Microsoft Office 2007

Microsoft Office 2007
Microsoft Office 2007 Logo
The Microsoft Office Core Applications
Microsoft Office 2007 applications shown on Windows Vista (clockwise from top left: Excel, Word, OneNote, PowerPoint; these four programs make up the Home and Student Edition)
Developer(s) Microsoft
Stable release 2007 Service Pack 2 (12.0.6535.5002) / April 28, 2009; 21 months ago (2009-04-28)
Operating system Windows XP SP2 and later
Platform Microsoft Windows
Type Office suite
License Proprietary EULA
Website Microsoft Office

Microsoft Office 2007 (officially called 2007 Microsoft Office System) is a Windows version of the Microsoft Office System, Microsoft's productivity suite. Formerly known as Office 12 in the initial stages of its beta cycle, it was released to volume license customers on November 30, 2006[1] and made available to retail customers on January 30, 2007. These are, respectively, the same dates Windows Vista was released to volume licensing and retail customers. Office 2007 contains a number of new features, the most notable of which is the entirely new graphical user interface called the Fluent User Interface[2] (initially referred to as the Ribbon User Interface), replacing the menus and toolbars – which have been the cornerstone of Office since its inception – with a tabbed toolbar, known as the Ribbon. Office 2007 requires Windows XP with Service Pack 2 or higher, Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 1 or higher, Windows Vista or Windows 7.[3] Office 2007 is the last version of Microsoft Office available for Windows XP Professional x64 Edition.

The 'Ribbon User Interface' is a task-oriented Graphical User Interface (GUI). It features a central menu button, widely known as the 'Office Button'. The Ribbon Interface has been improved in Microsoft Office 2010.

Office 2007 also includes new applications and server-side tools. Chief among these is Groove, a collaboration and communication suite for smaller businesses, which was originally developed by Groove Networks before being acquired by Microsoft in 2005. Also included is Office SharePoint Server 2007, a major revision to the server platform for Office applications, which supports "Excel Services", a client-server architecture for supporting Excel workbooks that are shared in real time between multiple machines, and are also viewable and editable through a web page.

Microsoft FrontPage has been removed from the Office suite entirely. It has been replaced by Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer, which is aimed towards development of SharePoint portals. Its designer-oriented counterpart Microsoft Expression Web is targeted for general web development. However, neither application has been included in Office 2007.

Speech recognition and handwriting recognition are now part of Windows Vista. Speech and ink components have been removed from Office 2007.[4][5] Handwriting and speech recognition work with Office 2007 only on Windows Vista or Windows XP Tablet PC Edition. However, XP users can use an earlier version of Office to use speech recognition.[6]

According to Forrester Research, as of May 2010, Microsoft Office 2007 is used in 81% of enterprises.[7]

Contents

Development

The first beta of Microsoft Office 2007, referred to as Beta-1 in emails sent to a limited number of testers, was released on November 16, 2005. The Beta-1 Technical Refresh was released to testers on March 13, 2006. The Technical Refresh fixed issues in installing with Windows Vista build 5308. Office 2007 Beta 2 was announced by Bill Gates at WinHEC 2006, and was initially released to the public at no cost from Microsoft's web site. However, because of an unprecedented number of downloads, a fee of $1.50 was introduced for each product downloaded after August 2, 2006. The beta was updated on September 14, 2006 in Beta 2 Technical Refresh (Beta2TR). It included an updated user interface, better accessibility support, improvements in the robustness of the platform, and greater functionality. The beta versions continued to function in a reduced functionality mode after February 1, 2007. If users downloaded the Technical Refresh to update Beta 2, then users could use its full functionality until March 31, 2007 for client products and May 15, 2007 for server products. The Beta program ended on November 8, 2006, when Microsoft declared the product "Released to Manufacturing" (RTM) and started manufacturing the final product. After RTM, the availability of the beta download ended. Office 2007 was released to volume licensing customers on November 30, 2006, and to the general public on January 30, 2007.

Service Pack 1

Microsoft Office 2007 Service Pack 1 was released on December 11, 2007. Microsoft published a list of changes.[8] Official documentation claims that SP1 is not simply a rollup of publicly released patches, but that it also contains fixes for 455 total issues throughout the entire Office suite.[9]

Service Pack 2

Microsoft Office 2007 Service Pack 2 was released on April 28, 2009.[10] Service Pack 2 is inclusive of Office 2007 Service Pack 1. It added improved support of ODF, XPS, and PDF standards as well as a large number of bug fixes.[11][12]

Editions

The 2007 Microsoft Office System is distributed in eight editions.[13]

Microsoft Office 2007 System Editions
Edition License availability License model[14]
Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007 Retail / limited edition student license[15] (860,000 / 55,500) One main device and one additional portable device
Microsoft Office Enterprise 2007 Volume license only Dependent upon Volume Licensing program
Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2007 Volume license only Dependent upon Volume Licensing program
Microsoft Office Professional 2007 Retail (503,300) One main device and one additional portable device
OEM One device only
Microsoft Office Small Business 2007 Retail (453,000) One main device and one additional portable device
OEM One device only
Volume license Dependent upon Volume Licensing program
Microsoft Office Standard 2007 Retail(402,600 / 473,000) One main device and one additional portable device
Volume license Dependent upon Volume Licensing program
Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007 Retail(148,500 / 70,000 / 88,000) Three devices in one household; for non-commercial use only
OEM One device only; for non-commercial use only
Microsoft Office Basic 2007 OEM only One device

Eligible employees of companies with Volume License agreements for Office can obtain copies for use on a home computer.[16]

Notes:

  1. Additional tools include enterprise content management, electronic forms, and Information Rights Management capabilities
  2. As noted on the packaging, below the comparison grid on the back, the OEM and Retail Home and Student 2007 edition is not licensed for commercial, non-profit, or any revenue-generating use. This is displayed in the actual programs themselves with a line of text after the program name.
Non-commercial banner in Microsoft Word 2007

"Blue Edition"

In mid-2007, a cracking group released an "Office 2007 Enterprise Blue Edition", which has since circulated on the internet. The group claims it to be an edition available only to original equipment manufacturers. The package contains all component software except Accounting Express and Communicator. The "Blue Edition" contains no EULA, and does not require a product key or activation. The legitimacy of this edition is neither confirmed nor denied by Microsoft or any authoritative source.[17]

This edition does a complete install of all Office 2007 Enterprise main programs, giving the user no option to do a custom install or select only certain programs to be installed except by running the setup program again and selecting additional functions.

Components

The components of Microsoft Office 2007 depend on the edition.

Component Basic Home and
Student		 Standard Small Business Professional Ultimate Professional Plus Enterprise
Office Word 2007 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Office Excel 2007 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Office PowerPoint 2007 No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Office Outlook 2007 Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Business Contact Manager[18] No No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Office Publisher 2007 No No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Office Access 2007 No No No No Yes Yes Yes Yes
Office InfoPath 2007 No No No No No Yes Yes Yes
Office Groove 2007 No No No No No Yes No Yes
Office OneNote 2007 No Yes No No No Yes No Yes
Office Communicator 20072 No No No No No No R2 Only R2 Only
Integrated Enterprise Content Management No No No No No Yes Yes Yes
Integrated Electronic Forms No No No No No Yes Yes Yes
Advanced Information Rights
Management and Policy Capabilities		 No No No No No Yes Yes Yes
Office Customization Tool (OCT) 1 [19] No No Yes 1 Yes 1 No No Yes 1 Yes 1

Note: 1 Office Customization Tool is used to customize the installation of Office 2007 by creating a Windows Installer patch file (.MSP) and replaces the Custom Installation Wizard and Custom Deployment Wizard included in earlier versions of the Office Resource Kit which created a Windows Installer Transform (.MST). Office Customization Tool is only included in Volume License editions of Office 2007.

Note: 2 Office 2007 R2 is required

Additional Components

Microsoft markets additional software tools as part of the Microsoft Office 2007 suite, although not included in any of the Microsoft Office 2007 editions:

New features

User interface

The new user interface (UI), officially known as Fluent User Interface,[20][21] has been implemented in the core Microsoft Office applications: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, and in the item inspector used to create or edit individual items in Outlook. These applications have been selected for the UI overhaul because they center around document authoring.[22] The rest of the applications in the suite will also be upgraded to the new UI in subsequent versions.[23] The default font used in this edition is Calibri. Original prototypes of the new user interface were revealed at MIX 2008 in Las Vegas.[24]

Office button

Office Button in Microsoft PowerPoint

The Office 2007 button, located on the top-left of the window, replaces the File menu and provides access to functionality common across all Office applications, including opening, saving, printing, and sharing a file. It can also close the application. Users can also choose color schemes for the interface. A notable accessibility improvement is that the Office button follows Fitt's law.[25]

Ribbon

The Ribbon, a panel that houses a fixed arrangement of command buttons and icons, organizes commands as a set of tabs, each grouping relevant commands. The Ribbon is present only in Microsoft Word 2007, Excel 2007, PowerPoint 2007, Access 2007 and some Outlook 2007 windows. The Ribbon is not user customizable in Office 2007. Each application has a different set of tabs which expose the functionality that application offers. For example, while Excel has a tab for the graphing capabilities, Word does not; instead it has tabs to control the formatting of a text document. Within each tab, various related options may be grouped together. The Ribbon is designed to make the features of the application more discoverable and accessible with fewer mouse clicks[26] as compared to the menu-based UI used prior to Office 2007. However, many users feel that the existing menus should have been left alone.[27] An online survey reports the ribbon menu has decreased productivity by an average of 20% for users.[28] Moving the mouse scroll wheel while on any of the tabs on the ribbon cycles—through the tabs. The Ribbon can be minimized by double clicking the active section's title, such as the Home text in the picture below.[29] Without third party add-ins, it is not possible to remove the Ribbon, modify it, or replace it with menus with the normal Office 2007 functions. There are third party add-ins which can be purposed that can bring menus and toolbars to Office 2007 as well as add-ins which allow users to customize the Ribbon commands. Office 2010 does allow user customization of the ribbon out of the box.

Contextual Tabs

Some tabs, called Contextual Tabs, appear only when certain objects are selected. Contextual Tabs expose functionality specific only to the object with focus. For example, selecting a picture brings up the Pictures tab, which presents options for dealing with the picture. Similarly, focusing on a table exposes table-related options in a specific tab. Contextual Tabs remain hidden except when an applicable object is selected.

Live Preview

Microsoft Office 2007 also introduces a feature called "Live Preview", which temporarily applies formatting on the focused text or object when any formatting button is moused-over. The temporary formatting is removed when the mouse pointer is moved from the button. This allows users to have a preview of how the option would affect the appearance of the object, without actually applying it.

Mini Toolbar

The new "Mini Toolbar" is a type of context menu that is automatically shown (by default) when text is selected. The purpose of this feature is to provide easy access to the most-used formatting commands without requiring a right-mouse-button click, as was necessary in older versions of the software. Because the Mini Toolbar is automatically displayed, it remains semi-transparent until the mouse pointer is situated on the control in order to allow an almost-unobstructed view of what is beneath it. It also appears above the right-click menu when a user right-clicks on a selection of words. The Mini Toolbar is currently not customizable, but can be turned off.

Quick Access Toolbar

The Quick Access toolbar, which sits in the title bar, serves as a repository of most used functions, regardless of which application is being used, such as save, undo/redo and print. The Quick Access toolbar is customizable, although this feature is limited compared to toolbars in previous Office versions. Any command available in the entire Office application can be added to the Quick Access toolbar, including commands not available in the Ribbon and macros. Keyboard shortcuts for any of the commands on the toolbar are also fully customizable, similar to previous Office versions.

Other UI features

SmartArt

SmartArt, found under the Insert tab in the ribbon in PowerPoint, Word, Excel, and Outlook, is a new group of editable and formatted diagrams. There are 115 preset SmartArt graphics layout templates in categories such as list, process, cycle, and hierarchy. When an instance of a SmartArt is inserted, a Text Pane appears next to it to guide the user through entering text in the hierarchical levels. Each SmartArt graphic, based on its design, maps the text outline, automatically resized for best fit, onto the graphic. There are a number of "quick styles" for each graphic that apply largely different 3D effects to the graphic, and the graphic's shapes and text can be formatted through shape styles and WordArt styles. In addition, SmartArt graphics change their colors, fonts, and effects to match the document's theme.

File formats

Office Open XML

Microsoft Office 2007 introduced a new file format, called Office Open XML, as the default file format. Such files are saved using an extra X letter in their extension (.docx/xlsx/pptx/etc.). However, it can still save documents in the old format which is compatible with previous versions. Alternatively, Microsoft has made available a free add-on known as the "Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack" that lets Office 2000-2003 editions open, edit, and save documents created under the newer 2007 format.

Office Open XML is based on XML and uses the ZIP file container. According to Microsoft, documents created in this format are up to 75% smaller than the same documents saved with previous Microsoft Office file formats, owing to the ZIP data compression.[30]

Files containing macros are saved with an extra M letter in their extension instead (.docm/xlsm/pptm/etc.).

PDF

Initially, Microsoft promised to support exporting to Portable Document Format (PDF) in Office 2007. However, due to legal objections from Adobe Systems, Office 2007 does not offer PDF support out of the box, but rather as a separate free download.[31][32][33] Service Pack 2 allows users to natively export PDF files.[34]

XPS

Office 2007 documents can also be exported as XPS documents, via another free plug-in that is also a separate download.[35]

OpenDocument

Microsoft backs an open-source effort to support OpenDocument in Office 2007, as well as earlier versions (up to Office 2000), through a converter add-in for Word, Excel and PowerPoint, and also a command-line utility.[36] As of 2008, the project supports conversion between ODF and Office Open XML file formats for all three applications.[37] According to ODF Alliance this support falls short and substantial improvements are still needed for interoperability in real-world situations.[38][39] Third-party plugins able to read, edit and save to the ISO-standard Open Document Format (ODF) are available as a separate download.[40][41]

Metadata

In Office 2007, Microsoft introduced the Document Inspector, an integral metadata removal tool which strips Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents of information such as author name and comments and other "metadata".

User assistance system

In Microsoft Office 2007, the Office Assistants have been eliminated in favour of a new online help system. One of its features is the extensive use of Super Tooltips, which explain in about one paragraph what each function performs. Some of them also use diagrams or pictures. These appear and disappear like normal tooltips, and replace normal tooltips in many areas. The Help content also directly integrates searching and viewing Office Online articles.

Collaboration features

SharePoint

Microsoft Office 2007 includes features geared towards collaboration and data sharing. As such, Microsoft Office 2007 features server components for applications such as Excel, which work in conjunction with SharePoint Services, to provide a collaboration platform. SharePoint works with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, which is used to host a SharePoint site, and uses IIS and ASP.NET 2.0. Excel server exposes Excel Services, which allows any worksheet to be created, edited and maintained via web browsers. It features Excel Web Access, the client-side component which is used to render the worksheet on a browser, Excel Calculation Service which is the server side component which populates the worksheet with data and perform calculations, and Excel Web Services that extends Excel functionalities into individual web services. SharePoint can also be used to host Word documents for collaborative editing, by sharing a document. SharePoint can also be used to hold PowerPoint slides in a Slide Library, from which the slides can be used as a formatting template. It will also notify users of a slide automatically in case the source slide is modified. Also by using SharePoint, PowerPoint can manage shared review of presentations. Any SharePoint hosted document can be accessed from the application which created the document or from other applications such as a browser or Microsoft Office Outlook.

Groove

Microsoft Office 2007 also includes Groove, which brings collaborative features to a peer-to-peer paradigm. Groove can host documents, including presentations, workbooks and others, created in Microsoft Office 2007 application in a shared workspace, which can then be used in collaborative editing of documents. Groove can also be used in managing workspace sessions, including access control of the workspace. To collaborate on one or more documents, a Workspace has to be created, and then those who are to work on it have to be invited. Any file shared on the workspace are automatically shared among all participants. The application also provides real-time messaging, including one-to-one as well as group messaging, and presence features, as well as monitoring workspace activities with alerts, which are raised when pre-defined set of activities are detected. Groove also provides features for conflict resolution for conflicting edits. Schedules for a collaboration can also be decided by using a built-in shared calendar, which can also be used to keep track of the progress of a project. However, the calendar is not compatible with Microsoft Outlook.

Themes and Quick Styles

Microsoft Office 2007 places more emphasis on Document Themes and Quick Styles. The Document Theme defines the colors, fonts and graphic effects for a document. Almost everything that can be inserted into a document is automatically styled to match the overall document theme creating a consistent document design. The new Office Theme file format (.THMX) is shared between Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook email messages. Similar themes are also available for data reports in Access and Project or shapes in Visio.

Quick Styles are galleries with a range of styles based on the current theme. There are quick styles galleries for text, tables, charts, SmartArt, WordArt and more. The style range goes from simple/light to more graphical/darker.

Application-specific changes

Microsoft Office Word

Main article: Microsoft Word
Microsoft Office Word 2007
Word 2007 introduced many new image editing abilities that change the shape, borders and colours of an image.

Microsoft Office Outlook

Microsoft Office Outlook 2007
Main article: Microsoft Outlook

Microsoft Office Outlook can also include an optional Business Contact Manager (included on a separate installation disc in Office 2007 Small Business and above) which allows management of business contacts and their sales and marketing activities. Phone calls, e-mails, appointments, notes and other business metrics can be managed for each contact. It can also keep a track of billable time for each contact on the Outlook Calendar. Based on these data, a consolidated report view can be generated by Microsoft Office Outlook with Business Contact Manager. The data can be further analyzed using Microsoft Office Excel. This data can also be shared using SharePoint Services.

Microsoft Office Excel

Microsoft Office Excel 2007
Color Scales, Icon Sets, and Data Bars in Excel 2007
Main article: Microsoft Excel

Microsoft Office PowerPoint

Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007
Main article: Microsoft PowerPoint

Microsoft Office OneNote

Microsoft Office OneNote 2007

Microsoft Office Access

Microsoft Office Access 2007
Main article: Microsoft Access

Microsoft Office Publisher

Microsoft Office InfoPath

Microsoft Office InfoPath 2007

Microsoft Office Visio

Microsoft Office Visio 2007

Microsoft Office Project

Microsoft Office Project 2007

Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer

Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007 is new addition to the Office suite replacing discontinued FrontPage for users of SharePoint. People who don't use SharePoint can use Microsoft Expression Web.

Server components

SharePoint Server 2007

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 allows sharing and collaborative editing of Office 2007 documents. It allows central storage of documents and management of Office documents, throughout the enterprise. These documents can be accessed either by the applications which created them, Microsoft Office Outlook 2007, or a web browser. Documents can also be managed through pre-defined policies that let users create and publish shared content, through a SharePoint site.

SharePoint Server allows searching of all Office documents which are being managed by it, centrally, thereby making data more accessible. It also provides access control for documents. Specialized server components can plug into the SharePoint Server to extend the functionality of the server, such as Excel Services exposing data analysis services for Excel services. Data from other data sources can also be merged with Office data.

SharePoint also lets users personalize the SharePoint sites, filtering content they are interested in. SharePoint documents can also be locally cached by clients for offline editing; the changes are later merged.

Forms Server 2007

Microsoft Office Forms Server 2007 allows InfoPath forms to be accessed and filled out using any browser, including mobile phone browsers. Forms Server 2007 also supports using a database or other data source as the back-end for the form. Additionally, it allows centralized deployment and management of forms. Forms Server 2007 hosted forms also support data validation and conditional formatting, as does their InfoPath counterpart. It also supports advanced controls like Repeating section and Repeating table. However, some InfoPath controls cannot be used if it has to be hosted on a Forms server.

Groove Server 2007

Microsoft Office Groove Server 2007 is for centrally managing all deployments of Microsoft Office Groove 2007 in the enterprise. It enables using Active Directory for Groove user accounts, and create Groove Domains, with individual policy settings. It allows Groove workspaces to be hosted at the server, and the files in the workspaces made available for collaborative editing via the Groove client. It also includes the Groove Server Data Bridge component to allow communication between data stored at both Groove clients and servers and external applications.

Project Server 2007

Microsoft Office Project Server 2007 allows one to centrally manage and coordinate projects. It allows budget and resource tracking, and activity plan management. The project data and reports can also be further analyzed using Cube Building Service. The project management data can be accessed from a browser as well.

Project Portfolio Server 2007

Microsoft Office Project Portfolio Server 2007 allows creation of a project portfolio, including workflows, hosted centrally, so that the information is available throughout the enterprise, even from a browser. It also aids in centralized data aggregation regarding the project planning and execution, and in visualizing and analyzing the data to optimize the project plan. It can also support multiple portfolios per project, to track different aspects of it. It also includes reporting tools to create consolidated reports out of the project data.

PerformancePoint Server 2007

Microsoft PerformancePoint Server allows users to monitor, analyze, and plan their business as well as drive alignment, accountability, and actionable insight across the entire organization. It includes features for scorecards, dashboards, reporting, analytics, budgeting and forecasting, among others.

Criticism

Even though the ribbon can be hidden, PC World wrote that the new "ribbon" interface crowds the Office work area, especially for notebook users.[55] Others have called its large icons distracting.[56] Essentially, the GUI-type interface of the ribbon contrasts sharply with the older menus that were organized according to the typical functions undertaken in paper-based offices: for instance, the old "File" menu dealt with opening, (re-)naming, saving, and printing a file, and the old "Edit" menu dealt with making changes to the content of the file. As a result, users who were more familiar with the logic of the old menus would feel some frustration with the new, more visually-oriented ribbon. PC World has stated that upgrading to Office 2007 presents dangers to certain data, such as templates, macros, and mail messages.[57] The ribbon cannot be moved from the top to the side of the page, as floating toolbars could be; so notebooks with smaller screens show a short horizontal slice of the document with lots of wasted space on both sides.

In general, the new navigation requires more clicks for repetitive tasks, and it is more complex to visualize a path to a tool from fixed points in the screen. With the previous user interface you could, depending on the task, dock the relevant toolbars to the top, sides or bottom of the page and have the relevant tools a click away, always in the same position. With the new design you need to click back and forth tabs, which takes the attention from the content to finding the tools. There is no way to dock ribbons, re-arrange the order of the tabs, or have more than one ribbon visible at a time.

Additionally, it seems that the new design is intended only for new users to locate tools more easily, with little consideration on repetitive tasks since it makes work slower and more cumbersome since the tools are not placed in a logical order. The old toolbars had a strict order and size for each tool allowing for a simple visual scanning from one side to the other. With the new ribbons some “areas ” of the ribbon might be arranged in one line of tools, two or three in the same ribbon, which may change when the window is resized, allowing for no common pattern of visual scanning, and thus complicating the memorization of visual paths to tools for repetitive tasks.

The new XML-based .docx file format for Word is incompatible with previous versions unless an addon is installed for the older version.[58]

The Word 2007 equation editor is incompatible with that of Word 2003 and previous versions, and when converting DOCX files to DOC files, equations are rendered as graphics. Consequently, Word 2007 cannot be used for any publishing, file-sharing and collaborative endeavour in any mathematics-based fields, including science and technology, in which users may have earlier versions of Word. For reasons unknown, Excel and PowerPoint 2007 retain the old equation format, meaning that users cannot move equations between Word and the other programs even though they are the same version. Many publishers do not accept submissions in Word 2007; for example, academic publishers have informed Microsoft that this severely impairs Word 2007's usability for scholarly publishing.[59] One workaround is to use the older version (3.0) of the equation editor, which is still usable in Word 2007.

Equations can no longer be "recolored" in PowerPoint but must have black text—a major loss of functionality. The 'recolor" button is still there, but it no longer works. This precludes dark backgrounds and renders some presentation formats unusable for scientific presentations.

Some users with experience using previous versions of Microsoft Office have complained about having to find features in the Ribbon. Others state that having learnt to use the new interface, it has improved the speed with which "professional-looking" documents can be created.[60] Microsoft has released a series of small programs,[61] help sheets,[62] videos[63] and add-ins[64] to help users learn the new interface more quickly.

On some localizations heading style names (e.g. Russian "Заголовок 1" etc.) do not fit frames on primary Ribbon panel causing them to truncate informative level number.

The new Word 2007 features for bibliographies only support a small number of fixed citation styles. Using XSLT, new styles can be added. Some extra styles, such as the standard ACM publication format are made freely available by third parties.[65]

Attempt to patent user interface elements

Microsoft contractor Mike Gunderloy left Microsoft partially over his disagreement with the company's "sweeping land grab" including its attempt to patent the Ribbon interface. He states: "Microsoft itself represents a grave threat to the future of software development through its increasing inclination to stifle competition through legal shenanigans."[66][67] He says that by leaving Microsoft, he is “no longer contributing to the eventual death of programming.”[68]

ODF implementation in Service Pack 2

The ODF Alliance has released test results on ODF support of Office 2007 SP2,[69] concluding that Office ODF support, both SP2 and other add-ons, have "serious shortcomings that, left unaddressed, would break the open standards based interoperability that the marketplace, especially governments, is demanding". Particularly, SP2 has no support for encrypted ODF files and has limited interoperability with other ODF spreadsheet implementations.

The ISO/IEC 26300 OpenDocument standard specifies encryption of files, which is based on sha1, Blowfish, and RFC 2898. Microsoft Office 2007 SP2 does not support reading and writing encrypted (password protected) ODF files.[69][70][71] Users are presented with a message: “cannot use password protection using the ODF format.”[69][71]

The ISO/IEC 26300 OpenDocument standard has no spreadsheet formula language included (or referenced) in the standard specification. Office 2007 SP2 uses the spreadsheet formula language specified in the ISO/IEC 29500 Office Open XML open standard when creating ODF documents. According to the ODF Alliance report "ODF spreadsheets created in Excel 2007 SP2 do not in fact conform to ODF 1.1 because Excel 2007 incorrectly encodes formulas with cell addresses. Section 8.3.1 of ODF 1.1 says that addresses in formulas "start with a "[" and end with a "]"." In Excel 2007 cell addresses were not enclosed with the necessary square brackets."[69] The ISO/IEC 26300 specification states that the semantics and the syntax is dependant on the used namespace which is implementation dependent leaving the syntax implementation defined as well.[72]

Microsoft stated that they consider adding support for an official ODF formula language (OpenFormula), once a future version of the ISO/IEC 26300 standard specification includes one.[73]

Microsoft's ODF spreadsheet support in SP2 is not fully inter-operable with other implementations of OpenDocument, such as the IBM Symphony, which use the non-standardized OpenOffice.org 2.x formula language, and OpenOffice.org 3.x, which uses a draft of OpenFormula.[74] The company had previously reportedly stated that "where ODF 1.1 is ambiguous or incomplete, the Office implementation can be guided by current practice in OpenOffice.org, mainly, and other implementations including KOffice and AbiWord. Peter Amstein and the Microsoft Office team are reluctant to make liberal use of extension mechanisms, even though provided in ODF 1.1. They want to avoid all appearance of an embrace-extend attempt."[75]

Other products

See also

References

  1. ↑ Hill, Brandon (December 1, 2006). "Vista, Office 2007 Now Available for Volume Licensing". DailyTech. http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=5165. Retrieved 2006-12-19. 
  2. ↑ The Microsoft Office Fluent user interface overview
  3. ↑ "2007 Microsoft Office release system requirements". http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/products/HA101668651033.aspx. 
  4. ↑ No speech recognition in Office 2007?
  5. ↑ Handwriting Recognition in Office 2007
  6. ↑ Microsoft Office Online. What happened to speech recognition?
  7. ↑ Forrester: Google still a distant Office competitor
  8. ↑ Microsoft (2007). "Office 2007 Service Pack 1 Changes". http://support.microsoft.com/kb/936982. Retrieved 2007-12-12. 
  9. ↑ "Office 2007 Fix List". 2007. http://www.thetecharea.com/wiki/index.php?title=Office_2007_Fix_List. Retrieved 2007-12-19. 
  10. ↑ http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=B444BF18-79EA-46C6-8A81-9DB49B4AB6E5&displaylang=en Download details: The 2007 Microsoft Office Suite Service Pack 2 (SP2)
  11. ↑ http://www.microsoft.com/Presspass/press/2008/may08/05-21ExpandedFormatsPR.mspx Microsoft Expands List of Formats Supported in Microsoft Office: Move enhances customer choice and interoperability with Microsoft's flagship productivity suite.
  12. ↑ http://download.microsoft.com/download/C/2/C/C2C36159-600C-4EEA-B80A-F988EE7A418F/2007%20Office%20Service%20Pack%202%20Changes.xlsx 2007 Office Service Pack 2 Changes
  13. ↑ Comparison of the 2007 Microsoft Office suites
  14. ↑ Microsoft Software License Terms (MSLT) for the 2007 Microsoft Office System
  15. ↑ "Microsoft's 'The Ultimate Steal' Promotion". http://www.theultimatesteal.com/. Retrieved 2008-05-10. 
  16. ↑ "Microsoft Volume Licensing Home Use Program". http://www.microsoft.com/licensing/sa/benefits/home_use_rights.mspx. 
  17. ↑ My Digital Life article[1]
  18. ↑ Integrated with Outlook for Small Business, Professional & Ultimate. Separate download of Office Outlook 2007 with Business Contact Manager is required for customers who purchase Office Professional Plus 2007 or Office Enterprise 2007.
  19. ↑ Office Customization Tool in Office 2007: Office 2007 Technical Reference
  20. ↑ See "Microsoft Office Fluent User Interface" (DOC). http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/presskits/2007office/docs/2007OfficeUIFS.doc. Retrieved 2007-02-05. 
  21. ↑ "How 'Fluent' Are You in Office 2007?". http://www.microsoft-watch.com/content/developer/how_fluent_are_you_with_office_2007.html?kc=MWRSS02129TX1K0000535. 
  22. ↑ "What programs get the new Office UI?". http://blogs.msdn.com/jensenh/archive/2005/09/30/475687.aspx. Retrieved 2006-05-25. 
  23. ↑ "Office 2007 Beta 2 UI Review". http://www.winsupersite.com/reviews/office2007_beta2.asp. Retrieved 2006-05-25. 
  24. ↑ Office 2007 interface prototypes - istartedsomething
  25. ↑ Giving You Fitts: Jensen Harris' blog
  26. ↑ "The New Microsoft Office User Interface Overview". http://www.microsoft.com/office/preview/ui/overview.mspx. Retrieved 2006-05-25. 
  27. ↑ "Word 2007 the feature i hate most(blog)". http://cro.alienpants.com/index.php/2007/03/14/word-2007-the-feature-i-hate-most/. Retrieved 2010-05-18. 
  28. ↑ "Ribbon survey results". http://www.exceluser.com/explore/surveys/ribbon/ribbon-survey-results.htm. 
  29. ↑ "Microsoft: Use the Ribbon". http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/help/HA100898951033.aspx. Retrieved 2008-03-04. 
  30. ↑ "File formats". http://www.microsoft.com/office/preview/developers/filefaq.mspx. Retrieved 2006-05-25. 
  31. ↑ "Legal issues around PDF support". http://blogs.msdn.com/brian_jones/archive/2006/06/02/613702.aspx. Retrieved 2006-06-03. 
  32. ↑ "Follow-up on PDF legal issues". http://blogs.msdn.com/brian_jones/archive/2006/06/03/616022.aspx. Retrieved 2006-06-03. 
  33. ↑ SaveasPDFandXPS
  34. ↑ Microsoft (April 21, 2009). "Description of 2007 Microsoft Office Suite Service Pack 2 (SP2) and of Microsoft Office Language Pack 2007 SP2". www.microsoft.com. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/953195. Retrieved 2008-05-01. 
  35. ↑ http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=4d951911-3e7e-4ae6-b059-a2e79ed87041&displaylang=en
  36. ↑ "OpenDocument to Office Open XML conversion". http://sourceforge.net/projects/odf-converter. Retrieved 2007-02-11. 
  37. ↑ "OpenXML/ODF Translator Add-in for Office Downloads". http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=169337. Retrieved 2008-04-17. 
  38. ↑ "Microsoft’s ODF Support Falls Short". Open Document Alliance. ODF Alliance. 2009-05-19. http://www.odfalliance.org/blog/index.php/site/microsofts_odf_support_falls_short/. Retrieved 2009-05-22. 
  39. ↑ Allison, Jeremy (2009-05-19). "In Office SP2, Microsoft manages to reduce interoperability". ZDNet. http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=18317. Retrieved 2009-05-23. 
  40. ↑ "Sun ODF Plugin 1.1 for Microsoft Office: Tech Specs". Sun Microsystems. http://www.sun.com/software/star/odf_plugin/specs.jsp. Retrieved 2008-01-27. 
  41. ↑ "Sun's OpenDocument filter for MS Office is finished.". Heise Online. 2006-07-04. http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/92193. Retrieved 2007-07-06. 
  42. ↑ See "Unicode Nearly Plain-Text Encoding of Mathematics" (PDF). Unicode, Inc.. April 4, 2006. http://www.unicode.org/notes/tn28/UTN28-PlainTextMath.pdf. Retrieved 2006-12-19. 
  43. ↑ "What happened to versioning?". Microsoft. http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word/HA102193321033.aspx?pid=CH100626291033. Retrieved 2007-10-02. 
  44. ↑ "Blogging from Word 2007". 2006-05-12. http://blogs.msdn.com/joe_friend/archive/2006/05/12/595963.aspx. Retrieved 2006-05-25. 
  45. ↑ Bryntze, John (2009-09-27). ""Insert - Picture - From Scanner or Camera..." in Word 2007". Office-kb4. John Bryntze's Knowledge Base. http://www.john.bryntze.net/jbkb/index.php?title=Office-kb4_%22Insert_-_Picture_-_From_Scanner_or_Camera...%22_in_Word_2007. Retrieved 2010-01-10. 
  46. ↑ "Computer World Review". http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9000690&pageNumber=1. Retrieved 2006-05-25. 
  47. ↑ Frie, Curtis (2006-05-22). "Preview the Enhanced Microsoft Office Excel 2007 Business Intelligence Capabilities". Microsoft.com. http://www.microsoft.com/office/preview/community/article_bic_frye.mspx. Retrieved 2006-07-15. 
  48. ↑ "Introducing: New PowerPoint Tables!". http://blogs.msdn.com/powerpoint/archive/2006/07/21/674214.aspx. Retrieved 2006-07-26. 
  49. ↑ "Re-Presenting PowerPoint’s Presenter View". http://blogs.msdn.com/powerpoint/archive/2006/06/27/648604.aspx. Retrieved 2006-07-26. 
  50. ↑ "Take a Walk on the Wide Slide". http://blogs.msdn.com/powerpoint/archive/2006/06/16/634290.aspx. Retrieved 2006-07-26. 
  51. ↑ "A brief detour from data: AutoConnect". http://blogs.msdn.com/eric_rockey/archive/2006/01/07/510329.aspx. Retrieved 2006-07-27. 
  52. ↑ "Data Link: getting data into your shapes". http://blogs.msdn.com/eric_rockey/archive/2005/12/06/500395.aspx. Retrieved 2006-07-27. 
  53. ↑ "Data Graphics: visualizing data on your diagram". http://blogs.msdn.com/eric_rockey/archive/2005/12/14/503483.aspx. Retrieved 2006-07-27. 
  54. ↑ "Themes: Great Results in a few clicks". http://blogs.msdn.com/eric_rockey/archive/2006/05/10/594139.aspx. Retrieved 2006-07-27. 
  55. ↑ Lasky, Michael. "Office Beta: Good Looks, Tricky Formats" PC World (August 2006), p. 24
  56. ↑ Mendelson, Edward. "MS Office Edges Closer", PC Magazine, Vol. 25, Issue 12 (July, 2006) p. 48
  57. ↑ Luhn, Robert. "Get Ready to Work With Office 2007's New Formats" PC World, Vol. 25, Issue 4 (April 2007) p. 132.
  58. ↑ Microsoft KB 924074, "How to open and save Word 2007, Excel 2007, and PowerPoint 2007 files in earlier versions of Office programs"
  59. ↑ Inera Inc. - Word 2007 DOCX File Format
  60. ↑ Word 2007: Not Exactly a Must-Have
  61. ↑ Microsoft Office Labs Search Commands
  62. ↑ http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/training/HA102295841033.aspx
  63. ↑ The Microsoft Office Fluent user interface video
  64. ↑ Microsoft Download Center: Word 2007 Add-in: Get Started Tab for Word 2007
  65. ↑ http://www.codeplex.com/bibliography
  66. ↑ Mike - What's Going On Here? at the Wayback Machine (archived September 11, 2007).
  67. ↑ http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/Mike_Gunderloy_on_Access_Perfection_.aspx
  68. ↑ Mike Gunderloy (2008-07-28). "Veteran developer ditches Microsoft for open source". http://openworld2010.wordpress.com/2008/07/28/veteran-developer-ditches-microsoft-for-open-source/. 
  69. ↑ 69.0 69.1 69.2 69.3 MS Office 2007 Service Pack 2 With Support for ODF: How Well Does It Work?, OpenDocument Format (ODF) Alliance – www.odfalliance.org
  70. ↑ "OASIS ODF 1.1 > Specification Outline > 17 Packages > 17.3 Encryption". Document Interop Initiative. Microsoft. 2009-12-14. Rightmost frame: Implementation Notes List. http://www.documentinteropinitiative.org/implnotes/oasisodf1.1/P1-0017.0003.aspx. Retrieved 2010-01-10. 
  71. ↑ 71.0 71.1 http://homembit.com/2009/05/microsoft-now-attempt-to-fragment-odf.html
  72. ↑ ISO/IEC Joint Technical Committee 1/Subcommittee 34 (2006-12-01), "Information technology — Open Document Format for Office Applications (OpenDocument) v1.0", International Standard (Switzerland: International Organization for Standardization), ISO/IEC 26300:2006, http://www.iso.org/iso/iso_catalogue/catalogue_tc/catalogue_detail.htm?csnumber=43485, retrieved 2010-01-10 
  73. ↑ http://blogs.msdn.com/dmahugh/archive/2009/05/09/1-2-1.aspx
  74. ↑ http://www.robweir.com/blog/2009/05/update-on-odf-spreadsheet.html
  75. ↑ http://orcmid.com/blog/2008/08/microsoft-odf-interoperability-workshop.asp

External links

Microsoft Office
Office suites
Windows
95 · 97 · 2000 · XP · 2003 · 2007 · 2010
Mac OS/Mac OS X
98 · 2001 · X · 2004 · 2008 · 2011
Applications
Desktop
Access · Entourage · Excel (Viewer) · InfoPath · InterConnect · Lync · OneNote · Outlook (Outlook Connector · Add-ins) · PowerPoint (Viewer) · Project · Publisher · SharePoint Designer · SharePoint Workspace · Snapshot Viewer for Access · Visio · Word (Viewer)
Server
Forms Server · Groove Server · Lync Server · PerformancePoint Server · Project Server (Project Portfolio Server) · SharePoint Server (Excel Services · InfoPath Forms Services)
Mobile
Office Mobile
Online
Live Meeting · Office Live · Office Online · Office Web Apps · Outlook Web App · Office 365
Office tools
Clip Organizer · Graph · Equation Editor · Picture Manager · WordArt
Discontinued
Accounting · Binder · Data Analyzer · Document Imaging · Document Scanning · FrontPage · Liquid Motion · Mail · Office Assistants · PhotoDraw · Photo Editor · Schedule+ · Team Manager · Vizact · Web Components
Related
Microsoft Works · MapPoint · Microsoft SharePoint (SharePoint Foundation)
Technologies
Information Bridge Framework · Object Linking and Embedding · Office Open XML · Office XML formats · Smart tags · Visual Basic for Applications
History of Microsoft Office