Saturday, February 24, 2007

Microsoft Office 2007 Review Begins!

Well, I received my review copy of Microsoft Office 2007 Professional, and have begun the long process of installing, learning, and testing it. I am going to post all my unvarnished findings here -- if you read this and think I've gotten something wrong, feel free to tell me. I am also writing a companion Info Insider column exploring the strategic issues involved with selecting a new Office system --whether client side (new or an upgrade to Office 2007), Open Office / StarOffice) or web based (like Google Apps).

So here you'll see my findings as they occur, good, bad, and always honest.

6 comments:

funnybroad said...

I was getting so confused and frustrated trying to get my mind wrapped around
how the Office 2007 file formats and features are compatible with previous
Office versions, that I finally bit the bullet and tested it up one side and
down the other. I was relieved to discover that IT WASN'T ME BEING STUPID...
BECAUSE THERE IS A GOOD REASON I was so confused!!!

THE BEHAVIOR OF THE COMPATIBILTY TOOLS (Compatibility Mode, Compatibility
Checker, Feature Refresh, and Compatibility Pack) IS SO DIFFERENT depending
on the Application you're using, that it would be impossible to simply learn
"how to handle compatibility in Office 2007". You have to learn how to
handle compatibility in Word 2007, then re-learn how to handle it in Excel
2007, then re-learn how to handle it in PowerPoint 2007.... even if you're
doing the same exact task, using the same exact features (or no features at
all!)

So, I put this presentation together to help others out there who are trying
to help themselves (and their users) understand it:

http://www.slideshare.net/funnybroad/office-2007-compatibility-mode-confusion

Feel free to re-distribute... but be sure you test the scenarios in your own
environment to be sure you are getting the same results!

Content Curmudgeon and the Green Hornet. said...

Hi there,
It is clear that you have done extensive compatibility testing and have some real issues. Thanks for your presentation (and I didn't know about the Presentation sharing site - quite nice.

I have written columns about Office Suite strategies for EContent magazine. Here is the column posted in July on the EContent site:
http://www.econtentmag.com/Articles/ArticlePrint.aspx?ArticleID=36789&ContextSubtypeID=9

Love to hear your thoughts.

funnybroad said...

I've replaced my original Office 2007 Compatibility Mode Confusion paper on slideshare.net with an updated version. I had to delete and re-create the existing one, so the link to it from your blog is now broken. Here is the correct link:
http://www.slideshare.net/funnybroad/office2007-basic-compatibility-issues

Feel free to correct your blog posting, or even to create a new one announcing this new updated version.... everything has been re-tested with Service Pack 1, and sadly, compatibility still sucks.

Anonymous said...

The office2007-basic-compatibility-issues on slideshare doesn't seem to be available. Can you update the location of the presentation?
Thanks

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Content Curmudgeon and the Green Hornet. said...

I have looked on slideshare too and do not find "funnybroad"'s compatibility presentation (but it was there a year or so ago).
I've asked her what happened to it.
If she lets me know, I'll post the answer.