Office 2007 is terrific. No question Microsoft has a winner here. This is one upgrade I would definitely recommend. [:)]

Vista....now that's another story. Talk about hype and fluff. [:S]

I've been using Office 2007 since the public Beta 2. I have thoroughly enjoyed it. So much so that I overlooked the many bugs it had. The technical refresh was awesome because it fixed a lot of the issues that I was having. Now I’m running the full version of Office 2007 Enterprise.

I have had a couple of annoyances with the full version.

First, Office 2003 applications with the File Converter installed gave me an error because I had created my documents with a beta version. I had to open all of the files I created in the new file format and save them again.

Second, a problem that I had with Outlook Beta 2 that was fixed in the technical refresh came back with the full version. After I close Outlook I have to open the task manager and kill Outlook.exe. I run Outlook in Exchange Cached Mode. Has anyone else had this problem with Outlook?

Administrators might be interested to know that the administrative install process is quite a bit different. You no longer need the Office Resource Kit and the Custom Install Wizard to create a .mst file. Instead you run setup.exe /admin and the Custom Install Wizard is built-in. Also, there is no more patching the administrative install. There is an Updates folder and when a new full-file comes out you just drop it in.

I've noticed that most of the common users at work seem to care less about Windows Vista but they're excited about Office 2007. We're still testing it but we hope to push it out soon.

I must be in a parallel universe.

I have demoed the Office 2007 BETA 2TR to a number of high-powered PA's who use Office daily, and they were, not to my surpirse, bewildered by the Ribbon GUI.  They said the Ribbon paradigm was not simple and wasted screen space. 

Personally, as an Access developer, the Ribbon is a joke and a hindrance to efficent navigation and application development.

It is interesting that the VB Editor retains the classic menubar.

Another Edsel perhaps?

Watch Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer's webcast as he introduces the redesigned 2007 Microsoft Office system UI to judge for yourself.

URL: mms://omedia.wmod.llnwd.net/a900/o10/microsoft/20061130/executive_event_20061130_500.wmv and then listen to what the MS Vice President of Office Design Team "Julie Larsen Green" says about how they had listen to (a billion sessions - do you math here) for what she says, what end users really want.

Question: Why are the end users left out of a method to customize their Ribbon UI without having the need to be a developer? Is that really innovation, or even just common sense after more than a decade of using Office? Is that what it means to be your own best customer? Does Microsoft really listen to the customers needs and follows up?

In addition, the only way for developers to use the ribbon UI paradigm is create their own version (Read Microsoft URL: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms406046.aspx). Microsoft has decided to share the user interface by publishing a publish design guidelines (do it their way) for developers.

The guidelines will require a license agreement , though it is royalty free. Any application, even ones not running on Windows will be able to use the ribbon paradigm without fear of IP lawsuits they claim. The exception is applications that directly compete with the core Office products, namely Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Access. In addition, the Ribbon UI paradigm license agreement is incompatible with the GPL/Linux.

Some developers will certainly dislike the idea of being forced by Microsoft to abide by their guidelines to be secondary, just as long as Microsoft remains at top. This is just another embarrassing example of how out of touch MS is with both developers and end users in general.

65 Reasons Why Outlook 2007 Will Suck by Chris Pirillo

Correction:

Julie Larson-Green, which now works in the MS Windows department... 

My rants:

1. Word should support advanced OpenType typography, proper XHTML and XPS editing, though they've done a nice

job with the new Math engine. And please update the stagnant standalone Equation Editor.

2. PowerPoint should be built using WPF.

3. If Visio could export as XAML.

4. Publisher should also use WPF's Text engine. Also, many users want a Publisher Viewer.

5. Outlook should support smart contact groups, importing & exporting multiple vCards at a time. And fully-support

vCard 3.0 and viewing multiple photo attachments as a slideshow (although it's a business email client).

6. The 'Save My Settings Wizard' should make a comeback.

7. All icons for Office tools and inside dlls should be updated though this is not really an issue.

I noticed that in every beta of Office 2007 I tested, the images in my email messages in Outlook loaded very slow.  This was always corrected when I went back to 2003. Has anyone seen this issue in the final release of 2007?

I am not as technical as all the comments posted - for my situation the installation and "upgrade" from MS-Office XP Pro to the NEW Enterprise Edition went very well - it took about 1 hour to do this on my desktop and laptop . . . I do not consider this bad at all.

I was a beta tester for Office 2007, this final edition is much better from a user's point - - it loads easier and faster. The final operations appears to be less intrusive and forward looking. The interface for a user appears to be easier and better looking, even a few relatives with extremely less experience comment positively on the ease of use. [I]

Wazing

I'm going to stick with Office 2003.

Elmo,
[ http://www.whathowandwhy.com ]