office2007

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=What Happened to Office?=

Microsoft made some major changes to its venerable Office suite in 2007. All of the applications that comprise Office -- Word, Excel and PowerPoint -- received an extreme makeover. This course is designed to help you locate the features you frequently use. We'll also look at some new features.

Tie a Yellow Ribbon 'Round the Ol' Interface
The most striking difference between Office 2007 and older versions is the use of ribbons. Microsoft decided to remove the traditional pull down menus found in traditional programs. The menus have been replaced by a series of ribbons. Each ribbon features buttons focusing on common tasks.

While this system is confusing at first, the transition is easy if you simply consider the ribbon labels as menus and the associated button as menu choices.

Ribbons in Microsoft Word 2007
The following table will help you to match common Word features to their respective ribbon.


 * **Home** || * format painter
 * font formatting (size, family, color)
 * lists (bulleted, numbered)
 * styles
 * find / replace ||
 * **Insert** || * cover page / blank page / page break
 * tables
 * pictures / clip art / other media
 * header / footer / page number
 * Word Art
 * equations / symbols ||
 * **Page Layout** || * themes
 * margins / columns / page orientation
 * watermarks / page borders
 * indents / spacing
 * text wrap ||
 * **References** || * table of contents
 * footnotes
 * citations
 * captions ||
 * **Mailings** || * envelopes
 * labels
 * mail merge ||
 * **Review** || * spelling & grammar
 * research tools
 * thesaurus
 * peer review tools ||
 * **View** || * outline view
 * full screen
 * page zoom ||
 * **Add-Ins** || The items available in this ribbon vary depending on additional software installed on your computer. ||
 * **Acrobat** || If your computer has Adobe Acrobat Professional, use this ribbon to convert documents to PDF. ||

Ribbons in Microsoft Excel 2007
The following table will help you to match common Excel features to their respective ribbon.


 * **Home** || * format painter
 * font formatting (size, family, color)
 * wrap text / merge cells
 * number formatting
 * general / currency / date / etc.
 * conditional formatting
 * insert cells / rows / columns ||
 * **Insert** || * cover page / blank page / page break
 * tables
 * pictures / clip art / other media
 * header / footer / page number
 * Word Art
 * symbols
 * charts / graphs ||
 * **Page Layout** || * themes
 * margins / columns / page orientation
 * watermarks / page borders
 * indents / spacing
 * turn grids off / on ||
 * **Formulas** || * look up formulas
 * calculation options ||
 * **Data** || * import data from other files or the Internet
 * sort and filter
 * text to columns
 * what-if analysis
 * group / ungroup / subtotal ||
 * **Review** || * spelling & grammar
 * research tools
 * thesaurus
 * peer review tools ||
 * **View** || * outline view
 * full screen
 * page zoom ||
 * **Add-Ins** || The items available in this ribbon vary depending on additional software installed on your computer. ||
 * **Acrobat** || If your computer has Adobe Acrobat Professional, use this ribbon to convert documents to PDF. ||

Ribbons in Microsoft PowerPoint 2007
The following table will help you to match common PowerPoint features to their respective ribbon.


 * **Home** || * format painter
 * font formatting (size, family, color)
 * wrap text / merge cells
 * new slide
 * common symbols
 * find / replace ||  ||
 * **Insert** || * movie
 * sound
 * tables
 * pictures / clip art / other media
 * header / footer / page number
 * Word Art
 * symbols
 * charts / graphs ||
 * **Design** || * page setup
 * slide orientation
 * themes
 * background styles ||
 * **Animations** || * custom animation
 * transitions
 * slide advance settings ||
 * **Slide Show** || * play from beginning
 * play from current slide
 * create a custom slide show
 * record narration
 * rehearse timings
 * set resolution for presentation ||
 * **Review** || * spelling & grammar
 * research tools
 * thesaurus
 * peer review tools ||
 * **View** || * outline view
 * full screen
 * page zoom ||
 * **Add-Ins** || The items available in this ribbon vary depending on additional software installed on your computer. ||
 * **Acrobat** || If your computer has Adobe Acrobat Professional, use this ribbon to convert documents to PDF. ||

Notice Anything Similar?
The following ribbons, no matter which program, are nearly identical: Part of Microsoft's reasoning was that by unifying the interface ribbons, each program will work more like the others. The common features appear in common places. That makes sense, at least.
 * Home
 * Insert
 * Review
 * View
 * Add-Ins
 * Acrobat

How Do I Print? Save? Email?
In its infinite wisdom, Microsoft removed quick buttons for printing, emailing and other common functions. Those features aren't gone, they have just been moved elsewhere.

To access common features, click the pulsating Office button found in the upper left corner of any Office application.

The Office button also saves your recently used items. Clicking the push pin will cause that document to stay in the menu. The nine most recent documents, even if they have been pinned, always show at the top of the menu.

Additional Resources
[|Microsoft's Rationale Behind the Interface Change] [|Find Word 2003 Commands in Word 2007] [|Find Excel 2003 Commands in Excel 2007] [|Find PowerPoint 2003 Commands in PowerPoint 2007] [|More on the Office Button]