# A brief thank you to Microsoft for all the changes in Office 2007. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 5, 2007, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-brief-thank-you-to-microsoft-for-all-the-changes-in-office-2007/410598 "2007-07-05T15:15:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![tbdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3bc359/32.png) [@tbdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tbdi)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2007, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-brief-thank-you-to-microsoft-for-all-the-changes-in-office-2007/410598/61 "2007-07-10T17:00:05Z")
[QUOTE=RedFury] As for ‘undo’ and ‘redo’ couldn’t find them where you said till I realized that’s yet another drop-down menu one needs to customize [/QUOTE] Sorry, I’d forgotten it was customizable. For anybody unsure here’s a pic [http://members.cox.net/tbdipics/undoredo.jpg](http://members.cox.net/tbdipics/undoredo.jpg) The one that took me a while was the big circle icon in the upper left. It just never occurred to me that it was a functional thing, I thought it was just decoration. [http://members.cox.net/tbdipics/optionsmenu.jpg](http://members.cox.net/tbdipics/optionsmenu.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![RedFury](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ec9cab/32.png) [@RedFury](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RedFury)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2007, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-brief-thank-you-to-microsoft-for-all-the-changes-in-office-2007/410598/62 "2007-07-10T17:24:15Z")
No prob, **tbdi** , at least you pointed me the right way. OTOH, and rather ironically, clickling on that disk was one of the first things I found…but I do admit to being rather surprised seeing the cascade of commands appear, because, like you, I thought it was just for aesthetics. BTW, don’t want to bug you anymore, but since you appear to have a good command of the program, what the heck do “Show below the ribbon” and “minimize the ribbon,” mean? Shoot, I best stop, because if I keep asking questions about all the things that confound me, you are going to have to send me a bill. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![DWMarch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dwmarch/32/1010_2.png) [@DWMarch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DWMarch)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2007, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-brief-thank-you-to-microsoft-for-all-the-changes-in-office-2007/410598/63 "2007-07-11T02:22:30Z")
[QUOTE=Dead Badger] They will if you install the free compatibility package I linked to earlier. You also get some of the Cleartype-optimised fonts developed for Vista, some of which are very readable indeed (in particular I’m addicted to Consolas, the fixed-width typeface used for things like Visual Studio). [/QUOTE] Thank you! I’ve been looking for this but didn’t know where to find it! I’m running Office 2003 on XP and 2007 on Vista so being able to edit .docx files in XP will be a lifesaver! ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2007, 10:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-brief-thank-you-to-microsoft-for-all-the-changes-in-office-2007/410598/64 "2007-07-11T10:09:02Z")
Fair warning: .docx spreadsheets may not be actually accurate. Overview: [http://www.robweir.com/blog/2007/07/formula-for-failure.html](http://www.robweir.com/blog/2007/07/formula-for-failure.html) Detail: [http://www.openmalaysiablog.com/2007/07/mathematically-.html](http://www.openmalaysiablog.com/2007/07/mathematically-.html) It’s going to be a long week. ---
**Author:** ![Dead\_Badger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/848f3c/32.png) [@Dead\_Badger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dead_Badger)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2007, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-brief-thank-you-to-microsoft-for-all-the-changes-in-office-2007/410598/65 "2007-07-11T13:48:03Z")
[QUOTE=E-Sabbath] Fair warning: .docx spreadsheets may not be actually accurate. [/QUOTE] That’s not a very accurate description of your links. What they show are bits of the OOXML specification containing incompletely specified localisation detail, or ambiguities caused by unspecified conventions (things like dates, and weights and measures). There was also one example given of a misplaced formula definition (for deviation), and one of a mis-specified function (the ceiling function). What this means is that a .docx spreadsheet may not evaluate the same across different valid OOXML implementations. While clearly undesirable (I share the author of your first link’s astonishment that the trigonometric functions don’t even specify units), this really isn’t the same as .docx spreadsheets not being “accurate”, which rather implies that docx files contain some intrinsic mathematical flaw causing their output to be numerically incorrect. This is not the case. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2007, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-brief-thank-you-to-microsoft-for-all-the-changes-in-office-2007/410598/66 "2007-07-11T15:18:28Z")
[Thus I have opened this thread to eat crow and share/solicit tips.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=8768088#post8768088) ---
**Author:** ![Cubsfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Cubsfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cubsfan)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2007, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-brief-thank-you-to-microsoft-for-all-the-changes-in-office-2007/410598/67 "2007-09-26T20:23:29Z")
I didn’t want to start a new thread to add my 2 bits to this discussion but I recentley got the Office 07 Ultimate Edition for $60 from MS with an academic discount and am currently using it to write my thesis. I really like the new ribbon and find it much easier to get around in than past iterations of Word. It’s very easy to use for the most part. I don’t think the new docx file format will catch on though. I just don’t see a need. I really do like it better than the previous versions. My only gripe: IF you are going to include a citation creator in the program at least give it some features. It should, AT THE MINIMUM, be able to import citations from various card catalogs/ journals. All in all though I am happy with it. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2007, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-brief-thank-you-to-microsoft-for-all-the-changes-in-office-2007/410598/68 "2007-09-26T22:29:36Z")
[QUOTE=Tuckerfan] I just want to point out one thing about this: I’ve only heard of _one_ other person who names their laptop. [/QUOTE] How can you _not_ name your notebook computer? It has to have a name on the network. I name every computer I own. [QUOTE=Aspidistra] I’m moderately convinced that a primary motivation behind the new format is to fuck things up for people like me who haven’t paid megabuck$$ for this crappy piece of bloatware. Gnaaargh. Microsoft, I hate you more than ever. [/QUOTE] New slogan (since MS killed Netscape): “It ain’t done till OpenOffice won’t run” ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2007, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-brief-thank-you-to-microsoft-for-all-the-changes-in-office-2007/410598/69 "2007-09-27T02:47:44Z")
Excel got worse. Revealed yesterdayish. [http://www.computerworld.com/blogs/node/6254](http://www.computerworld.com/blogs/node/6254) > [@](#): > > Excel 2007 loses its grip with arithmetic that involves the number 65,535 … perhaps the simplest of which is the calculation ( 850 X 77.1 ), which should produce 65,535 but instead returns 100,000. It’s clearly having something to do with 65535 being a Word, (2^16, starting at 0), and possibly a 16-bit to 32 bit issue. Furthermore, it flickers back and forth, depending if you add 1 to it, multiply it by two, or multiply it by one, or divide it by one, or divide it by two. ---
**Author:** ![Rico](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rico/32/3582_2.png) [@Rico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rico)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2007, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-brief-thank-you-to-microsoft-for-all-the-changes-in-office-2007/410598/70 "2007-09-27T03:11:24Z")
[QUOTE=aruvqan] Mine is named Diogenes =) [/QUOTE] You named your laptop after a SDMB poster? 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Will\_Repair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a698b9/32.png) [@Will\_Repair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Will_Repair)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2007, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-brief-thank-you-to-microsoft-for-all-the-changes-in-office-2007/410598/71 "2007-09-27T18:55:53Z")
[QUOTE=AudreyK] It was quite thrilling when I finally deduced that Microsoft had once again introduced a new standard [/QUOTE] How many Microsoft Vice Presidents does it take to screw in a light bulb? None, they just define darkness as the new standard. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-brief-thank-you-to-microsoft-for-all-the-changes-in-office-2007/410598.md?page=3)