I can count on one hand, with fingers to spare, the number of people I have talked to that LIKE Microsoft Office 2007. (I hate to be the one to tell you, but in release 2010, they didn’t change back to toolbars.) I too found 2007 frustrating at first (and sometimes still do) but there are some features I really, really like. It’s funny, 2007 seems like so long ago but in terms of people I continue to meet using – and being frustrated by – Office 2007, I was motivated to write this newsletter.
So here are 3 of the reasons I’ve decided to embrace Office 2007 (and 2010)…
- I love that I have a longer list of recently opened files in any given application AND that I can pin a file to that list. If you open your application and the list of Recent Documents, you can click on the graphic that looks like a push pin by the file you want. The pin lets you pin that file to your recent items list. Therefore, it doesn’t matter how infrequently you access that file, it will stay in that list of recent items. Essentially, you are marking it as a “favorite”. This is great when you have certain files that you want to get your hands on quickly but don’t necessarily work in them every day or even every week.
- I love that Excel now lets us actually make use of color. You can sort and filter by color; font color or fill color. It’s a great visual management tool! Try it yourself. Create a spreadsheet and shade some cells one color and other cells in the same column another color (be sure to alternate the colors or you won’t get any effect when sorting). Then use the Custom Sort tool (found under Sort & Filter) to tell it that you want it sorted on “color” and then identify which color you want listed first and so on. Then click OK and your list will be sorted by color as you specified.
- Even though they took the toolbars that-I-knew-better-than-the-back-of-my-hand away, I’m glad that we can at least customize the Quick Access Toolbar (The tiny toolbar located to the right of the Office button). This toolbar comes with the save, undo and redo icons already in it. However, you can add absolutely any other command you want to it. To add a command, right click on the desired graphic (e.g. Paste), and select “Add to Quick Access Toolbar”. You can also choose the drop down arrow on the right end of the Quick Access Toolbar to select common functions such as Print Preview. Personally, I added Print Preview and the Quick Print button immediately.
A Thought to Ponder
“Just when I was getting used to yesterday, along came today.”
Anonymous