There are many great features in Microsoft Office 2007. Here are my current top ten!
The Ribbon
The Ribbon is the new interface of Microsoft Office 2007. It is common to all the packages, and is the way you get around the packages. Instead of menus and toolbars, everything is now on show across the ribbon. There are tabs at the top which take you to different ribbons where icons are grouped to perform similar tasks. You can still get to the familiar dialogue boxes by clicking on a dialogue box launcher which appears in the bottom right hand corner of a group on the ribbon.
The Quick Access ToolbarSmart Art
This is the little toolbar that sits at the top of the screen above the ribbon. You can add your favourite icons here so that you can get to them quickly.
This is a brilliant feature for illustrating processes or any kind of graphical representation. You can use Smart Art in Word, Excel and PowerPoint although it really comes into its own in PowerPoint.
Quick TablesFormat as a Table in Excel
Ever needed to create a table quickly and have it formatted for you? Well with Quick Tables you can have a ready formatted table in seconds. Simply click the drop down and select the formatting you would like.
Mail Merge
Now that the Ribbon goes across the screen from left to right it is easier than ever to perform a mail merge.
First make sure you have created your list of names and addresses in a table in a separate document. Save this and close it before starting the Mail Merge. (you can use a spreadsheet too or your Outlook Contacts )
Now go to the Mailings Tab on the Ribbon and follow the ribbon from left to right.
Quick Styles
Styles have always existed in Microsoft Word, however now they are easier to see and test out before you decide whether to apply them or not. Styles are particularly useful if you wish to create a Table of Contents or for easy navigation around a long document.
To see what text will look like in a particular style simply select the text and click on the style you wish to see demonstrated.
Wrap Text in Excel
When you are adding text to a cell in Excel, it is often too big for the cell and you can spend quite some time trying to format the cell to display the text. Now in this version of Excel the Wrap Text icon is firmly on the Ribbon in plain view. Simply select the cell, click the icon and your text will change.
This is a very neat feature which makes the selected data look nice and has the added benefit of adding the ability to filter the data and create a total if you wish.
Conditional Formatting in Excel
In Excel 2007 Conditional formatting has been greatly improved. You can now have lots more formats and conditions instead of the three that you were limited to before. You can even have symbols and icons not just plain formatting.
Create a Photo Album in PowerPoint
A brilliant feature which allows you to create a presentation based on photographs stored on your computer. The photographs are sized and can be annotated too without any hassle.
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