Useful Bits

It shouldn’t be so difficult! How many times have you said it? Well, there are lots of ways to make it easier, and whenever I come across one, I’d like to share it with you here. If there’s something you’d like explored or a question you’d like addressed, let me know!

24 November 2007:

Office 2007

I was recently able to install Office 2007 and begin to use it in earnest on one of my own computers. As you all have discovered, the new Office 2007 has moved some of the commands to new locations in the area above the work space. Microsoft has renamed this area – it used to be called the Menu Bar, but they now call it the Ribbon. If you observe the Ribbon as you work, you’ll see that it changes what is displayed depending on the context in which you’re working – certain items display by default, others when you are working on a picture – the choices immediately available to you depend on what exactly you are doing. Sometimes, this can be very frustrating, but it’s helpful if you remember to select the item you want to work on next BEFORE you look for commands in the Ribbon. You’ll have a very hard time reformatting a picture, or changing properties in an Excel cell, unless you have already selected the item you want to change. Usually… okay, every single time, as near as I’ve seen… the program will figure out what the correct choices are to display for you in the Ribbon.

Before I get started, you should know that Outlook 2007 remains more like Outlook 2003, while all the other Office applications have the Ribbon and other items mentioned below – some of these new features are added to Outlook, but it remains the most like the old version.

There are some other very useful tips to make the new environment easier to work with. Have you noticed the little Microsoft Office logo in the upper left corner of the window? Click on that and you’ll find most of the Menu Items that used to appear in the File menu. They’re rearranged somewhat, so you’ll need to read the help a few times to get used to the options available, but it will quickly become second nature as you use the programs more frequently.

Notice the little floppy disk icon to the right of the Office logo? This starts off the “Quick Access Toolbar”. If you click on the little downward pointing icon at the right of this short menu bar, it will pop up a menu of additional items you can include for quick access. Beside “save” (the disk icon), you could add “print”, since this is probably the second most frequent thing you need in this menu.

Also, in the old Office, there were Alt- or Ctrl- key press commands that you may have learned as shortcuts to accomplish certain things, like cut and paste, for example. In Office 2007, there are additional key combinations to accomplish some of the tasks you frequently try to do – these are called Key Tips, and you will notice the required key-strokes indicated next to each command that allows such short cuts. Some folks hate taking their hand from the mouse, but I find keyboard shortcuts enable me to get my work done much faster. Pay attention to the Key Tips, and you may find you like some of these short cuts as well!

While the people you send files to can download an add-on to older versions of Office so that they can see your new Office 2007 documents, some features will be disabled or won’t work properly even so. Until most everyone has converted over, you’ll be doing everyone a favor if you change your options to always save your documents in the older Office format. That way, everyone will see the same thing and not run into too much frustration every time you share a document with them! To accomplish this little feat, pop open that Microsoft Office logo menu mentioned previously. There, at the bottom, you will find an Options button for the program you’re running, for example, “Word Options.” Select the “Save” item from the left hand side after you click for options, and you will see the item “Save files in this format:”, and you will choose, for example, Word 97-2003 format. The new formats end with an “x” – for Word, that is “.docx”, and your friends who don’t have Office 2007 will find receiving those files very frustrating. Saving as Word 97-2003 format will save your file as the old, familiar “.doc” file. (If you don’t have extensions visible for your set-up, you may never see these file type extensions – don’t be confused. It’s another option to turn these on or off, but turning them off does not affect the way files are saved – you must go through this “save as” option process to be kind to your buddies!)

Looking for a menu item you just *know* used to be near some of the items that show up on your Ribbon, but they seem not to be there any longer? Look in the lower right corner of each menu box in the Ribbon, and you’ll see an arrow pointing down and to the right – click this arrow, and *all* of the items related to that Ribbon menu will pop up, similar (or identical!) to the old pop menus for some properties and commands.

If you really are having a hard time figuring out how to do something, open the help menu and search for “Command Reference Guide”. This will open a web page that shows the old Office program interface – place your cursor over the menu item that used to do what you are trying to accomplish, and the interactive reference guide will tell you where to find that same command in the Office 2007 program. You need to try it out – you’ll find these in the “Interactive” links below.

Finally, you know how you keep trying various things to format something, or get just the right look, or make one little change to your document, so you pick a font, then Undo, pick another, then Undo – over and over until you finally get the look you wanted. With Office 2007 – particularly with Word 2007, hold the mouse over the command that would make the change you’d like to accomplish – the document will change in the background even though you didn’t click on the item. Move the mouse away or to another choice, and the document will do away with the change, and then show your next choice. When a change is made that you like, click the menu item, and the change will be made to your selection. This technique can be a time-saver when you’re trying to get the final look-and-feel to a presentation or document.

At last, the biggest, best tip of all: Microsoft has provided a series of training sessions, most of which can be run through in less than half an hour. If you’re being frustrated by a particular piece of Office 2007, or if you’re still having a hard time getting used to the Ribbon, be sure to check out these training sessions. Definitely do “Up to speed with Office 2007”, the first item – it will introduce all the features above and more.

Useful Bits

24 November 2007:

Office 2007

23 November 2007:

Awesome Research Tool