Mackenzie's Weblog

Office 2007 Beta Experience

Well, here it is. I’ve been using the new Beta of Microsoft Office for some time now, and here are my thoughts. As a matter of fact, I’m compiling this post in Word 2007, making bullet points as I go. I suppose it has some advantages.

• I’m still ambivalent about the ribbon. It seems a bit big. I may like it, though. We’ll see.
• Other than the look and the interface, it seems to function basically the same. This is not one of those revolutionary upgrades. At the same time, the UI enhancements may make people think about or actually use more of the strong features, such a Styles.
• Make that nifty little menu that comes up when you highlight text document-sensitive. When I’m writing a blog post, it ought to include a button for making a hyperlink, as when I’m writing a blog post, that’s usually what I want to do when I highlight text.
• Incidentally, I just noticed (see Ecto, infra) that if I highlight something the dictionary doesn’t recognize, it doesn’t give me a hyperlink option. Inconvenient.
• For blog posting, make it so the entry automatically gets saved in some sort of blog area, whether I want it to or not.
• Create some good image handling for blog posts. Check out Ecto for more. Ability to do thumbnails is a bonus.
• In Outlook, the little envelope seems not to appear, despite my emphatically setting the relevant options.
• You should maybe plan on being able to reduce some options for the ‘computers of low power.’ I have such a computer, after acquiring a laptop for the sole purpose of getting me through graduate school. I only require that it handle word processing and internet applications. Your software strains it.
• RSS handling needs some serious work.
• Whenever entries in a feed change, it creates a whole new entry. This is a problem since some poorly-formatted feeds constantly change from full-text to preview mode, and vice versa. I have spent a lot of time marking as read many posts.
• Allow different settings for RSS. For example, if I highlight an RSS entry for more than a split second, I want it marked read. For emails, three seconds (a relative eternity) is just fine.
• Allow viewing the full entry in the Outlook window. It seems a small thing, but if necessary to view a link, it is very convenient to be able to just click and let the entry open then and there, without calling a browser window. This is especially true where I just want to browse a link for a minute to know whether I’m interested. Include an option for opening in a separate window (perhaps with a right-click), if necessary.
• I suppose the bottom line is that if Outlook will start integrating RSS (which I don’t think is a bad idea), it needs to recognize that RSS is not like email, and it should be treated differently. Right now, it’s almost an afterthought. That is bad.
• It needs to be able to handle bad feeds. Even Microsoft’s own. *ahem* Here’s a feed I tried to add, and it wouldn’t let me:
• The picture above? It wouldn’t let me post it. I was told, “Please ensure your account information is correct and try again.” Well, I’m pretty sure it’s correct since I’ve made other posts. Get it figured out. I had to go to my trusty Ecto to post the photo.
• Don’t forget a legal user’s guide. Word is just starting to make some strides as a prevalent legal word processing program. Don’t throw that away. From what I’ve heard from WordPerfect users, the great strength in WP is the way it automatically generates Tables of Authorities and the like. Learn from that to open up a satisfied market (not just one that uses your product because it has to).
• I’m a student, so I like OneNote (after trying a few alternatives). Where’s the new Ribbon interface (assuming I like it—see the first bullet)? Also, consider your pricing plans. What about people who want all standard features of Office (including Access), but also want a little OneNote Action?
• This may be one of those things that gets fixed before the final release (I hope so), but I can’t install OneNote Mobile on my PocketPC 2003 machine. I sincerely hope that those of us who have been long-time MS users and have planned on using products for years won’t have to upgrade just for this. Upgrading at need is one thing, but as far as I can tell, my little Axim X3 still does everything I need it to do.

Overall, it seems to be an improvement, assuming they get everything to work as promised. Is it enough of an improvement to warrant paying for the upgrade? That depends. I’ll probably get the upgrade because (with any luck) it will come out when I can still take advantage of my educational discount. Otherwise, I’m not entirely sure it is worth the price.

There may be an exception, though, for those not intimately familiar with the deeper features, such as styles et al. The new interface may encourage their use more than the old, and it may breed a new generation of users who are thinking more ‘word processer’ than ‘typewriter.’ Those of us already familiar with Word’s deeper features, though, may find the new interface somewhat infantile.

I haven’t discussed the new file format, either, a form of XML. I hope this will make a difference to users, but for some reason, I have a hard time seeing it. For most Word users, I don’t think the file format is terribly important as long as they can convert as needed. This is one of those subtle changes that, I think, will only make an unconscious difference.

That’s pretty much it. I encourage everyone to try it for themselves. You have nothing to lose, and may have some input into the final product.