Hi Tony:
Please allow me to commend to you the philosophy embodied in Clive's "Bend
Word to Your Will"
I strongly suggest that you don't rely on Microsoft to provide an
application set up to your (or my...) personal foibles: but you can rely on
Microsoft to ensure that you can customise Word precisely to your taste. A
few hours learning how to quickly customise the application, and to preserve
those customisations, will reward you a hundred-fold.
With a bit of luck, all existing predefined keystrokes will be retained in
Office 2008. However, this is made much more difficult on the Mac than it
is in Windows, because the Mac's history of having a single-button mouse
means it's very keystroke-centric. The Operating System keeps "stealing"
keystrokes that users could otherwise assign to their own purposes
Keystrokes will not be a big focus for Microsoft: the new Microsoft Office
Fluent User Interface is designed to be used without them. But the ability
to assign them for yourself will remain, and I encourage you to use that
I also encourage you to avail yourself of a scroll-wheel mouse, if you
haven't already done so. A five-button mouse will make Microsoft Office
very MUCH faster to use for serious work: Microsoft Office is VERY
right-click-centric. There are those with the view that they are much
faster using Word because they learn and use keystrokes only -- some who
dismiss all the toolbars in the current aplication and drive only with
keystrokes. I applaud their commitment to their convictions
I would
cheerfully take them on in any contest of productivity, and I think I would
win -- probably nearly double. In the new Office user interface, that
margin can be ten or a hundred times (literally!).
I suppose it's also worth while passing on my current experience of the new
user interface: It is dramatically different from the old one. Almost
every method that I use has had to be changed in some way. I implore people
NOT to try to "make it work the way it always used to." You will get into a
gruesome and extended wrestling match. And ultimately, Word will win. The
only variable is how many hours/days/weeks you are prepared to devote to the
struggle
Why not allow the time I have wasted doing this, to suffice for you too?
Approach the problem with one thought in mind "This one is different. I
need to change the way I do everything." I was humiliated to discover that
the less people know about how to use Word now, the faster they pick up the
new user interface
That, of course, was Microsoft's major design goal,
and they achieved it in spades... {Sob!}
If you hold that thought in mind, within a couple of weeks you will find
that everything you want to achieve is getting done between two and ten
times faster, with less effort, and far higher reliability.
This one is different. It is dramatically more efficient. It is also
considerably more flexible. However, there are some old methods and
techniques that may have to go (depending on how you normally work).
Will all my old documents work? Yes.
Will all my old templates work? Yes.
Will all my old macros work? No. None of them will work.
What about my old toolbars? They will work, but you will almost imediately
abandon them, because toolbars do not make things "easier" in an application
taht is designed to operate without them.
It's going to be a fun time: but the result will be faster, more reliable
and more robust documents.
Hope this helps
How many of my old macros will I actually need? Almost "Zero". Most of my
macros were built to provide functions Word did not have built-in, or did
not do easily. The need for almost all of those will go away
--
John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. GMT + 10 Hrs
+61 4 1209 1410, <mailto:
[email protected]> mailto:
[email protected]