Office 2007 Overview
Many users who have used Office 2003 or Office XP in the past are used to a menu and toolbar system to access commands in each program. In Office 2007, the menu system has been replaced by a series of tabs and groups of commands, which look significantly different from previous versions of the Microsoft Office products. This section will address the new features of Office 2007 that are common to Word 2007, Excel 2007 and PowerPoint 2007. Please see Office 2007 FAQs for answers to some of your questions.
Microsoft Word
The Office button
Many of the commands that were formerly on the File menu in older versions of Microsoft Office have been moved to the Office button.
Accessing the Office button
Click on the colorful button with the Microsoft Office logo in the upper left corner of your screen. Alternatively, press your ALT key, then F. 
Accessing the Office button displays a menu of commonly used commands, as well as a list of recently used documents.
Using the Quick Access Toolbar
The Quick Access Toolbar is the small toolbar to the right of the Office button. By default, it has commands for Save, Undo, Email and Quick Print (which prints 1 copy to the default printer on your computer).
Customizing the Quick Access Toolbar
You can add or remove commands from the Quick Access toolbar. To customize the Quick Access toolbar, click the small down arrow to the right of the Quick Access toolbar. You will see a list of commands. Select the commands you want to add, and deselect the commands you want to remove.
Accessing Office Options
For advanced users who like to customize applications by changing program options such as the default location for saving files, proofing options and advanced features, the …Options button near the bottom of the Office button menu provides access to program-wide settings. The following screen will appear:
.bmp)
This replaces the Tools, Options menu command many advanced users are familiar with. Clicking on the resources tab will allow the user to search for windows updates instead of going through Windows Explorer in the older version of Office.
The Ribbon
The Ribbon is the main location for commands. The Ribbon is divided into tabs. The tabs are organized around document tasks. On each tab, there are groups of commands.
Showing and hiding the Ribbon
The ribbon can be hidden to increase the size of your work area. To hide the ribbon, you can use one of the following procedures:
• Click the Customize Quick Access Toolbar button, then choose Minimize the Ribbon
– OR -
• Press CTRL + F1
Follow the same steps to display the Ribbon again if it is hidden.
Using keyboard shortcuts to navigate the Ribbon
For some users, using keyboard shortcuts is preferable to using the mouse. There are two ways to access the commands on the Ribbon using the keyboard:
1. Keystroke combinations
2. Keystroke sequences
Keystroke Combinations require users to press and hold multiple keys at the same time. Common examples of Keystroke Combinations are:
CTRL+C = copy
CTRL+V=paste
CTRL+S=save
Keystroke Sequences require users to press keys in a sequence. In Office 2007, most Keystroke Sequences begin by pressing the ALT key. When you press the ALT key in any MS Office 2007 program (Word, PowerPoint, Excel), you’ll notice small letters next to the tabs and commands on the Ribbon. These are called Badges. Badges indicate which key to press next in the sequence.
For example, pressing the ALT key in Microsoft Word 2007 will display the following Badges:
Using these Badges, you can determine which key to press next. Pressing P will enable the Page Layout tab. After pressing the P Badge, your screen looks like this:
Now, if you press the O key, you can change the orientation of the page from Portrait to Landscape. Use thedown arrow on your keyboard to highlight Landscape, then press your ENTER key.
Using special tabs on the Ribbon
When you work with special objects, the Ribbon will display an additional tab, with commands specific to that object. The tab will disappear when you are no longer working with that object. In the example here, the Picture Tools tab is only displayed when a picture in the document is selected or highlighted.
Accessing additional commands
The Ribbon displays the commands which are most commonly used. However, not all commands are initially displayed. To access additional commands in a group, look for the small symbol in the lower right corner of each group. Click on the symbol to display a dialog box with additional commands. 
File Types
Another significant difference in Office 2007 relates to how files are saved. In order to produce smaller files, which are capable of greater customization, Microsoft introduced a new file type based on XML (eXtensible Markup Language). If you are familiar with file extensions, you’ll notice new extensions designating these new file types:
Saving new files
By default, when you create and save new Office 2007 files, the new file format is used.
Opening, editing and saving old files
You can open files created with older versions of the software using Office 2007. When you edit these files, and save them, they will be saved in the old format. For example, if you open a file called MyBibliography.doc in Word 2007, make changes to it and save it, it will be saved in the same format. By default, if you use a feature which is not compatible with the old format, you will get a message about that feature. For example, if you open an older PowerPoint file, insert one of the new SmartArt objects (see below), and save the file, you get the following message:
There are similar dialog boxes for Word and Excel.
In addition, when you open and edit an older file in Office 2007, you will see the title bar reflect that you are working in Compatibility Mode.
Saving As and Converting files
You can use the Save As and Convert commands to change the way a document is saved.
When you are working on a new file type (*.docx, *.pptx, or *.xlsx), you can use the Save As command to save the file in the older format. By saving the file in the older format, you can then open the document in Office XP/2003. (If you are unsure what type your file is, look at the title bar of your program – you’ll see the file name with the extension).
To use Save As, click the Office button, and select Save As. Then select Word 97-2003 (Document/ Workbook / Presentation).
When you Convert a file, you are changing the file from the old format to the new format. This command works the same way as the Save As command. 
When you use the Convert command, you are upgrading the original file to the new file format. By converting the file, you’ll be able to access all the new features in Office 2007. When you next save the file, it will default to saving the file as an Office 2007 document. If you save the converted document, a copy of the file in the older format will still exist.
To convert a file, click the Office button, and choose Convert. You will only see the Convert command when you are working on an Office 97-2003 file.
Office 2007 Compatibility Issues
Office 2007 is installed on all new Drew-issued laptop computers. There are, however, students and professors on campus who may have an older version of Office. This means there may be some time when you have Office 2007, and your friends and professors don’t.
However, many students and professors work from home. If you, your friends, or professors do not have Office 2007 at home, you will need to download and install the file converters on your home computer. Without the file converters, you will not be able to open and view documents in the new format with Office XP/2003. The file converters are available for download from Microsoft’s website.
