What's New in Word 2007
Mon, 08/17/2009 - 18:37 — kitty
The New User Interface
The Ribbons
The biggest and most obvious change in most of the Office 2007 products is the new toolbars which are now call Ribbons. This is definitely what will make transitioning from Word 2003 to Word 2007 the most difficult. Word 2007 still has all of the capabilities as the older versions of Word but now you just have to relearn where they are all located.
There are tab names for each of the ribbons. The tabs look somewhat like the old menu bar. They are called: Home, Insert, Page Layout, References, Mailings, Review, View and Developer. You can actually turn the Developer tab off in the Options dialog box if you would like to. By clicking these tabs you then display the ribbon associated with that tab.
Each ribbon contains tasks that are grouped together. Some groupings contain a small symbol in the lower right-hand corner of the group that when clicked opens up a familiar dialog box.
- Here my mouse pointer is pointing to the symbol that will open up the paragraph dialog box.
The Home Ribbon
This ribbon contains your most commonly used editing commands in Word.
The Insert Ribbon
Insert page and sections breaks, tables, illustrations, links, headers & footers, text and symbols into your documents.
The Page Layout Ribbon
Use this ribbon to change the look of your pages by adding themes, using Page Setup, changing the background, setting paragraph spacing, and arranging the elements of your document.
The References Ribbon
When creating research papers it is necessary to use the correct referencing. This ribbon allows you to to create a table of contents, insert footnotes, create citations & bibliographies, insert captions, create indexes and add a table of authorities.
The Mailings Ribbon
Mail Merge is alive and well in Office 2007 and now it has its own ribbon. You can also create envelopes and labels using this ribbon as well.
The Review Ribbon
Used to proof read your documents, check spelling and grammar, add comments, track changes, compare versions and protect your document.
The View Ribbon
Change the way you see your document on the screen by switching between different document views. This group is also located on the status bar next to the zoom slide. You can show/hide parts of your screen, like your rulers, change the zoom of your document window, arrange your windows if you have more than one document open, and view a list of macros associated with this document.
The Developers Ribbon
This ribbon can be turned on and off by using the Word Options dialog box. If you do not use macros or program using VBA then you really do not need this ribbon to display.
Contextual Ribbons
Some Ribbons only appear when you have an object selected. These are called Contextual Ribbons. For example if you want to crop a picture you need to select it first so that n the Picture Tools Ribbons will appear
The Picture Tools Format Ribbon
This is similar to the old Picture toolbar that would appear when a picture was selected if you did not have it turned on permanently. You use this ribbon to adjust the picture’s settings, add shadow effects, add borders, arrange the picture with other elements on the page and change its size.
The Drawing Tools Format Ribbon
This ribbon is used to format any drawings that you have inserted into your documents. You can insert more shapes, change their colors and styles, add shadows and 3D effects, arrange the shapes on the page and change their size.
The Office Button
The Office Button now contains all of the commands, plus some, that the old File menu used to have.
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NOTE: Notice the underline letter in the commands, New, Open, Save, etc… If you press the Alt key and this underlined letter you will get the dialog box for this command. This remains the same as the older versions of Word. |
Help
Finding the Help command isn’t as obvious as it used to be. Help is now located under the close button in the upper right hand corner of your screen. It is a small blue button with a question mark in it.
The Quick Access Toolbar
The only customizable toolbar left in the 2007 suite of products which contains shortcuts for commonly used tools. You have the ability to add and remove the toolbar buttons based on your personal preferences. It is located in the upper left hand corner of your screen next to the Office Button.
It contains three buttons by default: Save, Undo and Redo. You can customize this bar by clicking the small down pointing arrow on the right of it or by simply right clicking on it. You can remove buttons or add buttons.
Saving Word 2007 Documents
Word 2007 documents are now saved with a new file extension of “.docx” which is a file format that can be used with OpenXML – The Microsoft Office suite applications now use a new file format as the default file format. Documents created in Word 2007 will use a file extension of .docx (compared to .doc in previous versions). Based on XML, this format uses the ZIP file container, which is compressed and up to 75% smaller than previous Office file formats.
This can be problematic if you create a document using Word 2007 and send it to a user who is using an older version of Word. They will not be able to open it; their older version of Word will not recognize this new file extension.
One way to remedy this is to save the document as a “Word 97-2003 Document”. This is shown here; it is the third choice in the Save As command.
Or if you are using the Save As dialog box you have to change the “Save as type” option to “Word 97-2003 Document”. This can be seen in the illustration on the next page.
Downloading the Office Compatibility Pack for Office 2007
Another option is for users that still have the Office 2003 version or older to download the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats.
You can download this by visiting http://www.microsoft.com/downloads. Currently, this is the most popular download so you will see it listed right at the top of the list. However, if it is not there then perform a search using “Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats”.
If the user with the Office version of 2003 or older has this installed then you don’t have to worry about saving your file in the 97-2003 format, their system will be able to read it because they have this compatibility pack installed.
NOTE: As a 2007 user you do not have any problems reading any documents created using older versions. You do not have to worry about any compatibility issues. 2007 takes care of all of that for you.
The Old Tools à Options dialog box
In Word 2003 and earlier this dialog box allowed you to customize Word. Now this dialog box is found in the Office Button
Here you can customize the way your copy of Word 2007 works.
Click through the options of Popular, Display, Proofing, Save and Advanced to set up Word 2007 for the machine that you are working at.
Setting up Word’s AutoCorrect is located in the Proofing section of this dialog box.
Live Preview
Word 2007 now has a feature that lets you “try it before you buy it”. If you type up some text and select it then you can go to any font formatting features like sizes or styles and it will show you what your selected text will look like when you are simply letting your mouse point rest on the option. No more clicking it to make it change fonts and then trying to remember what font you had three fonts ago that you liked.
Here I have the words “try it before you buy it” (from the paragraph above) selected. Then I dropped down the font list and am simply letting my mouse rest on the Castellar font. I didn’t click the font but Live Preview let me see what it would potentially look like.
The Mini Toolbar
The Mini Toolbar pops up whenever text is selected. This new feature provides easy access to the most commonly used formatting commands in Word. The toolbar will also appear when you right-click on a selection of text.
Initially, the toolbar is semitransparent to allow you a nearly unobstructed view of the text beneath, and becomes opaque when the mouse pointer moves over it.
The Alt Key
If you press and hold down the Alt key for a couple of seconds these numbers and letters will appear. Then simply press the corresponding number or letter to carry out your command. If you do not want any of these commands and you want the numbers and letters to go away simply press Alt again.
Quick Parts
If you routinely enter the same text into Word, like an address, put it into Quick parts so you can enter it in a flash. Simply select the text that you would like in Quick Parts. Go to the Insert Tab. Click the Quick Parts button that is located in the Text group, and choose Save Selection to Quick Part Gallery. Enter a name and a description and any other option here that you may want. Then click OK.
To insert your Quick Part into your document simply go back to the Quick Part button, and click on the text that you want to insert.