So far I've only used Excel 2007, and overall - I like it.
The toolbars and menus have been replaced with large tool "ribbons" that are like toolbars, but also different. When you click on the menus items on the top, the entire set of toolbars shifts to show toolbars that are relevant to the functional menu item you selected.
This feature was particularly nice with functions. Today, you open a cell, look at the F(X) icon, click, bring up a list, click to get to the full list, which is then hierarchically organized. Now, you click on function, and the entire toolbars shift to show function-related items. Groupings are shown, as are commands that I didn't even know Excel had, because I'd never seen them before.
There's even an always present set of commands called the Quick Access Toolbar to provide functionality that you'll always want (Save, Open, etc) and is customizable.
Other nice features are a generally better-designed UI. A zoom slider is nicely docked into the bottom right hand corner, being always visible and easier to use than previous zoom drop-down boxes.
One down side is that it is designed for the ever-growing screens that people have with their PCs. My laptop is only 15.4", so I'm losing a bit of working area to accomodate the tool ribbons. On my home system (with dual 19"ers) this is not an issue.
While I haven't discovered anything that makes this upgrade life-altering, it's been nice so far.
Office 2007
Were they able to get the feature working where multiple users can work on the same document at the same time?
“Activism is a way for useless people to feel important, even if the consequences of their activism are counterproductive for those they claim to be helping and damaging to the fabric of society as a whole.” - Dr Thomas Sowell
Hmmm, that looks like it may do it.
Guess I'll have to wait to get my hands on it.
Guess I'll have to wait to get my hands on it.
“Activism is a way for useless people to feel important, even if the consequences of their activism are counterproductive for those they claim to be helping and damaging to the fabric of society as a whole.” - Dr Thomas Sowell
I met the enemy, and it is Word 2007.
My biggest fear is that Office 2007 would be slow. Excel was snappy, though, and has worked great. (Although, adding in the data analysis and solver packs was a little unobvious).
Word has been slower than death when switching between documents, or creating new documents. I'm not even sure what it's doing though, since the HD light isn't on, and the CPU meter isn't climbing.
Edited By TheCatt on 1163541424
My biggest fear is that Office 2007 would be slow. Excel was snappy, though, and has worked great. (Although, adding in the data analysis and solver packs was a little unobvious).
Word has been slower than death when switching between documents, or creating new documents. I'm not even sure what it's doing though, since the HD light isn't on, and the CPU meter isn't climbing.
Edited By TheCatt on 1163541424
It's not me, it's someone else.
OneNote 2007
OneNote is a note-taking application that allows for hierarchical order of notes, categories etc. Originally conceived to be part of the tablet PC initiative with hand-written notes, OneNote has evolved past that sad, never-realized reality.
Currently, I've been testing OneNote at work and for a few home notes. At Work, I've created categories for major subdivisions of my work (various projects, admin stuff, etc) and at home created categories for my MBA program and household things (gift ideas, chores, random accounts/logins). As such, it replaces pads of paper, Word and Excel documents, and the notes portion of MS Outlook for me.
I do not have a tablet PC, and have tried both prior versions of OneNote. I have not liked either one. They were all good in concept, but craptacular in implementation. This version, however, rocks. My only complaint so far is that there is no way to paste-special-unformatted text (least, none I've found).
The organization is very natural, allowing as many categories, sub-categories, etc as you want. You then create under each category that can have its own title. These notes can contain images, text, screenshots, drawings, etc. Items copy and pasted from a website will automatically contain the URL for the website, so you dont have to copy and paste that too. All notes can be tagged. Examples are: follow-up, movie to see, book to read, important, password-protected, etc. Items can be integrated with Outlook for reminders.
Overall, this is the best change I've seen in 2007 yet. While I'm still struggling with the ribbon-UI in Word and Excel, this program has far exceeded my expectations, and proven useful for every day tasks.
OneNote is a note-taking application that allows for hierarchical order of notes, categories etc. Originally conceived to be part of the tablet PC initiative with hand-written notes, OneNote has evolved past that sad, never-realized reality.
Currently, I've been testing OneNote at work and for a few home notes. At Work, I've created categories for major subdivisions of my work (various projects, admin stuff, etc) and at home created categories for my MBA program and household things (gift ideas, chores, random accounts/logins). As such, it replaces pads of paper, Word and Excel documents, and the notes portion of MS Outlook for me.
I do not have a tablet PC, and have tried both prior versions of OneNote. I have not liked either one. They were all good in concept, but craptacular in implementation. This version, however, rocks. My only complaint so far is that there is no way to paste-special-unformatted text (least, none I've found).
The organization is very natural, allowing as many categories, sub-categories, etc as you want. You then create under each category that can have its own title. These notes can contain images, text, screenshots, drawings, etc. Items copy and pasted from a website will automatically contain the URL for the website, so you dont have to copy and paste that too. All notes can be tagged. Examples are: follow-up, movie to see, book to read, important, password-protected, etc. Items can be integrated with Outlook for reminders.
Overall, this is the best change I've seen in 2007 yet. While I'm still struggling with the ribbon-UI in Word and Excel, this program has far exceeded my expectations, and proven useful for every day tasks.
It's not me, it's someone else.
I'm about ready to kill me some Microsoft motherfuckers.
Excel 2007 runs just over 10 times slower than Excel 2003. The macro that used to run for 4 hours under 2003 to do my grant payroll each month is now taking just over 40 fucking hours.
Also, when recording VB scripts as macros, where it used to do things like record sorting as an event that occurs on whatever has been dynamically selected, now it records it as an event that happens on a particular hard-coded cell range. This means every time I records a sort as part of a macro, I have to go in by hand and tweak between 2 and 10 lines of code. Every damn time. When in 2003 it could do it fine and dynamically. This makes me very pissy.
There have been many other things like that. Little pieces of functionality have been ripped away one tiny bit at a time, leaving it a ragged mess that is clunky and horrible to use. The past week (plus today) I have done as much work in 2007 as I used to do in one day in 2003. And it's not just because I can't find any of the damn buttons.
Excel 2007 runs just over 10 times slower than Excel 2003. The macro that used to run for 4 hours under 2003 to do my grant payroll each month is now taking just over 40 fucking hours.
Also, when recording VB scripts as macros, where it used to do things like record sorting as an event that occurs on whatever has been dynamically selected, now it records it as an event that happens on a particular hard-coded cell range. This means every time I records a sort as part of a macro, I have to go in by hand and tweak between 2 and 10 lines of code. Every damn time. When in 2003 it could do it fine and dynamically. This makes me very pissy.
There have been many other things like that. Little pieces of functionality have been ripped away one tiny bit at a time, leaving it a ragged mess that is clunky and horrible to use. The past week (plus today) I have done as much work in 2007 as I used to do in one day in 2003. And it's not just because I can't find any of the damn buttons.
"ATTENTION: Customers browsing porn must hold magazines with both hands at all times!"
Outlook 2007 is the gem in that pack. Too bad you can't use that with the 2003 Word and Excel.
“Activism is a way for useless people to feel important, even if the consequences of their activism are counterproductive for those they claim to be helping and damaging to the fabric of society as a whole.” - Dr Thomas Sowell
I know there are some new things there, but nothing that has totally blown me away. I just like the new look and I think it's a lot more responsive than the last version, which I thought was a touch clunky and unstable.
“Activism is a way for useless people to feel important, even if the consequences of their activism are counterproductive for those they claim to be helping and damaging to the fabric of society as a whole.” - Dr Thomas Sowell
1) Yeah, I actually reverted to Excel 2003.TPRJones wrote:I'm about ready to kill me some Microsoft motherfuckers.
Excel 2007 runs just over 10 times slower than Excel 2003. The macro that used to run for 4 hours under 2003 to do my grant payroll each month is now taking just over 40 fucking hours.
Also, when recording VB scripts as macros, where it used to do things like record sorting as an event that occurs on whatever has been dynamically selected, now it records it as an event that happens on a particular hard-coded cell range. This means every time I records a sort as part of a macro, I have to go in by hand and tweak between 2 and 10 lines of code. Every damn time. When in 2003 it could do it fine and dynamically. This makes me very pissy.
2) You need to check relative references, instead of absolute, iirc. Same thing in 2003, you probably just did that a long time ago.
It's not me, it's someone else.
Speak for yourself.Leisher wrote:Outlook 2007 is the gem in that pack. Too bad you can't use that with the 2003 Word and Excel.
I use Outlook 2007, Word 2007, and Excel 2003.
You just have to remove Outlook 2003 to have Outlook 2007, but all older version can remain, iirc.
It's not me, it's someone else.
Ooo, no, I didn't even know that was something to be chosen in options. It never occured to me to look for it.TheCatt wrote:2) You need to check relative references, instead of absolute, iirc. Same thing in 2003, you probably just did that a long time ago.
Found it. Interesting. I wonder what else this is going to effect.
Thanks for the tip!
"ATTENTION: Customers browsing porn must hold magazines with both hands at all times!"