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| Microsoft Word 2007 Version Upgrade | 
 enlarge | From: Microsoft Software
Category: Software
List Price: $109.95
Buy New: $83.00
You Save: $26.95 (25%)
New (38) Used (1) from $83.00
Avg. Customer Rating:  21 reviews
Sales Rank: 2037
Format: Cd-rom
Platforms: Windows Vista, Windows Xp
Media: CD-ROM
Edition: Upgrade
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Shipping Weight (lbs): 3
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.4 x 1.5
MPN: 059-05442
Model: 059-05442
UPC: 882224149648
EAN: 0882224149648
ASIN: B000HCVR5S
Release Date: January 30, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
| Showing reviews 1-5 of 21 | | NEXT » |
 Insufferably Labyrinthine Productivity Killer October 5, 2008
As an instructor for a one credit hour class in Job Search Strategies, one of the primary goals of the course is for each student to develop resumes, cover letters, business cards, and references sheets.
I have a range of students with varying degrees of Microsoft Office proficiency, and this year's progress is significantly slower than previous classes. The new Word Command interface initially impresses the user with it's slick styling and sleek look, until you actually need to find a specific command, and then the user-hostile, maze-like nature of the interface becomes all to apparent.
Despite our school's policy of choosing which software packages we teach based on those that are most prevolent in industry, Word has proven to be such an exercise in frustration for students ranging from novices through experts, that all classes after this one will be using Openoffice.org Writer, which is not only more user friendly but completely free, and available for Windows, MacOSX, and Linux.
I have never had a problem with Microsoft Office software until this the 2007 latest incarnation. Word 2007 is an utter and complete waste of money and time.
Why? Why? Why? September 23, 2008
It wasn't broken, so why did they "fix" it? It is a productivity killer. What was once 1 or 2 clicks away is now 3, 5 or 7 clicks away. The ribbon is a frustrating and unnecessary organizational concept. There are a few upgrades I like (e.g., SmartArt in PowerPoint), but the few true upgrades are not worth the complete reorganization of the toolbars / menu bars that business users have relied on for years.
This upgrade will ruin your productivity! Don't!! September 5, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
If Vista wasn't bad enough, this is even worse.
The huge problem with this upgrade is the dire interface. The ribbon takes up far too much space and can't be customised. Forget all your keyboard shortcuts, they won't work in Word 2007 e.g. when using tables, ALT>I>R to insert a row becomes ALT>J>L>A. It's all like this. The menu structure is gone and there's no option to bring it back!
Instead of menus you get lots of tabs and a ribbon. You can't move the ribbon and it take up 30mm of your screen space. None of the commands is where you expect it to be and doing simple things like bullets and numbering has become tedious. You can only have a single row of custom buttons and this is practically limited to about 25 buttons which can be visible - if you want font or style on the quick access bar then this falls to about a dozen.
Microsoft have enforced a strict inteface that can only be changed by a programmer who can write XML apps for Word!!!
In summary, if you are an experienced user, you will hate and detest this software and wish you had not bothered. This upgrade is the best advert for Open Office that I can imagine. And Open Office is a free download from the Sun Website!
Microsoft shoots itself in the foot - again.
A usability nightmare August 19, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I'm a technical writer, so Word is a big part of my life. As Word 2003 is the defacto standard in most business environments, the tech writing community has come to accept its limitations and find ways to use Word as a professional documentation tool.
Honestly, MS did an outstanding job in the past to accommodate both professionals and home users with their Word products. I really took my hat off to MS in this regard. There were a few things that vexxed me, but I always knew that as a technical writer I was in a clear minority of MS Word users.
With Word 2007, all I can say is this... I want to find the Product Manager and strangle him or her. This person is responsible for making my working life a living nightmare. I'm so thankful that our IT Dept is reluctant to roll it out across our company and I can still use 2003 for a little longer.
I know I'm probably not the end-user Microsoft had in mind when designing this ill-concieved experiment in 'usability', but I would like to warn anybody familiar with previous MS Word versions against 'upgrading'.
First of all - where the hell are my styles?! I open an existing 2003 document where I've defined styles for Heading 1, Heading 2, body text, tables etc. In Word 2007, they've disappeared! I can't see any styles beyond what Microsoft 'thinks' I should be using. None of them meet my needs, and any attempts to understand or customise them make me prefer a session with a rectal surgeon.
It took me over an hour to update a tiny entry in my _CV_ in Word 2007! And I'm not a newbie - this is after 3 months of trying to use this damn product, let alone understand it. I've never uttered so many swear words at a computer.
Other people have highlighted the other deficiencies, such as clicking every single ribbon to 'discover' where previously familiar (and logically placed) items are now located. (After 3 months, I still don't know.) So I'm not going to reiterate these issues.
I could go on and on, but at the end of the day, things that I found fast and efficient are now cumbersome and slow. Being forced to use a mouse to click through more screens than I need rather than using familiar keyboard shortcuts frustrates me no end.
But honestly - unlike many people in the IT industry, I usually have a lot of respect for Microsoft products. They might not be the most aesthetically pleasing, but at least they're usually well designed and more than often do the job.
What I see in Microsoft 2007 is an attempt to make MS Word 2007 a 'user friendly consumer product' without understanding what made Word 2003 such an easy product to use. It's like the movie 'the Matrix' - the first one was great, but clearly the producers had no idea why because the sequels were such utter shash.
In summary, if you're a first time user, it will probably make things easier at first - at least until you understand word processing. After that, you'll find things unnecessarily cumbersome and frustrating. For people who have ever used an existing Microsoft Word version, I'd avoid this upgrade like the plague and stick with 2003.
Microsoft Office Word 2007: An Over-Designed Nightmare July 11, 2008
11 out of 11 found this review helpful
There was a time when Microsoft Office Word's most recent incarnation was held as the Gold Standard of word-processing programs by most casual- and many professional-computer users. This "article of faith" was so ubiquitous that the pre-installed downgraded word-processing program, part of what is called Microsoft Works, was held in some contempt by most users and usually deleted right away and replaced with the most recent version of Word. No more.
Office Word 2007 is packed with things no one needs and wastes every user's time trying to figure it out.
Compared to the over written and unnecessarily complex Word 2007, the basic templates in Microsoft Works (version 8.5) are refreshingly appealing, simple to use and entirely adequate for most writing and word processing tasks.
Unlike the older versions of Word and the Works Word Processor, Office Word 2007 opens to seven separate template tabs - Each with its own full range of choices and each with own set of multiple and complex tool bars and options. These view pages include 1) Home, 2) Insert, 3) Page Layout, 4) References, 5) Mailings, 6) Review and 7) View. Without going into detail, suffice it to say that the truly necessary aspects of each were once contained on the two simple toolbars most commonly used in the earlier versions of Word, Editing and Navigation.
Navigating between these seven tabbed templates is like moving from room to room - or from house to house - to complete one meal or one conversation. It is simply a user-unfriendly, ill-conceived design. The multiplicity, design and inclusion of many useless options on the production default page ("Home") alone are distracting, delaying, complicated and yield no better product than the earlier, simpler versions.
Word processing should be straightforward, easily navigated and complete. The basic tools of spell-checking, formatting, cutting, pasting, highlighting, etc. should be positioned so as to make them immediately available while working. With Office Word 2007, Microsoft has abandoned these basic precepts and needs. Every time a different tab/template selection needs to be entered to accomplish a necessary task, the writer is distracted. Any writer - including many of you who are reading this, will agree that adding distraction reduces productivity and efficiency.
Microsoft's Office Word 2007 was appears to have not been designed by writers, but by software engineers rewarded for building bigger and more complex programs.
The same strategic error was made by Microsoft in its current operating system, Windows VISTA. Most users of the Microsoft XP system found it perfectly adequate. VISTA bloated a good operating system until it became a gargantuan program of gigabyte-guzzling proportions while adding little if any functional improvements. Yet another example of size and complexity winning out over necessary functionality. Office Word 2007 is a repetition of the self-same misjudgment.
Time is of the essence to most people when they write. It took me nearly ten minutes to figure out how to change a default that double spaced every line I wrote! The Style templates are simply bizarre and distracting, taking up fully half the toolbar space in the basic "Home" production tab. The more functional and necessary functions are squeezed into mini-size half icons making the necessary navigation all the more difficult.
Yes, there is a way to customize one's own toolbar - but why should we have to spend our own time to re-simplify what Microsoft Word 2007 has literally encrypted and hidden in a maze of overlapping separate templates, options and useless features!
There is talk of VISTA being replaced sooner rather than later and that, as heavily promoted as it was and with the talk of ceasing to provide support or updates for XP in the coming year, it will be piled atop the 'it-seemed-like-a-good-idea-at-the-time' junk heap along with Windows Millennium. I expect Word 2007 to wind up there, too.
In the meanwhile, there are good choices, even if you choose to stay within the Windows 'family' of word processing programs. Most simply (and inexpensively) the aforementioned Microsoft Works 8.5 actually turns out to be a pretty user friendly and functional package that includes a more familiar and easier to use word processing program, an Excel-like spread sheet as well as an Access-like database for keeping and sorting information.
Office Word 2003 and XP software is still out there and is getting pretty inexpensive - And it is far easier to use.
As a former admitted "Microsoft Word snob," I must confess that I have learned something from these experiences. Bigger is not necessarily better. The principle applies to software as well as to cars. Microsoft should not be rewarded for bringing this 'upgrade' to market any more than the developers and promoters of Hummers ought be acknowledged for their ecological contributions to the well being of the planet.
I have also learned that the earlier and simpler versions of Microsoft's word processing programs are far superior in ease of use and essential, efficient functionality than is its newest product, Office Word 2007. I encourage every new computer buyer to give Microsoft Works a try before automatically dumping it in favor of Word and its related programs. You might be in for a very pleasant and economically satisfying experience!
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