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| From: Microsoft Software
List Price: $149.95
Buy New: $74.99
You Save: $74.96 (50%)
New (56) Used (3) from $74.99
Rating:  706 reviews
Sales Rank: 1
Format: Cd-rom
Platforms: Windows Xp, Windows Vista
Media: CD-ROM
Edition: Office Home and Student 2007
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Batteries Included: No
Operating System: Windows XP
Shipping Weight (lbs): 3
Dimensions (in): 19.7 x 19.7 x 19.7
MPN: 79g-00007
Model: 79G-00007
UPC: 882224263627
EAN: 0882224165242
ASIN: B000HCZ8EO
Release Date: January 30, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Finding really hard to relearn March 29, 2007
Carol (Chatsworth, CA United States)
71 out of 78 found this review helpful
The new look of the software is really confusing. I'm not a computer expert by any means, but I am knowledgeable enough that my family and friends call me to help them fix their computers and software problems, so I'm not a newbie either. I understand the basic idea that some things are on the screen for you to see, the things they consider to be the most important; but the things I use the most, like frame or underlining are now several click away and you can't customize the menus to what you like. They've put up what they think is important and that's it. If you use other features, you're out of luck... it's hunt and peck every time. You also have to learn to think the way they think. If you want to find a feature, it might not be in the menu set of screens you think. They may consider it a different type of feature than you think of it being, so you have start searching all the different sets of menus to find the feature you're looking for. Also, I like to copy and paste from boxes like this, when writing on the internet, for spell checking... well you can't do that anymore because when you paste back your text it appears in HTML format with all the weird stuff that goes along with it. It might be that I'm just too set in my ways and don't feel I have the time to learn a completely new software to do a simple letter. Maybe if I had the time to relearn everything I might find it easier, but I just don't have the weeks it would take to devote to the study of each product (Word, Excel mainly). I got the software and tried it for several months and went back to my old Word and Excel.
Avoid it if you can October 31, 2007
E. Heidel (San Jose, CA USA)
59 out of 62 found this review helpful
I will make this as short as I can. I am a long time user (~10yrs) of MS Office, many versions of both Word and Excel. When I started having some compatibility issues with my old version, I decided to upgrade. My advice to you is, at all costs, avoid upgrading if you can. If you can choose a different product (non-Office), do it.
In Word especially, all the old interfaces have been completely redone, from the menus available right to the way help is (dis)organized. Many of the old usability features, such as templates (for letters), how you interact with colors/fonts/etc., and how you print, preview, and perform simple functions, are gone or changed.
Microsoft apparently believes that manuals are a thing of the past, so finding out where my old options are, if they still exist, has been a chore of figuring out which of the dozens of help topics are actually relevant, and if they will help me (which they typically haven't).
Even in Excel there have been interface and usability changes that have made it difficult for me to work with it, given my long history with previous versions.
My only caveat is that brand new users may find it easier to work with than old ones, but again, the poor help system would hinder even that, I would think.
Best of luck.
Power users: don't buy this software! October 25, 2007
Ralphe Wiggins (San Francisco, CA USA)
48 out of 52 found this review helpful
Sure, this release has lots of "improvements". I'll focus on Excel. The biggest potential improvement is that the row and column maximums have been opened up.
Beyond that, I've encountered nothing but problems.
* Once a document is saved in the new .xlsx format, Excel would not save back to the older .xls format. Instead, it just hung.
* The software refused to change the limits on a date x-axis of my charts. Instead it blithly reset the values back to the original values.
* It is SLOW. Clicking on a curve in a chart could take 10-20 seconds to respond.
* Occasionally, Excel would just crash for no obvious reason. The up side is that it would restart with opening the same workbooks.
Also, as usual, I have been unable to find a place on the Microsoft web site to report such troubles. All I've been able to find are FAQs that answer queries unrelated to the problems I've had.
Maybe you can work with that. I gave up and am just hoping that my new laptop is still functioning by the time that Microsoft gets around to noticing such glitches and releasing a service pack. Maybe next year?
Incompatible with previous editions October 11, 2007
C. F Higgins (Warrenville, Illinois United States)
45 out of 55 found this review helpful
Word documents created in Office 2007 now have the .docx extension which is incompatible with previous editions of Office and all 3rd party office applications such as Word Perfect, etc.
If you load this on a couple work computers, you will have to go to every machine in the company and install a large "office compatibility pack" in order to read .docx files. I have not been able to get the compatibility pack to download for Macintosh and the word on the street has been that Microsoft is ending support of Apple products.
So if you want a whole lot of frustration and angry end-users, purchase Office 2007. Otherwise stay with what you have or get OpenOffice (or NeoOffice for Macintosh).
Save your money and don't upgrade February 7, 2007
Mark Bookworth (Bermuda)
43 out of 62 found this review helpful
I seel lots of glowing reviews and discussion about the big new feature, "The Ribbon". I participated in the Beta of Office 2007 and found it to be a bit more interesting to use than previous versions. You have to learn a whole new approach to Word and Excel to effectively use the ribbon. For my way of working, the ribbon is not an improvement but more of a hindrance or annoyance. It also takes up lots and lots of space on your monitor. My preference is to use full screen mode where I see just the page I am working on with no menu distractions or tabs. Just a nice clean sheet. The office software is monstrously huge and with the exception of Excel, the programs run slow as molasses on my 3GHz DELL. Outlook 2007 is not included in this version, which may be a good thing. It was the slowest of the lot when I used it extensively at work. Message previews took forever to appear after changing folders.
The problem seem to be that MS wants to keep adding feature after feature and "conveniences" as they deem necessary which bloats the software and makes it drastically over complicated. At the same time, they seem to have paid little attention to improving the user experience. Software needs to be smooth and responsive with a clean intuitive uncluttered interface to be a productivity enhancer.
Office 2007 is just the opposite. I'm back to Office 2000 (uninstalling the yucky Beta wiped out my entire previous installation of office, thanks Microsoft), and you know what, Office 2000 may not have the bells and whistles of 2007, but it works just great and produces excellent documents and spreadsheets. I see no need to upgrade and it would probably be wiser to buy MS shares with your hundred odd dollars as you can guarantee the world plus dog will simply have to get this new stuff or they will feel like they are sooo behind the times.
My parting advice: Let MS work through another one or two iterations of this new interface and it may then be worth spending hundreds to upgrade,m as long as they make it a pleasure to use. Say more ... iPod like?
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