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Do You Need Office 2007 in Your Small Office?
Microsoft Office 2007 is big, bloated and brilliant. There is a plethora of new features for PowerPoint, Word, Excel (the jewel in the crown) and Outlook, my other husband. Microsoft recently brought the 2007 show local and I couldn't resist spending an intimate day with hundreds of other geeks. When the demonstrator's overloaded power laptop blue-screened, the crowd of small business owners cheered. We're a testy bunch when it comes to ROI on computer purchases.
Office 2007 runs on either Windows XP or Vista. The changes we saw were primarily cosmetic but productively important: when it takes employees a while to re-learn what they already know how to do, we lose money on the learning curve. (Using Outlook as a business contact manager was a large part of the demo and deserves its own post.)
The Ribbon
The most user-challenging feature will be the "Ribbon," which replaces the two friendly toolbars we know, love and customize.
Office 2007 is intuitive. The ribbon morphs unasked into the tasks it thinks you want to do next (called "contextual tabs"). If you're in a table, it moves to table commands in a disconcerting and resource-sucking visual blip. I predict we're going to lose monitors due to thrown objects caused by ribbon morphing, but right-clicking is a better alternative. Microsoft promotes it with '[T]he tabs on the Ribbon display the commands that are most relevant for each of the task areas in the applications.' Remember that the question of relevancy is highly individual with power users.
Going Home
The Home button provides easy access to the most frequently used Office commands. To new 2007 users, it's an extra click, a superfluous layer, another mouse move but in reality, it's the place to click to share, print, publish, and send documents.
Emailing files
Do you send Word or Excel files? Word 2007 saves in a new format (no more .doc) and you'll have to "save as" an "older" version (that'd be XP, which is lumped into Office 95 as an antique format) to share with those not yet blessed with Office 2007. A happy new feature is "save-to-PDF" and sending PDF files is the best choice anyway. Recommendation: send PDF files whenever possible.
Do you have the techno-horsepower?
Upgrading your current Office version might be cheaper than buying new, but it is time-consuming to load, resource-intensive and requires more RAM and better video (especially if you're considering Vista). Office 2007 is exceptionally graphical (and resource-intensive). In preparation, we upgraded our machines from 1Gb to 3Gb of RAM (older RAM costs less) and double-checked the video cards to make sure they had at least 128Mb of on-board RAM (we replaced only two because we knew it was coming 2 years ago). Call your IT folks and talk it all over before buying Office 2007 or Vista.
The money question
Does your business need Office 2007 with its bells, whistles, contextual tabs, galleries and Ribbon now? At the demo, the leader pointed out that things the "geeks" could do are now available to "regular" users like 'us' (well, them). The quandary: those things were always available and regular users could rarely do them so what makes you think they're going to start doing them now because they're prettier?
The bottom line
The reviews are in. ZDNet advises that if your current version works, don't upgrade even though there are significant improvements to Excel formula referencing, pretty PowerPoint, and better document recovery. They note that the drastic design changes demand a steep learning curve and the new interface isn't intuitive.
If you've got power users, they're going to love Office 2007. Regular users will face a learning slippery incline (not quite a steep curve). Your costs for both software and people frustration may vary.
Office 2007 runs on either Windows XP or Vista. The changes we saw were primarily cosmetic but productively important: when it takes employees a while to re-learn what they already know how to do, we lose money on the learning curve. (Using Outlook as a business contact manager was a large part of the demo and deserves its own post.)
The Ribbon
The most user-challenging feature will be the "Ribbon," which replaces the two friendly toolbars we know, love and customize. Office 2007 is intuitive. The ribbon morphs unasked into the tasks it thinks you want to do next (called "contextual tabs"). If you're in a table, it moves to table commands in a disconcerting and resource-sucking visual blip. I predict we're going to lose monitors due to thrown objects caused by ribbon morphing, but right-clicking is a better alternative. Microsoft promotes it with '[T]he tabs on the Ribbon display the commands that are most relevant for each of the task areas in the applications.' Remember that the question of relevancy is highly individual with power users.
Going Home
The Home button provides easy access to the most frequently used Office commands. To new 2007 users, it's an extra click, a superfluous layer, another mouse move but in reality, it's the place to click to share, print, publish, and send documents.Emailing files
Do you send Word or Excel files? Word 2007 saves in a new format (no more .doc) and you'll have to "save as" an "older" version (that'd be XP, which is lumped into Office 95 as an antique format) to share with those not yet blessed with Office 2007. A happy new feature is "save-to-PDF" and sending PDF files is the best choice anyway. Recommendation: send PDF files whenever possible.
Do you have the techno-horsepower?
Upgrading your current Office version might be cheaper than buying new, but it is time-consuming to load, resource-intensive and requires more RAM and better video (especially if you're considering Vista). Office 2007 is exceptionally graphical (and resource-intensive). In preparation, we upgraded our machines from 1Gb to 3Gb of RAM (older RAM costs less) and double-checked the video cards to make sure they had at least 128Mb of on-board RAM (we replaced only two because we knew it was coming 2 years ago). Call your IT folks and talk it all over before buying Office 2007 or Vista.
The money question
Does your business need Office 2007 with its bells, whistles, contextual tabs, galleries and Ribbon now? At the demo, the leader pointed out that things the "geeks" could do are now available to "regular" users like 'us' (well, them). The quandary: those things were always available and regular users could rarely do them so what makes you think they're going to start doing them now because they're prettier?
The bottom line
The reviews are in. ZDNet advises that if your current version works, don't upgrade even though there are significant improvements to Excel formula referencing, pretty PowerPoint, and better document recovery. They note that the drastic design changes demand a steep learning curve and the new interface isn't intuitive.
If you've got power users, they're going to love Office 2007. Regular users will face a learning slippery incline (not quite a steep curve). Your costs for both software and people frustration may vary.
Comments
11
Subscribe to commentsEricFeb 23rd 2007 4:42PM
I use Office on a daily basis and have for over a 8 years. I have been using Office 2007 B2TR since its release and I feel that I must pronounce my joy in using it.
Comments: I am not sure which application you referred to regarding Tables, but I am going to assume Word. I don't think there is a valid arguement to be made that the manner in which tables are created and managed in 2007 is worse than 2003. There was nothing more cumbersome and frustrating to use than table management in older versions of Word. The abily to see immediate changes to your tables in 2007, whether it be the initial creation of the table or the formatting, made my life a lot easier. In the past I would paste links to Excel docs to save time but I have now moved these using pieces of information back into Word.
But that is just a small benefit among everything else you are get from 2007. How about the one million rows in Excel 2007 and many more columns? In my enterprise, I anticipate majob Business Intelligence changes because of this feature. I was also anticipating seeing many 30 MB excel files running around the office until I saw that the new Office document standard produces files 1/2 as large as their 03 counter-parts.
As for the "Home" button, I am not sure why you think this is an extra click? I click on "Home" and I get to save, save-as, etc. In addition we also get context to the commands that will surely help those transition away from the pre-07 products or save their new docs into the 97-03 format.
Detractions: I will say that I was surprised at seeing the hot-keys change even if the old methods work. "Alt-S, V" was a friend of mine in all versions of excel and I am still not sure where in the menu it exists.
I grant that I might not be a typical user of these products and my opinion is tempered somewhat by the knowledge that many people I work with will make this transition in the next 6 months. I anticipate an inital transition period that might prove painful for some. But I also anticipate that these users, who live in Office products, will get their money's worth from them in short-order.
Sue PolinskyFeb 23rd 2007 3:00PM
Eric, I'm with you and I've already got 2007 installed on all our machines. I love new stuff and learning to use it, shortcut keys and all. However, the point is: do most small businesses NEED or WANT 2007? In reality, the changes just don't warrant the expense yet (in hardware and software and learning curve).
The home button and morphing Ribbon are going to cause apoplexy among some users. I helped move a big law firm from WordPerfect DOS to WordPerfect Windows and watched 30+ year experienced secretaries in tears. Although I don't think this is the same degree of change, small biz just can't afford hardware, software, and learning curve unless there's going to be measurable ROI. That was my point.
But I love new toys.
TushFeb 23rd 2007 3:51PM
Why do you need that much RAM and graphics horsepower to power Office?
Doesn't that seem ridiculous to anyone?
dssdfsdfFeb 23rd 2007 4:45PM
It is sooooo ugly. I went back to 2003.
Sue PolinskyFeb 23rd 2007 4:45PM
Ugly is one thing. Going back takes guts. Did you have to reformat?
DrWatsonFeb 23rd 2007 7:06PM
Ok, you can bitch and moan all you want, but c'mon, the ribbon rocks! Transition? Yeah, sure. Ask any old timer abour WordStar (DOS) and check if they regret moving to a Windows-based word processor. Not all change is good, but this one is. Brace yourself for ribbon pervasiveness in your favorite OS in the years to come. I bet you'll like it.
asdfqwerty911Feb 24th 2007 6:45PM
What is all this crap abuot a steep-learning curve?
The day I downloaded the beta, it just clicked. If you can't use it, your stupid. Or maybe im just smart.
RyanFeb 24th 2007 8:15AM
Uh.. 3GB of RAM for Office? Are you joking? It seems to run just fine on my PC with 1GB of RAM and I'm running Vista. I bet on XP it would run well with even less. Also it's not like Office is 3D accelerated like Vista is, so it's not using much of that extra graphics adapter you purchased. Did you just need a good excuse to upgrade?
dfgdfgdfFeb 24th 2007 8:16AM
@Sue Polinsky: No, I just uninstalled and reinstalled 2003. It required some time, but fortunately no reinstall.
Also I don't understand what's supposed to be so great about the Ribbon. While it surely is not a reason to dislike Office (a Ribbon in beautiful (= standard Windows Visual Style) is absolutely imaginable, although not preset in this version) I prefer the minimalistic UI with the good old toolbars and menus.
To bad there is not a "classic mode" or something.
Andrew FongFeb 24th 2007 8:40PM
On the contrary, I think the upgrade is the most problematic for power users since they need to relearn the location of all their favorite functions. My biggest beef is the lack of customizability. Being able to make my own "Home" ribbon would make Office 07 ten times better.
For people who needs Word for just a few features not available in MS Works, it still functions the same. Then again, the ROI on upgrading is probably pretty low already.
I think the biggest benefit is for new users and people who want to be power users (but aren't yet). The Ribbon is more conducive to feature exploration than traditional menus. I've had a lot of "Wow! I didn't know Word could do that!" moments, only to find out that the same feature was in Word 2003, only buried under two menus, a tab, and a properties button. While the relearning curve is high, the learning curve itself is low.
Also, you clearly don't need 3GB of RAM. 2GB works fine for me and I know some folks rocking with just 1GB.
Harold LiFeb 27th 2007 2:37AM
I agree that "regular users" are going to have an easier time learning how to use Office 2007 than power users, rather than harder. The ribbon categorizes things in a location manner and makes many functions more accessible. You say that "these things were always available and regular users could always do them," but the problem is that regular users didn't know where to find "these things" or even if they existed. The barrier was not always their ability to actually understand how to do something. Furthermore, the revamped tool tips help regular users make use of features. There will undoubtedly be a bit of a learning curve (I personally had a little trouble finding the word count dialog box), but I think it's far from steep or slippery. After that learning curve is overcome, I believe the new interface will save people time, and provide a ROI.