I hate Microsoft Office 07 (desktop, Linux, mouse, e-mail)

[DixieChick1972]

I have used Office 07 at work and I really do not like it. I do not like how it seems totally different than the other versions. I don't like how they have moved stuff around so I cant find it anymore on the menus etc...and the changing the file extensions to .docx, .xlsx etc... really gets to be a pain when either I or others forget to save as older format.

[grannynancy]

The more I use 2007, the more I DESPISE it. Having used MS Office since it was Windows 3.1, the "Ribbon" has got to be the dumbest idea ever invented. It makes what used to be one click now multiple clicks.

It sure is not worth purchasing IMO.

[Topaz]

I hate Office 2007, too. It takes me forever to find anything.

[Ninjahedge]

They try to make everything too pretty. The people using these things are less concerned with how tech friendly everything looks and would like a bit of efficiency. When people come in and start re-arranging things and changing all the icons (remember how they changed the logo startup icons for the programs in Office 2K3?) they just irritate the long time users.

As for the reg key, that is needless expenditure. For the money they spend on that, all they would have to do is develop a digital watermark thing and not announce it. They make so little money from home user that pursuing absolute "security" is a fallacy. the key is to GET people to use it at home so they are familiar with it, and make it more likely that companies buy and stay with it.

Kind of like what Apple has been doing in schools for oh so long.

It is just silly for them to come out with bigger and badder protection schemes when there are SO many hakkers out there just salivating at the opportunity to crack the new one. The better ones take more time, but they are always out.

Like I said, invisible digital watermarks, so, at random, M$ can look at a companies posted files, or any document they have produced, and see if the siggie is a legit registered number or not.

Threat of litigation is a MUCH better deterrent than a simple (albeit cumbersome) activation code.....

[southgeorgia]

i'm not a big fan of '07 yet either.

all our new computers at the office have it; i almost screamed the first time I sat down with it, and a lot of my documents created in '03 don't appear as they should.


i've tried to get a little more familiar with it, and have found where most basic functions are. i still have '03 on my computer and try to finish all my work within that version.

we run into problems sometimes passing things around the network that i created in '03 and my wife has to view in '07.


i'm sure for everyone else's sake i'll move to '07, but i don't have the time to be frustrated with it right now.

[Nancy-NJ-NY-ME?]

I'm not a fan of Office 2007 either. Using it on clients' systems convinced me not to take the leap.

And I hear you on the activiation thing. For me it was the principle of it. And yes, I understand MS's licensing issue. But having used software for many years that didn't require this step, I understand your attitude. But, like others have implied, you've got to go with it or move to non-MS products.

For my pc (which I use for personal and business), I used Office 2000 up until just a few months ago. I finally had to move to Office 2003 as 2000's Outlook wasn't compatible later versions. Specifically, 2000 could not accept meeting invitations sent from 2007. Got the full pro edition of Office 2003 on ebay for less than one hundred $$. Had to activate it with MS; all was fine.

An nice utility available for free download from MS is a compatability tool which lets files of 2007 be opening in 2003. With this utility, I'll stay with 2003 and XP Pro for as long as possible.

[Ellise]

I just use the Microsoft Works programs (word processing, spreadsheet and database) that are free with the operating system. They have enough features for most people, I'd guess.

[CHTransplant]

I kind of like Office 2007. I use it at home - mostly Word and Outlook. I notice the biggest differences with Word. Some things are radically more simple in Word 2007 than prior versions. But there are a handful of common tasks that I still havent' figured out how to do in Word 2007 - thankfully, the old Alt-letter command stings still work for those (just have to remember what they are).

[marc515]

Personally, I love Office 2007! It took a little to get acclimated to it (as all new things do), but now I find it fantastic.

[swagger]

I'm building an application in Access 2007 right now. I really, really, really hate to have to be doing it, as I don't like using proprietary technology, but we need something NOW and I have to work with what I have.

I was going to do the front end in Access, with the data stored in mysql, but there's too many issues with that, so I'm linking to an Access backend DB instead. The original plan was using mysql so that I could (A) not be limited to the 2gb db size, and (B) write a front-end client for our customers to be able to access data via our web site, but that's nixed for now. Maybe when I feel like shelling out $900 for the ODBC connector and setting up and colocating a Windoze server dedicated to -- drum roll -- storing a file, I may write that front-end. For now, though, we'll just work with Access.

All that said, I do have to say that it's come a long way since '97 (the last version I played around with). The new "attachment" data type is pretty handy. Actually, one of the biggest obstacles I came across with running mysql on the back end was that the BLOB data type in mysql showed up as an "OLE Object" in Access, which meant that any files you stuck in that field would take 10-100x more space in the db than the file did on the disk - totally unacceptable... The "Attachment" data type, which is new in Access 2007, doesn't suffer from this bloat.

Other than that, we don't use the Office suite much. We use the occasional simple spreadsheet and have our letterhead as a template in Word, but we don't really "use" Office much. We use the heck out of Adobe Acrobat, though.