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Microsoft Office 2007


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If you’re thinking about investing in Microsoft Office 2007 when it is released, you may be interested to know there is an 11 page review of it and fully working copy (“Beta 2”) on the CD with the August issue of PC Pro (UK).  Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Publisher, Access, InfoPath and Outlook are included.  The software will work until January 2007.

I’ve just installed it and it looks very nice and different to Office XP, although I don’t know if it will do anything for me that Office XP wont.  You can install it so that it co-exists with an existing Office installation.

You don’t need to have Office on your PC already, but if you don’t intend to buy Office 2007 you will need to save any files you create in “97 – 2003 format” so that you can use them with an older version of Office once the Beta expires.

 

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I wouldn't waste my money for Microsoft's overprizerd Office suite. I suggest OpenOffice, more or less the same functionality as MS Office and FREE.

If still needed you can save the files in the respective Microsoft format (.doc, .xls...). You can download it from www.OpenOffice.org. (The website is currently under maintenance and will be fully available again within the next days.)

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[quote user="diotima"]+1 for Open Office. There are things it does much better than MS Office, like page layout, for newsletters and stuff like that. Its handling of frames (for complex layouts) is far better than Publisher and infintely better than Word; ditto with styles which are sensible and consistent in OO Writer, not so in Word. OO also handles the high-res images needed for professional publishing whereas Word and Publisher mangle them down to 72dpi which is only fit for the Web. And it saves files in PDF format too.
[/quote]

Totally disagree. I'm a Beta tester for Microsoft and I'm afraid everything you criticise them for in your above statement just isn't true. Please explain how Word and Publisher "mangle" images down to 72dpi? I manage to juggle high resolution images between Adobe Photoshop and MS products without any difficulty!

I suggest you  get hold of the Office 2007 Beta and try it against Open Office before commenting further. I'd love to know where in OO you can find in addition to the main Office functions; SharePoint Designer, Visio Professional, Project Professional, OneNote, Groove, 6 x SharePoint Server Programmes, 3 x Groove Server Components, 1 x Project Server. There is a lot more to MS Office than word processing , email, and presentation programmes, etc.

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[quote user="daryl-et-elaine"]

[quote user="diotima"]+1 for Open Office. There are things it does much better than MS Office, like page layout, for newsletters and stuff like that. Its handling of frames (for complex layouts) is far better than Publisher and infintely better than Word; ditto with styles which are sensible and consistent in OO Writer, not so in Word. OO also handles the high-res images needed for professional publishing whereas Word and Publisher mangle them down to 72dpi which is only fit for the Web. And it saves files in PDF format too.

[/quote]

Totally disagree. I'm a Beta tester for Microsoft and I'm afraid everything you criticise them for in your above statement just isn't true. Please explain how Word and Publisher "mangle" images down to 72dpi? I manage to juggle high resolution images between Adobe Photoshop and MS products without any difficulty!

I suggest you  get hold of the Office 2007 Beta and try it against Open Office before commenting further. I'd love to know where in OO you can find in addition to the main Office functions; SharePoint Designer, Visio Professional, Project Professional, OneNote, Groove, 6 x SharePoint Server Programmes, 3 x Groove Server Components, 1 x Project Server. There is a lot more to MS Office than word processing , email, and presentation programmes, etc.

[/quote]

All that long list of stuff in your last paragraph is outside my technical expertise so I can't comment, and my comments refer to specific aspects of Open Office in comparison with MS Office, not the scope of each.

On the page layout stuff I referred to, I can comment as I'm a professional typographer and typesetter, have 45 years experience in typographic design, pre-press and on-press work, from hot metal typesetting to the latest digital technology, and have used just about every application there is and has been in that field [:)] Open Office does do that stuff better than the Office applications. OO supports the ISO standards my industry relies on which Microsoft doesn't - Office's broken XML support is just one example, and there's no support either for hardware, paper and colour profiles, or the CMYK colour space.  Microsoft don't produce professional design applications and that's not a criticism, it's just not their market.

If you know page layout methodology and you've used Open Office Writer you'll know that the techniques used in Writer are exactly the same as those used in high end page layout applications such as InDesign (the technological leader in this market). Publisher does the same in a limited way, but if you read the Publisher help you'll see it says that if Publisher output is required for high-end printing, it should be exported as an image for placing in an appropriate page layout application. I've sent OO Writer PDF output for offset printing many times and never had a file cause problems at the printer.

Writer's styles implementation is pretty much the same as high-end layout tools - InDesign is my bread and butter application - but Word's styles implementation can best be described as idiosyncratic. Why Microsoft chose to go down that route when there was well-established methodology in use for years, will always be a mystery for me.

I've placed 300dpi TIFFs in Publisher and Word repeatedly and examined the output, and the images are always 72dpi. This is in the 2003 versions of those applications. I'd appreciate some input as to what I'm doing wrong if I am, but having worked through this issue with experts at Ipex recently, I don't believe I am. Manipulating files between applications is one thing, but it's what happens on RIP that matters. What happened with your files on RIP? Did you get a pre-flight report on your files, and if so, what did it say?

Yes, there's a lot of products that MS have where OO won't compete, but that's not the purpose of the Open Office project. Most users don't use more than about 20% of any application's features anyway, some experts say that figure's as low as 10%. One huge advantage of OO is in simply being open source, the data owner retains ownership of their intellectual property. I run an archiving project for a non-profit, and we have 25 years worth of data in god-only-knows how many electronic formats, and because those formats are proprietary and some are no longer used, in many cases we now don't have access to our own intellectual property. This is a very big issue for us, and as time goes on, it will become a big issue for a lot of companies and individuals. We have Word 2 files that Word 2003 won't open. I believe the Oasis Open Document format used by Open Office is about to be formally approved as an ISO standard, but MS haven't yet said they'll support it. Open Office files will be usable in any application that supports OpenDoc, which Corel (Word Perfect) have already said they'll support fully.

I don't mean to be combative here, it's horses for courses. Microsoft has its market and customers who need what they offer, but one part of that market can be equally well, or better, served by Open Office. OO is a very well designed tool, and very powerful, it shouldn't be underestimated. That it's been chosen by the state of Massachusetts as the productivity suite for use in all state offices is indicative of how good it is.

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erm..daryl

Well said sir. but can you tell me if there is a version of OO that will run on my Mac? I don't realy need another WP but I'm intrigued by all the letters regarding and praising OO. My wife has a laptop windows machine so she may be interested in OO.

Bob Preston. Vendee
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[quote user="Bob"]erm..daryl

Well said sir. but can you tell me if there is a version of OO that will run on my Mac? I don't realy need another WP but I'm intrigued by all the letters regarding and praising OO. My wife has a laptop windows machine so she may be interested in OO.

Bob Preston. Vendee[/quote]

I'm on a Mac (G5/Power PC) and use NeoOffice - http://www.neooffice.org/. It's Open Office ported to run natively on OS X, whereas Open Office itself for Mac needs X11 installed, which slows it down. The Open Office site is up now - http://www.openoffice.org.

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I had a look at OO for Mac, and rejected it pretty quickly, preferring to stay with Office X/2004, which is a properly integrated system.

In terms of the Windows update I hope you will get some of the features included in the last Mac version. Entourage is much better than Outlook, and I would hope that 2007 has a similar core. The ability to work with projects is very streamlined and intuitive. The projects gallery is a strong feature, and the updated Presenter Tools in PowerPoint is a superb enhancement.

My beef with Word is that it follows its own path on formatting! I would like easier control over that, but in general I find that the Office suite makes me more productive, across Mac and Windows platforms.

I don't like Access, though, I think it's an insult! I use Filemaker Pro for databasing, it is light years ahead.

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TP said>But to add Office you have to spend as much again as you did on the PC

Office is sold on its potential, if you're a newcomer you can buy or try an old version for next to nothing and it will be fine.. Most folks have no idea or requirement for what Works can do [:)], let alone Office.

Dick said>I don't like Access, though, I think it's an insult!

Dick,  I can't see why you think Access is insulting. One German carmaker's UK finance arm was using a MSAccess database until fairly recently for it's UK car purchases/hp/leasing. It does however, require a committment to learn how to create within it. Incidentally, our local Lefarge owned quarry runs on Excel. You're an educator, and I would have thought that you would have appreciated that there is usually more to things than that that you know yourself.

MS Office is much more powerful than most people realise, as no doubt is OO, the problem is that folks think (or are advised)  that they have to buy Office regardless.

Steve

 

.

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"SC" wrote "You're an educator, and I would have thought that you would have

appreciated that there is usually more to things than that that you

know yourself."

Why oh why oh why do people have to take a pop at teachers on this forum? You know, I am getting pretty sick of it. In fact comments like this make me hopping mad - I mustn't have an opinion because I am an 'educator'?

Pathetic. Get a life.

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"One German carmaker's UK finance arm was using a MSAccess database until fairly recently for it's UK car purchases/hp/leasing"

And I've built & managed Filemaker databases for a well-known children's charity, a famous rock band, a 'household name' theatre producer, white goods manufacturer... Not sure what that proves either...

Access is, IMHO, fairly typical MS software; bloated and horribly counter-intuitive. Filemaker, OTOH, enables you not only to do pretty much anything you might need, but has the massive advantage that you can also make 'quick & dirty' changes within 'real life' deadlines.

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Juswundrin - I have attempted to write small databases in Access and given up - the general experience of a lot of people I have spoken to. I use FileMaker Pro, and have been able to write simple, functional databases for real applications in an afternoon, including pupil tracking databases for a Local Education Authority. Completely cross-platform, quick and intuitive. For me and my middleweight applications there is no choice - and I suspect most readers of this forum won't be writing/using heavyweight stuff. By the way, the BBC uses (used?) FileMaker for databasing programmes, so not too bad. I believe it is actually based on an old Sinclair QL program called Archive, or at least they work in remarkably similar ways.

But then, I'm a teacher and not allowed an opinion unless - I don't know what more I need to do, actually. Run a gîte complex, possibly...

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I'm sorry if I offended you Dick, I wasn't 'having a pop at teachers', just trying to illustrate a point that there may be more to the program than you realised. But what do I know, I run a gite complex. Fortunately I have a life, which is why I spend so little time posting on forums such as this, but when I do post I try not to write anything that I would be uncomfortable saying to a person's face.
Steve
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[quote user="Dick Smith"]

I don't like Access, though, I think it's an insult! I use Filemaker Pro for databasing, it is light years ahead.

[/quote]

Access is very good but you really have to understand Visual Basic to get the most out of it.

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[quote user="fulcrum"]

Access is very good but you really have to understand Visual Basic to get the most out of it.

[/quote]

I think therein lies part of the problem with Access - it's not the most user-friendly piece of kit to get to grips with.

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Precisely - wherein lies the insult. Microsoft products are often clunky but Access is impenetrable - I don't have the time to spend/waste learning how to use something which will take weeks when I can get an off-the-shelf database which is quick, powerful and above all intuitive and use it almost straight away.

We have applications written in Access at school and they cause us huge problems because they are so unstable, as well as difficult/impossible to modify.

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[quote user="Dick Smith"]

We have applications written in Access at school and they cause us huge problems because they are so unstable, as well as difficult/impossible to modify.

[/quote]

If the wrong person fiddled about cobbling a database together then you will have problems.

One of the problems with Access is that it is

sold alongside Word and Excel. Therefore users expect to just use it out of the box. However it needs someone who understands its structure before they start. Another problem with so called expert users of Access is that they hard code some of the information into forms etc.. so that maintenance becomes very difficult.

I have years of Access experience and know that it is a very stable product and works very well. You can put together very quickly a database if you know where to start.

Tables are the only thing that hold data.

Queries are for manipulating data from Tables or other queries into whatever order you require.

Forms are for displaying the database to users.

Reports are for printing your info.

Modules are for Visual Basic code.

I'll bet that in a day (eight hours) I could get a reasonably competent office user to understand Access in order to start constructing a fairly usefull and manageable database.

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[quote user="fulcrum"][quote user="Dick Smith"]

We have applications written in Access at school and they cause us huge problems because they are so unstable, as well as difficult/impossible to modify.

[/quote]

If the wrong person fiddled about cobbling a database together then you will have problems.

One of the problems with Access is that it is

sold alongside Word and Excel. Therefore users expect to just use it out of the box. However it needs someone who understands its structure before they start. Another problem with so called expert users of Access is that they hard code some of the information into forms etc.. so that maintenance becomes very difficult.

I have years of Access experience and know that it is a very stable product and works very well. You can put together very quickly a database if you know where to start.

Tables are the only thing that hold data.

Queries are for manipulating data from Tables or other queries into whatever order you require.

Forms are for displaying the database to users.

Reports are for printing your info.

Modules are for Visual Basic code.

I'll bet that in a day (eight hours) I could get a reasonably competent office user to understand Access in order to start constructing a fairly usefull and manageable database.

[/quote]

Fulcrum,

All very true. I've been earning my living with Access for the last 12 years and in all that time I've been on one, very poor, 2-day course in how to use it. On the other hand, I've designed & delivered a whole lot of training to both IT and admin people.

Yes, you do need to understand how the basic components (tables, queries, forms...) work together, but anyone wth a reasonably logical approach to design can grasp that pretty quickly.

No, I wasn't an IT professional when I started using Access, just a training officer with a background in video & photography. I went freelance as a database specialist 8 years ago and my recent clients include MFI, BP, Balfour Beatty, Network Rail, the Scottish Executive .... In many cases it was a matter of using Access as a tool to integrate and manage data held in serious enterprise apps like SAP & PeopleSoft.

I've looked at lots of other data management tools (Filemaker, 4D, Progress...) and am yet to find one with the combination of flexibility, development speed and conectivity that Access has.

But what do I know? I'm just a database specialist!

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Ah, but Albert, you don't diss people for some imagined quality they MUST have due to their profession!

I think that we need to think about horses for courses. FMP is fine for almost all small business, school and 'club' applications and anything a home user might want at low cost and little training, the weakness is sharing data with other software (in my experience) - but the fact that it is completely cross-platform is a major plus. We aren't all accountants and office types you know.

We are just going over to SIMS, but I don't know whether or not that is proprietary or uses a database core. We are using Omnis at the moment, which I have in V1.0 on a Mac II c1983 - it's a bit limited, to be honest...

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My first freelance client was a small company employing about 20 people. I built a complete customer management and order processing system for them, starting from a totally manual set-up.

My only experience of a bespoke FMP application is the one my local Apple centre (I'm writing this on a Mac Mini) uses. It cannot be described as integrated because the the way you look up a part number to enter into an order involves writing it down & re-keying. Maybe an experienced FMP developer could do better, but in the circumstances it's not a great advert for the software!

By the way, in the main 'sits vac' website for freelance developers I have seen hardly any ads for FMP devs (although there was one in Martinique :-) ) but Access as a skill is highly marketable. I know this is not significant for typical Office users, but it says something about the market for the products.

As a project manager on one of my contracts said: 'The answer is Access; what's the problem?"

By the way, I've had a quick look at the SIMS info and , although it doesn't specify it I'd guess that the database engine is MS SQL Server Enterprise edition and the front ends are built using MS .NET framework (even more of a guess that the project language will be C++).
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