How-to: 2007 Microsoft Office

Okay, so we know by now that Microsoft Vista has issues, but how about MS Office 2007? Is it safe? Will it be a fairly painless upgrade like that past couple of Offices have been? What's up with this "ribbon" business, anyway?

According to MS, the ribbon replaces the traditional menus and toolbars. It is part of the Office Fluent UI (The Microsoft Office Fluent user interface overview). The ribbon presents commands organized by tabs that are grouped by common tasks. The tabs are meant to simplify the tasks that we previously have used through menus and toolbars because they are organized "in a way that corresponds directly to the tasks people perform in these applications." So says Microsoft.

Also, as mentioned by a Law.com Legal Technology article, Is Your Firm Ready for a New Desktop?, the file format for Office 2007 has changed. Files are no longer appended as .doc, .xls, .ppt, etc. They are saved as XML files and so will have an "x" appended to the previous extension (.docx, etc.). This format is not compatible with previous versions of Office without downloading the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack.

Between these two changes, Office 2007 appears to be packed with some re-training needs. While you don't have to run Vista in order to upgrade to Office 2007, there are still some major changes to consider.