Microsoft Word 2007 – Comfort v.s. Functions

Written on February 26, 2008 – 2:07 pm | by admin

spalsh

splash screen of Ms Word 2007

Since its release for retail customers on January 30, 2007 (more than a year ago), bundled in Microsoft Office 2007, Microsoft Word 2007 has shown its success among office users. Above all its glorious success, I myself just tried the software recently, perhaps not more than two months ago. Why didn’t I use it at the time it was released? My consideration was actually simple: I didn’t want to be bothered by its ribbon feature which is actually annoying for fast office user like me (all this time, I have been accustomed to use keyboard shortcuts instead of mouse-aided command in Microsoft Word). However, I was tempted to use this software because of simple feature it has: Word count at the bottom bar which is very beneficial for me when I have to do my writing and translation works. It accurately keeps me updated of how many words I have produced. Abstracting a thesis for example, should not be more than 400 words so I can estimate when I should get into the closing section. It’s also become easier for me when reviewing and revising my students’ work and take an initial look whether his/her work meet the words requirements e.g., 350 words for short essay and 2500 words for long essay. I don’t need to use my mouse (tools > word count) or keyboard (Alt T+W) to find out how many words they have written, just open the file, and it just showed up in the bottom bar.

word count feature at the bottom bar

Actually, I can say that almost all features available in this software would very beneficial for the users especially the ribbon (regardless its annoying layout which take so many space in the display). With its live preview feature, user can see the difference from one styles or format to another, live! The default font of Calibri is also a new nice and smooth font compared to the Arial and Tahoma font and it’s just really nice to read. Grammar and spelling also works very fine and lots of additions to the references which make proofing much easier. The editing process also seamlessly operated, and mouse is the primary instrument in the editing process (which is I actually dislike). Whenever I block a sentence, it automatically shows a formatting pop-up display which prompts us to choose which font, size, and color or format to choose.

pop-up menu for formatting

The other prominent feature besides word count is the review section of the ribbon. Because I do a lot of writing, and reviewing works either from my students or my own work, this feature greatly enhances my visibility of the reviewing process. The proofing, comments, tracking, changes of document will be easily monitored; even it can be compared side by side after the reviewing process. Great tool for powerful user like me!

the ribbon

One and perhaps the most troublesome disadvantage of this software is the ‘everything-online-feature’. Don’t get shocked if you need to go online in order to get some templates, finding dictionary references (I used to press SHIFT + F7) to get the thesaurus and even to search for something inside it. All the way in the process, you will be offered to go online! For me, it doesn’t really a matter, but do all people in this world that use Microsoft Word 2007 should get the internet access before they buy this software?

My conclusion from this (old) new software is that it promotes comfort for office users above the productive and performance edge. And, because I have been accustomed to shortcut-way of work, I have to find my way to get myself accustomed to the new shortcut of the Microsoft Word 2007 which has mostly modified, compared to the 2003 version. And, for users who do not need much calculation on words and reviewing process, I guess the 2003 version of Microsoft Office is still more than enough to do daily office works, considering the new Microsoft Office 2007 that costs +/- $380 for full version product (FPP) and $310 for OEM version, this will make us think twice if we just bought the 2003 version for almost the same price not more than a year ago. However, we can only pick up the Microsoft Word with lower cost but it is not recommended considering the suite price is generally much inexpensive compared to each package price.