Installed: MS Office Ultimate Vista Addons and Applications Discuss Installed: MS Office Ultimate in the Windows Vista forums; Hi Friends: I decided to try out MS Office Ultimate 2007 using my TechNet subscription. The new office site is here: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/FX...CL100569831033 . There ...

[Znod]

Hi Friends:

I decided to try out MS Office Ultimate 2007 using my TechNet subscription. The new office site is here:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/FX...CL100569831033 .

There now are about a jillion versions of Office. Here is what comes on Ultimate.

Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007:

* Access 2007
* Accounting Express 2007
* Excel 2007
* InfoPath 2007
* Groove 2007
* OneNote 2007
* Outlook 2007 with Business Contact Manager
* PowerPoint 2007
* Publisher 2007
* Word 2007

Below is a snip showing what my start menu shows related to Ultimate.

Anyone can get a six-month trial subscription. So far I like what I see (i.e., the interfaces on Word and Excel), but all I have done is edit a few Word documents and make sure that my favorite, and only, Excel add-on works properly (it does). The add-on is Analyze-it: http://www.analyse-it.com/default.asp

As I try the different programs, I'll let you know what I think. But, my analyses will not be in depth. I'll just be playing with the features I use most often. And, some programs may receive very little attention.

[Znod]

OK, here's the first installment. I have looked a bit more closely at Word. Note that I am focusing only on the "Home" tab. There are several others; together they show, without getting into detail, the large number of features available. But, I am such an easy rider that I never use 1/10,000 of the available features on any "talented" programs.

The first snip below shows the basic layout one sees when opening Word for the first time. The interface is very attractive, and I love blue. But, darn, I had to shrink the width to 800 pixels so the snip doesn't do the interface anything close to justice.

The functions depicted, from the "Home" tab, in the second snip make me feel right at home (pun an accident, but left, so; therefore, intended ). That is, about 90% (maybe a bit of an exaggeration) of what I use in Word is right there.

And, now, we get to the third snip (See next post. Darn I though we used to be able to upload 3 snips at a time.) Did you notice the largish circular icon in the upper left-hand corner of especially the second snip? Well, clicking it (i.e., the "Office Button") reveals a large number of additional very familiar functions.

The bottom line on what I have shown is that anyone that is familiar with the basic Word functions can pick the new version up and start using it immediately. Perhaps MS thought this easy transition out in advance.

[Znod]

Third snip:

[Znod]

I now have spent some time with Excel 2007. I really love the ways in which the Excel layout has changed. As in Word, Excel has a variety of tabs across the top. These tabs give very direct access to the things in Excel that I typically use the most: basic functions (the "Home" tab); insertions (the "Insert" tab); and mathematical, statistical, financial, and logical functions/operations (the "Formulas" tab). The "Office Button" reveals the same detail in Excel as it does in Word. The three snips below (one in the next post--800 X 600 limitation--ugh!!!) reveal the things that are readily available when using the three tabs I have emphasized.

I have played with some of my spreadsheets in Excel. What makes me happy is, as in Word, the ease of transition from 2003 to 2007 using primarily the Office Button and the three tabs I noted above.

I am sorry that I don't have time to really get into detail on what's new in the Office programs. But, my primary concern is checking out the well-known programs for ease of transition and trying to figure out what the new ones do. In this regard, I'll be relying on the information given on the new Office site to get started on the basics of the new ones.

Edit: I am posting essentially the same info on TVG. So, if you want to see much clearer versions of the snips, then please go here: http://thevistageeks.com/forums/inde...st=0#entry7483. I am sorry to make you take this extra step. I just don't have time to use my usual hosting site. I am going to see if I can use Photobucket to get things done faster. I won't go into detail about why using my .Mac website takes excessive time.

[Znod]

Third Snip:

[Snuffy]

Testing Office 2007, beta testing Publisher, and at this time, other than 1 or 2 xcell sheets, I hav much better performance by booting back to XP and using Office 2003...the next uninstall will be All of Office 2007 (from Vista).
It takes me ages to redo any of the web pages, there are only 27. and seems every time I try using Officd 2007.. they come out screwwy..
Now if Office XP would install in Vista (I'd try that) since Office XP is very close to Office 2003...

[nasz]

Been running Ultimate for a while too! Seems a lot more stable than it's previous incarnations. Mind you it's a shame the ribbon toolbars are missing from Outlook, Visio and Project! As MS mentioned themselves, they wanted to ensure Office was revamped and as bugfree as possible. Future service packs for Outlook, Visio and Project will include the 'ribbon'.

[Znod]

I can attest either way. You mentioned three programs that I seldomly use--only Outlook a tad.