Re: You Took the Excel Out Of Excel 2k7 (Beta)

I believe that's the key, Kevin, those who have had no previous
exposure to any version will love it.

Those of us who *know* the UI for the previous versions with our eyes
closed feel like complete newbies trying to use Office 2007. At least
that's how I felt: all my years of learning the Office applications, I
started using Excel around 1985, was now worthless. It felt like I was
learning to walk all over again and I completely understand the
whining because I was right there with them not too long ago.

I still have my moments and want my old 'familiar' UI back but like I
said before, is it worth trading the new functionality? So the more I
use it the more I adjust.

What I recommend to those who hate the new UI, is to play around with
it for awhile and check out the new features and do a little reading
to get a better understanding for why they changed the UI. Jensen
Harris has a great series on this topic (if you only want to read one
the second link has a the best explanation):
http://blogs.msdn.com/jensenh/archive/2005/09/26/473950.aspx
http://blogs.msdn.com/jensenh/archive/2005/10/03/476412.aspx
http://blogs.msdn.com/jensenh/archive/2005/10/10/479123.aspx
http://blogs.msdn.com/jensenh/archive/2005/10/17/481809.aspx
http://blogs.msdn.com/jensenh/archive/2005/10/24/484131.aspx

You can find more information on the Office preview site and the
Communities link has links to other blogs and articles:
http://www.microsoft.com/office/preview/community/articles.mspx

Then, if the new functionally doesn't encourage you want to learn
Office 12 then by all means, uninstall the beta and go back to your
old version.

Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email can not be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/


"Kevin" <kjdinoc@xxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:eQNPKJigGHA.1208@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I love it too, and I don't understand why people whine about the new
interface.....if you don't like it DON'T UPGRADE! I am certain that
a person who has never been exposed to any version of Office would
find the new UI more intuitive to work with.


"MerlinsWeb" <MerlinsWeb@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:42339F40-E0D2-4241-87BA-888D028F224F@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
In my opinion, the UI - Ribbon specifically - is a stroke of
genius. It's a
complete shift in the way work gets done, and while that invariably
takes
some getting used to, I believe it will be well worth the effort in
the long
run.

Another aspect that I find invaluable is the cleaner output code in
Office
2007. As a Web Developer, all of my clients are required to submit
their text
in some format that I can open with Word. Most of them use Word,
and some
include tables and photos in their documents. As a rule, I never
copy and
paste directly from Word into my web app; there is simply too much
code
included, and the tables are difficult to edit. Not so with Word
2007.
Useless code is non-existent, and tables pasted in are easily
editable. This
will be an enormous time saver. Before, I would have to clean the
text by
running it through Notepad. which of course, destroyed the tables.

I am very impressed!

Merlin


"Beth Melton" wrote:

I think it's a bit of compromise. I, too, am not incredibly fond
of
the UI, but I am starting to slowly adjust to it, now that I have
the
commands and groups I use the most on my QAT. (Funny how I placed
the
initial commands in the exact same order as in previous versions.
;-) )

I started using Office 2007 more and more because I love some of
the
new features, document themes which give you the ability to not
only
change the format and overall look of an Office document in
seconds
but to also include formatting for content you haven't even added
yet,
such as pasting data from Excel in Word and have it formatted to
match
my other tables in about two clicks: one for paste and one for
applying the format. I ability to just adding data and not
spending a
bunch of time reformatting the darn thing is a good thing for me.
(This allows me more time to search for some of the commands I
can't
seem to find. lol)

The new graphic effects and SmartArt are fantastic, insert an
image
and experiment with some of the picture styles - those are pretty
awesome. And the galleries with the live preview - I like being
able
to preview a format quickly and not repeatedly apply different
formatting over and over until I find what I'm looking for. Some
of my
favorite new features are in Outlook, the new ability to overlay
multiple calendars and the instant search is *very* cool!

But if I want the new functionality I also need to adapt to the
new UI
so I'm slowly making the compromise.

I know this sounds like a sales pitch, but believe me and there
are
others who will attest to this, I was one of the first on the
"this
bites" band wagon and I'm pretty sure there a few folks who are
surprised to actually hear me singing praises for once. <grin>

Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email can not be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/


"Jimerb" <Jimerb@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:5EDD4485-DB20-4553-9371-221CD7DE1A90@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
As an avid office user I have to say you are really hacking up
office bad.
Not only don't I know where anything is anymore I can't go back
to
the format
I'm familiar with. (Or at least it's a pain the neck to find a
way.)

The direction you are going with office is REALLY bad. No file
menu; no
format menu; no edit menu etc. I'M LOST and I really don't
feel
like
learning a new product.

I know it's just a beta but I fear that this could be the
biggest
boon-doggle since you took the "Basic" out of Visual Basic.

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