New Feature of Office 2007

User interface

The new user interface (UI), officially known as Microsoft Office Fluent, has been implemented in the core Microsoft Office applications: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, and in the item inspector used to create or edit individual items in Outlook. These applications have been selected for the UI overhaul because they center around document authoring. The rest of the applications in the suite will also be upgraded to the new UI in subsequent versions. The default font used in this edition is Calibri. Original prototypes of the new user interface were revealed at MIX 2008 in Las Vegas

Office button

The Office 2007 button, located on the top-left of the window, replaces the File menu and provides access to functionality common across all Office applications, including but not limited to opening, saving, printing, and sharing a file. It can also close the application. Users can also choose color schemes for the interface.

Ribbon

The Ribbon, a panel that houses the command buttons and icons, organizes commands as a set of Tabs, each grouping relevant commands. Each application has a different set of tabs which expose the functionality that application offers. For example, while Excel has a tab for the Graphing capabilities, Word does not feature the same; instead it has tabs to control the formatting of a text document. Within each tab, various related options may be grouped together. The Ribbon is designed to make the features of the application more discoverable and accessible with fewer mouse clicks. as compared to the menu-based UI used until Office 2007. It is not possible to remove the Ribbon, modify it, or replace it with menus with the normal Office 2007 functions. However, the Ribbon can be minimized simply by double clicking the active section's title, e.g the Home text in the picture below. There are third party add-ons that can bring menus to Office 2007.

Contextual Tabs

Some tabs, called Contextual Tabs, appear only when certain objects are selected. Contextual Tabs expose functionality specific only to the object with focus. For example, selecting a picture brings up the Pictures tab, which presents options for dealing with the picture. Similarly, focusing on a table exposes table-related options in a specific tab. Contextual Tabs remain hidden when the object it works on are not selected.

Live Preview

Microsoft Office 2007 also introduces a feature called "Live Preview", which temporarily applies formatting on the focused text or object when any formatting button is moused-over. The temporary formatting is removed when the mouse pointer is moved from the button. This allows users to have a preview of how the option would affect the appearance of the object, without actually applying it.

Mini Toolbar

The new "Mini Toolbar" is a type of context menu that is automatically shown (by default) when text is selected. The purpose of this feature is to provide easy access to the most-used formatting commands without requiring a right-mouse-button click, as was necessary in older versions of the software. Because the Mini Toolbar is automatically displayed, it remains semi-transparent until the mouse pointer is situated on the control in order to allow an almost-unobstructed view of what is beneath it. It also appears above the right-click menu when a user right-clicks on a selection of words. The Mini Toolbar is currently not customizable.

Quick Access Toolbar

The Quick Access toolbar, which sits in the title bar, serves as a repository of most used functions, regardless of which application is being used, such as save, undo/redo and print. The Quick Access toolbar is fully customizable similar to toolbars in previous Office versions. Any command available in the entire Office application can be added to the Quick Access toolbar, including commands not available in the Ribbon and macros. Keyboard shortcuts for any of the commands on the toolbar are also fully customizable, similar to previous Office versions.

I have to sketch out the details once again before this Monday for a official presentation. But then what i want to share here with you is my experience of sharing the Microsoft office support and providing Computer Help

Microsoft Office Version Compatibility

Latest versions for platforms

• Windows NT 3.51-Office 97
• Windows 95-Office 2000
• Windows NT4/98/ME-Office XP
• Windows 2000-Office 2003
• Windows XP/2003/Vista/Home Server/2008-Office 2007
• Mac OS 7.5-8.0-Office 98
• Mac OS 8.1-9-Office 2001
• Mac OS 10.1-Office X
• Mac OS 10.2-10.3-Office 2004
• Mac OS 10.4-10.5-Office 2008

Windows

Beginning in 2002, Microsoft instituted a policy of Support Lifecycles including: Earlier versions than Office 97 (including Outlook 97) are no longer supported.

• Office 97 (including Outlook 98) – Mainstream hotfix support ended on August 31, 2001. Extended hotfix support ended on February 28, 2002. Assisted support ended on January 16, 2004.
• Office 2000 – Mainstream support ended June 30, 2004. Extended support will end on July 14, 2009.
• Office XP – Mainstream support ended July 11, 2006. Extended support will end on July 12, 2011.
• Office 2003 - Mainstream support will end on April 14, 2009. Extended support will end on April 8, 2014.
• Office 2007 - Mainstream support will end on April 10, 2012. Extended support will end on April 11, 2017.
• Current and future versions - Mainstream support will end 5 years after release, or 2 years after the next release, whichever time is later, and extended support will end 5 years after that.

I have to sketch out the details once again before this Monday for a official presentation. But then what i want to share here with you is my experience of sharing the Microsoft Office and providing computer Help

Discontinued applications and features

• Microsoft Binder – Incorporates several documents into one file and was originally designed as a container system for storing related documents in a single file. The complexity of use and learning curve led to little usage and was removed from releases after Office 2000.
• Microsoft FrontPage – Web design software (also requires its own server program for some functionality). Offered only as a stand-alone program for the 2003 version. In 2006, Microsoft announced that this was to be discontinued and to be replaced by two different software packages: Microsoft SharePoint Designer and Microsoft Expression Web.
• Microsoft Mail – Mail client (in old versions of Office, later replaced by Microsoft Schedule Plus and subsequently Microsoft Outlook).
• Microsoft PhotoDraw – A graphics program that was first released as part of the Office 2000 Premium Edition. A later version for Windows XP compatibility was released, known as PhotoDraw 2000 Version 2. Microsoft discontinued the program in 2001.
• Microsoft Photo Editor – Photo-editing/raster-graphics software in older Office versions up to Office XP. It was supplemented by Microsoft PhotoDraw in Office 2000 Premium edition.
• Microsoft Schedule Plus – Released with Office 95. It featured a planner, to-do list, and contact information. Its functions were incorporated into Microsoft Outlook.
• Microsoft Virtual PC – Included with Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2004. Obsolete from 2006 onward due to new Macs possessing the same Intel architecture as Windows PCs. It emulated a standard PC and its hardware.
• Microsoft Vizact 2000 – A program that "activated" documents using HTML, adding effects such as animation. It allows users to create dynamic documents for the Web. Development has ended due to unpopularity.
• Microsoft Data Analyzer 2002 – A business intelligence program for graphical visualization of data and its analysis.
• Office Assistant, included since 1997 as a part of Microsoft Agent technology, is a system that uses animated characters to offer unrequested context-sensitive suggestions to users and access to relevant parts of the help system. The Assistant is often dubbed "Clippy" or "Clippit," due to its default to a paper clip character, coded as CLIPPIT.ACS. The Office Assistant was hidden by default in Office XP and following mixed public response, not installed by default in Office 2003. It has been removed entirely in Office 2007.

Support lifecycle of Microsoft Office

Windows

Beginning in 2002, Microsoft instituted a policy of Support Lifecycles including:

• Earlier versions than Office 97 (including Outlook 97) are no longer supported.
• Office 97 (including Outlook 98) – Mainstream hotfix support ended on August 31, 2001. Extended hotfix support ended on February 28, 2002. Assisted support ended on January 16, 2004.
• Office 2000 – Mainstream support ended June 30, 2004. Extended support will end on July 14, 2009.
• Office XP – Mainstream support ended July 11, 2006. Extended support will end on July 12, 2011.
• Office 2003 - Mainstream support will end on April 14, 2009. Extended support will end on April 8, 2014.
• Office 2007 - Mainstream support will end on April 10, 2012. Extended support will end on April 11, 2017.
• Current and future versions - Mainstream support will end 5 years after release, or 2 years after the next release, whichever time is later, and extended Computer support will end 5 years after that.

Common features of Microsoft Office

Most versions of Microsoft Office (including Office 97 and later, and possibly 4.3) use their own widget set and do not exactly match the native operating system. This is more apparent in the 2002 or XP release of Microsoft Office where the standard menus were replaced with a colored flat looking, shadowed menu style. Similarly, Microsoft Office 2007 introduces a whole new widget system, dubbed "Ribbon", but now known as the "Fluent user interface". ^[5] The same widget used in Microsoft Office is also used in the Visual Studio product line, though the "Fluent UI" was not announced to be included in future versions of Visual Studio. Both Windows and Office use "Service Packs" to update software, Office used to release non-cumulative "Service Releases", which were discontinued after Office 2000 Service Release 1.

Programs in past versions of Office often contained substantial Easter eggs. For example, Excel 97 contained a reasonably functional flight-simulator. Versions since Office 2000 have not contained any easter eggs in the name of Trustworthy Computing.

Microsoft Office Server applications

• Microsoft Office Share Point Server - collaboration server
• Excel Services
• InfoPath Forms Services
• Microsoft Office Communications Server (formerly Live Communications Server) - real time communications server
• Microsoft Office Forms Server - allows InfoPath forms to be accessed and filled out using any browser. Office Forms Server is a standalone server installation of InfoPath Forms Services.
• Microsoft Office Groove Server - centrally managing all deployments of Microsoft Office Groove in the enterprise
• Microsoft Office Project Server - project management server
• Microsoft Office Project Portfolio Server - allows creation of a project portfolio, including workflows, hosted centrally
• Microsoft Office Performance Point Server - allows customers to monitor, analyze, and plan their business