What you should know about Office 2007

office 2007

Microsoft Office 2007 is the latest Windows version of the Microsoft productivity suite, which includes Word, Excel, Access, and PowerPoint.

Office 2007 is installed on all First-Year students’ Dell program laptops, and we will be making it available to the rest of campus later this semester. Watch for details.

 

What you should know about Office 2007:

1. The default file formats (.docx, .xlsx, .mdbx, and .pptx) for Office 2007 files are incompatible with older versions of Office, including Windows Office 2003 and Office 2004 for Mac.

  • If you have Office 2007 installed on your computer, use the "Save As" option to save files in the older format (e.g., “Word 97-2003 Document”) to ensure that faculty members, students and staff who don’t have Office 2007 can read your files.
  • If you are a faculty member with Windows Office 2003 or Office 2004 for Mac, instruct your students who have Office 2007 to use the “Save As” option described above when preparing files that they submit to you electronically.
  • If you have Windows Office 2003 or Office 2004 for Mac, download and install the following compatibility pack or file converter. When you install these, you can open, edit, and save files that were originally saved in the default Office 2007 formats (.docx, .xlsx, .mdbx, and .pptx).

      For Windows Office 2003:

Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats
(http://support.microsoft.com/kb/923505)

      For Office 2004 for Mac:

Microsoft Office Open XML File Format Converter for Mac 0.2
(http://www.microsoft.com/mac/downloads.aspx?pid=download&location=/mac/download/Office2004/ConverterBeta_0_2.xml)

 

2.  Office 2007 User Interface is dramatically different from previous versions.
The old menus and toolbars (e.g., File, Edit, View) have been replaced with the Ribbon and the Office Button. The new interface segregates file and authoring functions, groups related commands, and provides context-sensitive sets of controls.

For more about these new features, Indiana University’s Knowledgebase provides a good description at http://kb.iu.edu/data/auqi.html.

Library and Information Systems will offer demonstration and training sessions for Office 2007 throughout the coming semester. Because the user interface of Office 2007 is so much different from the prior versions, we urge you not to rush to upgrade to the new version. Rather we suggest that you (or a designate from your department) participate in one of the demonstration sessions, and then plan a personal or departmental timeline for migrating to the new system that aligns with your own cycle of activities.

Related Resources:

  1. Word 2003 to Word 2007 command reference guide: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word/HA100744321033.aspx (This guide covers the most popular commands from Word 2003.)
  2. Various instructional guides about Office 2007 hosted on Indiana University’s KnowledgeBase: http://kb.iu.edu/index.cgi?search=office+2007+file+format 

If you have questions:
Contact Dave Diedriech, ddiedriech@depauw.edu, x6442