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| From: Microsoft Software
List Price: $329.95
Buy New: $199.95
You Save: $130.00 (39%)
New (48) Used (4) from $199.95
Rating:  99 reviews
Sales Rank: 67
Format: Cd-rom
Platforms: Windows Xp, Windows Vista
Media: CD-ROM
Edition: Professional - Upgrade
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Batteries Included: No
Operating System: Windows Vista
Shipping Weight (lbs): 3
Dimensions (in): 0.1 x 0.1 x 0
MPN: 26911093
Model: 269-11093
UPC: 882224263603
EAN: 0882224263603
ASIN: B000HCXKJY
Release Date: January 30, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 21-25 of 99
 Office For Dummies - Not To Be Confused With The Book May 22, 2007
C. B. Forman (Wood Dale, IL United States)
9 out of 14 found this review helpful
I have used nearly every version of Microsoft Office since 1994. So, I looked forward to using Office 2007. To say the least I was disappointed. I feel that this product is aimed at novice or weak users who might feel more at home using a product like Microsoft Works or perhaps the "Home" version rather than a professional product version. I suppose that its new "ribbon" interface would be of some value to new users of Office who might not have much previous experience with the product. However, I'll bet that after a bit of use the "ribbon" will become as tiresome as it became to me.
From my point-of-view, I had a number of problems with the product.
1. The old "File" functions (Save, Open, etc.) are hidden until you click on a non-descript icon. Why not have "File" option on the menu bar? If the term "File" is too passe then at least call it something.
2. Each one of the new "ribbons" is loaded with stuff that is seldom used by most Office users. And, in so doing, these always take up an excessive amount of screen space. I didn't like that I had to click on each of the menu choices to drop down the corresponding "ribbon". These were not organized in the manner I was used to and I didn't know where some things were that I often use. In previous versions just moving the mouse pointer over the menu item dropped the corresponding list of functions. Maybe there is an option for this buried somewhere to do this but it couldn't be found if so.
3. The installation default for the ribbon is to disappear after one function is performed. I found this very frustrating. At last I found an option that would retain the "ribbon" after each use but then I was stuck with it until I turned the option off. The old pre-defined (but customizable) toolbars, which usually take up less space, are gone. Yes, you can make an optional custom toolbar as well. However, you can do the same in previous versions without the "ribbons" clutter.
4. There is no option to revert this "ribbon" setup to the Office 2003 menu / toolbar setup. (I'll bet that there will be one in the next release or two).
5. There are very few new capabilities in this product for most mortal Office users.
In short, I recommend that you find a version of Office 2003 rather than buy this one. If you already have Office 2003, save your money.
 Office Professional 2007 June 10, 2007
Michael Smith
9 out of 15 found this review helpful
I have upgraded my office product every time Microsoft has provided an update... this is the first time I am regretting that choice. I like and use all of the suites in MS Professional, I am completely frustrated with all of the changes to the tool bar in Office. It took me 1 day to learn to print and save a document in Word. I may actually have to read the instruction manual after being an Office user for over 15 years. Ridiculous!
 The Best Version Yet and Worth the Price of Admission June 26, 2007
S. Geneva (Southern Colorado)
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
I like the changes MS has made, it is quite a bit more user friendly, the enhancements for a small business with a business process integration approach is fantastic. First time I really felt that I was working with an integrated package capitalizing on the strengths of the different programs, Word for correspondence, Publisher for marketing materials, excel for performance measurement, etc.. The new version has opened up different ways to approach using the tools efficiently.
The transition went relatively smooth albeit I did look around a bit to find the normal things I use but after a few days I was up and running pretty much like normal. As a heavy Excel user I really like the improvements made with the conditional formatting and pivot improvements and presentation/report quality has significantly improved. The improvements to Outlook are also very beneficial from a task management standpoint, improvements to flag options and task color coding along with being able to customize search folders for easy mail retrieval has decreased the amount of time I have spent coordinating activities, that alone was worth the price of the upgrade. PowerPoint seems to be about the same but I do like the template that is formatted with a 16:9 "widescreen" aspect ratio.
If you are wondering how well it works going back and forth with MS Office 2003, I have not had any issues yet, there is a compatibility mode you can work and save in to go backwards to 2003, you lose some of the enhancement functionality when you save as a 2003 file but I haven't run into any show stoppers yet but I suspect it will only be a matter of time until I receive an e-mail stating that they could not open a file. I guess as technology advances we are always going to have that problem. I hope this review was helpful and have a smooth transition if you decide to migrate to the new version.
By the way, I am not a Microsoft employee or affiliated with them in any way.
All in all I am very happy with the improvements and felt the upgrade price, fairly cheap actually, was well worth it.
Worked great....even with TRIAL Versions of the software installed June 26, 2007
goosedude (Washington, DC)
8 out of 9 found this review helpful
Suffice to say IMO this is the best version of OFFICE in years....the improvements to OUTLOOK 2007 make it more than worth it.
Save yourself some money and install the FREE TRIAL Versions available directly from Microsoft for testing....then apply the upgrade....
I personally love it.
I have had ZERO problems installing and using it....but I must note I am using a brand new ATHLON X2 6000+ Build with all new hardware so it was a near virgin machine to install on.
Worth the upgrade July 15, 2007
Jan Schultink (Tel Aviv, Israel)
8 out of 9 found this review helpful
This was $270 well-spent. Some impressions after my first day of use.
THE RIBBON. I actually like it. But I am a heavy Office user who recognises button icons easily. Less experienced users might need more time to adjust. However you view it, these context sensitive menus are the only way forward to dealing with complex menu structures. For the menu buttons I really need to hang on to there is the bypass of sticking them in the title bar of the window (object alignment and distribution in PPT for example, "send-to-back" in PPT)
EXCEL. Finally, "unlimited" amount of columns: EXCELLENT. Professional color templates (similar to those in PPT) now for use inside worksheets AND graphs. GREAT. The ribbon includes some useful buttons that in 2003 required a menu deep dive (wrap-text-in-cell, allign-cell-top-not-bottom for example)
POWER POINT. I love the new drop shadows and image manipulation functions. A shame that many of my clients do not have 2007 installed yet... Not many people write about this, but the color palette functions are a BIG improvement over 2003. Each palette color now comes in a number of intensity shadings, very useful.
OUTLOOK. I have not noticed much difference except for a nicer looking user interface.
PERFORMANCE. My 2002 P4 with 768MB is suffering some performance reduction. I am planning to upgrade to a new system soon, but in the mean time I switched off the format previews in Power Point.
UPDATE SEPTEMBER 2008 additional observations:
Much improved color management. Once you have defined your color schema, PowerPoint makes it very easy to apply intensity levels of the same color in your presentation
Adding a monochrome color overlay to images
Sophisticated drop shadows. There are many useless graphical effects in PowerPoint (Microsoft had a look at Adobe products), the drop shadow is the one I actually use
3D text rotation. In a later post I will explain how to stick a 3D logo/text on an image (update: here it is), PowerPoint has a more basic function now that more or less does the same
PDF conversion plug, one that is free, and better than Adobe Acrobat (see this post)
Smaller file size
Much improved editing of data charts, fully compatible with Excel. Creating beautiful, simple and clean data charts used to require a lot of "hacks" in 2003. It's not perfect in PowerPoint 2007, but a lot better.
The proportion of tip of an arrow does not change anymore when you re-size the object
The selection pane tool that allows you to edit charts with many overlapping objects, without having to send them to the back all the time.
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