

Price Increments

I made a nice little bar chart and then calculated the ratio of neighbouring prices to get a better picture of the prices. $290 is 1.8 times $160, and so the rations of succeeding prices can be listed as 1.8, 1.2, 1.2, 1.7.

Moving from the lowest to the next and to the ultimate from the, well, penultimate, is a move almost doubling in price. The rest of the moves are near-trivial.

This leads me to believe that the stores are predicting most sales in the first and last categories. Why do I believe that? Because it is a big hurdle going from $160 to $290, so not many people will make the leap. Furthermore, if you have enough cash to splash on the $400 version, you are probably serious enough to lay out an extra $300 and go the whole (memory) hog.

Blurb

The second major point on the blurb says "East-to-find commands that help you get started". I'm not going to say much about this; I've stated my views elsewhere.

I'm certainly not going to say that Staples is telling a massive lie. After all, their flyer-creativity team might have more experience in using the ribbon than do I.

And I'm not going to come out in print and say that Staples is leading consumers down the proverbial garden path, with all its attendant weeds and clumps of manure.

After all, it may well be that other stores have similar statements in their flyers, and they can't all be wrong, can they?

Home and Student

It looks to me as if the old "I'm a student" trick might have flown the coop. After all, if you can't prove that you are a student, you can always prove that you have a home, so why bother proving that you are a student?

But if I were the IS manager of a department in a mid-size to large organization, I'd shell out $160 for a Home/Student upgrade and install it on one machine in my office.

Then I'd tell the training department to produce a map of the 2000/2002/2003 menu commands to the 2007 ribbon commands toute suite. At the very latest by the end of this week, for Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

At the start of next week I'd award a half-day's paid leave to anyone else who uses the machine and has trouble finding a command, and I'd take the half-day's paid leave from the training department staff.

(With a nod and a bow to Robert Townsend )

In Praise Of – Right Click

2007-01-27T08:42:00.001-08:00

I've said it before – the Ribbon is the hurdle.

So what to do when you are truly in a hurry and can't find that command? You'll be glad that you feel comfortable with right-click.

Here is a simple example: Format Cells.

Your challenge is to format cells or paste special before the phone completes its third ring and goes into voice mail. You want to see neat data before you pick up the phone.

If you are comfortable with right-click, you'll right-click, choose format cells, and be in business.

If you are comfortable with right-click, you'll right-click, choose copy, select, then right-click and choose paste Special.

As far as I have been able to see, the 2003 right-click menus are intact, and there's nothing new within them. (remember my theory is that we have 2003 with a ribbon and a new file format).

Get used to right-click today. It will save you time in 97/2000/2002/2003, and you'll be top-of-the-class in 2007!

In Praise Of – Shortcut Keys

2007-01-27T08:41:00.000-08:00

I've said it before – the Ribbon is the hurdle.

So what to do when you are truly in a hurry and can't find that command? You'll be glad that you learned those shortcut keys.

Here is a simple example: File, saveAs.

Your challenge is to find that command in the ribbon before the phone completes its third ring and goes into voice mail. You want to effect a saveAs before you pick up the phone.

If you had learned F12 as a shortcut for saveAs, you'll be in business!

As far as I have been able to see, the 2003 shortcuts apply across the board. (remember my theory is that we have 2003 with a ribbon and a new file format).

Before you migrate to 2007, print off a comprehensive list of shortcut keys in Word2003. And Excel2003. And AnyThing2003 you use.

The Nays Have It – For Now

2007-01-25T08:37:00.000-08:00

The January 12 2007 issue of Computing Canada carries two articles about Microsoft's new software. I endorse both articles.

Office 2007

On page 9 Charles Whaley says "... products that already have far more features than anyone could ever use." And "The new features are attractive, but, in many cases, not attractive enough to justify the cost of upgrading".

Windows Vista

On pages 18-19 Lynn Greiner says of Vista "It has also created a whole new set of pains for users and administrators, turning the user interface on its ear, and making enough changes in coding and security to render many things inoperable".

Lynn goes on to describe hardware and software failures.

Lynn points out that "Vista continues to hide file extensions by default". Many of us will see this as a terrible lapse in security – it is one of the best ways to hide the impact of a bad program from a user's eyes.

Lynn cuts to the chase with "And staff will need training too; help desks will likely be very busy".

So what

So this. I have previously explained my feelings on Office 2007. Once you get past the ribbon-thingy, you will find that you have Office 2003. The dialogue boxes are identical.

Office 2007 appears to me to be Office 2003 with an extra confusing layer of interface, especially for experienced users.

The bad news is that many users are trained by experienced users – word-of-mouth – so now most users know what they need to know to get the job done in office 2000/2002/2003, but all will be thwarted by the new barrier represented by Ribbon.

Oh yes – Office 2007 has new document formats, so anticipate a slew of corrupted-document problems.

Get Rich Quick!

Get used to hearing this. Trainers will be leaping for joy, and arguing about who pays for lunch, but this time it will be seen as a privilege.

Trainers stand to make a great deal of money by offering courses in navigating Office 2007 products.

Today most users know what they want to do – "I want to change the spacing before my paragraph" or "I want to change the heading text in my second section". They just won't know where to find it.

Anyone having a one-day course in mapping the Ribbon to the unchanged and familiar dialogue boxes will Get Rich Quick, especially in firms that launch Office2007.

Users will be screaming from 8:30 a.m. Monday until you get there.

Take an invoice with you.

Installation

2007-01-23T02:37:00.000-08:00

With a release data getting closer, let's see how the Trial version installs. Remember that I had had the Beta version installed, and that I had then upgraded to Beta2, found it awkward, and deleted it.

That done, I physically deleted the folder from c:\Program Files and ran the ToniArts EasyCleaner 2.0.5 to flush out now-redundant registry entries.

The whole process took significantly less than 30 minutes. I say less than because the time-stamps on my screen snapshots show less than 30 minutes, and some of that time was spent back-tracking to see what happens if I cancel and restart installation, and taking and saving snapshots.

When installation was complete, I ran Word2007, and then ran Word97, Word2000 and Word2003 for good measure. There appeared no major conflict between the 2007Trial and earlier installed versions of Word.
The Download
Two files are required for download. Think of them as X12 and X13 for obvious reasons. They total 650MB on your hard drive.

I had seen no indication on the web site as to which to run first, so I tossed a coin and lost. Run the X12 before the X13. There is probably a ReadMe file somewhere on the web site. It's not a big deal. I would have been happier if the installation process had recognized my mistake, found the X12 in the folder, and run that file for me.

The previous files (all files other than my X12 and X13) are probably redundant. I had left them in the folder because I hate throwing anything away; two minutes after emptying the recycle bin, I want the files back.

Installation fired up, and I was happy until I noticed that a Program Files was involved, and I hadn't been consulted. I'm rather particular about folders, having managed to corral Office into folders "Office1997", "Office2000", "Office2003" and "Office2007" in my previous efforts.

Where will today's installation take me? "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12" by the look of it; no ifs ands or buts. Pity. It spoils my nice arrangement.

The product key is emailed to you. Looks like this "W6EE3-KZSYM-KSD93-DC3KW-SY8PG" (but that's not my real product key). Write it down. Or better yet, save it in your file Passwords.DOC, and yes, I know we don't call it that.

What happens if you don't supply your key?

You get a warning that suggests you might be nagged more often than you'd like, so you may was well key it in.

Once the software is installed, a pop-up warns you that you have installed the Trial version. It says and suggests that I have only so many days (in my case it tuned out to be two months), after which not all the features will be available.

At this time I'd assume (again, without having bothered to read the documentation) that after March 31st I'll be able to open existing files, but not save any changes; that sort of thing.

Then you register across the Internet. So now Microsoft has identified me by an email address and some machine characteristic.

Frankly, I'm not that worried about it all.

I am in the habit of reinstalling Windows every 9 or 12 months anyway, as part of my procedures for flushing out old software traces.

And here I am in Word2007. The clock in the lower-right corner indicates 11:21, but remember, some of the time had been spent restarting installation, making notes, and so on.

For What It's Worth, my MRUse facility worked from the get go. This is a "contingency" test if you like, because MRUse access registry entries for all versions of Office. That MRUse did not fall over gives me confidence in Office2007.

The next time I loaded Office2007, after a quick run of Office2000, I was greeted with a re-configuration pop-up. I hoped this would not be a regular feature of alternating between running versions.

And soon my first problem reared its ugly head.

Here part of my Under (the hood) utility has failed. This utility ran well in 2007Beta and 2007Beta2, but in 2007Trial it seems that the command bar object has problems.

I'll be examining this in my blog Office 2007 for the Developer.

We're Back!

2007-01-21T11:17:00.001-08:00

http://www.microsoft.com/canada/anewdayevent/resources/default.aspx
You can d/l a 60-day trial of Office 2007 professional, also other stuff.
You need to answer the skill-testing questions.

This Sunday morning I downloaded a copy, to replace the failed Beta2 version from last October.

Over the next few days I'll be posting my findings on

installation and then

operation of the Trial version.

Who are you, Mr. Capossela?

2006-11-27T10:03:00.000-08:00

(From http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6165124.stm)

"The people who take longer are the die-hard users; the expert Excel user." said Microsoft's Chris Capossela.

Mr. Capossela said their research showed that the vast majority of users adapted to the new interface very quickly.

Let me see if I understand this: people like me, most able to influence new users and encourage existing users to make better use of the product will be shunted backwards or sideways in favour of yet-another-crop of newbies who are happy to spend all day typing up a memo to send by fax, when they could as easily pick up the 'phone?

I maintain that Microsoft is a top-class sales and marketing business. Sadly it seems to have lost touch with those people best able to promote its software!

Gone Forever?

2006-10-10T05:02:00.000-07:00

Two weeks ago I wrote "I will spend the rest of the day without Office2007"

I didn't expect to spend the rest of my life without Office2007.

I used the Add Remove Programs tool from Control Panel to remove Office2007 and then performed some minor surgery on file folders to remove lingering traces.

I find now that I can install neither the original Office2007 (OPPLUS-EN.EXE) nor the BTTR (office2007b2tr-kb000000-fullfile-en-us.exe).

The original leaps to the web site and dies.

The Beta Two Technical Refresh throws up a "Please Wait" box, then tells me that there is nothing to install.

Moral (to date): Don't try to uninstall Office 2007 Beta

If you return to my earliest blog entries, you'll see that I decided to skip the Virtual machine route. It's OK to write and tell me that I could've, should've gone that way.

I know.

But Not Forgotten

2006-09-25T11:28:00.000-07:00

I have re-booted, Just To Be Safe™, and note with passing interest that the feedback buttons which I installed after the Office2007 installation are still in place.

Now I'm puzzled. Are these part of Office 2007 and should have been disappeared, or are they across-the-board Microsoft devices.?

If the former, why are they still here?

If the latter, how will Microsoft know which version of a product a typical end-user is discussing? I bet 95% of users don not know about Help, About.

Perhaps I should send negative feedback about this issue ……

No wait! There's More!!

The Office12 files are not completely removed. I chose a non-standard folder name for installation, but did not fudge the installation in any way. Tonight while inspecting XLStart locations I noticed the Office12 folder remains in place with a multitude of DLLs, to name but thirty.

Gone!

2006-09-25T10:26:00.000-07:00

Hah! You didn't expect this.

Neither did I.

As I type up this blog entry in Word2000, Add/remove programs is freeing up space on my hard drive. How much space? About as much as is/was occupied by Office2007 Beta Two Technical Refresh and its sluggish re-configuration every other time I try to run one of the products Word, Excel or Access.

Remember that I am continuing to work in 2000 while using 2007, so every time either one of them discovers that the other one has been in the sand pit, they re-configure themselves - a frantic game of King Of The Mountain, on my computer, on my time.

I will spend the rest of the day without Office2007.

Tomorrow I will attempt to reinstall the original Beta from last may. It was not so sluggish in reconfiguring after someone else had been used.

(later)

This is strange. Office2007 is now Gone.

I double-click on an Excel file in Windows Explorer, and am prompted for a CD. The Office 2007 Beta TTR un-install seems to have been a tad over-zealous in removing CAB files. No matter, I whip out the Office 2003 CD as requested and we will be up and running in no time at all.

Which we are, but in Excel 2000, rather than Excel 2003, which I had half-expected.

Very strange!

Everyone Is Entitled To My Opinion

2006-09-23T11:36:00.000-07:00

This past week I have been in conversation with two people who each breathlessly inform me that the new Office 12 is fanTAStic.

I quiz them, "Why do you say that?".

In both cases it is hearsay. One of them was reliably informed by a friend who works at Microsoft. The other was just reliably informed by a friend.

Neither of them had seen, let alone used, let alone installed and lived with the office Beta2 that worked, let alone the Technical refresh that doesn't work so well.

Enough!

Get a copy of the Beta if the bleeding edge of technology is important to you.

Join in the discussions.

But don't give me air-news. Save your breath.

Beta Two Technical Refresh - Right!

2006-09-15T12:23:00.000-07:00

That didn't take long!

I am switching between Word2000 and Word2007, as usual.

The BTTR (Beta Two Technical Refresh) has started to sulk, going through a lengthy configuration process whenever it discovers I have been flirting with Word2000.

In particular, if Word2000 is loaded, Word2007 gets stroppy about fonts.

If I persist, I get bored, so I choose Abort in the message box shown above.

The Word2007 gets more than obstreperous; it refuses to talk (below)

I elect to "End Now", and what do I see refusing to go away?

Compatibility Checker

2006-09-15T12:14:00.000-07:00

Excel2007

Alarming news at first sight.

I don't like seeing a preface "Significant loss of functionality".

It turns out that Excel2007 is better than earlier versions, (what a surprise), and this message is trying to tell me that if I save this Excel2000 workbook as an Excel2007 workbook, It won't look as good if I reopen it in Excel2000. Assuming that I change the colours on the graph.

I'm puzzled. I can see no reason for displaying this message.

I am opening an Excel2000 workbook in Excel2007. Unless I change the colours to take advantage of the extra colours in Excel2007, how can I lose any functionality, no matter how I save the workbook?

Crawl And Click

None the less I decide to take them up on their offer of help. Non-context sensitive help, by clicking the blue hyperlink on the pop-up message.

I am taken to a general information desk, where I must crawl and click to locate relevant help.

Given that office2007 is a revamped user interface, wouldn't it have made more sense to take me to the most appropriate article related to "functionality" instead of trusting me to know what I must locate? If I'm new to office2007 and need help, I'm not likely to know the best article, but office2007 is.

Take me to your leader (Editor's joke)

Non-retentive help

In preparing this article I went back and tried it again, to make sure I wasn't imagining things. Loaded the workbook, saw the pop-up, chose Help, got General Information, and then discovered that I had to retype my search term.

I know it is Friday and I'm complaining again, but would it have been too difficult to remember my most recent search term and place it in the search text box. Highlighted, of course, so that typing a new term clears it automatically.

Beta Two Technical Refresh

2006-09-15T12:01:00.000-07:00

The patches are 500 MB in size. That's the largest of any file I've downloaded. Ever:

I began the installation at 7:50 PM 9/14/2006, and watched the drive light remain lit for an awfully long time.

The run completed at 8:05 PM 9/14/2006, just 15 minutes. It was painless, compared to the good old days of shoveling floppy disks into the maw of the machine, one after the other.

Now to see how well it performs.

Word's Back Button

2006-09-15T12:00:00.000-07:00

Word2007

I am still struggling to locate my beloved green "back" button that used to sit on the web toolbar.

The lack of that button is a primary reason for my continuing use of Word 2000/2003 to develop these hyperlinked web documents.

This lunchtime I thought I'd found it:

Previous Window. Seemed to do what I wanted. Then I noticed the shortcut key combination was listed as Ctrl-Shift-F6, and being suspicious by nature, I essayed with four documents open. Sure enough, it is the old "Shift into reverse gear" trick applied to tabbing on a carousel of open documents.

That is, if you have opened documents 1, 2, 3 and then 4, previous window will take you from document 4 to documents 3, 2, 1, 4 etc. in that order.

It is not the back button.

Word2007

2006-09-15T11:59:00.000-07:00

I hope that this is just a Beta-Bug:

I experienced some corruption in Word and received the traditional “Word has experienced a problem; we are sorry. Would you like to …?”. No, Thanks.

Of course, I had previously made changes to Normal template, but the recovery process, shown in the image above, futilely tries to save the Normal template, unable to overcome the lock which presumably is still on it.

Nothing for it but to re-boot Windows XP and start again.

Word2007 - the Home tab, darn it!

2006-09-13T08:57:00.000-07:00

Word 2007 loads with the Home tab of the ribbon as the dominant tab.

I have found that much of my work involves running macros from the Add-Ins tab.

Consequently the first thing I normally do is to click on the Add-Ins tab and choose a macro.

Providing the macro remains in the current document (for example a macro that merely types text in the current document), the Add-Ins tab remains dominant. But as soon as I run a macro that involves another document (easy example is Make Envelope From Selection), the default Home tab is dominant.

I covered this earlier in Asking For A Default Ribbon, and that would work for my Startup scenario, but here I think I’d like the option to disable Word’s management of tabs completely – let me be the one who decides whether tripping to the Home tab saves me clicks, or whether remaining on whatever tab I’m working in saves me clicks.

Here is another scenario: suppose you are dabbling in tables. You have the Layout tab activated.

You decide you need a table from another document. You open the document and would like the layout table to remain visible so that you can select a table in your document and do something with it. You can’t. Word 2007 has hidden the layout tab from sight.

Good help is hard to find

2006-09-05T13:28:00.000-07:00

Word2007

Good help is hard to find, but this is a keeper:

When you arrive at this help screen, choose Show All in the top-right corner and scroll down about 10% if the expanded document to locate "New locations of familiar commands".

I wish I had found this sooner.

Be honest now; how many items marked "Removed from product" Had you ever used (excepting the Toolbar groups)?

Here is an abbreviated list:

Draw ¦ Align or Distribute ¦ Relative to Canvas

Draw ¦ Align or Distribute ¦ Relative to Diagram

Draw ¦ Align or Distribute ¦ Relative to Organization Chart

Draw ¦ Align or Distribute ¦ Relative to Page

Drawing

File Search

Formatting ¦ Down

Frames

Function Key 8

Go To

Insert AutoText

Keyboard Language

Layout ¦ Fit Diagram to Contents

Letters and Mailings ¦ Letter Wizard

Letters and Mailings ¦ Show Japanese Greetings Toolbar

Letters and Mailings ¦ Show Mail Merge Toolbar

Look Up Reference

Macros ¦ Microsoft Script Editor

Mail Recipient

Menu Mode

Microsoft Script Editor

Microsoft Script Editor

Move Text

Next Field

Online Collaboration ¦ Web Discussions

Other Pane

Repeat

Save As

Save as Web Page

Send To ¦ Mail Recipient

Send To ¦ Recipient using a Fax Modem

Send To ¦ Routing Recipient

Show Signature

Show the Office Assistant

Sign out

Speech

Spelling and Grammar

Tables and Borders Toolbar

Task Pane

Toolbars ¦ AutoText

Toolbars ¦ Control Toolbox

Toolbars ¦ Database

Toolbars ¦ Drawing

Toolbars ¦ E-mail

Toolbars ¦ Formatting

Toolbars ¦ Forms

Toolbars ¦ Frames

Toolbars ¦ Mail Merge

Toolbars ¦ Outlining

Toolbars ¦ Picture

Toolbars ¦ Reviewing

Toolbars ¦ Standard

Toolbars ¦ Tables and Borders

Toolbars ¦ Task Pane

Toolbars ¦ Visual Basic

Toolbars ¦ Web

Toolbars ¦ Web Tools

Toolbars ¦ WordArt

Update Field

Version History ¦ On My Computer

WordPerfect Help

Hunting Macros

2006-09-02T04:18:00.000-07:00

Word2007

I am looking for my macros, and oh boy! Can they be reclusive just when you don't want them to be.

Here is the ribbon layout that appears when I load Word 2007:

I am wearing my end-user hat, but I have just taken off my developer hat, so I click on the Add-Ins tab, after all, that is where I do things related to the templates which house my macros:

No sign of any macros.

Later I trawl the help screens and discover that as an End-User I should have chosen the Developer tab to run macros, not the Add-Ins tab, where are described the templates holding the macros.

It is, I chance, all part of the Learning Curve.

Asking for a default ribbon.

2006-08-28T03:28:00.000-07:00

Word2007

I am looking for a way to lock a different ribbon from Home as the default ribbon on loading Word. Here is why:

Over the years I have developed several Microsoft Word applications which assist me in my work. The greatest aid is Under The Hood - a collection of about 600 macros which augment the offerings of the end-user interface for Word. As well I have a one-click indexing tool, a precis generator, a trail blazer, and more. These sit with their own toolbars ready to spring into action in Word97, Word2000, Word2002 and Word2003. But not Word2007.

Word2007 displays the ribbon, and always launches with the Home ribbon on top. I'd rather have the AddIns ribbon as the default. That is where my primary tools lie, not in formatting locally selected items of text. I apply styles globally with an Under macro "Fix Styles", that examines the entire document and makes intelligent decisions about the style to be applied to each paragraph.

To the best of my limited knowledge, I can't make the AddIn ribbon the default ribbon, and that means an extra "click" is added to what ought to be the most accessible options on my screen. An added cost to my work.

Draft View won't stick

2006-08-16T02:26:00.000-07:00

Word2007

My experience with Draft View may be part of a larger, stickier problem.

In previous versions of Word I am accustomed to working in Draft View (was Normal View) or in Page Layout view, full-page mode or screen width, whatever suited.

And it stuck.

I can't get Draft View to stick from one opening to the next in Word 2007. It is quite annoying.

My "diary" type documents receive new text appended to the end of the document. I usually open the document, issue Ctrl-End, and start typing text.

In Word 2007 these documents insist on opening in Print Layout View no matter that I save them in Draft View.

2006-08-04T13:20:00.000-07:00

Word2007

I’ve found an improvement. Hyperlinks, yet.

I am in the habit of starting in the root document, index.doc, clicking on a hyperlink, saving the document with a new name (see http://underthewordhood.blogspot.com/2006/04/save-as-selection.html ), switching back to the root document and establishing a hyperlink to the new document.

That last step involves the command sequence Insert, hyperlInk, browse for File, … or in abbreviated keystrokes, Ctrl-K, Alt-F.

Word 2007 obviates the Alt-F. All I need is Ctrl-K and I am placed directly into the browse box.

It is an improvement.

Customize Quick Access Toolbar

2006-08-03T18:34:00.000-07:00

“Customize Quick Access Toolbar”, you think, right?

Not quite, as far as I can see today.

Right-click on the QAT and you can drag commands off and on.

I’ve just added “File, Close” and “File, Open”, as you can see:

Trouble is, they look similar to me. I’d like to obtain the dear-old right-click “Edit Button Image” of the past.

I can’t find it anywhere.

That doesn’t mean it is not available, it just means that I can’t find it yet.

And the help files are not giving me much of a clue, either.

Collapse The Ribbon

2006-07-31T15:11:00.000-07:00

I read this in an ITNews article, as a result of a Google search http://www.itnews.com.au/newsstory.aspx?CIaNID=35297&src=site-marq

The Ctrl-F1 key combination will collapse the ribbon.

"The Ribbon, a new top-of-the-window feature in most of the suite's applications - including Word, Excel, and PowerPoint - takes up too much space, say many beta users and reviewers.".

I agree.

If you prefer the mouse, double-click on a tab.

And what minimizes the ribbon, maximizes the ribbon.

Friday, July 28, 2006

2006-07-28T06:58:00.000-07:00

Word2007

I am in the habit of working from Windows Explorer, right-clicking on a document and sending it to an application, in this case WinWord.

I’m using this rather than double-clicking on the document because I want to open the specific document in Word2000 rather than Word2007.

When I double-click on a file it now opens the document in Word2007. I find this a positive step, as it drags me kicking and screaming into making use of the new user interface. However, part of the hijack mechanism seems to include losing the target of the Send To shortcut, for the first Send To after running Word2007 sends Windows scurrying for the shortcut – which it finds, always, after a search of five seconds or so.

I’m puzzled that the hijack hasn’t completely hijacked. It hasn’t taken over the Send To shortcut, just orphaned it. And Windows always recovers to point to Word2000, which is what I want.

Word2007

I am amazed.

For ten years now Microsoft has trumpeted the web-based thinking of documents. Six years ago I found the Web toolbar in Word so obnoxiously in-you-face that I wrote a macro to hide the darn thing whenever Word was loaded. I maintained the Back button on the toolbar.

Here I am in Word2007. Beta, still, admittedly, and I have fired up a main document, clicked on a hyperlink, worked in the secondary document, and would like to return to the main document.

In previous versions of Word I would click the green back button. Can’t find it in any ribbon in Word2007.

Use Help, that’s what I’ll do. Help says in part “The Web toolbar is not available in Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007, Microsoft Office Word 2007, or Microsoft Office Excel 2007. You can add the Back, Forward, and Refresh buttons to the Quick Access Toolbar, which is available under All Commands or Commands Not in the Ribbon. Click the Microsoft Office Button , click Prepare, and then click Properties”.

Except that I can’t recall ever seeing “Prepare” in Word2007. It’s been a couple of weeks, so I am still a novice.

I try Options, Customization, which is where I think they want me to be. I have scoured the list, All Commands yet, looking for anything that resembled Back, Forward or Refresh, and can not see any thing remotely useful. I have looked both for those texts and for any icon that resembles a backward-pointing arrow.

Nothing. Nada. Zilch.

What is going on here? Why should it be so difficult to use hyperlinked documents? And why isn’t something as useful as hyperlinked documents available prominently in a ribbon, somewhere?

Word2007

Style Area Width and the Help files

I am accustomed to working with a one-inch wide style area on the left-hand side of my screen. (Tools, Options, View, style area width”, but you must be in Normal view for this)

Of course I’d like to use the feature in Word2007.

You might think “pearl” and then options, hunt around for a minute – after all, it can’t hurt to become familiar with the new interface for options – but then shrug and try the Help system

In the Help box I type “style area width” without the quotes, and am rewarded with this:

Not a trace of Style Area Width in any of the first ten articles.

I try again with the quotes, as in “style area width”, perhaps I ought to be more explicit. No. Nothing. (See “Nada. Zilch” above!)

Here is the puzzling thing about this:

I will learn to live with/without the style area.

If it exists I will find it, by luck or my reading a forum.

But by all that is holy, why not load the entire vocabulary of office 2003 into the Office 2007 help files, index the lot, and assign a small team of young technical writers to flesh out every entry, even if the entry says “Sorry, we didn’t implement that”, so that every migrating user would get, at the least, acknowledgement of the search. Either as a mild rebuff, or as a pointer to the new terminology.

For example, asking for help on “View Normal” should produce a simple text See “View, Draft”.

And in my case asking for help on “style area width” should produce either “We don’t do that any more” or “here is what we called it in 2007”.

But not nothing.

Not silence.

Addendum

I knew that this would happen. I found it. “Style Area Pane”. I knew I’d seen it before, but didn’t like to say so in my earlier posting, for I was not absolutely certain.

Naturally, once I have set my Pane (Hooray!), I wonder what might be new about it in Word2007.

I use Help and key in the correct terminology.

Guess what:

Nothing about it at all, as far as I can see.

Word2007

Spell check this time.

I hope this is just a Beta aberration.

Word 2000 recognizes and attempts to correct “ascii”:

Word 2007 doesn’t:

Thursday, July 27, 2006

2006-07-27T03:04:00.000-07:00

Access2007

I miss my handy Alt-Tab.

It is still there, but the new Access 2007 interface seems to have taken over more of my real estate and forced me to do more through the keyboard/mouse. I don’t see this as being any benefit to a user.

I will explain.

Under previous versions of Access I would open up the data base and be at a navigation screen:

From which I could Alt-Tab and back to my data screen – table, query, form or report:

As far as I have been able to determine, Access2007 implements this with a run-time switch through the Options pages (Pearl, Access options, Current database, Navigation) which forces me through a series of taps or clicks to achieve what used to be a simple Alt-Tab.

And yes, I’m whining again, but not just about change; I can’t see why this could be considered a forward step in any way.

Excel 2007

The new interface may make sense to new users, but I am not at all sure that it will make sense to anyone else. Not at first.

Here is how you insert a new sheet into a workbook.

You do it from the HOME ribbon:

Here is how you do not insert a new sheet into a workbook.

You do not do it from the INSERT ribbon:

Now my understanding was that the new interface would be intuitive, would guide the user, and for all that is holy, when I want to Insert something my eye is attracted to the Insert menu.

Maybe I am missing something here.

Maybe I am supposed to be thinking that Insertion is something I do all the time, so it ought to be in the Home ribbon. But that’s not what I think, and when my eye explores the user interface, a word like Insert is sure to leap out and attract my attention.

Excel 2007

I consider the interface for data Sort to be a retrograde step.

In the old Excel, Data Sort brought up a dialogue with, always, a spare key placed below the latest key:

In Excel2007, Data Sort brings up a dialogue with the requirement that I indulge in yet another tap/click to augment my set of keys. See that “Add level” button there? That is an extra step that appears needless to me.

Word2007

Tables this time.

Once I am “in” a table, an extra ribbon tab appears at the right-hand side. Titled “Layout”, rather than the intuitive “Tables”. Intuitive to me, at any rate.

I can’t see anything but tables in there. Perhaps Microsoft has grand plans for Office 13. Sorry. 14.

I feel as if I have done little else but whine the past few days. It may be the pain of changing from what I know to what I don’t know, but if so, Microsoft ought to know that they will have an awful lot of unhappy migrators out there.

It gets worse.

Having found my way to Layout, and being happily ensconced in a table, I select the table and tap the right-arrow key to place myself between two tables.

The Layout ribbon disappears.

I tap the delete key to remove the paragraph mark between the two tables, joining them and placing myself back in a table, but Word2007 sulks at Home.

It would have been nice to stay in Tables, sorry, Layout for one more keystroke.

If not, it would have been a nice touch for Word2007 to recognize that I had placed myself inside a table and activated the Layout ribbon.

Finally (we hope!) if I want to wander around the old Conversion (Table To Text, Text To Table), it won’t be found in the Layout ribbon, where is found stuff dealing with tables. It will be found in the Insert ribbon.

What to make of this?

I could believe that Microsoft was absolutely stupid and had drawn the ribbon and command sequence name and location assignments out of a hat.

Or I could believe that Microsoft had spent years and millions of dollars with focus groups seeing what made sense to users. And acted on it.

In which case I would have to believe that the average user is not intuitive at all.

Tuesday, July 25, 2006

2006-07-25T09:48:00.000-07:00

Word2007

I miss my handy Under-The-Hood tools.

I’m trying to use Ctrl-Shift-D which I had assigned to a macro in Under.dot “TypeDateConstant ”.

In Office2007, Ctrl-Shift-D remains assigned to the default “Double-Underline” formatting.

It seems that Office2007 has not recognized my keyboard assignment in under The Hood.

Why can I say that?

(1) Because the macro is there, and runs in Office2007, delivering today’s date to me, as it should.

(2) Because I have Word2000 loaded and can show that the key assignment is functioning well in Word2000.

Word2007

The MRU (Most recently Used) list is upgraded – sort of.

Remember the list at the foot of the old File menu? It showed the 4 most recently used files.

Through Tools, Options, General you could crank it up to a meager nine. An unreasonable limit (I have ten blogs, let alone my real work load!).

I wrote MRUse.dot to overcome this difficulty.

MRUse.dot
Sets no limits

Sorts in any sequence

Ascending/Descending

Jumps to location in document (no bookmarks up my sleeve, either!)

Absorbs Excel MRUse list (you should be able to open your budget from your memo, right?)

Maintains a stop-list of file extensions

Has a switchable memory.
The usual good stuff, right?

Here’s the good news: Word2007 permits more than 9 entries in the MRU list.

Here’s the bad news: Not more than 50.

And no real improvements to help the user, IMHO.

Saturday, July 22, 2006

2006-07-22T09:41:00.000-07:00

(You can view the text with images at http://www.chrisgreaves.com/Office2007User/)

Ribbon

Please take a look at a snapshot of my re-vamped UnderTheHood toolbar. I have compressed the eight-inch wide menu bar into a typical (for me) one-incher, almost.
It is an experiment, to see how I feel about one extra click to open up this new level of menu, and to see if it is a stop-gap solution to my problem with the AddIns ribbon in Word2007.

I am strong on real estate, because I know that my eyes/brain can search a large area faster than my hands/wrists can move things around. “A six-foot wide plasma screen fed from both computer systems” (if my budget could manage it), since you ask.
This step is retrograde for me; it is more boring and repetitive manual work, and I’ve spent years trying to avoid just that. It is why I write macros and programs!

I have circled my new Under toolbar in the snapshot above.

Here is a snapshot of my new Under toolbar in Word2007:

Compare it with an earlier snapshot when Under had its screen-wide menu bar:

What do you notice?

My old method wasn’t handled very well by the AddIn ribbon. It displayed my broad Under toolbar, but compressed/hid the other eleven one-inchers off to the right, forcing me to click to locate them.

The AddIn ribbon didn’t appear to be smart enough to locate smaller toolbars in the unused space above and below my Under toolbar.

Maybe I should push Microsoft to use my BestFitToolbars macro!

Quick Access Toolbar

This is relevant.

The Quick Access Toolbar is where most users will probably place their toolbar buttons for home-grown macros.

The QAT can be placed either above, or below the ribbon.
“Above the ribbon” shares space with the application title bar; “below the ribbon” take sup more valuable screen real-estate.

Back it goes!

PowerPoint2007

I’ve been asked to make a presentation next Thursday.
What better way to spend a quiet Friday evening than testing PowerPoint2007?
In my normal fashion, I fired up Word2007 and keyed in my text in Outline mode.
I figured a quick Alt-Tab to PowerPoint and I’d be done.
Not!

I think I have to learn about slip-streaming.

Maybe, maybe not.

I don’t have the CD required – I have the d/l files from Microsoft’s web site.
I drop PowerPoint2007 and revert to PowerPoint2000.

It’s a slide show from a text outline, right?

Ribbon & Keyboard commands

2006-07-21T07:31:00.000-07:00

(You can view the text with images at http://www.chrisgreaves.com/Office2007User/)

Ribbon

Please take another look at the Ribbon, from an earlier snapshot.

My first take is, no matter how Microsoft have re-engineered the interface to make it easy for 99% of the users, it is at a significant cost in real-estate.

I am strong on real estate, because I know that my eyes/brain can search a large area faster than my hands/wrists can move things around. “A six-foot wide plasma screen fed from both computer systems” (if my budget could manage it), since you ask.

I have labeled three areas in the snapshot above.
1. What used to be the title now contains a QAT a.k.a. Quick Access Toolbar, if I got that right. Users can customize this by dragging icons to it. You want the old full-page view up there? It is yours!
2. What used to be the first line of many toolbars is labeled “2” in my snapshot. Depending on the versions of Office you have been privileged to use, you will remember the Standard and Formatting toolbars being squashed together, meshed, or mish-mashed in this region
3. The new stuff, “3” in my snapshot, occupies 4 lines or rows of my turf. (an early typo had this as “line sorrows ”!)

You click on a tab in the “2” area, and a new set of doo-dads opens up in the “3” area. That is. The old menu area serves to bring in what we would have called a set of toolbar/menu/buttons. Overall Microsoft’s approach seems to be to introduce an extra level of menu-ing to accommodate the increasing number of user-interface options.

So far so good.

As I understand it from my as yet limited reading of “ribbon” in various developers forums, the good thing about ribbons is that the contents do not change. You saw it here yesterday, you will see it here tomorrow.

I see this as good because I like to know where I can find something when I want it.

Looking for a tool is an extra problem, not part of the solution to the original problem.

I see this as bad because my screen real-estate is now committed to stuff I may never use.

So, I thought about the good old days, and a snapshot appears below:

What do you notice?

That is right! I was yielding 5 lines of turf anyway.

The screen snapshot above looks odd to you because there is almost nothing left of my Standard Toolbar (thanks Woody Leonhard!) and a large part of the first two rows of my area three are taken up by my Under-The-Hood toolbar and my MRUse drop-down list of the files I have worked on over the past 15 days. The remaining toolbars ) “WbWrd”, “Preci” etc.) have been cozily re-arranged to occupy minimum space by my BestFitToolbars macro, and each toolbar is a menu system. Compact.
The bottom line, is that yesterday I was hogging 5 lines of turf, today I am hogging 6.

Without my appetite for add-in applications, the score would probably have been “Yesterday 3 Today 6”, a doubling of space, a significant reduction in turf.
My time-saving toolbars are arranged in an “add-ins” ribbon, and I will more to say about that later!

Word 2007 Keyboard commands

Irk! Irk!

This is annoying.

In Word 2007 I am using my old keystroke mechanisms. They work, sometimes.

Sometimes they don’t.

I’m trying to switch to Normal View so that I can see my styles margin.

I type Alt V and the little box pops up.

Word2007 has recognized “Alt V” and invites me to type in the next letter which, in my version of Word2003 (and Word2000 and Word97) is the letter “N” for Normal.

Won’t take.

I’ve tried several times and I can’t get it to recognise my request.

Oddly enough Alt V P switches me to Page mode. That’s good.

On a whim I tried Alt-V D and it switched me to Draft mode, which is what Microsoft appears to have renamed Normal as. If you’ll pardon my exasperated syntax.

Thursday, July 20, 2006

2006-07-20T17:53:00.000-07:00

(You can view the text with images at http://www.chrisgreaves.com/Office2007User/)

Enough with counting the ways I love thee! Let me maintain a diary for each day and publish it at day’s end. Or wit’s end, whichever comes first.

Access2007

I click my Quicklaunch icon to fire up my little contact database, Access2007 intervenes, but my customized “Find” control on my customized form won’t execute. It’s time to travel the same route as I took in Word and Excel.

To the “pearl”.

Access Options, Trust Centre, Trust Centre Settings, Trusted Locations, Add new Location.

I browse to the folder that holds my contacts MDB, check it and all subordinate folders on, conform out of there.

I find it necessary to exit Access and reload the beast in order to get the use of my customized buttons, but once that is done all appears well.

Later I realise that Access didn’t launch automatically into my startup form. In Access2000 I nominate a startup form:

Office2007

I am using both the 2007 beta and a regular copy of 2000.

I notice that when I have been using Word2007 and then load Word2000, I go through a brief re-initialization period, perhaps five seconds.

When I flip from Access2000 to Access2007, I go through a longer re-initialization period, perhaps thirty seconds.

Worse, a “2003” box pops up:

with (image)

I watch three repetitions of this box, and manage to cancel it out of my life, for the time being.

The next time I load Access2007 I get the same warnings, so I yield my Office2003 CD to the computer …

Word2007

Another proposal to be built. I open an existing one and unthinkingly tap the F12 function key to save it with a new name.

It works!

I am optimistic that all the inbuilt keyboard assignments will function as before.

One of my biggest disappointments to date is probably rooted in Windows rather than Office, but it is a disappointment none the less.

I’m spending some time in what was the old Tools, Options area. It is easy enough to get at – except that I can’t find a keyboard sequence, so in place of Alt, O, I must reach for the mouse, slide to the pearl, click, slide and click on Word Options, navigate to the panel.

The dialogue pops up with a stretchable interface – mouse in the bottom right-hand corner.

Why oh why couldn’t Office have let me use Alt-space X, or even double-click on the title bar, to maximize this dialogue and let my eyes do the walking.

It is probably a WinXP limitation, but oh! It is so sad to be forced to navigate more slowly than is really necessary. The stuff is all in there, once I can get my eyes on it!

Word2007

This might be Office2007, but I’ve been in Word2007 today, so I’m telling it here:

I can’t help myself; I’m just too used to switching title case with Alt-O, E, T; I’m just too used to inserting a two-column table with Alt-A, I, T, 2. Word2007 pops up a small window saying something like “If you a serious about using the keyboard, er, carry-on, I guess. But you can always escape”, which leaves me feeling like a second-class citizen.

What was wrong with leaving the old keystroke combinations in place – especially if Word2007 decides it can recognize them (as it can, evidenced by the pop-up box).

I understand that we should all execute a 2007º turn and use the new features, but some of us will need a bit of time to change, and “the report has to be ready for noon today”.

Third Look

2006-07-19T17:44:00.000-07:00

(You can view the text with images at http://www.chrisgreaves.com/Office2007User/)

I created a new document in Word2007 using one of my Under-The-Hood macros “TypeDateConst”. The macro ran (a good sign!) and I saved the document.
The document was saved with a DOCX extension.
Examining the file in Notepad I see the give-away initials of Phil Katz. PKWare.

Sure enough, I can view the file with PKZip version 2.6:

Word2007 documents are XML-based and are stored in compressed form.
Can I open a Word2007 document in Word2000?
Yes I can. I execute the docx file from within Windows Explorer, and since Word2000 is open, Word2000 receives it.
Office2007 must have placed cunning interceptors to obtain the document, and roll it back to the standard of the open word processor.
Now, this may work only as long as I have Office2007 installed.

Second Look

2006-07-19T17:43:00.000-07:00

(You can view the text with images at http://www.chrisgreaves.com/Office2007User/)

I have changed my settings as best I can in the various options dialogues. Now it is time to restart Word2007 and see if I can create and save a document using my custom macros.
My toolbars can be seen in the AddIns ribbon, but not all of them are visible.
Here is what I see in Word2000:

Each of my application toolbars has been marked with a splodge of red paint.
Thirteen of them.
Two of the toolbars are quite wide, the remainder are about one-inch wide. Each toolbar expands into its own menu tree.
When I try to run my “Best fit toolbars by name” macro to re-arrange the toolbars to occupy the minimum amount of space, the macro crashes. I’m not really surprised.
Time to take a look at what has happened to VBA.

First Look

2006-07-19T17:40:00.000-07:00

(You can view the text with images at http://www.chrisgreaves.com/Office2007User/)

Can I run Word2000 and Word2007 simultaneously?

Yes. I’m typing this in 2000 while playing around in 2007.

That is a good sign.

The old toolbar is replaced by a “ribbon”. At first glance it has the appearance of a simple menu system that has taken over more of my monitor real-estate to offer bloated toolbars.

I am accustomed now to searching for favorite items in a reorganized release of Office, and true to form, File Locations isn’t found anywhere on the “menu” area. It is found by going to the “pearl”, top left-hand corner, ignoring the prominent items displayed on the left-hand side of that dialogue, choosing “Word Options” from the bottom border of the dialogue, “Advanced” within that, “File Locations” within that, and waddyaknow! Here’s the regular plain-looking File Locations dialogue box.

Lest you are thinking “It didn’t take long for him to start complaining”, be assured that I mention this here, this early, to warn you that many familiar actions will appear unchanged. Once you can find where they have been put.

Installation

2006-07-19T16:32:00.000-07:00

(You can read the full article with images at http://www.chrisgreaves.com/office2007user/)

Installation
19:03 started installation

I need the product keyt that arrived in the email message "Microsoft® Office 2007 Beta 2 Confirmation & Product Keys"
I read the EULAID:012.0_B2_PRE.2_BTA_EN
I accept.
I elect to Keep all previous versions
I change the installation folder to C:\Program Files\Office2007 (I already have C:\Program Files\Office2003, C:\Program Files\Office2000, C:\Program Files\Office97)
19:10 I confirm my user information and choose Install Now.
19:16 I don't register for online service.

I Close the dialogue box
19:18 Activation kicks in ...
19:19 ... and here I am in Word2007.

A rather painless process. Sixteen minutes from Go! to Whoa!

I double-click on my web site Index.doc so that I can write up this article, and 2007 kicks in. Without my opened document. And without my customization. In fairness I have not touched the 2007 equivalent of Tools, Options, locations, Startup folder.
When I load Word2002 it runs through its own re-initialization routine. I notice that my customised Standard toolbar is missing. Wonder Why.

Obtaining Office 2007

2006-07-19T15:07:00.000-07:00

If you don't yet have a copy (we are still in beta-release), you can obtain a beta release from Microsoft’s web site at http://www.microsoft.com/office/preview/beta/overview.mspx

Virtual Machines

2006-07-18T18:25:00.000-07:00

I Love them. I have been building virtual machines, faking computers out of software, since 1970.

The latest publicly available VM include Windows-based products.

I am not using them. Why?

I am not using them because I want a fair appraisal of Office2007 on my system.
VMs protect me from vagaries of a product, but they run slow, and their graphic output leaves much to be desired.

I want this to be a real-world trial.

Original Installation

2006-07-16T09:24:00.000-07:00

I will start with a brief description of my system.

I run a home office with several computers. The installation of Office 2007 will take place on one computer which is connected to a second computer by a standard 4-port router. Two networked computers, both running Windows XP (automatic updates).

The Big Beige Box is an older machine with Office 97 and Office 2002.

The Laptop in a newer machine with Office 97, Office 2000 and Office 2003. It is on this machine that I’ll install Office 2007 Beta.

The laptop has 2 GB RAM, 100GB hard drive, and hosts a 2GHz CPU

What do I have to lose?

At the worst I’ll be in for a complete re-install of Windows and three versions of Office, but with today’s hands-free installation from CD, it is not the time-consuming problem that it was a few years back when I had to shuffle twenty floppy diskettes.

And yes, what about Virtual Machines? A VM would help isolate harmful after-effects, but I am especially interested in how 2007 conflicts with my other versions. Trust me, if it goes berserk I’ll pull the plug, lick my wounds, and contemplate a new career in Kitchen Ecology.

Otherwise, I’ll plod along from one mistake to the next – and you will benefit from my experience.

I am a TrailBlazer!

First post

2006-07-08T05:04:00.000-07:00

This blog documents my day-by-day experiences as a user of the available Office2007 version.
You can contact me by telephone or email via http://www.chrisgreaves.com/contact.htm