Denver Business Journal Technology Section

Assess pros, cons of using Microsoft Office 2007

September 21, 2007 - by Gene Smith (general manager) of Mission Critical Systems

Onetime Denver newspaper publisher and philanthropist Frederick Bonfils was credited with the statement, "There is no hope for the satisfied man." In today's world, that equates to complacency amid technological advances.

In that vein, Microsoft Office 2007 may prove a hopeful delight. It's much more intuitive and users can navigate more easily. But, it contains the usual learning curve, glitches and incompatibility with some older and third-party programs/applications. So, check it out before making the move.

One major change is the look and feel. A new ribbon-like panel drives functionality, and most commands have relocated. For example, Word now has tabs called Home, Insert, Page Layout, References, Mailings, Review, View and Add-Ins instead of the familiar File, Edit, etc. menus.

Think of it as skiing versus snowboarding. Experienced skiers have a learning curve to gain snowboarding proficiency. If you've never done either, learning snowboarding is easier than skiing. Users of previous Microsoft Office versions will need to learn new skills; non-users will find learning 2007 easier than earlier versions.

Following are four key issues to address when considering Microsoft Office 2007:

• Assess your glitch tolerance and overall patience -- Software quirks and learning a new control panel will hamper productivity. Evaluate your current Microsoft Office programming to determine overall performance, compatibility and employee satisfaction. If your system is stable and meshes well with partners, suppliers and clients, consider staying put until 2007 achieves broader adoption.
• Train your people adequately before deployment, and make sure there are go-to experts (either in-house or through an outsourced help desk/consultant) that can address challenges and questions. Be targeted with the training. If people already know Office 2003, they need only transitional skills to be able to accomplish the same tasks they did with 2003 and learn some new features.
• Address desired Microsoft Office functionality improvements -- Develop a list of items that you would like Office to handle better now and/or specific areas that need to be addressed in the near future. Then, match the list to Office 2007 to evaluate how much help this new software may provide, and whether the productivity gain of the upgrade outweighs the productivity loss that will occur during the initial get-up-to-speed phase.
• If there's a substantive net gain in benefits, look at upgrading sooner than later.

• Internal Microsoft Office applications such as PowerPoint integrate better. PowerPoint used to have its own internal charting application that was nothing like Excel. Now, PowerPoint opens Excel (and all of its advanced features) to create a chart.
• Improved functionality may eliminate the need for some third-party applications. For example, Word now has an advanced compare-and-combine feature to enable comparing differences between two documents, then either saving the marked-up document or combining edits into one document.
• Graphics and templates are more sophisticated. PowerPoint presentations look more professional; Word documents can include very polished cover pages. All of this can be created easily, even by program newcomers.
• There is a Quick Access toolbar that can be customized with buttons that users access most often.
• Determine compatibility with non-2007 Microsoft products and third-party applications -- Conduct a thorough audit of regularly used software and systems to determine how well third-party applications and other Microsoft products will work together.
• Be particularly diligent about critical third-party applications, such as accounting systems, supply-chain components and customer relationship management systems. Typically, it takes awhile for these applications to catch up and create their code to integrate with Office 2007. Widespread integration is expected by the end of 2007 or first part of 2008.

Speaking of 2008, Mac users are anticipating the release of their own compatible version of Office 2007, to be known as Office 2008, in January 2008.

Within the Microsoft family, it's also important to assess compatibility. For example, 2003 users can't open a 2007 Word file without downloading a free Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack. (One clue: When an e-mail attachment shows up as .docx instead of .doc, it's a 2007 document.)

However, even with the pack, files can only be opened -- not saved -- in 2007. Formatting lost in the process may or may not prove problematic. (Office 2007 users, however, have the option to save Word documents to be compatible with earlier versions.) Whatever you do, don't load both versions on the same PC. This likely will create many integration problems.

Confirm that your system can handle it -- Minimum system requirements for Office 2007 Professional include 500 MHz-or-faster processor, at least 256 MB RAM, 2 GB of available hard disk space, CD-ROM or DVD drive, 1024 x 768 or higher resolution monitor, and Microsoft Windows XP with Service Pack (SP) 2. Stay away from it if you have an older operating system or inadequate hardware.

By taking this measured approach to Microsoft Office 2007, you can move at a speed most efficient and effective for your business.

Gene Smith is general manager of Mission Critical Systems, a Denver-based IT management firm. Reach him at gene.smith@mcstech.net or 303-383-1627. The firm's director of training, Jenny Douras, contributed to this report.