2007 Beta First Impressions

[Nigel Greensitt]

Installed it over the weekend and had a good play with Word. The interface is
excellent, and for someone who has used and supported office for a number of
years I found it reletively easy to start to use, it will be interesting, how
easy the more difficult things ( macros etc.) are to achieve. My major worry
is the users I support. This version is a massive departure from the look and
feel of previous versions, all the way back to Office97, upgrades and new
versions have been gradual changes and existing users have so far been able
to take those in their stride, I feel that the new version is going to
involve a large amount of retraining, even involving the more competent users
we support, because of the drastic changes Microsoft have undertaken.

No real worries about outlook, we had the major changes in that in 2003, and
most people only want to send/recv mail and look at diaries, appointments and
contacts, nothing fancy.

This is no critism of the product, it has been a longtime coming, but I
can't help thinking I may be better off moving into Office training, as I
feel there is going to be a huge demand for it later this year!

 

[Jerry Hayes]

Installed it over the weekend and had a good play with Word. The interface

is
excellent, and for someone who has used and supported office for a number
of
years I found it reletively easy to start to use, it will be interesting,
how
easy the more difficult things ( macros etc.) are to achieve.

I think it's easy to use if you're a point-and-clicker, but the keyboard
interface is downright frustrating and *very* inconsistant. I'd be very
"pro-ribbon" if the menu responded like the existing 2000/2003 menus, but
it's WAY too mouse oriented as it is now.

 

[Bob Buckland ?:-\)]

Hi Jerry,

For Word 2007 keyboard shortcuts if you tap the Alt key you'll get a visual of the starting keyboard shortcuts. For the Insert tab,
for example you'll see the letter N. Typing N will switch you to that tab and show the shortcuts for that Ribbon tab.

In addition, if you know the keyboard shortcuts from 2003 they should all be working in Word 2007

The background on the way MS arrived at this hybrid are listed here on the UI team blog
http://blogs.msdn.com/jensenh/archive/2006/04/12/574930.aspx

You can comment there, but also be sure to send in your feedback using the Office 2007 feedback tool from the link below.

==========
I think it's easy to use if you're a point-and-clicker, but the keyboard
interface is downright frustrating and *very* inconsistant. I'd be very
"pro-ribbon" if the menu responded like the existing 2000/2003 menus, but
it's WAY too mouse oriented as it is now. >>
--
I hope this helped you,

Bob Buckland ?
MS Office System Products MVP

Read about it, try it, or watch the movie
the 2007 Microsoft Office system iinfo is at
http://microsoft.com/office/preview

Already have 2007 Office System Beta 2?
Send Microsoft your feedback (with pictures)
http://sas.office.microsoft.com/

 

[Jerry Hayes]

Bob,

I've sent quite a few notes via the Smile/Frown tool, regrettably all
frowning.

I do realize the speed keys work, but navigating the bar with keys only is
just crazy.

* Having 20+ key options pop-up at once is confusing.
* Can't get the [Alt][Space] menu when ribbon is showing, can't get to the
[Alt][File] or any other menu when the ribbon is not show due to narrow
width.
* Click on the font name, but now can't tab to the font size?
* Numbering items like [Alt][Home][8], when you could tier the menus with
the panels.
* Clicking on [Insert] but you're really not in the menu...hit a key and it
goes in the doc.
* [Alt][Insert] right arrow to [whatever]. Now can't hit [Alt][Insert] to
go back without going back to document first by [esc].
* Can't navigate the menu consistantly like you could before.

The list goes on, but it's just frustrating. My users are key users and I
could never have them use this as is. It's like it's trying to create two
completely different menu systems, one mouse and one keyboard, with the
keyboard one as an afterthought.

Shame that it could easily be fixed, look the same and offer backward
compatibility to previous users, (see my post about "ribbon coud've..." a
few days ago), but I doubt it will.

Real shame, cuz I think the ribbon's beautiful.

 

[Saker]

Installed it over the weekend and had a good play with Word. The interface is
excellent, and for someone who has used and supported office for a number of
years I found it reletively easy to start to use, it will be interesting, how
easy the more difficult things ( macros etc.) are to achieve. My major worry
is the users I support. This version is a massive departure from the look and
feel of previous versions, all the way back to Office97, upgrades and new
versions have been gradual changes and existing users have so far been able
to take those in their stride, I feel that the new version is going to
involve a large amount of retraining, even involving the more competent users
we support, because of the drastic changes Microsoft have undertaken.

No real worries about outlook, we had the major changes in that in 2003, and
most people only want to send/recv mail and look at diaries, appointments and
contacts, nothing fancy.

I also liked Word 2007.

I only have one issue with Outlook 2007. Sometimes I forward some
email from another account to an account that I am using Outlook 2007.
It get's sent as an attachment. Although I can see it in Outlook. If I
go to print it it only prints the header and none of the text.

 

[Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]]

You may find the following article of some interest from Jensen Harris'
Office User Interface Blog:
Where Did That Feature Go?
No matter how good of a job we did organizing features in the new UI,
there's always the chance that you might run into a feature you're having
trouble finding for the first time in the new UI.

To help with exactly this scenario, we created a few security blankets. One
of the coolest ones is a tool we're calling the "Interactive Command
Reference Guide."

This tool is an interactive mockup of the UI for Word 2003, Excel 2003, and
PowerPoint 2003 that runs in your web browser. You can click on the location
of any feature in the Office 2003 menus or default toolbars and the tool
will show you exactly how to get to it in Office 2007. You can also hover
over the commands to see the Office 2007 location in a tooltip.

The below links will only work if you have already installed Office 2007
Beta 2, and there are still a few bugs in the tool... but try it out and
tell us what you think!

Word 2003 to 2007 Interactive Command Reference Guide

Excel 2003 to 2007 Interactive Command Reference Guide

PowerPoint 2003 to 2007 Interactive Command Reference Guide



--
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. All
unsolicited mail sent to my personal account will be deleted without
reading.

After furious head scratching, Jerry Hayes asked:

|| Installed it over the weekend and had a good play with Word. The
|| interface is
|| excellent, and for someone who has used and supported office for a
|| number of
|| years I found it reletively easy to start to use, it will be
|| interesting, how
|| easy the more difficult things ( macros etc.) are to achieve.
|
| I think it's easy to use if you're a point-and-clicker, but the
| keyboard interface is downright frustrating and *very* inconsistant.
| I'd be very "pro-ribbon" if the menu responded like the existing
| 2000/2003 menus, but it's WAY too mouse oriented as it is now.

 

[Nigel Greensitt]

I agree there, I am a great point and clicker, much to the annoyance of the
secretaries! quote " I could have typed 7 letters while you did that edit
select all,cut and paste", although I do use the short cuts for the usual
text selection and editing plus simple formatting. Most of the secretaries
know the shortcuts by heart, so hopefully this won't cause much of a problem.

Thanks for the reminder, I was so in love with the ribbon, I had forgotten
about the shortcuts, will have to have a good play tonight ( If I don't get
distracted playing online poker ).

 

[Jerry Hayes]

Where Did That Feature Go?

No matter how good of a job we did organizing features in the new UI,
there's always the chance that you might run into a feature you're having
trouble finding for the first time in the new UI.

Milly,

Just to rehash, my main problems with the ribbon are not "where did that
feature go", but more the way it works. Keyboarding is inconsistant and the
whole menu behaves differently if you get in by keyboard or mouse -- it's
definitely a "mousers" menu.

[Alt][Home][8] as an option?

But, as far as organizing features goes, I think this will go down as an
experiment that failed.

The "Home" paradignm will fall apart as more options are needed. Home for
who? Beginners? advanced? You'll have to make choices in the Home menu that
are already reflected by the "Undo" and "Redo" that are *only* in the quick
access bar -- not in the weird file menu, not in any other place. More
options and restructuring will create a constant awkwardness regarding "Home
for who?"

* So you get some commands that are only in the quick bar.
* Some that are in the weird "File" menu, but is inaccessible when the
window's narrow.
* Can't hit [Alt][space] for the "move", etc. options on window. If you're
handicapped or need to move a non-visible window due to multiple monitors
not hooked up...
* A bunch of things on the "Home" page that will gravitate to straight
beginners, but not be customizable for more advanced. Sure they can go to
the quick access, but now we're back to the old way.

Don't get me wrong, they good a LOT of points for trying something new. And
the ribbon is completely workable, if they'd just realize it's still a menu
and not just a bunch of first tier buttons.

HTH, feel free to contact me for any further notes,

Jerry Hayes
jhayes at connexability dot com.

 

[Brian Hampson]

I only have one issue with Outlook 2007. Sometimes I forward some
email from another account to an account that I am using Outlook 2007.
It get's sent as an attachment. Although I can see it in Outlook. If I
go to print it it only prints the header and none of the text.

I too, am unable to print my emails in Outlook 2K7b2 Header and
footer, but no body.