Word 2007, or whatever it's called

[41magsnub]

Except you, 41mag.  You've gone to the dark side, W2007-lover!

You smell funny

[MillCreek]

And what I did not like about Office 2007 was that you could not set the menus/gui to the 'Office Classic'.  You have to learn to like the Ribbon, since there is no alternative, unless you use a third party hack.

From the wikipedia article on Office 2007:

Ribbon
Main article: Ribbon (computing)

The Ribbon, a panel that houses the command buttons and icons, organizes commands as a set of tabs, each grouping relevant commands. 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[18] as compared to the menu-based UI used until Office 2007. It is not possible to remove the Ribbon, modify it, or replace it with menus with the normal Office 2007 functions. However, the Ribbon can be minimized by double clicking the active section's title, such as the Home text in the picture below.[19] There are third party add-ons that can bring menus to Office 2007.

[Racehorse]

I'll join with 41mag in saying that I prefer Office 2007. It did take a little getting used to, but I find that I work faster in 2007 now that I'm accustomed to it. There are features in Excel 2007 especially that make my life a lot easier that did not exist in Excel 2003 (over 1 million rows, deferred updates to pivot tables, much better formatting options, etc.)

As for the interface, I hate the classic windows interface. The ribbon is much better.

[Marnoot]

I'll add in a third pro-2007 vote. It took me awhile to get used to the new interface, but since I've learned it I'm able to get most tasks done significantly faster. I will agree that it's annoying how often Microsoft changes things like that around; but in this case at least, it's an improvement IMO.

[41magsnub]

Brian Livingston:  On Microsoft's software development process: Microsoft seems to have this problem that they’ve got this fantastic usability lab, and they bring in total novices, then their feedback is used to create the next version of Windows, but Microsoft dumbs it down based on the feedback of the novices. And the professional users, the ones who are then deciding what all the other people in the corporation will use, are alienated because the features that they liked, that they had gotten used to, have gone away. I still can’t abide the Office 2007 ribbon. I’m sorry.

This man whom I subscribe to his newsletter disagrees with me and agrees with many of you...

He's right for windows..  I find new things to tick me off in the OS interface everyday.

[Gewehr98]

I don't like The Ribbon, but until either a retrograde service pack comes out, or Office 2010 ships, we're pretty much stuck with it.

I do like the preview function, though.

[slingshot]

Word 2007 takes some getting used to if you are familiar with the older versions of Word.   The little arrow at the top left of the menu undo's the last action.  You can actually go back pretty far undoing.  My biggest problem with Word 2007 is formatting options; sections, page numbering, footers and headers, and changing margins within a document.  It is one of the reasons I really loved Word Perfect, but I have bitten the bullet with MS Word.  I have MS Word software that goes all the way back to 1995 or so.  The last 2000 version of MS Office which includes Word and so forth that you can load on multiple machines without a problem.  I currently own two different Word 2007's.  I pretty much buy the new version everytime I buy a new computer.

[Perd Hapley]

OK, this is my first time back at school since asking the question, and I'll be basted with crude oil, but there really IS an undo button up there in the corner!  And a Save button.   

Thanks again, folks. 

And now, I'm off to make my first Powerpoint.  Wish me luck.   

[41magsnub]

OK, this is my first time back at school since asking the question, and I'll be basted with crude oil, but there really IS an undo button up there in the corner!  And a Save button.   

Thanks again, folks. 

And now, I'm off to make my first Powerpoint.  Wish me luck.   

As long as you don't use powerpoint as a verb you will be fine... 

[slingshot]

I use Powerpoint quite a bit for some low level cad functions.  I used to be pretty good.  Now I guess I'm on my third or forth version of Powerpoint.  One of my favorite options that I love MS Word for is saving documents as pdf files without hassle.  Works seamlessly every time.  I save fairly large reports as these files and email them to clients.  Sometimes I don't even send a single piece of paper to clients that they do not print out themselves.  Pretty amazing, I think, compared to the way things were 20 years ago.