Office Professional 2007 Beta

L

LorettaYeo

I HATE newsgroups. This is an inefficient way to give feedback on beta
tests. I am here because "Microsoft Contact US" says this is the only way to
do it. I don't want to have to keep coming back to this "cocktail party" to
get responses from Microsoft professionals.

BTW - I never received a "beta test kit." I just downloaded the software
online. How do I get a kit? What's in it?

Here is the log I've been keeping since I installed the beta:

Office 2007 Gripes
June 21, 2006
1. The idiot Ribbon won’t stay minimized. In Outlook, it re-opens in each
new message.
2. The default view in Word is now called, “Draft,†and it took a while to
find it, even longer to set it.
3. My Normal template is gone!!! (No; now there’s a new one with a 4-digit
extension…)
4. Can’t find the Organizer to reset the Normal template (by copying an
existing document). (OK, that just took 8 minutes.)
5. I’m wasting time looking for stuff that is no longer where it was,
instead of being productive.
6. Where are the options? I don’t want Word to start screwing with my
document because it has dumbed-down options turned on.
7. OK, the bloody thing didn’t even look at my settings, or if it did, it
ignored them and re-set the “I’m the computer, my opinion overrules yoursâ€
options, like auto formatting. What a debacle! Why bother having settings
if each update of MS Office obliterates them?
June 22, 2006
8. ANOTHER useless Outlook folder that I can’t delete – RSS Feeds, added to
Search Folders from previous version. You gotta give users the option of
getting rid of unnecessary clutter. ASK if you can add something.
Basically, if I’ve lived without it this long I probably don’t need it, so
don’t force it down my throat.
9. When I reply to an e-mail, the new form comes up but I can’t edit it by
clicking my mouse in the text field. I have to click in one of the heading
fields first. Fix it.
10. My Plain Text font settings disappeared, and now I have some new font
called Consolas 10.5 – NO ONE SAID TO CHANGE IT, DAMMIT!!! I had to re-set
my settings from Outlook 2003. Another instance of the upgrade ignoring my
settings.
11. Damn! I hate that the friggin’ Ribbon keeps opening when I use the
up/down arrows to scroll through messages. When I close it, it should STAY
CLOSED! Why not have a pushpin like in the old side panes where you could
make it stay open? If not selected, then it would automatically close after
the first click.
12. The new work areas are much too cluttered. All of the Ribbon items are
large icons with text; there’s no way to make them small or delete the text,
all you can do is minimize the whole Ribbon, and then it doesn’t stay closed.
We trained hard, but it seemed that every time we were beginning to form up
into teams, we would be reorganized. I was to learn later in life that we
tend to meet any new situation by reorganizing; and a wonderful method it can
be for creating the illusion of progress while producing confusion,
inefficiency and demoralization.
13. The Contacts screen WASTES TOO MUCH SCREEN REAL ESTATE! Even my custom
view has a border and shadow around each “card.†This is the equivalent of
1.5 lines of data that are not available for each card.
14. Why did you change all the fonts? What was wrong with the bundled fonts
from earlier versions? How do I get the old fonts back – preferably in a
single step?
June 27, 2006
15. I like my print view to be set at two pages, but when I double-click on
a Ribbon tab to hide the umpty-frat Ribbon, the print view changes to one
page.
16. My e-Trust Anti-Spam toolbar in Outlook has reverted to the default
buttons, and when I try to customize the toolbar to remove the unneeded
buttons, Outlook doesn’t save this information on exit. Every time Outlook
opens, the default toolbar returns.
17. The menus don’t make sense, and the “Help†isn’t. I need to change the
case of text from ALL CAPS to Title Case, and I can’t find the menu item.
There is no formatting item, and no Change Case sub-item. It used to be
three clicks to do this; I’ve been at it for more than TEN MINUTES – sheesh,
I could have retyped it in that time, but I need to know where the hell the
function is, so I’m still looking. I FINALLY found it, after I encountered
and wrote up gripe #18 below – 23 minutes. Hint: a button icon that is not
identified, and in the “FONT†section of the Home Ribbon – what logic created
that relationship?????
18. Styles – my existing document (and by the way, my existing normal.dot)
has a set of styles that I have developed and used for years. The Style
drop-down doesn’t exist anymore. The Ribbon – Home – Styles tab shows a
whole bunch of new styles that I don’t want or need, but it DOES NOT show the
styles in my document. Useless. If I show the Styles Window, it takes up
too much space on my desktop, and it is cluttered with lots of “styles†that
are exceptions to the basic styles in my document. I would expect to see
ONLY Normal, Heading 1 Heading 2, TOC 1, Header, Footer, and my own styles
(Appendix, Chorus, Interlude). How do I hide the stuff that Word created?
Aha! They’re types of formatting shown as styles, and as usual, anything
new added to Office is set as the default (like “When selecting,
automatically select entire word,†which makes it impossible to do efficient
editing). Once I found this new dialog box, I had to figure out what these
definitions mean, and then experiment by checking and un-checking boxes. If
they’re NOT styles, why in heaven’s name would anyone want the software to
identify them as styles. They’re discreet variations in formatting,
specifically NOT set as styles. Counter-intuitive, guys. I know whole rooms
full of people who are intimidated by the advanced capabilities of Word, and
you’re not giving them any confidence by flooding them with information they
don’t need.
19. It would help if your “online help,†which is supposedly the latest and
greatest, would have references to the words you use in dialog boxes, so for
example, when I type “Use smart cursoring,†I could get the explanation of
what smart cursoring is, and what happens when I do or don’t use it. These
used to be little yellow notes that appeared after clicking the “?†button on
the dialog window. Now the button just gives you the default online help
window. Lost user interface. I tried “format change case,†which is the
series of mouse clicks that used to work in Word 2003 (see #17 above). The
online help gave me about 20 templates for CD cases. Wrong. I tried
“Disable Linked Styles†which is a new check box in the Styles Window, and
online help gave references to all kinds of styles and all kinds of links,
but nothing to explain what the check box means. I still don’t know what it
means.
20. Auto Format – I want to format text I’ve pasted into my document, for
left and right quotes, apostrophes, etc. I DON’T want AutoFormat as You
Type. Curiously, the options dialog box is now at the Office Button, Word
Options, Proofing, Auto Correct Options, AutoFormat, but there is no
AutoFormat Now anywhere that I’ve found yet.
June 30, 2006
21. When I edit an incoming message, Outlook really gets upset. It asks me
TWICE if I want to save it, then tells me it can’t be saved. After we argue,
it finally saves it into my Inbox, where it hadn’t been since my original
rule moved it. I’m usually just stripping the crap that YahooGroups adds to
the bottom of the message, or if some correspondents forward the entire
original message in their reply, I don’t need to keep extra copies. In
Outlook 2003 and earlier, I just enabled editing, then moved the message to
my archive folder in one step. What happened?
22. Twice now Word 2007 has had trouble saving this document in the new
format. It reports the problem, then saves it as rescue.asd. When I open
the saved document, it’s back in Word 2003 format.
July 2, 2006
23. OK, where is the page formatting to choose top/center/justify? I hate
wasting time looking for tools that were right at my fingertips before.
Here’s what “Help†(yeah right) told me:
“On the Page Layout tab, click the Page Setup Dialog Box Launcher, and then
click the Layout tab. In the Vertical alignment box, click the option that
you want.†OK, so instead of useful drop-down menus that stat out of my way
until I need them, I have to fumble along paging through this Ribbon? I’m
about ready to go back to WordPerfect!
24. Word just failed to save the new format of this document, again –
Resue1.asd. Man, this is really an unstable format. But of course, it’s
based on HTML which has no relationship at all with document management.

--
Loretta Yeo

----------------
This post is a suggestion for Microsoft, and Microsoft responds to the
suggestions with the most votes. To vote for this suggestion, click the "I
Agree" button in the message pane. If you do not see the button, follow this
link to open the suggestion in the Microsoft Web-based Newsreader and then
click "I Agree" in the message pane.

http://www.microsoft.com/office/com...-e65cfcf7691c&dg=microsoft.public.office.misc
 
B

Bob Buckland ?:-\)

Hi Loretta,

To send your obsservations, suggestions, recommendations and experiences with MS Office 2007 directly to the Microsoft Office 2007
Product team you can use the 2007 feedback tool from the link below.

=============
I HATE newsgroups. This is an inefficient way to give feedback on beta tests. I am here because "Microsoft Contact US" says this
is the only way to do it. I don't want to have to keep coming back to this "cocktail party" to get responses from Microsoft
professionals. [snip]>>
--
I hope this helped you,

Bob Buckland ?:)
MS Office system products MVP

LINKS to the 2007 Office System

1. Read about it, try it, or watch the movie :)
the 2007 Microsoft Office system info,
online Test Drive, or downloadable beta is at
http://microsoft.com/office/preview

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

3. Use the 2007 OfficeOnline website without Office2007

a. Install the ActiveX access control
http://office.microsoft.com/search/redir.aspx?AssetID=XT101650581033
b. then visit http://officebeta.iponet.net
 
M

Milly Staples - MVP Outlook

So, answer me one question - why did you download and install the BETA of
Office 2007? And why do you still have it installed?

And you do not get a Beta test kit unless you are a technical beta tester.
Beta testers have been testing this beta since late last year. What you
have is a Public Preview to use or not, at your own risk.

--
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, LorettaYeo asked:

| I HATE newsgroups. This is an inefficient way to give feedback on
| beta
| tests. I am here because "Microsoft Contact US" says this is the
| only way to
| do it. I don't want to have to keep coming back to this "cocktail
| party" to
| get responses from Microsoft professionals.
|
| BTW - I never received a "beta test kit." I just downloaded the
| software
| online. How do I get a kit? What's in it?
|
| Here is the log I've been keeping since I installed the beta:
|
| Office 2007 Gripes
| June 21, 2006
| 1. The idiot Ribbon won’t stay minimized. In Outlook, it re-opens
| in each
| new message.
| 2. The default view in Word is now called, “Draft,†and it took a
| while to find it, even longer to set it.
| 3. My Normal template is gone!!! (No; now there’s a new one with a
| 4-digit extension…)
| 4. Can’t find the Organizer to reset the Normal template (by
| copying an
| existing document). (OK, that just took 8 minutes.)
| 5. I’m wasting time looking for stuff that is no longer where it
| was,
| instead of being productive.
| 6. Where are the options? I don’t want Word to start screwing with
| my
| document because it has dumbed-down options turned on.
| 7. OK, the bloody thing didn’t even look at my settings, or if it
| did, it ignored them and re-set the “I’m the computer, my opinion
| overrules yours†options, like auto formatting. What a debacle!
| Why bother having settings
| if each update of MS Office obliterates them?
| June 22, 2006
| 8. ANOTHER useless Outlook folder that I can’t delete – RSS
| Feeds, added to Search Folders from previous version. You gotta give
| users the option of
| getting rid of unnecessary clutter. ASK if you can add something.
| Basically, if I’ve lived without it this long I probably don’t
| need it, so don’t force it down my throat.
| 9. When I reply to an e-mail, the new form comes up but I can’t
| edit it by clicking my mouse in the text field. I have to click in
| one of the heading
| fields first. Fix it.
| 10. My Plain Text font settings disappeared, and now I have some new
| font
| called Consolas 10.5 – NO ONE SAID TO CHANGE IT, DAMMIT!!! I had
| to re-set
| my settings from Outlook 2003. Another instance of the upgrade
| ignoring my settings.
| 11. Damn! I hate that the friggin’ Ribbon keeps opening when I use
| the
| up/down arrows to scroll through messages. When I close it, it
| should STAY CLOSED! Why not have a pushpin like in the old side
| panes where you could
| make it stay open? If not selected, then it would automatically
| close after
| the first click.
| 12. The new work areas are much too cluttered. All of the Ribbon
| items are
| large icons with text; there’s no way to make them small or delete
| the text,
| all you can do is minimize the whole Ribbon, and then it doesn’t
| stay closed.
| We trained hard, but it seemed that every time we were beginning to
| form up
| into teams, we would be reorganized. I was to learn later in life
| that we
| tend to meet any new situation by reorganizing; and a wonderful
| method it can
| be for creating the illusion of progress while producing confusion,
| inefficiency and demoralization.
| 13. The Contacts screen WASTES TOO MUCH SCREEN REAL ESTATE! Even my
| custom
| view has a border and shadow around each “card.†This is the
| equivalent of
| 1.5 lines of data that are not available for each card.
| 14. Why did you change all the fonts? What was wrong with the
| bundled fonts
| from earlier versions? How do I get the old fonts back –
| preferably in a
| single step?
| June 27, 2006
| 15. I like my print view to be set at two pages, but when I
| double-click on
| a Ribbon tab to hide the umpty-frat Ribbon, the print view changes to
| one
| page.
| 16. My e-Trust Anti-Spam toolbar in Outlook has reverted to the
| default
| buttons, and when I try to customize the toolbar to remove the
| unneeded
| buttons, Outlook doesn’t save this information on exit. Every time
| Outlook opens, the default toolbar returns.
| 17. The menus don’t make sense, and the “Help†isn’t. I need
| to change the case of text from ALL CAPS to Title Case, and I can’t
| find the menu item.
| There is no formatting item, and no Change Case sub-item. It used to
| be
| three clicks to do this; I’ve been at it for more than TEN MINUTES
| – sheesh,
| I could have retyped it in that time, but I need to know where the
| hell the function is, so I’m still looking. I FINALLY found it,
| after I encountered
| and wrote up gripe #18 below – 23 minutes. Hint: a button icon
| that is not identified, and in the “FONT†section of the Home
| Ribbon – what logic created that relationship?????
| 18. Styles – my existing document (and by the way, my existing
| normal.dot)
| has a set of styles that I have developed and used for years. The
| Style
| drop-down doesn’t exist anymore. The Ribbon – Home – Styles
| tab shows a whole bunch of new styles that I don’t want or need,
| but it DOES NOT show the styles in my document. Useless. If I show
| the Styles Window, it takes up
| too much space on my desktop, and it is cluttered with lots of
| “styles†that are exceptions to the basic styles in my document.
| I would expect to see
| ONLY Normal, Heading 1 Heading 2, TOC 1, Header, Footer, and my own
| styles (Appendix, Chorus, Interlude). How do I hide the stuff that
| Word created? Aha! They’re types of formatting shown as styles,
| and as usual, anything
| new added to Office is set as the default (like “When selecting,
| automatically select entire word,†which makes it impossible to do
| efficient editing). Once I found this new dialog box, I had to
| figure out what these definitions mean, and then experiment by
| checking and un-checking boxes. If they’re NOT styles, why in
| heaven’s name would anyone want the software to identify them as
| styles. They’re discreet variations in formatting, specifically
| NOT set as styles. Counter-intuitive, guys. I know whole rooms
| full of people who are intimidated by the advanced capabilities of
| Word, and you’re not giving them any confidence by flooding them
| with information they don’t need.
| 19. It would help if your “online help,†which is supposedly the
| latest and greatest, would have references to the words you use in
| dialog boxes, so for example, when I type “Use smart cursoring,â€
| I could get the explanation of what smart cursoring is, and what
| happens when I do or don’t use it. These
| used to be little yellow notes that appeared after clicking the
| “?†button on the dialog window. Now the button just gives you
| the default online help
| window. Lost user interface. I tried “format change case,â€
| which is the series of mouse clicks that used to work in Word 2003
| (see #17 above). The
| online help gave me about 20 templates for CD cases. Wrong. I tried
| “Disable Linked Styles†which is a new check box in the Styles
| Window, and online help gave references to all kinds of styles and
| all kinds of links,
| but nothing to explain what the check box means. I still don’t
| know what it means.
| 20. Auto Format – I want to format text I’ve pasted into my
| document, for
| left and right quotes, apostrophes, etc. I DON’T want AutoFormat
| as You
| Type. Curiously, the options dialog box is now at the Office Button,
| Word Options, Proofing, Auto Correct Options, AutoFormat, but there
| is no
| AutoFormat Now anywhere that I’ve found yet.
| June 30, 2006
| 21. When I edit an incoming message, Outlook really gets upset. It
| asks me
| TWICE if I want to save it, then tells me it can’t be saved. After
| we argue,
| it finally saves it into my Inbox, where it hadn’t been since my
| original
| rule moved it. I’m usually just stripping the crap that
| YahooGroups adds to
| the bottom of the message, or if some correspondents forward the
| entire
| original message in their reply, I don’t need to keep extra copies.
| In
| Outlook 2003 and earlier, I just enabled editing, then moved the
| message to
| my archive folder in one step. What happened?
| 22. Twice now Word 2007 has had trouble saving this document in the
| new
| format. It reports the problem, then saves it as rescue.asd. When I
| open
| the saved document, it’s back in Word 2003 format.
| July 2, 2006
| 23. OK, where is the page formatting to choose top/center/justify? I
| hate
| wasting time looking for tools that were right at my fingertips
| before.
| Here’s what “Help†(yeah right) told me:
| “On the Page Layout tab, click the Page Setup Dialog Box Launcher,
| and then click the Layout tab. In the Vertical alignment box, click
| the option that
| you want.†OK, so instead of useful drop-down menus that stat out
| of my way until I need them, I have to fumble along paging through
| this Ribbon? I’m
| about ready to go back to WordPerfect!
| 24. Word just failed to save the new format of this document, again
| – Resue1.asd. Man, this is really an unstable format. But of
| course, it’s
| based on HTML which has no relationship at all with document
| management.
 
R

Rob Giordano \(Crash\)

Maybe you should have waited till the release version.



|I HATE newsgroups. This is an inefficient way to give feedback on beta
| tests. I am here because "Microsoft Contact US" says this is the only way
to
| do it. I don't want to have to keep coming back to this "cocktail party"
to
| get responses from Microsoft professionals.
|
| BTW - I never received a "beta test kit." I just downloaded the software
| online. How do I get a kit? What's in it?
|
| Here is the log I've been keeping since I installed the beta:
|
| Office 2007 Gripes
| June 21, 2006
| 1. The idiot Ribbon won't stay minimized. In Outlook, it re-opens in each
| new message.
| 2. The default view in Word is now called, "Draft," and it took a while to
| find it, even longer to set it.
| 3. My Normal template is gone!!! (No; now there's a new one with a 4-digit
| extension.)
| 4. Can't find the Organizer to reset the Normal template (by copying an
| existing document). (OK, that just took 8 minutes.)
| 5. I'm wasting time looking for stuff that is no longer where it was,
| instead of being productive.
| 6. Where are the options? I don't want Word to start screwing with my
| document because it has dumbed-down options turned on.
| 7. OK, the bloody thing didn't even look at my settings, or if it did, it
| ignored them and re-set the "I'm the computer, my opinion overrules yours"
| options, like auto formatting. What a debacle! Why bother having
settings
| if each update of MS Office obliterates them?
| June 22, 2006
| 8. ANOTHER useless Outlook folder that I can't delete - RSS Feeds, added
to
| Search Folders from previous version. You gotta give users the option of
| getting rid of unnecessary clutter. ASK if you can add something.
| Basically, if I've lived without it this long I probably don't need it, so
| don't force it down my throat.
| 9. When I reply to an e-mail, the new form comes up but I can't edit it by
| clicking my mouse in the text field. I have to click in one of the
heading
| fields first. Fix it.
| 10. My Plain Text font settings disappeared, and now I have some new font
| called Consolas 10.5 - NO ONE SAID TO CHANGE IT, DAMMIT!!! I had to
re-set
| my settings from Outlook 2003. Another instance of the upgrade ignoring
my
| settings.
| 11. Damn! I hate that the friggin' Ribbon keeps opening when I use the
| up/down arrows to scroll through messages. When I close it, it should
STAY
| CLOSED! Why not have a pushpin like in the old side panes where you could
| make it stay open? If not selected, then it would automatically close
after
| the first click.
| 12. The new work areas are much too cluttered. All of the Ribbon items
are
| large icons with text; there's no way to make them small or delete the
text,
| all you can do is minimize the whole Ribbon, and then it doesn't stay
closed.
| We trained hard, but it seemed that every time we were beginning to form
up
| into teams, we would be reorganized. I was to learn later in life that we
| tend to meet any new situation by reorganizing; and a wonderful method it
can
| be for creating the illusion of progress while producing confusion,
| inefficiency and demoralization.
| 13. The Contacts screen WASTES TOO MUCH SCREEN REAL ESTATE! Even my
custom
| view has a border and shadow around each "card." This is the equivalent
of
| 1.5 lines of data that are not available for each card.
| 14. Why did you change all the fonts? What was wrong with the bundled
fonts
| from earlier versions? How do I get the old fonts back - preferably in a
| single step?
| June 27, 2006
| 15. I like my print view to be set at two pages, but when I double-click
on
| a Ribbon tab to hide the umpty-frat Ribbon, the print view changes to one
| page.
| 16. My e-Trust Anti-Spam toolbar in Outlook has reverted to the default
| buttons, and when I try to customize the toolbar to remove the unneeded
| buttons, Outlook doesn't save this information on exit. Every time
Outlook
| opens, the default toolbar returns.
| 17. The menus don't make sense, and the "Help" isn't. I need to change
the
| case of text from ALL CAPS to Title Case, and I can't find the menu item.
| There is no formatting item, and no Change Case sub-item. It used to be
| three clicks to do this; I've been at it for more than TEN MINUTES -
sheesh,
| I could have retyped it in that time, but I need to know where the hell
the
| function is, so I'm still looking. I FINALLY found it, after I
encountered
| and wrote up gripe #18 below - 23 minutes. Hint: a button icon that is
not
| identified, and in the "FONT" section of the Home Ribbon - what logic
created
| that relationship?????
| 18. Styles - my existing document (and by the way, my existing normal.dot)
| has a set of styles that I have developed and used for years. The Style
| drop-down doesn't exist anymore. The Ribbon - Home - Styles tab shows a
| whole bunch of new styles that I don't want or need, but it DOES NOT show
the
| styles in my document. Useless. If I show the Styles Window, it takes up
| too much space on my desktop, and it is cluttered with lots of "styles"
that
| are exceptions to the basic styles in my document. I would expect to see
| ONLY Normal, Heading 1 Heading 2, TOC 1, Header, Footer, and my own styles
| (Appendix, Chorus, Interlude). How do I hide the stuff that Word created?
| Aha! They're types of formatting shown as styles, and as usual,
anything
| new added to Office is set as the default (like "When selecting,
| automatically select entire word," which makes it impossible to do
efficient
| editing). Once I found this new dialog box, I had to figure out what
these
| definitions mean, and then experiment by checking and un-checking boxes.
If
| they're NOT styles, why in heaven's name would anyone want the software to
| identify them as styles. They're discreet variations in formatting,
| specifically NOT set as styles. Counter-intuitive, guys. I know whole
rooms
| full of people who are intimidated by the advanced capabilities of Word,
and
| you're not giving them any confidence by flooding them with information
they
| don't need.
| 19. It would help if your "online help," which is supposedly the latest
and
| greatest, would have references to the words you use in dialog boxes, so
for
| example, when I type "Use smart cursoring," I could get the explanation of
| what smart cursoring is, and what happens when I do or don't use it.
These
| used to be little yellow notes that appeared after clicking the "?" button
on
| the dialog window. Now the button just gives you the default online help
| window. Lost user interface. I tried "format change case," which is the
| series of mouse clicks that used to work in Word 2003 (see #17 above).
The
| online help gave me about 20 templates for CD cases. Wrong. I tried
| "Disable Linked Styles" which is a new check box in the Styles Window, and
| online help gave references to all kinds of styles and all kinds of links,
| but nothing to explain what the check box means. I still don't know what
it
| means.
| 20. Auto Format - I want to format text I've pasted into my document, for
| left and right quotes, apostrophes, etc. I DON'T want AutoFormat as You
| Type. Curiously, the options dialog box is now at the Office Button, Word
| Options, Proofing, Auto Correct Options, AutoFormat, but there is no
| AutoFormat Now anywhere that I've found yet.
| June 30, 2006
| 21. When I edit an incoming message, Outlook really gets upset. It asks
me
| TWICE if I want to save it, then tells me it can't be saved. After we
argue,
| it finally saves it into my Inbox, where it hadn't been since my original
| rule moved it. I'm usually just stripping the crap that YahooGroups adds
to
| the bottom of the message, or if some correspondents forward the entire
| original message in their reply, I don't need to keep extra copies. In
| Outlook 2003 and earlier, I just enabled editing, then moved the message
to
| my archive folder in one step. What happened?
| 22. Twice now Word 2007 has had trouble saving this document in the new
| format. It reports the problem, then saves it as rescue.asd. When I open
| the saved document, it's back in Word 2003 format.
| July 2, 2006
| 23. OK, where is the page formatting to choose top/center/justify? I hate
| wasting time looking for tools that were right at my fingertips before.
| Here's what "Help" (yeah right) told me:
| "On the Page Layout tab, click the Page Setup Dialog Box Launcher, and
then
| click the Layout tab. In the Vertical alignment box, click the option
that
| you want." OK, so instead of useful drop-down menus that stat out of my
way
| until I need them, I have to fumble along paging through this Ribbon? I'm
| about ready to go back to WordPerfect!
| 24. Word just failed to save the new format of this document, again -
| Resue1.asd. Man, this is really an unstable format. But of course, it's
| based on HTML which has no relationship at all with document management.
|
| --
| Loretta Yeo
|
| ----------------
| This post is a suggestion for Microsoft, and Microsoft responds to the
| suggestions with the most votes. To vote for this suggestion, click the "I
| Agree" button in the message pane. If you do not see the button, follow
this
| link to open the suggestion in the Microsoft Web-based Newsreader and then
| click "I Agree" in the message pane.
|
|
http://www.microsoft.com/office/com...-e65cfcf7691c&dg=microsoft.public.office.misc
 
P

Patrick Schmid

I HATE newsgroups. This is an inefficient way to give feedback on
beta
tests. I am here because "Microsoft Contact US" says this is the only way to
do it. I don't want to have to keep coming back to this "cocktail party" to
get responses from Microsoft professionals.
Where are the drinks? Do you need my address to send me one? ;)
3. My Normal template is gone!!! (No; now there's a new one with a 4-digit
extension.)
Delete the Normal.dotm. Then make sure your Normal.dot is in the folder
where Normal.dotm was and open Word again. It should now upgrade your
Normal.dot to Normal.dotm
5. I'm wasting time looking for stuff that is no longer where it was,
instead of being productive.
Beta versions aren't meant to be productive. What did you expect?
6. Where are the options? I don't want Word to start screwing with my
document because it has dumbed-down options turned on.
Office button, Word Options.
8. ANOTHER useless Outlook folder that I can't delete - RSS Feeds, added to
Search Folders from previous version. You gotta give users the option of
getting rid of unnecessary clutter. ASK if you can add something.
Basically, if I've lived without it this long I probably don't need it, so
don't force it down my throat.
Maybe you should go on Wikipedia and look up what an RSS feed is. You
might actually like it. It's a great new feature (search folders were a
great new feature in 2003 btw).
10. My Plain Text font settings disappeared, and now I have some new font
called Consolas 10.5 - NO ONE SAID TO CHANGE IT, DAMMIT!!! I had to re-set
my settings from Outlook 2003. Another instance of the upgrade ignoring my
settings.
Consolas is the new Office 2007 plain text font (similar to Courier New
in the old one). Get used to it.
11. Damn! I hate that the friggin' Ribbon keeps opening when I use the
up/down arrows to scroll through messages. When I close it, it should STAY
CLOSED! Why not have a pushpin like in the old side panes where you could
make it stay open? If not selected, then it would automatically close after
the first click.
You prob. have your mouse cursor in the ribbon area when you press the
up/down keys. Try closing the ribbon with CTRL-F1 instead of
double-clicking a tab.
14. Why did you change all the fonts? What was wrong with the bundled fonts
from earlier versions? How do I get the old fonts back - preferably in a
single step?
The old fonts were just that old. Had been around for so many years that
Microsoft decided it was time for new ones. They are by the way a hell
lot better than the old ones. You can get them back in Word easily if
you upgrade your normal.dot, or if you click on change styles, style
set, classic. You have to do this for each program individually in its
own individual way.
16. My e-Trust Anti-Spam toolbar in Outlook has reverted to the default
buttons, and when I try to customize the toolbar to remove the unneeded
buttons, Outlook doesn't save this information on exit. Every time Outlook
opens, the default toolbar returns.
The add-in might not be compatible with Outlook 2007.
17. The menus don't make sense, and the "Help" isn't. I need to change the
case of text from ALL CAPS to Title Case, and I can't find the menu item.
There is no formatting item, and no Change Case sub-item. It used to be
three clicks to do this; I've been at it for more than TEN MINUTES - sheesh,
I could have retyped it in that time, but I need to know where the hell the
function is, so I'm still looking. I FINALLY found it, after I encountered
and wrote up gripe #18 below - 23 minutes. Hint: a button icon that is not
identified, and in the "FONT" section of the Home Ribbon - what logic created
that relationship?????
ALL CAPS and Title Case are Font formattings. Nothing wrong with that
logic. Items that users use 80% of the time are on the Home tab, so
that's why font formatting is there.
18. Styles - my existing document (and by the way, my existing normal.dot)
has a set of styles that I have developed and used for years. The Style
drop-down doesn't exist anymore. The Ribbon - Home - Styles tab shows a
whole bunch of new styles that I don't want or need, but it DOES NOT show the
styles in my document. Useless. If I show the Styles Window, it takes up
too much space on my desktop, and it is cluttered with lots of "styles" that
are exceptions to the basic styles in my document. I would expect to see
ONLY Normal, Heading 1 Heading 2, TOC 1, Header, Footer, and my own styles
(Appendix, Chorus, Interlude). How do I hide the stuff that Word created?
http://pschmid.net/blog/2006/06/16/23
That add-in will give you back your old Style combo box. It doesn't show
the same minimal set of styles as the Styles task pane (click the little
arrow in the bottom left of the Styles group), but I think that's due to
bugs in the beta.
19. It would help if your "online help," which is supposedly the latest and
greatest, would have references to the words you use in dialog boxes, so for
example, when I type "Use smart cursoring," I could get the explanation of
what smart cursoring is, and what happens when I do or don't use it. These
used to be little yellow notes that appeared after clicking the "?" button on
the dialog window. Now the button just gives you the default online help
window. Lost user interface. I tried "format change case," which is the
series of mouse clicks that used to work in Word 2003 (see #17 above). The
online help gave me about 20 templates for CD cases. Wrong. I tried
"Disable Linked Styles" which is a new check box in the Styles Window, and
online help gave references to all kinds of styles and all kinds of links,
but nothing to explain what the check box means. I still don't know what it
means.
Help for a beta version just isn't done yet.

As others have said before: Why do you install a beta version if you
can't deal with issues associated with a beta?
In terms of learning where things are in the new version: Microsoft
doesn't make a secret out of the fact that 2007 requires significant
retraining/relearning. It took me about a month to get a hang of the new
UI and be as proficient in it as I was with 2003.

Patrick Schmid
 
L

LorettaYeo

First, thanks for your comments. Specifically,

1. Bob Buckland ?:)
To send your observations, suggestions, recommendations and experiences
with MS Office 2007 directly to the Microsoft Office 2007
Product team you can use the 2007 feedback tool from the link below.
Already have 2007 Office System Beta 2?
Send Microsoft your feedback (with pictures)
http://sas.office.microsoft.com/
**********************************
Thanks for this, Bob. This is what I sent my original e-mail to Microsoft
requesting.

2. Milly Staples - MVP Outlook
So, answer me one question - why did you download and install the BETA of
Office 2007? And why do you still have it installed?
**********************************
Because I have always downloaded the Beta as soon as it was available. And
the purpose of Beta tests is to get feedback from real users. I still have
it installed because I’m willing to learn.

3. Milly Staples - MVP Outlook
And you do not get a Beta test kit unless you are a technical beta tester.
Beta testers have been testing this beta since late last year. What you have
is a Public Preview to use or not, at your own risk.
**********************************
No, the Microsoft site calls it Office Professional Plus 2007 Beta 2. If it
was intended as a “Public Preview,†that phrase doesn’t appear on the web
site.

4. 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, LorettaYeo asked:
**********************************
Gee, you’re a cheerful person aren’t you? I came to the message boards
because this is where Microsoft staff directed me. Sorry I upset you.

5. Rob Giordano (Crash)
Maybe you should have waited till the release version.
**********************************
By then it’d be too late. My feedback could not be considered for inclusion
in the final product. It’d be like forgetting to go to the polls the first
Tuesday of November, then complaining for four years that your candidate
didn’t get elected.

6. Patrick Schmid
Re: the “cocktail party†- Where are the drinks? Do you need my address to
send me one? ;)
**********************************
I’ll take a Glenfiddich straight up, please. ;c)

7. Patrick Schmid
Delete the Normal.dotm. Then make sure your Normal.dot is in the folder
where Normal.dotm was and open Word again. It should now upgrade your
Normal.dot to Normal.dotm
**********************************
Thanks, I’ll do that. I thought maybe if it didn’t find Normal.dotm it
would just recreate the default.

8. Patrick Schmid
Beta versions aren't meant to be productive. What did you expect?
**********************************
Oops! Obviously my expectations were too high. Really, this is such a vast
change from previous upgrades that I never expected to have so many issues.

9. Patrick Schmid
Maybe you should go on Wikipedia and look up what an RSS feed is. You might
actually like it. It's a great new feature (search folders were a great new
feature in 2003 btw).
**********************************
Actually I do use RSS feeds on my phone and by pulling them from web sites
that I choose. If I were, for example, to set the feeds for automatic push
from Colonial Williamsburg (www.history.org) I’d rather direct them to the
CWF folder I already have in Outlook, than to a new folder.

10. Patrick Schmid
Consolas is the new Office 2007 plain text font (similar to Courier New in
the old one). Get used to it.
**********************************
I was able to change the text from Courier New in Outlook 2003; it appears
that option is no longer available. :•\

11. Patrick Schmid
You prob. have your mouse cursor in the ribbon area when you press the
up/down keys. Try closing the ribbon with CTRL-F1 instead of double-clicking
a tab.
**********************************
No; I’m in the Quick Access Toolbar of one message that already has the
Ribbon closed, and the down arrow takes me to a new message with the Ribbon
open. I’ll try CTRL-F1, though.

12. Patrick Schmid
The old fonts were just that old. Had been around for so many years that
Microsoft decided it was time for new ones. They are by the way a hell lot
better than the old ones. You can get them back in Word easily if you upgrade
your normal.dot, or if you click on change styles, style set, classic. You
have to do this for each program individually in its own individual way.
**********************************
I’d say they’re “different,†not necessarily better. They look like cell
phone fonts. Perhaps it’s old-fashioned, but I have a set appearance for my
correspondence and changing from Times New Roman, a serif font to Calibri, a
sans serif, completely changes the tone of the letter. Also, editing and
adding to existing documents, it would be easier not having to scroll past
the theme fonts that aren’t in my document to get to the ones I do use.

13. Patrick Schmid
Re: My e-Trust Anti-Spam toolbar in Outlook - The add-in might not be
compatible with Outlook 2007.
**********************************
I’ll keep checking with Computer Associates. But I suspect they won’t
update their toolbar until after the final release.

14. Patrick Schmid
ALL CAPS and Title Case are Font formattings. Nothing wrong with that
logic. Items that users use 80% of the time are on the Home tab, so that's
why font formatting is there.
**********************************
Yes, I can see that ALL CAPS might be programmed as a font formatting change
request, but Title Case or Sentence Case are really just requests to move
from early ASCII to later ASCII in the same font. Maybe there aren’t enough
options in “change case†to give it its own Ribbon location.

15. Patrick Schmid
http://pschmid.net/blog/2006/06/16/23
That add-in will give you back your old Style combo box. It doesn't show the
same minimal set of styles as the Styles task pane (click the little arrow in
the bottom left of the Styles group), but I think that's due to bugs in the
beta.
**********************************
Thanks for this link. I’ll download it and give it a try.

16. Patrick Schmid
Help for a beta version just isn't done yet.
**********************************
Do you think they’ll put the yellow tips back in the final release? :•|

17. Patrick Schmid
As others have said before: Why do you install a beta version if you can't
deal with issues associated with a beta?
In terms of learning where things are in the new version: Microsoft doesn't
make a secret out of the fact that 2007 requires significant
retraining/relearning. It took me about a month to get a hang of the new UI
and be as proficient in it as I was with 2003.
**********************************
I can deal with issues; it’s just that this is the first beta since Office
95 that generated so many for me. I have another computer running Office
2003, and obviously all of my clients are running 2003 or earlier, so my
“work day†doesn’t have to deal with the beta. I’m usually tired when I come
home to finish stuff up here, and it would have been nicer to turn the
computer off in 20 minutes, instead of two hours.
Patrick, thank you very much for taking the time to address all of my
gripes individually, and for offering specific remedies where possible. I do
appreciate it.

__________________________________________________

Second, I am sure that as always I will come to love Office 2007 and hate
having to go back to earlier versions. (Let’s just hope the learning curve
passes quickly!)

Third, I guess I’m just getting too old for this much change at once. My
first computer was a Timex-Sinclair 1000 in 1983.

Sincerely,

Loretta M. Yeo
Kaiidth Consulting Services
893 Riverbend Road
Virginia Beach, VA 23452-4921
757-468-3640 -- 757-509-3640
 
P

Patrick Schmid

7. Patrick Schmid
Delete the Normal.dotm. Then make sure your Normal.dot is in the folder
where Normal.dotm was and open Word again. It should now upgrade your
Normal.dot to Normal.dotm
**********************************
Thanks, I'll do that. I thought maybe if it didn't find Normal.dotm it
would just recreate the default.
It does, except if there is a Normal.dot file present.
9. Patrick Schmid
Maybe you should go on Wikipedia and look up what an RSS feed is. You might
actually like it. It's a great new feature (search folders were a great new
feature in 2003 btw).
**********************************
Actually I do use RSS feeds on my phone and by pulling them from web sites
that I choose. If I were, for example, to set the feeds for automatic push
from Colonial Williamsburg (www.history.org) I'd rather direct them to the
CWF folder I already have in Outlook, than to a new folder.
You can redirect a single feed to any folder you want.
11. Patrick Schmid
You prob. have your mouse cursor in the ribbon area when you press the
up/down keys. Try closing the ribbon with CTRL-F1 instead of double-clicking
a tab.
**********************************
No; I'm in the Quick Access Toolbar of one message that already has the
Ribbon closed, and the down arrow takes me to a new message with the Ribbon
open. I'll try CTRL-F1, though.
Oh. That is by design. I didn't realize you were opening a new window. A
new window will always start out with the ribbon open. There is no
auto-hide or other similar functionality.
12. Patrick Schmid
The old fonts were just that old. Had been around for so many years that
Microsoft decided it was time for new ones. They are by the way a hell lot
better than the old ones. You can get them back in Word easily if you upgrade
your normal.dot, or if you click on change styles, style set, classic. You
have to do this for each program individually in its own individual way.
**********************************
I'd say they're "different," not necessarily better. They look like cell
phone fonts. Perhaps it's old-fashioned, but I have a set appearance for my
correspondence and changing from Times New Roman, a serif font to Calibri, a
sans serif, completely changes the tone of the letter. Also, editing and
adding to existing documents, it would be easier not having to scroll past
the theme fonts that aren't in my document to get to the ones I do use.
http://blogs.msdn.com/jensenh/archive/2005/12/07/501009.aspx
Calibri is not the only new font. This blog post gives you an overview
of all of them and what they are. Maybe you can find another one there?
15. Patrick Schmid
http://pschmid.net/blog/2006/06/16/23
That add-in will give you back your old Style combo box. It doesn't show the
same minimal set of styles as the Styles task pane (click the little arrow in
the bottom left of the Styles group), but I think that's due to bugs in the
beta.
**********************************
Thanks for this link. I'll download it and give it a try.
Get the newer version (1.3) from my latest blog post.
16. Patrick Schmid
Help for a beta version just isn't done yet.
**********************************
Do you think they'll put the yellow tips back in the final release? :.|
Yellow tips?

Patrick Schmid
 
B

Belinda Harrell

I have used Office 2007 and can say that I actually "HATE" it. I agree that
you have dumbed it down. If you are unfortunate enough to be using a 15"
monitor, you have NO space for the document only the crap at the
top......Hate that office opens panes, etc that I don't ask for just because
it thinks I want them. Let me decide what I want. Don't assume you know
what type of environment I need for working with the documents, etc. At the
very least give us the option to decide if we want to be lazy and use your
"stuff" or decide on our own which task panes, help panes, ribbons, toolbars
we want to use! You continue to try and make the software "smart" . It just
antagonizes those of us who know how to move around in the environment and
don't want help!
 
B

Bob I

This is a user group, not Microsoft. Although the year has changed, I
recall hearing the same thing in 2003, 2002, 2000 etc.
 

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