Help! I Can't Find Anything In
Office 2007!
by Cate Eales
Appeared November 19, 2009 on castanet.net
I often hear from people who are completely lost in
Microsoft Office 2007. I can help with that. If you’d like to avoid Office
completely, I can help you there, too.
What happened to the Menus?
The previous versions of Word and Excel had menus and toolbars. And
although there were many of both, eventually we found most of what we
needed in order to get work done.
Office 2007 looks very different from older versions. Microsoft pretty
much abandoned menus in favour of “The Ribbon.” Once you get used to it,
The Ribbon is kind of cool, but when you first open up Word 2007 or
Excel 2007, you might feel a little overwhelmed. Or bewildered. Or just
plain irritated.
(click to enlarge image)
Here are a couple of tools that can help ease the
transition between Word 2003 (or earlier!) and Word 2007.
Search Commands from Microsoft Labs adds a tab to the top of your
Office program that makes it easy to…er… search for the command you want.
From the website:
You know there’s a button for it, but you don’t
know or remember where it is. If this ever happens to you, check out
Search Commands. You can use this concept test today to quickly find the
commands you need in Microsoft Office 2007 Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
Just search with your own words and click on the command you need. It
also includes Guided Help, which acts as a tour guide for the specific
tasks you’re looking for.
I use Word a lot (Oh, wait! I’m using it now!) and this
little tab has made my life a lot easier. You can
download it from that page.
Ribbon, schmibbon. I want my Menus back!
If you really, really hate The Ribbon and just want things to look like
they did in earlier versions of Office, try the RibbonCustomizer,
available here: http://pschmid.net/office2007/ribboncustomizer/index.php.
This add-in for Office 2007 includes a tab called “Classic UI” which is
very close to the old Office 2003 look. It does a lot more than that, but
if you’re flailing with the new Office layout, that’s the feature you’ll
want. There is a free version and a more feature-rich pay-for version.
Both include that Classic UI tab.
I still hate Microsoft Office. Is there anything
else?
Yes. There are other office-like suites of programs you can buy, like
Corel WordPerfect. However, like Microsoft Office, WordPerfect is
expensive.
If you are looking for a free alternative,
check out OpenOffice,
here.
I sometimes use OpenOffice, and it is a great alternative to Microsoft
Office. It will read Office documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and
more. You can save your own documents and spreadsheets in Microsoft format
if you want to. The difference between OpenOffice and a suite you pay for
is that there is no official support.
Many people don’t need all the programs included with “Office” suites. If
you only need a basic, free word processing program that will read and
save in Word format, try AbiWord. You can
learn more about it
here.
Links
Microsoft Office
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/products/FX100487411033.aspx?pid=CL100571081033
The Ribbon
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/help/ha100898951033.aspx
Search Commands
http://www.officelabs.com/projects/searchcommands/Pages/default.aspx
RibbonCustomizer
http://pschmid.net/office2007/ribboncustomizer/index.php
Corel WordPerfect
http://www.corel.com/servlet/Satellite/ca/en/Product/1207676528492?trkid=NASEMGglOP#tabview=tab0
OpenOffice
http://why.openoffice.org/
AbiWord
http://www.abisource.com//
Computer Care Kelowna
http://computercarekelowna.com
Getting Along With Your Computer Column Archives
http://rlis.com/column.htm
Get Cate's column by email
http://www.feedblitz.com/f/f.fbz?Sub=20618
RSS Feed:
http://rlis.com/rlis.xml
--
Do you need help with your computer? I'm here to help you and your home or
business computer get along!
Cate Eales runs Computer Care Kelowna, a mobile service helping home users
and businesses get along with their computers. To arrange an appointment
phone her at 250-764-7043. Cate also welcomes your comments and
suggestions. Send email to
help@computercarekelowna.com.
You can read previous
columns here. If you'd like to subscribe to this column by
email, please visit this link It's easy, and free. If you'd prefer the
RSS Feed, click here.
©
Cate Eales 2009 – All Rights Reserved
-30-
