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Average Overall Rating:  39 Ratings,47 Reviews |
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| "It's not the best" |
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By ramonb3 2008-07-21 00:00:00 0 out of 0 found this reivew helpful |
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Saves takes forever causes myself to either Ctrl-Alt-Del use task manager and start all over again after 5-10 minutes wait time. For counting of words in your document, that also takes forever. There's better alternatives, just search for it. (Read full review at CNET)
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| Pros: Graphically, it just looks good. |
| Cons: Don't bother doing a novel |
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| "The horror, the HORROR!" |
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By Teenygozer 2008-07-19 00:00:00 0 out of 0 found this reivew helpful |
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I went through the trouble of registering on this site just to spread the word of the horrors of having to work professionally with this utterly brain-dead piece of software. Who designed this, art students? Because it's very pretty, but it doesn't (Read full review at CNET)
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| Pros: There aren't any! |
| Cons: WHERE IS EVERYTHING?! |
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| "Microsoft Office Word 2007: An Over-Designed Nightmare" |
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By marindavid 2008-07-11 00:00:00 0 out of 0 found this reivew helpful |
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There was a time when Microsoft Office Word's most recent incarnation was held as the Gold Standard of word-processing programs by most casual- and many professional-computer users. This "article of faith" was so ubiquitous that the pre-installed dow (Read full review at CNET)
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| Pros: Some interesting features |
| Cons: Bloated beyond common usability |
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| "Worst "upgrade" ever" |
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By harddude5 2008-07-11 00:00:00 0 out of 0 found this reivew helpful |
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What were the geniuses at Microsoft thinking? This "upgrade/redesign" is a reminder of the bad old days of incompatible DOS applications when someone trained on one application didn't have a clue how to use another one. Remember the old templates for (Read full review at CNET)
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| Pros: The interface looks pretty |
| Cons: EVERYTHING has changed |
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| "A Practical Joke From MS Developers" |
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By ssif21 2008-07-08 00:00:00 0 out of 0 found this reivew helpful |
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One single feature of Word 2007 has led me to conclude the MS' developers are either morons or decided to play a practical joke on the world. I am a scholar. I use lots of endnotes. I supervise professors and analysts who use lots of endnotes. MS (Read full review at CNET)
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| Pros: Does all of the things previous versions did |
| Cons: Makes it harder to do what previous versions did |
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| -- Activehome Expert, Activehome 0 out of 0 found this reivew helpful |
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| Word 2007 is one of the major components of Microsoft's Office 2007 suite. As with the majority of Office 2007 applications, it uses the new ribbon-style menu system. The Home ribbon gives character, paragraph and style formatting, plus clipboard and search tools. The dull default Arial-and-Times styles weâ??ve been used to have been replaced by elegant combinations of font, colour and formatting, arranged in a palette. Hover the mouse over a style and you get a preview of the selected text â?? a click confirms, while moving the mouse off the palette cancels. You can also change to a different style set, which affects the whole document - again, you get a preview. Complementing styles are Themes (accessible from the Page Layout Ribbon). These apply a complete set of fonts, colours and graphic effects to an entire document. The Insert ribbon covers everything that was previously in the Insert menu (dates, graphics, text boxes etc.), but also things that also belong there, such as headers, footers, and tables. Other ribbons cover References (footnotes etc), Mailings (mail merge, envelopes, etc), Reviewing (comments, proofing, and mark-up) and View. The View ribbon encompasses the former View and Window menus, as well as access to macros. If you have the optional Developer ribbon enabled, then you get more macro and VBA tools, document protection, XML schemas and form controls. The only menu left is the Office menu, lurking behind the top-left logo: this contains the old File menu, the options dialogue and up to 50 recently used files. A useful touch is that you can â??pinâ?? files to this list so they that stay put. The Status bar has also had a makeover and now includes a running word count and a zoom control. Another new suite-wide feature is the mini-toolbar . Select some text and a ghostly transparent toolbar appears beside it â?? mouse over this, or right-click, and it firms up to provide basic formatting. Note that the taskpane is still available for jobs such as accessing clip-art or the thesaurus. The contextual spelling check is another welcome new feature. This is designed to spot a correctly spelled word in the wrong place â?? "itâ??s" instead of "its", for instance. Although the ribbon takes getting used to, youâ??ll find many sections have a small arrow to the right of the label â?? this summons the traditional dialogue. Other aids include pop-ups for keyboard shortcuts; press the Alt key and letters will appear on the ribbons and tabs prompting further input. If youâ??re still stuck, as well as off-line text help thereâ??s an online Flash guide to finding Word 2003 commands in 2007. Surprisingly, given the extent of the makeover, Microsoft still hasnâ??t got window handling consistent. With multiple documents open in Excel, you're given one program window and taskbar buttons for each worksheet, which makes sense. However, with Word you are stuck with either multiple program windows â?? each with its own ribbon and taskbar button - or a single parent with a single taskbar button just showing the active document. Word 2007 brings with it plenty of improvements, but the lack of customisation options will frustrate some. This article is part of our complete Microsoft Office 2007 review Microsoft Office 2007 overview Microsoft Excel 2007 review Microsoft Outlook 2007 review See also Microsoft Windows Vista review Video review: Windows Vista Also consider Tesco Complete Office software suite An excellent budget alternative to Microsoft Office, providing all the basics required of an office suite Openoffice.org 2 Improved compatibility with Microsoft Office make this a genuine alternative for many home and business users Zoho Virtual Office productivity software Share contacts and organise calendars All Office Applications Tags: Word Processing , Office 2007 Like this story? Spread the news by clicking below: del.icio.us Digg this reddit! Permalink for this story ...
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| -- Pcauthority Expert, Pcauthority 0 out of 0 found this reivew helpful |
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| Not many new features, but the new interface breathes fresh life into an already great product. The most used of all the Office applications, Word really benefits from Ribbon, the new user interface. Virtually all parts of the application have been u ...
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| -- CNET Expert, CNET 0 out of 0 found this reivew helpful |
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| Microsoft Word 2007's document types, interface, and some features--very nearly every aspect of this word processor--have changed. With this update, Microsoft Word 2007 becomes a more image-conscious application. New picture-editing tools help you deck out documents and play with fancy fonts. Bloggers and researchers may also benefit. It's easier to get a handle on document security, but those who only need basic typing features may not want to relearn the interface or deal with the new file formats. Our installation of various Office suites on Windows XP computers took between 10 and 20 minutes, which was quicker than prior editions of Office. You'll have to be online to access services later, such as Help and How-To as well as Clip Art and document templates. Our reviews of Microsoft Office 2007 detail the installation process and the ingredients of each edition. Word 2007 will operate in Compatibility Mode, shutting off some of the new graphics-rich features, should you, for example, open a Word 2003 DOC file without converting it to the new DOCX format. Interface Once you have Word 2007 running, you will notice a completely redesigned toolbar, now known as the Ribbon, with many familiar commands in new places. Instead of the old, gray drop-down menus atop the page, Microsoft's new and very colorful Ribbon clumps common features into tabs: Home, Insert, Page Layout, References, Mailings, Review, and View. Some tabs don't show up until you might need them; for example, you must select a picture to bring up its formatting tab. At first, you'll need to wander around to find what's moved from prior versions of Word. Clicking the Office 2007 logo in the upper-left corner drops down a menu of staple functions--such as opening, saving, and printing files--that were under Word 2003's File menu. We had the hardest time locating commands from Word 2003's Editing and Tools menus. To insert a comment in Word 2007, for instance, you must look under the Review tab instead of the Insert tab. Prepare to relearn Word . Alas, there is no "classic" view to help you make the transition to the 2007 version. While it's a challenge to upgrade, those learning Word for the first time may find its features easier to stumble upon than they would have with Word 2003. For instance, the new interface better presents page view options that used to be a hassle to get to. From the View tab, now you can simply check a box to see a ruler or gridlines, or click the Arrange All button to stack various open Word documents atop each other. Although we sometimes mixed up the placement of commands within the Review and References tabs, those features were still easier to find than in Word 2003. Microsoft placed a lot of emphasis on the wow factor of Office's galleries of graphics, which share the Aero look of Windows Vista and are found throughout the Office applications. Pull-down menus of fonts, color themes, and images let you preview changes on the page before making them. And thankfully, Microsoft killed Clippy, the cartoonish helper. Now a less-intrusive quick formatting toolbar shows up near your cursor. Keyboard shortcuts remain the same; pressing the Alt key displays the corresponding quick key for each Ribbon command. A running word count is always present in the lower-left corner, and the new slider bar for zooming in and out is a terrific, no-brainer improvement, particularly for the vision impaired. Features Aside from the interface, the other radical change in Word 2007 is its new file type. For the first time in a decade, Microsoft foists a new file format upon users, and old Word DOC files make way for the new DOCX type of Word 2007. Microsoft has taken steps to ease this transition, but we anticipate that it will not be smooth for many users. Word 2007's new Picture Tools options let you hover over galleries of changes to preview how they'll look. In the past, you may have applied a change out of curiosity, then hit Undo when it didn't meet your expectations. What happens when you're sharing work with people who use an older version of Word? Word 2003 and 2000 are supposed to detect when you first try to open a DOCX file, then prompt you to download and install an Office 2007 Compatibility Pack . After you've done this, the older Word should convert your Word 2007 files and remove incompatible features. When you reopen that same DOCX file again in Word 2007, the file's original elements are supposed to stay intact. On the other hand, if you open an older DOC file within Word 2007, it will also run in Compatibility Mode, shutting off access to some of the newer program features, which explains why two documents within Word 2007 may display different formatting options. Among the small tweaks in Word 2007 that make formatting easier, rollover style galleries let you preview the changes. However, the constant shape-shifting of the galleries can be distracting. And some options, such as for adjusting margins, use an older-style dialog box rather than the live preview menus. Still, it takes just a couple of clicks to insert a JPEG, a GIF, a BMP, a PNG, or another image type. Click the graphic, and the Picture Tools Format tab lets you tweak the brightness, the color mode, and the contrast of a picture. You can also rotate it, crop it, skew its angle, add 3D effects and shadows to its borders, and convert it to all manner of shapes, such as a thought bubble, an arrow, or a star. Options for positioning an image and wrapping text around it are also front and center, which should be helpful for creating professional-looking business documents, as well as casual party invitations. You don't get nearly the amount of control offered by Microsoft Publisher, QuarkXPress, or Adobe InDesign , but Word 2007 may do the trick for ultrabasic desktop-publishing needs. For those who don't need all the formatting choices, we're glad that Word 2007 doesn't apply a complex style to our text by default. In Word 2003, we'd have to highlight all the text, and then Clear Formatting to remove unwanted indentations and bold letters. In Word 2007, Calibri, a crisp, default font, replaces the standard Times New Roman from Word 2003. You can choose from galleries of text styles, such as Emphasis, Strong, or Book Title, and easily create your own styles and set them as a default. The Prepare menu offers choices for inspecting, encrypting, and restricting access to your Word files in addition to checking to see how its elements will appear in older versions of Word. While Corel WordPerfect has traditionally offered better features for managing longer documents, Microsoft Word 2007 has improved a bit in this regard. For those working on a dissertation or book report, the References tab lets you manage citations and bibliographies in styles from APA to Turabian. Just click Next Footnote, and the cursor takes you there. However, the Table of Contents feature still isn't easy to figure out. Editors who collaborate on documents with others can make use of the Review tab. The new Compare pull-down menu lets you look at two versions of the same document side by side, as well as merge changes from several authors and editors into one file. Administrative assistants and those charged with mass-mailing tasks should find those features much easier to access than in Word 2003. Bloggers can now compose and post entries to their Web sites without leaving Word. If you deal with sensitive information--in a private diary entry, a resume, or a company financial statement, for example--Word 2007 allows more control over buried data, such as the original author's name or your supervisor's cursing comments. Office 2007's Prepare options step you through inspecting that metadata, as well as adding a digital signature and encrypting a file. You'll also find some of these options under the Review tab's Protect button. However, should you plan to black out text, you'll have to turn to Adobe Acrobat 8 to make secure redactions (highlighting the font in black within Word won't do it). As integration has improved throughout Office 2007, you can click Send from the Office logo menu to attach a Word document to an e-mail message through Outlook's composition window. A message recipient using Outlook 2007 can preview that Word document within the e-mail message pane. And if you paste an Excel 2007 chart into a Word 2007 file, just right-click the chart and select Edit Data to launch Excel in split-pane view. When you change the source data within Excel, the chart adjusts in Word. Unfortunately, Microsoft isn't providing an option for storing or editing Word files online to most users who buy below the $679 Ultimate edition of Office, and there's no browser-based version of Word. Need to collaborate on a file with specific people or take work on the road? At this time, you may have to e-mail those documents. Alternately, you could upload a Word file into one of the many free, Web-based word processors served up by other companies, including Zoho Writer, which offers a free upload add-in for Word 2007. Options for blogging include an editing interface that lets you insert art and charts and lets you post entries without leaving Word. Service and support Boxed editions of Microsoft Office 2007 include a decent, 174-page Getting Started guide. During the first 90 days, you can contact tech support for free, and help at any time with any security-related or virus problems also costs nothing. Beyond that, paid support costs a painfully high $49 per telephone or e-mail incident. Luckily, Microsoft's online help is excellent, although we're displeased that Microsoft and other software makers are increasingly promoting do-it-yourself assistance. We especially like the Command Reference Guide for Word , which walks you through where commands have moved since Office 2003. You can also pose questions to the large community of Microsoft Office users via free support forums and chats. Microsoft Office Diagnostics tool, included with the Office 2007 suites, is also designed to detect and repair problems if something goes haywire. Conclusion Is Word 2007 worth the upgrade? If you primarily work with plain text and don't need to pretty up reports and newsletters and the like, then it might not be right for you. For our purposes as editors, for instance, Word 2007 doesn't introduce must-have goodies, although commenting commands are within easier reach. At the same time, Word 2007 handily presents options for footnotes and citations under its References tab, which researchers should appreciate. Mail-merge functions are also easier to reach. Bloggers might use Word's posting tools in a pinch, but we found Word 2007's rebuilt HTML to be clunky still. Above all, Microsoft's new word processor is most upgrade-worthy if you want to play with pictures, charts, and diagrams in addition to text. ...
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| -- Itreviews Expert, Itreviews 0 out of 0 found this reivew helpful |
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| A second outing for what Microsoft clearly hopes will be an indispensable educational tool, Student 2007 actually manages to pretty much replicate the peaks and troughs of last year's edition , which at the time made it useful rather than outright vital. And those words fittingly describe it again. It's supposed to be a package of tools and resources to help students with their homework and assignments, and it gets lots of things right. It gets off to a good start by the inclusion of the excellent Encarta Reference Library 2007 (which we've reviewed separately here , so won't dwell on any further). It also scores highly with mathematicians. The excellent graphical calculator from Student 2006 is back, with some neat improvements, and there are some genuinely strong tools for taking you step by step through mathematical equations. This is important: Student isn't giving you the answers here, rather the tools and potentially the understanding to help you work them out for yourself. If the maths is excellent, the language functions aren't too far behind. Working with Spanish, French, German and Italian there's a straight translation tool, but more usefully, Student will help in the conjugation of verbs and work with tenses as well. Much of the rest of the application requires Microsoft Office to be installed to be able to use, and that's naturally going to put a good chunk of users off from the outset. Likewise, if you're working using Office 2000 or earlier, then an upgrade is required. It's a real pity, and while many won't be affected (given the prevalence of Microsoft Office in the marketplace), it adds a significant cost to the total price for those without Office who want to get the most out of Student. Areas affected include the numerous, and predominantly very good, templates that are included, covering the likes of presentations and reports. We found them to be a useful starting point for the stumped user, and when combined with the multitude of tips and advice on putting work together, could really help to deliver results. Again, it's a case of giving the user the tools rather than the answer, and that's a commendable and vital ethos. Ultimately, Student 2007 is a breeze to use, very well organised and likely to be of good use to those looking to tackle homework and assignments. And the inclusion of Encarta is a real boon, not least the way it easily integrates with the main Student application. What a pity, then, that the sour taste of corporate greed has sneaked in. What's wrong with making some of the templates and tools available for non-Office users? Or at the very least providing a 'lite' version, at a cheaper price, without the requirement for Microsoft's Office suite? As it stands, for its target market Student is both strong and full of potential for future versions, but it's an example of its parent company's reliance on the carrot and stick approach to selling products and upgrades. Microsoft - Student 2007 features - Verdict Really good stuff, and wannabe mathematicians in particular will really appreciate it. But you'll need to buy a copy of Office XP or 2003 to really get the most out of it, and they're not cheap. Microsoft - Student 2007 price Buy Microsoft Student 2007 securely online at a bargain price £54.99 inc. VAT Microsoft: 0870 601 0100 www.microsoft.com/uk/ Read more reviews of Reference Software Read our Buyers Guide to Reference Software ...
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| -- CNET Expert, CNET 0 out of 0 found this reivew helpful |
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| Microsoft Student with Encarta Premium 2007 offers more math features and a lower price than the 2006 version . The new, step-by-step math resources are a great way to learn and understand math problems. Other features such as foreign language verb conjugations, writing style guides, and access to Encarta Premium 2007 are solid tools for busy students, and the clean interface is inviting. Student's lower price doesn't mean it's a bargain, though: you'll need to buy Microsoft Office XP or 2003 separately to use Student's presentation, chart, and graph templates, and tech-support calls and e-mails cost extra. If you already have Office and don't need technical support, Student 2007 can be terrifically useful. If not, think twice about how much Student may ultimately cost. We set up Microsoft Student with Encarta Premium 2007 from the enclosed DVD in about 20 minutes in our tests on a Windows XP system. During the application's installation, you're invited to join Microsoft's Customer Experience Improvement Program, which monitors your use of the product. You pay a price for convenience with Student. The time-saving presentation, chart, and graph templates in Student rely upon Excel and PowerPoint, not included with Student. If you don't already have Microsoft Office, then the $149 for Office Student and Teacher Edition 2003, or a more recent version, will substantially increase Student's $69.95 price tag (not counting the $20 mail-in rebate). Student 2007's new mathematics help steps you through solutions to problems in calculus, algebra, and more, while providing a calculator that handles complex equations. The interface of Student 2007 is friendly, clean and easy to use--important for the audience of sixth to twelfth graders grappling with complicated school projects. Borrowing from Encarta, Student has three large buttons to navigate to and from the home page: Homework, with math and foreign language help tools; Projects, with tips and templates for common school projects; and the catch-all Discover and Learn category, with links to Encarta, college-preparatory materials, games, and other miscellany. There are four intuitive pull-down menus, and a Homework Tools button links you to help with math, geography, foreign languages, literary subjects, and other topics. The biggest changes within Student 2007 are its enhanced math tools, which assist students with concepts from prealgebra to calculus. Enter a math problem in the new Step-by-Step Solutions screen, and Student 2007 will solve the problem and, more importantly, show you the steps it takes to do so. The improved graphing calculator lets you animate and rotate 3D graphs to understand a concept better. Other Math Tools functions help you understand equations from physics, chemistry, and math classes. Math Tools also links to online solutions to problems in common textbooks, such as Hotmath. Microsoft Student 2007's language-learning resources walk you through translations, verb conjugation, and Encarta lookups. The foreign language help for Spanish, French, German, and Italian is another strength. Student 2007 helps you translate words, plus it conjugates verbs and offers tutorials and Web links. Student also pools reference resources in one place. The literary tools provide citation guides for APA, MLA, and Chicago styles, and geography tools help you find maps quickly. The excellent Encarta Premium 2007 and its Internet Explorer-only Web search companion are a click away. To access Encarta's extensive online content, you'll need to create a Microsoft Passport (or Windows Live) network account. When you sign up, you're told you will receive targeted advertisements from Microsoft--a term you must accept to set up the account. Aside from the help file installed during setup, there is no free support for Microsoft Student with Encarta Premium 2007. We couldn't find Student 2007 within Microsoft's support Web pages. It's inconvenient that help resources are scanty and pricey for a product tailored to young users. Telephone and e-mail support costs $35 per incident, with no initial free calls or e-mails--a big change from last year's toll-free phone and e-mail support. When you pursue e-mail help, Microsoft asks if it can download a data-collection ActiveX control to help diagnose the problem. With Microsoft Student with Encarta Premium 2007, busy parents can rest assured that their children have access to sound homework resources. Parents who have forgotten their high school math will find Student 2007's new math features especially useful. Microsoft Student 2007 is inviting and easy for tweens and teens to use. Parents should calculate in the cost of Office to use all of Student's features, however, and plan on hefty tech-support costs if they need live or online help. ...
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| Microsoft Word 2007 Full Version Student & Teacher |
| $69.99 - $114.95 |
| from 4 stores |
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