Microsoft Office 2007 Features?

Question

What new features in Microsoft Office 2007 will you use compared to past versions? Are there really any required features for typical office use?

Do most users see consider the only reason to upgrade as a compatibility issue between versions due to file formats? Will you use the non-proprietary/non-Microsoft Open Document Format (ODF) or will you use the Microsoft Open Office XML (surprisingly named very similar to the OpenOffice.org product)? Whether you support Microsoft Office or not, it seems that an open standard file format would benefit everyone in the long run (consider older formats, not just documents, that can no longer be used because software vendors cease to exist or don't support an older version or have converts to new formats).

James F - What new features are you going to use in the 2007 version? You mention smart art and themes, but older versions already had a fairly good method to locate artwork by categories and themes is just additional content that could technically be used for any of the versions. What I'm looking for is what feature is going to be the "how did we ever get work done without it" type feature. The ribbon toolbar is simply a GUI change, not so much a feature change. I also don't see how that would impact my business. While the ribbon is a more extreme change than past Microsoft "relocation of menu items", it doesn't really offer a compelling reason to upgrade.

Oh, for any document security concerns, would any company solely choose a Microsoft solution or would they go with one of the tried and tested solutions from a document management company instead? We had a group at our company evaluating a product (forget the name) that even allowed portion marking and encryption to protect.

Unfortunately none of the first three responses really give a list of MS Office 2007 features that they are planning to use. Answer #3 does say that there are new features and at least list two content updates and one interface change, but still no features that they plan to use.

I will put to vote (this is actually the second time I've asked a question like this) and I must again choose no best answer. All I'm trying to find out is if there are any new features that are going to be useful for the general user or if Microsoft has added features just to force everyone to upgrade. Change isn't bad, but change just for the sake of change really makes it seem like Microsoft has its own profit at interest before that of their customer.

Answer 1

Do yourself a favour dont Upgrade to 2007 Office 2003 is amongst the best it has Word Power Point, Excell,Publisher, the lot. Office 07 only has Word Excell and something else you have to buy Publisher Seperately its over 300 Dollars dont Upgrade you will be sorry :-(

Answer 2

Office 07 has all the old features of 03 as well as new ones including smart art and themes. There are actually enough features that I couldnt list them all, the more notable one is the Ribbon Toolbar which in my personal opinion was very easy to get used to, though I have heard from others that they have had trouble with the learning curve. Also compatability isnt an issue because you can still open/save office 03 files using the compatability feature. I use it daily and personally I think its a great piece of software.

Answer 3

well you need a bigger disk space and a higher ram becaue office 2007 takes more than office 2003.