B
Bill
As Microsoft Certified Partners (for over 6 years) we have been evaluating
the new Office 2007 for some time now and wish to share some of our
observations with the rest of the community to help them make up their minds
as to whether to move to the new version of the software.
In summary - our recommendation is not to move. 2003 is stable, uses the
same user interface that office has used for some time, is customizable and
does not require a change to the standard documents e.g. xls, doc etc.
Office 2007 on the other hand has had a major overhaul in some areas,
especially the graphics side of it (not soon enough for many users), however
the ribbon interface is not good nor is it condusive to more efficient use of
the system and is certainly not aimed at 'power users'. Using the Quick
Access toolbar you can mimic the earlier versions of Office somewhat, but not
completely. 2007 is slower to load - it takes up much more memory ( our
machines are all 4Gb of memory), is almost unbearably slow to work on
remotely - on a direct comparison between office 2003 word document loading
with extensive graphics to a 2007 word document in docx format with the same
graphics (recreated with the new graphics engine), it took 8 times as long to
load over an 8Mb dedicated line. Microsoft have lost their way with this
release, which is a pity in many ways, as many people wanted better graphics
in their mainstream applications.
We have found many issues which do not work in the same way as they used to
and some don't work at all. The outlook search engine is a classic example.
When we search on the 'E-Mail To button' we get a new screen which says
search on name or more columns. Name literally means name so unless you have
an idea what the email or display name is don't bother. If you click the more
columns - it doesn't tell you which columns it now wants to include but the
results in o0ur test are the same. We have a company set up and the e-mail
address for that company is their address for remittance advices to be sent
to e.g. credit@ingram..... We type in Ingram and get nothing and yet the
record is there. We have not enabled instant search as there is no need for
that on our systems. Searching is not a mainstream element of our day to day
work - we are very organised with our directory and document naming
structure. Search gets used occassionaly (Windows XP search forced us to
rethink the structure of our data as the search mechanism was not very good).
Microsoft's attempt to compete with Google Search were not really necessary
were they? Why is it they seem to want to 'lead the field' in everything? Are
they worried their mainstream products will not bring them in the billions in
revenue they require to keep their share value up. Only the hierarchy really
know the answer to that.
Anyway we digress. The move to Office 2007 is expensive in both real terms
and in hidden costs as there will be a training requirement for almost all,
frustration levels for power users and not a lot of improvement for the
casual users. Does anyone really care if they can find the command they need
quicker? We are potentially talking in seconds here not minutes or hours. For
corporations bear several things in mind the new document formats are not
readable in their native format on machines who do not have Office 2007 (you
can download the viewers from Microsoft and they are free, although they
still have to be installed). Are the new features in Office 2007 worth the
cost? We do not believe they are and the consensus amongst our users is the
same. They will stick to Office 2003 and hope that Microsoft recognise the
issues in 2007 and correct this in their next release.
the new Office 2007 for some time now and wish to share some of our
observations with the rest of the community to help them make up their minds
as to whether to move to the new version of the software.
In summary - our recommendation is not to move. 2003 is stable, uses the
same user interface that office has used for some time, is customizable and
does not require a change to the standard documents e.g. xls, doc etc.
Office 2007 on the other hand has had a major overhaul in some areas,
especially the graphics side of it (not soon enough for many users), however
the ribbon interface is not good nor is it condusive to more efficient use of
the system and is certainly not aimed at 'power users'. Using the Quick
Access toolbar you can mimic the earlier versions of Office somewhat, but not
completely. 2007 is slower to load - it takes up much more memory ( our
machines are all 4Gb of memory), is almost unbearably slow to work on
remotely - on a direct comparison between office 2003 word document loading
with extensive graphics to a 2007 word document in docx format with the same
graphics (recreated with the new graphics engine), it took 8 times as long to
load over an 8Mb dedicated line. Microsoft have lost their way with this
release, which is a pity in many ways, as many people wanted better graphics
in their mainstream applications.
We have found many issues which do not work in the same way as they used to
and some don't work at all. The outlook search engine is a classic example.
When we search on the 'E-Mail To button' we get a new screen which says
search on name or more columns. Name literally means name so unless you have
an idea what the email or display name is don't bother. If you click the more
columns - it doesn't tell you which columns it now wants to include but the
results in o0ur test are the same. We have a company set up and the e-mail
address for that company is their address for remittance advices to be sent
to e.g. credit@ingram..... We type in Ingram and get nothing and yet the
record is there. We have not enabled instant search as there is no need for
that on our systems. Searching is not a mainstream element of our day to day
work - we are very organised with our directory and document naming
structure. Search gets used occassionaly (Windows XP search forced us to
rethink the structure of our data as the search mechanism was not very good).
Microsoft's attempt to compete with Google Search were not really necessary
were they? Why is it they seem to want to 'lead the field' in everything? Are
they worried their mainstream products will not bring them in the billions in
revenue they require to keep their share value up. Only the hierarchy really
know the answer to that.
Anyway we digress. The move to Office 2007 is expensive in both real terms
and in hidden costs as there will be a training requirement for almost all,
frustration levels for power users and not a lot of improvement for the
casual users. Does anyone really care if they can find the command they need
quicker? We are potentially talking in seconds here not minutes or hours. For
corporations bear several things in mind the new document formats are not
readable in their native format on machines who do not have Office 2007 (you
can download the viewers from Microsoft and they are free, although they
still have to be installed). Are the new features in Office 2007 worth the
cost? We do not believe they are and the consensus amongst our users is the
same. They will stick to Office 2003 and hope that Microsoft recognise the
issues in 2007 and correct this in their next release.