6 out of 6 people found this review helpful.
Some good upgrades; headache to use
Date of Review: May 2, 2008
The Bottom Line: Don't upgrade unless necessary. New features vs. complete re-learning and slower productivity are simply not worth it.
I have been using Microsoft Office since school in '95. I am not happy at all with the new ribbon system. Not because I'm old fashion, I like change. But I don't like change for the sake of change, or change because they wanted reduce calls for support. (You can no longer customise toolbars for this last reason.) The changes made have greatly slow down the work process.
I have used 2007 for 5 weeks now. I know where things are, and I have taken time to become accustom to the 2007 process and new features. Some of the new feature are nice, but in 2003 everything you needed was right in front of you. If you needed to format, you used the formatting buttons. If you needed to save, open a new document, etc... you clicked the button on the bar. Now you have to click on a ribbon, find the button, assuming it even exists. Then you must click on another ribbon to find the next button, and so on. In previous versions the command buttons you most used were right in front of you. If they weren't, you could create your own toolbar and put up just what you needed.
After using Word to create a 100 pg book, I was even more dissatisfied with the new product. I had to constantly jump from ribbon to ribbon. For instance they've gone from 3 clicks to open or save or print instead of one. You can minimally customize a tiny toolbar above the ribbons, but it is only there to placate.
While there are some nice new features, if I were a company planning on upgrading I would hold off for a while and stay with 2003. Upgrading to 2007 is going to require a massive training effort, especially if they have older employees (By older, I don't mean that old. I mean like 35 and older.) who are used to the earlier versions. Your productivity will be reduced as people try to get used to the new design. Whatever you do, keep your company consistent. The new 2007 does not play well with older versions of itself.
