Microsoft Office has been a top selling professional desktop package for more years than many of us care to recall.
At one time you bought a spreadsheet from a spreadsheet company, a database from another, a word processor from a third and so on.
In the 1990s that all changed, and after ... Read review
Advantages: Better integration more consistent options Disadvantages: Unfamiliar
Microsoft Office has been a top selling professional desktop package for more years than many of us care to recall.
At one time you bought a spreadsheet from a spreadsheet company, a database from another, a word processor from a third and so on.
In the 1990s that all changed, and after a series of acquisitions and mergers it basically boiled down to making a choice between Microsoft Office, with Word, Excel, Outlook ... ...Use’ licence – this means Microsoft are willing to let employees of large organisations use the latest software for little more than the media and distribution costs.
Most big employers will be running earlier versions of office, and this is a way of ensuring when they eventually DO get around to installing the 2007 version, a sufficiently large user-base will have built up skills at home to take the changes in their stride.
... more
Microsoft Office has been a top selling professional desktop package for more years than many of us care to recall.
At one time you bought a spreadsheet from a spreadsheet company, a database from another, a word processor from a third and so on.
In the 1990s that all changed, and after a series of acquisitions and mergers it basically boiled down to making a choice between Microsoft Office, with Word, Excel, Outlook etc or IBM with WordPro, Lotus 123, Notes and so on. ‘New Kids on the block’ offered spirited cross-platform packages such as ‘Star Office’ but were ultimately dismissed by 90% of businesses as simply being ‘too different’ and consequently hard to support.
Eventually, MS Office reined supreme, largely by sheer force of numbers.
The basic functionality of Office remained largely unaltered for the best part of fifteen years – in spite of inconsistencies between the various software development teams (was Access is notoriously different from Word and Excel) everyone seemed to accept there were particular ways of doing things and we all just got on with it.
THEN in 2007, some bright spark decided to redesign the look and feel of Office from first principles.
A more consistent look was implemented, and instead of the familiar ‘dropdown’ options which had remained remarkably consistent, the ‘ribbon’ interface was introduced.
The belief was that this was more in keeping with the ‘sexy’ layout of Windows Vista, and to be fair, it’s a far more ‘integrated’ package.
The ‘normal’ price of MS Office Enterprise is around the five hundred quid mark.
For this you get updated favourites such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Publisher and Access. In addition – there’s new offerings; OneNote – an information management utility InfoPath – fundamentally a forms management utility Groove – group collaboration software - I’ve not had occasion to try these out yet,
I obtained a copy of MS Office Enterprise entirely legitimately for the princely sum of £17!
My wife works in the Health Service, and they have negotiated a ‘Home Use’ licence – this means Microsoft are willing to let employees of large organisations use the latest software for little more than the media and distribution costs.
Most big employers will be running earlier versions of office, and this is a way of ensuring when they eventually DO get around to installing the 2007 version, a sufficiently large user-base will have built up skills at home to take the changes in their stride.
Which neatly introduces the downside.
It’s greatest selling points are at one in the same time it’s greatest weakness.
Previously, you could have been familiar with an ‘old’ version of office, uninstalled it, put the new one in, and within minutes, be productively using the new package. Everything was pretty much where you expected it to be, if just a little different (introduction of tabs rather than lists of options and so on).
Office 2007 doesn’t follow this trend – the ‘ribbon’ probably DOES present options in a more logical and integrated fashion, and it DOES integrate better with enterprise applications – whereas OLE offered functionality from one application in another, it was a bit of a fiddle to engineer, and the results were scarcely ‘seamless’ – 2007 is a far slicker product.
BUT (and it’s a big but) new users will find it very frustrating to use because nothing is where you expect it to be!
Expect several days of frustration trying to navigate the new layout. Help is at hand however.
Whether it was deliberate, or simply an oversight, Microsoft hasn’t provided a ‘skin’ to present familiar functions in a familiar way!
That task has fallen to a third party ‘Addintools.com’ who have written a ‘skin’ called ‘Classic Menu for Office’ which is ‘exactly what it says on the tin’ – a series of options in familiar drop-down menus.
You can download a time-limited trial for free, the licence cost is around twenty quid.
I would argue this should have been a ‘standard feature’ but clearly Microsoft thought otherwise, believing that the extra functionality offered by the new layout outweighed any temporary discomfort.
If you’re thinking of installing Office 2007, I would put ‘Classic’ as a very high priority add-on.
I won’t go into the minute detail of what’s changed on each and every program in the suite – doubtless there will be plenty of articles written about this.
What you get is a truly integrated and consistent package of software, which (almost for the first time) looks like it was thought of as a whole, rather than being a loose formation of disparate programs.
It looks sexy (in a sad sort of way) and doubtless in eighteen months we’ll be wondering what all the fuss was about, but in the meantime, don’t expect this to be a quick and easy transition.
I noticed a couple of glitches in the software – I was trying to do some cut and pasting of tables between applications, when they crashed. This is an entirely new rewrite, and occasional hickups are only to be expected – use the Microsoft update service to stay ahead of the game.
This is truly the shape of business computing to come, but don’t be lulled into a sense of false security by believing this is a trivial upgrade.
If you’re entirely happy with the ‘old’ office I’d tend to hold off upgrading for a few months yet, and when you do, seriously consider factoring in the cost of ‘Classic Menu’, otherwise eleven out of ten for effort, seven out of ten for backwards compatibility.
Advantages: Previously hard to find,PowerPoint presentations are more attractive Disadvantages: none
of Office.
Micro-enterprises
We have MicrosoftOffice Standard 2007, with a significant cost $ 399 or $ 239 for an upgrade. This suite includes Word, PowerPoint, Excel and Outlook, next to Office Tools, language and images to manage and a diagnostic tool for use in the event of a fall. Households that do not need desktop e-mail must be for Office Home & Student at $ 149 (no upgrade option), a new suite is about Office 2003 on students and teachers, but with Outlook instead of OneNote. The Basic package, Word, Excel and Outlook, only sold pre-installed on computers by producers, the Microsoft software license contracts. At $ 449 ($ 279 upgrade), MicrosoftOffice Small Business 2007 costs $ 50 less than the Professional Edition includes the Access database program. Only firms and $ 679 ($ 539 upgrade) Ultimate Edition with the new Groove tool. And ...
Advantages: Easy to use, faster and reliable service Disadvantages: EXPENSIVE!!!
The Vista Beta 2 Enterprise System, is an ingenious and reliable system, which MICROSOFT has set to release for late 2006/early 2007. At the same time as Office2007 (Office 12 [see my other review for more information on Office2007] ) , the Beta 2 edition has been available to the public for the last 2 months but now has been closed due to higher demand but it is available by searching for the download link on line.
The Vista edition comes with many new features not available without paying for older servers (win' 98, Mil, XP) these includes of Windows DVD burner, easy to use Windows update, free Antivirus and free Windows Media Centre . Also, it comes with the latest products such as Internet Explorer 7 Beta 3, Windows Defender (Anti-spy-ware) and of course Windows Media Player 11.
Beta-computing trial
Microsoft Vista-Microsoft ...
Advantages: does a huge amount, relatively cheap Disadvantages: none
to program and using Visual Studio.
~~~ Licenses ~~~
There are three levels of license for SharePoint. One is Windows SharePoint Services 3.0. This comes free with a lot of Microsoft server licenses. It only gives a tiny proportion of the capabilities though. WSS 3.0 is basically a file share and collaboration program that acts as a foundation for the rest of SharePoint.
Then you get MicrosoftOffice SharePoint Server 2007. This comes in two forms, standard CAL and enterprise CAL. A CAL is a client access license. Essentially, what you need is to buy the program SharePoint, and then buy a CAL for every person you want to use the program. Enterprise CALs give you all the functions that a standard CAL gives you (the collaboration and web content management functions, the workflows and most of the search capabilities) as well as ...
Product Information for "Microsoft Office Enterprise 2007" »
Product details
Software / Category
Office applications
Manufacturer
Microsoft
Manufacturer's product description
Organizations that want to succeed in today's increasingly global, information-based economy must overcome complex challenges around communication, workflow, enterprise content management, and business intelligence. Microsoft Office Enterprise 2007 gives your organization and your people enhanced capabilities for simplifying how people and teams work together, streamlining processes and content management, and improving business insight across your organization.
Office Enterprise 2007 includes:
Microsoft Office Access 2007
Microsoft Office Communicator 2007
Microsoft Office Excel 2007
Microsoft Office Groove 2007
Microsoft Office InfoPath 2007
Microsoft Office OneNote 2007
Microsoft Office Outlook 2007
Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007
Microsoft Office Publisher 2007
Microsoft Office Word 2007
Related tags for Microsoft Office Enterprise 2007 »