# Does anyone else think Word 2007 Sucks? Badly!! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [December 23, 2009, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-think-word-2007-sucks-badly/522372 "2009-12-23T21:32:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Southern\_Yankee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/southern_yankee/32/2800_2.png) [@Southern\_Yankee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Southern_Yankee)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2009, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-think-word-2007-sucks-badly/522372/21 "2009-12-24T02:34:09Z")
> [@Pduol](#): > > You are a life saver! Thank you for this. Looks like this will also help when I tackle the “new and improved”:rolleyes: version of Excel tomorrow. You’re welcome. We included Search Commands in our default installation package when we rolled 2007 out to our users. It’s been a life saver to a lot of folks. ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2009, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-think-word-2007-sucks-badly/522372/22 "2009-12-24T02:35:43Z")
I dig Word 2007’s bibliography features. If Word 2003 had them, I didn’t know about them. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2009, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-think-word-2007-sucks-badly/522372/23 "2009-12-24T02:41:07Z")
> [@tacoloco](#): > > Nope, sorry OP, I actually prefer Office 2007. I didn’t at first, but once I got used to it, there are a lot of cool features. There’s one in every crowd. No, seriously, there’s always at least one. I’m pretty sure they’re put there. ---
**Author:** ![Harriet\_the\_Spry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e56c9b/32.png) [@Harriet\_the\_Spry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harriet_the_Spry)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2009, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-think-word-2007-sucks-badly/522372/24 "2009-12-24T03:05:08Z")
Count me as another who likes it. I think its main benefits are to those who are learning Word for the first time. Remember, that’s a new batch of humans every year. It takes a lot of very useful features that we experienced users knew about, and knew exactly where they were buried, but and puts them right out in the open. That should cut down on things like “I didn’t know you could sort!” Also, the ribbon is very helpful for shared machines, like in a lab, that don’t have individual user accounts. It was really nice to have your toolbars customized the way you like them in the older versions, but using a shared computer meant no toolbar, or someone else’s completely illogical toolbar. Here, at least you have a standard. I will admit to a little stress over messing with keyboard shortcuts. My fingers know a lot of the Alt + Menu letters shortcuts, and a few of those seem to be going away. Like I used to know Print Preview as Alt-F, V and Page Setup as Alt-F, S, and I think those are two that have gone away. Putting the features on the ribbon is, I hope we can agree, 1000% better than the dancing paper clip, or Bob. ---
**Author:** ![Lightray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightray/32/391_2.png) [@Lightray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightray)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2009, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-think-word-2007-sucks-badly/522372/25 "2009-12-24T03:46:01Z")
> [@Harriet\_the\_Spry](#): > > I will admit to a little stress over messing with keyboard shortcuts. My fingers know a lot of the Alt + Menu letters shortcuts, and a few of those seem to be going away. Like I used to know Print Preview as Alt-F, V and Page Setup as Alt-F, S, and I think those are two that have gone away. This, this is the reason Microsoft’s developers deserve a month of fire ants in their beds. They have, unbelievably, _sabotaged_ the productivity of their customers. I used to be lightning-fast on Excel, Word, etc., but now grind to a halt every minute, cursing as hotkeys that’ve been supported for decades not only don’t work, but bring up completely different random commands. Unfortunately, MS has reached that not-quite-monopoly stage of “too big to fail”, no matter how they deserve it for their crappy business practices. ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2009, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-think-word-2007-sucks-badly/522372/26 "2009-12-24T03:50:51Z")
> [@stuthehistoryguy](#): > > There ARE some real advantages, actually, but there probably was no need for the radical changes inflicted on society in this iteration. Apparently, if you’ve never used Word before, Word2007 is supposedly much more intuitive. So for all - three… maybe even four of those people across the world this change was for them. (Small children don’t count, they don’t use word processors) ---
**Author:** ![Harriet\_the\_Spry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e56c9b/32.png) [@Harriet\_the\_Spry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harriet_the_Spry)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2009, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-think-word-2007-sucks-badly/522372/27 "2009-12-24T03:56:19Z")
> [@amarinth](#): > > (Small children don’t count, they don’t use word processors) :dubious: Every year, a new batch of them do. ---
**Author:** ![Grumman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2009, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-think-word-2007-sucks-badly/522372/28 "2009-12-24T04:21:32Z")
I don’t find it that bad. I’ve only been using it for less than a year compared to 10-12 with the old style, but I didn’t actually have much difficulty learning the new changes. It probably helps that I knew ahead of time that the logo in the top-left corner was really a button. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2009, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-think-word-2007-sucks-badly/522372/29 "2009-12-24T05:17:47Z")
I don’t use Word _very_ hard, so I am only annoyed by Word 2007 the rare time I have to do a mail merge or work with forms or locked documents. Excel 2007, on the other hand - it kills me to reorient myself when I’m forced to use it. Where the fuck are my macros? Oh, right, three levels down under “Developer.” And so on, and so on… That being said, when Office 2010 comes out next summer, we’re going to move everyone over to that, uniformly. I’ve been trying to get used to working with 2007, in anticipation. But it burns… it burns… ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2009, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-think-word-2007-sucks-badly/522372/30 "2009-12-24T05:44:36Z")
Excel, with which many of us have muscle memory that knows the old [Alt] commands, still pretended to know them in 2007. I have no faith that 2010 does. OTOH, one can slap into submission the latest version of AutoCAD. Too many of us rebelled against the “ribbon” as a solution to a problem that never existed, as we all had our toolbars and our muscles knew where to find each command. Had they not carried forward that feature there would’ve been wholesale rebellion with many more lost sales, though I still save in 2004 format for better compatibility. I’ve noticed that it still supports the old DOS menus, though I haven’t used them in almost 20 years. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2009, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-think-word-2007-sucks-badly/522372/31 "2009-12-24T06:43:45Z")
> [@Southern\_Yankee](#): > > You’re welcome. We included Search Commands in our default installation package when we rolled 2007 out to our users. It’s been a life saver to a lot of folks. “We”? You work for MicroSoft? Aren’t you supposed to wear a bell, or something? ---
**Author:** ![Cubsfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Cubsfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cubsfan)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2009, 8:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-think-word-2007-sucks-badly/522372/32 "2009-12-24T08:53:52Z")
People are bitches. Office 2007 is FAR superior in nearly every way to previous versions of Word. Just because it’s different and you can’t figure it out in 2 seconds doesn’t make it inferior to older versions. The fact of the matter is that O7 puts thing where you EXPECT to find them instead of burying them 6 clicks down in some fucking task bar drop down box. It’s true that MS has trained you over the years to look for shit in oddball places in the File bar, but now they are putting shit where you SHOULD find it. Nothing wrong with that. Powerpoint is WAY better than any previous version. No contest. I also really like the format previewing in all of the programs in the suite. The only thing they really jacked up on was the “Developer Toolbar” that is automatically hidden in each program and you don’t even know it exists unless you go looking for it. There are some commands on those bars that are fairly common use that shouldn’t be hidden. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2009, 9:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-think-word-2007-sucks-badly/522372/33 "2009-12-24T09:31:51Z")
I have to disagree with Cubsfan. Their biggest mistake was trying to force everyone to change all at once, instead of gradually. (Well, that and not being consistent. I’ll get to that later.) Users of Windows have pretty much been trained to work with a particular interface, and even their way of thinking expects that interface. It’s not just Office–nearly everything in Windows works with the menu bar, and certain options are always in the same place. Changing this around messes with people. The problem with the new interface is that it doesn’t take into account other programs. The ribbon is not even consistent among the different programs in Office (and some even still have the menus), let alone the other programs you use. This makes the interface take longer to learn. So they traded intuitiveness for practicality, and a lot of people don’t like that. Microsoft would have been far better to gradually change things, where the new interface would gradually feel more intuitive, instead of changing everything at once. They focused on making the new and casual users more comfortable, and left out the power user base. ---
**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:** [December 24, 2009, 9:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-think-word-2007-sucks-badly/522372/34 "2009-12-24T09:43:03Z")
The reason why MS changed the interface is because they kept getting requests for features that were already there. Can you imagine being a developer and getting 6000 emails saying “This software really needs \!!!” Meanwhile, you’re going “FFS! \ is already in there! It’s under alt-tools-options-preferences-turnleft-turnright-sacrificeagoat!” So they said fuck it and put it all up front where you can find it easily enough if you click around. Why is that so hard to adjust to? ---
**Author:** ![Merneith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/57b2e6/32.png) [@Merneith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merneith)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2009, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-think-word-2007-sucks-badly/522372/35 "2009-12-24T11:21:47Z")
I disagree BigT. I think the only way to do this change was to do it all at once. If they’d tried to sneak in changes gradually, everyone would have stuck to their old ways until finally MS cut the ties and then there’d be the same amount of whinging as there was for the ribbon. It’s like switching from a QWERTY keyboard to Dvorak. You just have to hold your nose and jump in. Personally I think the ribbon is genius (and I’ve been using word processors since Word Perfect was blue.) People who complain because they can’t find anything now are making a comment about themselves - not the program, imo. ---
**Author:** ![Southern\_Yankee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/southern_yankee/32/2800_2.png) [@Southern\_Yankee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Southern_Yankee)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2009, 11:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-think-word-2007-sucks-badly/522372/36 "2009-12-24T11:46:46Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > “We”? You work for MicroSoft? Aren’t you supposed to wear a bell, or something? Ha. No, I just work in IT. I should have said “when _my company_ deployed Office 2007, our customized installation package included Search Commands.” ---
**Author:** ![Scuba\_Ben](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/278dde/32.png) [@Scuba\_Ben](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scuba_Ben)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2009, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-think-word-2007-sucks-badly/522372/37 "2009-12-24T13:57:13Z")
I much prefer OpenOffice for my own use. Why shell out however-many-hundreds every new OS, when I can get the functionality I really care about for free? I installed Ribbon Customizer, but it hasn’t linked in to MS Office '07 yet. Other than being on the job today, what did I do wrong? ---
**Author:** ![Cubsfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Cubsfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cubsfan)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2009, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-think-word-2007-sucks-badly/522372/38 "2009-12-24T14:07:03Z")
> [@DWMarch](#): > > So they said fuck it and put it all up front where you can find it easily enough if you click around. Why is that so hard to adjust to? It’s not. People are just a bunch of whiny bitches. ---
**Author:** ![amarone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@amarone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarone)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2009, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-think-word-2007-sucks-badly/522372/39 "2009-12-24T14:14:37Z")
> [@Scuba\_Ben](#): > > I much prefer OpenOffice for my own use. Why shell out however-many-hundreds every new OS, when I can get the functionality I really care about for free? I have never had to buy Office again just because I change OS (but sticking to Microsoft operating systems). I tried Open Office but found it was missing functions that I was used to using and the spreadsheets were as slow as molasses. So each to their own. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2009, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-think-word-2007-sucks-badly/522372/40 "2009-12-24T14:16:57Z")
> [@Cubsfan](#): > > The fact of the matter is that O7 puts thing where you EXPECT to find them instead of burying them 6 clicks down in some fucking task bar drop down box. It’s true that MS has trained you over the years to look for shit in oddball places in the File bar, but now they are putting shit where you SHOULD find it. Nothing wrong with that. > [@RhapsodyInBlue](#): > > - To split one table into two tables, you must do the following: > > Select the row that you want to be the first row of the second table. > Under Table Tools, on the Layout tab, in the Merge group, click Split Table.\* Putting Split Tables under Merge is an example of “Put[ting] thing[s] where you EXPECT to find them”? Well, this IS the company that makes you go to START to shut down. If you are used to that, perhaps putting Split under Merge makes sense. But I wouldn’t boast about that… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-think-word-2007-sucks-badly/522372.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-else-think-word-2007-sucks-badly/522372.md?page=3)