I name all my computers. Of course, the last 3 have all been Calliope.
Yes, i am becoming quite the fan of Office 2007. I find it more intuitive, however, i had to unteach myself the locations of all the features i’ve learned in the last 10 years.
We’ve been using it since the beta here at the office. I love it. It’s wonderful. But it does take a while to get used to the ribbon and the layout of certain menus.
Skald, I think that there’s a setting somewhere where you can put the 2003 skin on the thing so that it behaves properly. (Or if there isn’t, there *should *be.) Of course, good luck finding it!
I don’t use Microsoft Office. I use OpenOffice.
This all worked fine up until the start of this year when people started using BLOODY OFFICE 2007 AND SENDING ME HELL-BOUND .DOCX FILES WHICH I CAN’T READ AND HAVE NO IDEA WHEN I’M GOING TO BE ABLE TO…ahem, excuse me.
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.
Well, I’m 100% convinced this is the case. Any other rationalization on the part of the company is pure marketing spin, as far as I’m concerned. Thankfully, I rarely have to deal with MS Office document formats. My big gripe is with Autodesk “upgrading” their DWG format on a yearly basis and then cutting off AutoCAD software upgrade paths with disgusting frequency.
In other words: I feel your pain (even though it’s not M$ inflicted).
I actually think this is one of the few times in Microsoft’s history where that’s not quite true. For one thing, they’ve standardised the document format through an ISO process, meaning the spec is out there for anyone to use (and indeed, is no longer technically Microsoft’s, although this then gives rise to the question of how closely or how long they will now adhere to the ratified standard). For another, they’ve released a free set of compatibility tools (available for download here) for users of previous versions of Office, which allow them to both view and save to the new formats. Neither of these is really compatible with a motivation of vendor lock-in.
Pinch of salt 'n all that, but the move to XML is arguably one that was always going to be made at some stage, and brings tangible benefits for application developers. Assuming you ever want to introduce new features, how do you go about preserving interoperability? Providing converter utils seems like a decent enough middle ground.
Apart from which, users of mere months-old software really ought to be aware that there might be compatibility issues before using their spiffy new machine to send out the latest and greatest file format. Word 07 does provide the option to save to Word 03 files…
“Trust Center”? That’s a little too touchy-feely for me!
Badger, that spec isn’t as obvious as it looks. For example, if you save a Word 2k document in it… it becomes a Word 2k document in an XML wrapper. Not good.
I’m not sure what you mean; do you mean if you open a 2K file in 07, then save it as a .docx, it becomes wrapped version of the original?
If you figure out how, do please tell. I’d love to be able to do that and have not found a way yet.
Could be worse. They could have brought Clippy back.
I’m an IT bottom-feeder, I work in MS Access, nuts and bolts kind of shit. Most of my clients haven’t bothered to upgrade since 2000, which suits me just fine. But I’ve had some experience with Access 2007, and so far, I don’t get it. It seems as they’ve taken a lot of useful shit out of thier tookits.
Like a control on a form, used to be you could directly do whatever you wanted to it, it could be there, it could be gone, it could suddenly turn red, it could dance the boogaloo…A pulldown menu gave you more direct access than you could ever use! Now I can’t even seem to set a property visible false if A <> true. Not strictly necessary, mind you, but its kinda cool, in a pedestrian sort of way. Impresses the rubes, too.
Keep in mind, I’ve been on this block better than 10 years. I could otherwise blame my clumsiness on unfamiliarity. I’m not a natural-born geek, I know VB Code from a rattlesnake, but am more comfortable with the snake (“Dim Sum as Array”…). But, still and all, the likelihood that a guy who’s been marinating in Microsauce loathe these many years…if I can’t get it, somebody done fucked up.
Unless they conciously determined to remove these dandy gadgets from my grasp…but that leads down dark paths of paranoia, where be monsters, with lawyers.
Effed up, but I believe that’s the behavior. I may be wrong, mind you.
I like the ribbon. I’ve found that it makes most things easier (even for things I know the shortucts for) and only a few more difficult.
Mine is named Diogenes =)
I like the name “Calliope.”
It’s funny, I name my farm tractor, my garden tractor, my mower, my chipper/shredder, my DR Trimmer, my hoe, etc. But never my computer(s). Strange.
Anyhow, I was enticed to upgrade to Vista on my '03 notebook because my HD took a crap, and honestly I have enjoyed everything that’s come with Office 07. Even the ribbon.
With this OS and Office Suite, it seems like the PC has finally caught up to the Mac SE of 1991.
Reminds me a bit of the Wordstar vs Word Perfect wars in the old DOS days. Arguments took the form of “No, no, no pressing ctrl + shift + the-L-key-with-your-elbow is far more intuitive than that brain-dead alt + backspace + F11-with-your-nose !!!”. The newer version is probably more different than less good, though I feel for those who have to re-learn what is nominally the same bloody product.
I downloaded a 60-day trial of the Suite to start getting used to it. I’m sure we’ll be dragged kicking and screaming so I might as well be ready.
Amazingly enough if you want to something other than a Mega Box Store you could find someplace that will happily put XP and office2k3 on it. Even dell will let you order a no operating system laptop to load with whatever you want.
I have office 2k7 and Vista Ultimate, so far I’m happy with both.