Digital-Daily : Editorial : microsoft_office_2007

Microsoft Office 2007: versions and functionalities overview

Author:
Date: 10.04.2007

A few months has passed since Microsoft officially announced new versions of its key software products - Windows Vista, and Office 2007. While the new generation of Microsoft operating systems has been given enough coverage - not only on our web site but many others - the generation of office software suites, Microsoft Office 2007, has still been kept in the shade.

Of course, we may assume that Office 2007 suites are not so revolutionary or, say, meaningful to the industry and to each PC user as Windows Vista is. However, sooner or later, unless you get round to getting yourself familiarized with Office 2007, it will force you do that. By the way, such a situation has already taken place at our 3DNews office: these days one of the employees has received an email letter with the attached file created in the new Word 2007 format - *.docx. It's good that our company keeps track of all the IT news but anyway has not yet migrated to Office 2007. But what has he to do who has never heard of that before? A good chance came in handy - Microsoft sent us a boxed version of Office 2007 Professional for tests. Just at the right time.

While collecting my thoughts prior to writing this material, I was long "targeting" the subject, choosing the succession and scope of the coverage. There is the saying "You can't embrace the unembraceable", which is just the case in here. At its onset Microsoft Office used to be a frugal kit of office applications, and since then it has long turned into a most powerful, complex and integrated system full of programs, servers, services and solutions for a wide spectrum of household and business tasks. Within a single article, it is simply unrealistic to give even a superficial coverage of such a powerful complex. Moreover, in my estimation even an article per each of the major components of Microsoft Office 2007 would not be enough to tell about its main features and distinctions from the previous 2003 version.

That is why this material will be some sort of a comprehensive overview reference guide of Microsoft Office 2007. Today, we are talking about its versions and their distinctions. While talking about the key features of the new office suite, we'll touch upon the specifics of the new document file format and a new system of filename extensions. Certainly, we'll have no time for any specific details like GUI traits in Word 2007 or Excel 2007, although it is the most interesting novelty in Office 2007.

Regarding that, we would have to follow the customary way - just wait for your feedback. If our readers find the traits of Microsoft Office 2007 an important subject, of course we will publish a continuation. So, all is in your hands. Perhaps at that we'd better stop with the introduction.

New suites, servers and services in Microsoft Office 2007

By analogy with multiple versions of Windows Vista aimed strictly at a certain market sector, Microsoft is also distinctly positioning various versions of its Microsoft Office suite. The version 2007 has been complemented with more options, and that is attributed no not only the growing complication of the suites' contents or the number of applications included, but more likely to let the user who is distinctly aware of his tasks not to overpay for unneeded programs or utilities. We should note that with the price ranges recommended for Microsoft Office 2007 that does make sense.

Apart from the major options familiar from the former versions, Microsoft Office 2007 contains new programs, servers and services. This is how the complete list of Microsoft Office 2007 suites look:

Microsoft Office Base 2007
Microsoft Office for home and studies 2007
Microsoft Office Standard 2007
Microsoft Office for small business 2007
Microsoft Office Professional 2007
Microsoft Office Maximum 2007
Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2007
Microsoft Office Corporate 2007

As you can see, the list is large enough and nothing has been forgotten. Now it is the right time to list the components included in certain combinations:

Suites

Microsoft Office Access 2007
Microsoft Office Communicator 2007
Microsoft Office Excel 2007
Microsoft Office Groove 2007
Microsoft Office InfoPath 2007
Microsoft Office OneNote 2007
Microsoft Office Outlook 2007
Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 with a Contacts manager
Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007
Microsoft Office Project Standard 2007
Microsoft Office Publisher 2007
Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007
Microsoft Office Visio 2007
Microsoft Office Word 2007

Servers

Microsoft Office Forms Server 2007
Microsoft Office Groove Server 2007
Microsoft Office Project Portfolio Server 2007
Microsoft Office Project Server 2007
Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007

Services

Microsoft Office Groove Enterprise Services

Solutions

Microsoft Business Intelligence Solutions
Microsoft Office Enterprise Project Management (EPM) Solution

It is simply unrealistic and not necessary to tell of each "bundled kit" for each version of Office 2007 - it's easier just to list the basic information about each suite in a comparative table.

Versions of Microsoft Office 2007
Microsoft Office 2007 - components of the versions	Microsoft Office Base 2007	Microsoft Office for home and studies 2007	Microsoft Office Standard 2007	Microsoft Office for small business 2007	Microsoft Office Professional 2007	Microsoft Office Maximum 2007	Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2007	Microsoft Office Corporate 2007
Word 2007	+	+	+	+	+	+	+	+
Excel 2007	+	+	+	+	+	+	+	+
PowerPoint 2007	-	+	+	+	+	+	+	+
Publisher 2007	-	-	-	+	+	+	+	+
Outlook 2007	+	-	+	-	-	-	+	+
Access 2007	-	-	-	-	+	+	+	+
OneNote 2007	-	+	-	-	-	+	-	+
Outlook 2007 with a Contacts manager	-	-	-	+	+	+	-	-
InfoPath 2007	-	-	-	-	-	+	+	+
Integrated corporate content management	-	-	-	-	-	+	+	+
E-forms	-	-	-	-	-	+	+	+
Advanced management of user access to data and policies	-	-	-	-	-	+	+	+
Communicator 2007	-	-	-	-	-	-	+	+
Groove 2007	-	-	-	-	-	+	-	+

At the same time, a simple table listing the major components of Office 2007 gives merely a superficial idea of the features of each suite since the difference among the suites is "measured" with not only the package bundle. Say, Office 2007 for home and studies appears to be a set of office programs for home-based users and students, facilitating creation of attractive documents, spreadsheets and presentations, plus management of data and notes from a single place. Office 2007 for home and studies includes Office Excel 2007, Office OneNote 2007, Office PowerPoint 2007, and Office Word 2007. Office 2007 Standard is already a kit for not only home-based users but private entrepreneurs, complemented with email features, advanced graphics and formatting capabilities, and a higher level of reliability and security. It includes Office Excel 2007, Office Outlook 2007, Office PowerPoint 2007, and Office Word 2007.

At the same time, Office 2007 Maximum is a universal means to handle a complete pack of processing and acquisition of almost any kind of data, quick search for information, sharing data with other users, getting the best results for minimum time. It includes Office Access 2007, Office Excel 2007, Office Outlook 2007 with a Contacts manager, Office PowerPoint 2007, Office Publisher 2007, and Office Word 2007.

The differences among these three suites is immense - both in the functionality and in the price. The major distinctions have been gathered in the below table.

Features and advantages	Office for home and studies 2007	Office Standard 2007	Office Maximum 2007
New look and feel Result-oriented menus and tools facilitating search and using the product's capabilities.	+	+	+
New graphic features SmartArt Graphics — an advanced set of development tools available in Microsoft Office programs to create diagrams and schemes of superb and exciting look.	+	+	+
Interactive preview Viewing formatting changes with a single click.	+	+	+
Microsoft Office themes New themes make it easier to create attractive documents using consistent styles contained in Microsoft Office programs.	+	+	+
Document Inspector Easily removes "invisible" data like comments, hidden text, and properties. Provides confidentiality while sharing documents.	+	+	+
Document Restore Tool Recovers Microsoft Office documents after system failures.	+	+	+
Command Tabs The command tabs on the ribbon are result-oriented and display frequently invoked commands that formerly were laid out inside a long succession of drop-down menus.	+	+	+
User Help Advanced help tools expanded in terms of functionality outside the scope of Microsoft Office applications, include resources and tuition aids available through the Microsoft Office Online web site.	+	+	+
Context menus and commands Menus and commands are customizable automatically depending on the task being run.	+	+	+
Electronic guides Contain step-by-step instructions for running standard tasks.	+	+	+
Information management A more effective information management with the features of Microsoft Office OneNote 2007 used to acquire, ordering and search for notes and other information.	+	-	+
Spam filter Substantially reduces the number of unwanted emails penetrating Microsoft Office Outlook 2007.	-	+	+
Anti-fishing protection tools Display warnings in case of receiving suspicious and potentially fraudulent emails in Office Outlook 2007.	-	+	+
A preview of email attachments Email attachments can be previewed without their opening in Office Outlook 2007.	-	+	+
Centralized user information Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 with the Contacts manager centralizes all the info on contacts, assumed customers and clients, including the history of interactions, estimated sales amount and the probability of cancelled sales, as well as planned tasks, thus facilitating project management, response to clients' requests, and sales monitoring due to centralized running of these procedures in one place.	-	-	+
Publications for the print, electronic mail, and Internet Microsoft Office Publisher 2007 helps create and publish a wide range of published matters and advertising materials featuring in a variety of layouts for printing, distribution over the Internet, which use customized styles, including logos, colors, fonts, and business information.	-	-	+
Integrated corporate data management Helps protect access to business data using several differentiated features, including office automation, a library of slides in Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007, attaching shortcuts and bar-codes, as well as a new portal of the Reports Center. Integrated corporate data management is used jointly with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007.	-	-	+
E-forms Easy to create and deploy E-form solutions which reduce the amount of reentered data, thus improving the authenticity of data acquired.	-	-	+
Advanced management of user access to data and policies Protects digital information against unauthorized access.	-	-	+
Shared work environment providing increased efficiency of joint work Microsoft Office Groove 2007 helps work more productively, consolidating all the team members, tools and data in one place - in the user's PC.	-	-	+

Next

Top Stories:

MoBo:


		ECS X58B-A (Intel X58)

		ASUS Rampage II Extreme (Intel X58)

		MSI DKA790GX and ECS A780GM-A Ultra

		MSI P7NGM (NVIDIA GeForce 9300)

		Intel X58 and ASUS P6T Deluxe

		MSI P45 Neo2 (Intel P45)

		Foxconn A7GMX-K (AMD 780G)

VGA Card:


		NVIDIA GeForce GTX 295 – a new leader in 3D graphics!

		ECS HYDRA GeForce 9800GTX+. Water-cooled and SLI "all-in-one"

		Radeon HD 4830 CrossFire - better than Radeon HD 4870!

		XFX GeForce GTX 260 Black Edition in the SLI mode

		Leadtek WinFast PX9500 GT DDR2 – better than GeForce 9500GT DDR-3

		Palit Radeon HD 4870 Sonic: exclusive, with unusual features

		Palit HD 4850 Sonic: almost Radeon HD 4870, priced as HD 4850

CPU & Memory:


		GSkill high-capacity memory modules

		CPU Intel Core i7-920 (Bloomfield)

		DDR3 memory: late 2008

		CPU AMD Phenom X3 8750 (Toliman)

		AMD Phenom X4 9850 – a top-end CPU at affordable price

		CPU Intel Atom 230 (Diamondville)

		Chaintech Apogee GT DDR3 1600