Microsoft Office 2007 Guide (AR100021440)

Microsoft Office 2007 presented itself to the market in a brand new layout from its predecessor Office 2003. The application interface is now shown in what Microsoft are calling ribbons rather than Toolbars.

These ribbons are displayed at the top of the screen in Microsoft Word 2007, Excel 2007, PowerPoint 2007, and Access 2007 and when a new message is created in Outlook 2007.

The purpose of the ribbons is to keep commands visible while working instead of hiding them under menus and toolbars.

Ribbons not Toolbars
Within the ribbons are tabs which are commands categorically grouped. The first ribbon by trend is called home and this is where the most frequently used icons are stored. The most frequently used icons can also be found in other ribbons to match their category. The aim of the new interface was to bring the most regularly used icons to the front of the applications making the user experience easier and more productive.

Microsoft office also uses floating toolbars and additional ribbons that appear when particular commands are clicked on e.g. inserting a picture will reveal the picture tools ribbon.

The icons are bigger and brighter in Office 2007 with gallery views showing recently used items from commands displaying downward arrows.

Some of the features have also developed and been enhanced more.

There are several different types of tabs:

• Command tabs: These appear by default whenever a Microsoft Office program is opened.
• Contextual tabs: These appear whenever a specific task is performed (such as inserting a picture), and offer commands relative to only that task.
• Dialog Box Launcher: This displays a dialog box or task pane.

The Microsoft Office Button, in essence, replaces the File Menu in most of the Office 2003 applications.

The quick access toolbar (also known as QAT) is a toolbar that displays along the top or bottom of the ribbons containing more frequently used icons and commands, but these are set and personalised by the user. This toolbar was particularly key as the change in layout from Office 2003 to Office 2007 was drastic and so people needed a toolbar that contained their most frequently used commands whilst they were learning the new layout.

There is a difference in file format in Office 2007 - an additional ‘x’ to the document extension so in Word, for example, the document saving format has changed from .doc to .docx. This means that saving the right version has to be considered as if a document has been saved in the new Office 2007 format and the recipient is operating Office 2003, they will not be able to open the document.

Microsoft Office 2007 contains the programs Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, Outlook, Infopath and Publisher and the suite itself appears in the following Microsoft packages:

• Microsoft Office Basic 2007
• Microsoft Office Home & Student 2007
• Microsoft Office Standard 2007
• Microsoft Office Small Business 2007 Microsoft Office Professional 2007 Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007
• Microsoft Office Professional Plus Microsoft Office Enterprise 2007

A more optional function for Macro creators is the developer ribbon. All macro and form functions (now known as legacy tools) can be found on the developer ribbon. This ribbon does not show as default and to enable it, go to the Office button in any application e.g. Word, go to options (e.g. Word Options) and on the popular section tick the box Show Developer tab in the Ribbon.

By Kelly Foxhall