Free PDF - “First Look: Microsoft Office 2010”

[DawnFalcon]

Originally Posted by calvin-c

but also haven't yet installed the compatibility pack.

Unless you really, really need it? Don't. It's badly bloated with quite a few dependencies, has a service pack and a bunch of patches rather than simple versions (some of them quite large, basically the Office 2007 patches!) and introduces a number of vulnerability vectors.

It's not one of their better efforts, and it illustrates why OOXML is no standard.

[TallMomof2]

I love the Ribbon! Prior to 2007 I hated to use MS products because I could never could find anything. I've been using spreadsheets since Lotus 1-2-3 and word processing since Peachtext(?) and Office 2007 was the first MS product that I thought had the functions intuitively/logically laid out. It took me only a couple of hours to acclimate to 2007 whereas I was still having to google the location of functions in 2003.

[calvin-c]

Originally Posted by DawnFalcon

Unless you really, really need it? Don't. It's badly bloated with quite a few dependencies, has a service pack and a bunch of patches rather than simple versions (some of them quite large, basically the Office 2007 patches!) and introduces a number of vulnerability vectors.

It's not one of their better efforts, and it illustrates why OOXML is no standard.

Don't think I've heard of that version of XML. I assume it means 'Object Oriented' XML which makes no sense as XML is already Object Oriented. So it's probably Microsoft's name for its own 'standard'. Won't be the first time Microsoft has foisted off a shoddy, proprietary, standard on the unknowing.

As for really, really need it-IMO people only have 4 choices. 1) delete any documents you receive from friends/co-workers that are in Office 2007 format. 2) Buy Office 2007 yourself. (I suppose you *could* steal/pirate it, but I refuse to recommend that.) 3) Send them back & ask that they convert them to the older format for you. And 4) install the compatibility pack.

IMO most people prefer the last. I've never understood it myself-I'm certainly not shy about sending something I can't read back & asking whoever sent it to me to 'fix' the problem. When I'm certain they *can* fix it. But in my experience, few people are willing to do that if there's any way that they can fix the problem themselves, without spending money, and the compatibility pack is that way.

I've never had any problem with the compatibility pack, BTW-but that's just me. I have read quite a few stories about problems with it.

[calvin-c]

Originally Posted by TallMomof2

I love the Ribbon! Prior to 2007 I hated to use MS products because I could never could find anything. I've been using spreadsheets since Lotus 1-2-3 and word processing since Peachtext(?) and Office 2007 was the first MS product that I thought had the functions intuitively/logically laid out. It took me only a couple of hours to acclimate to 2007 whereas I was still having to google the location of functions in 2003.

You couldn't find them by perusing the menus? Sounds to me like you bought into one of Microsoft's dumber decisions, to make 'personalized' menus the default. All that does is a better job of hiding the things you rarely use, and make you pay a penalty (time) when you do search for them. First thing I did with my Office 2003 installation was turn that damned thing off.

[DawnFalcon]

Originally Posted by calvin-c

Don't think I've heard of that version of XML. I assume it means 'Object Oriented' XML which makes no sense as XML is already Object Oriented. So it's probably Microsoft's name for its own
'standard'. Won't be the first time Microsoft has foisted off a shoddy, proprietary, standard on the unknowing.

You know, you're dead... well, right actually

Office Open XML, now an ISO standard because they basically bought the ISO process. See above ISO-bashing I did.

And no, you can take option 5 - open it in Open Office, which works fine for anything but massively complex excel spreadsheets, and for those the compatibility pack tends to fall over anyway*.

I've never had any problem with the compatibility pack, BTW-but that's just me. I have read quite a few stories about problems with it.

Yea, I admit I've had *issues with it.

[13xforever]

Originally Posted by weedfreak

Now, that's debatable. Proof, please?

Proof of what? That users like Win7? I can say that based on my surroundings (a lot of people finally switched from XP to Win7 on my work).

Or proof that MS spent a lot of resources on Ribbon UI? Well, Office 2007 was at least 3 years in development and by now it took them 5 years to invent, implement and polish the control. Further spread of it in base Windows SDK, standard apps and many 3rd-party solutions proves it quite appealing for end-user in the end.

Or that lots of people will switch from Office 2003 to 2007? Well, that I cannot prove. But than again, I never could've proved my guesses and wishful thinking.

[13xforever]

Originally Posted by calvin-c

As for really, really need it-IMO people only have 4 choices. 1) delete any documents you receive from friends/co-workers that are in Office 2007 format. 2) Buy Office 2007 yourself. (I suppose you *could* steal/pirate it, but I refuse to recommend that.) 3) Send them back & ask that they convert them to the older format for you. And 4) install the compatibility pack.

It's an open standard, that leaves everything open to implement (except for some binary proprietary parts from very old versions of Office). Which OO took advantage at very first opportunity, so by now compatibility with the new format is much higher than with the old one.

Plus, Google Docs have support of importing them.

Plus you have OOXML SDK from MS, that can be used to read, edit and write documents in new format.

Plus, new format is based on XML, so you can easily modify them by using your favorite archiver and basic text/xml editor.

So, actually, this new format is much more open and user-friendly, which is a huge step forward.

[TallMomof2]

Originally Posted by calvin-c

You couldn't find them by perusing the menus? Sounds to me like you bought into one of Microsoft's dumber decisions, to make 'personalized' menus the default. All that does is a better job of hiding the things you rarely use, and make you pay a penalty (time) when you do search for them. First thing I did with my Office 2003 installation was turn that damned thing off.

Pre-2007, I found Word, Excel hard to use because it wasn't laid out well. Frequently, you could do the same thing two or three different ways. I found it confusing and time wasting digging through menus. I had the personalized menus turned off. Old Office just had the functions slapped on willy nilly. At least the newer version had some real thought and user input.

In 2007, I was up to speed quickly. I know that the ribbon is confusing for a lot of people because it took my Mom, who is extremely tech savvy, 30 minutes to figure out how to print a document.

[kacir]

Originally Posted by calvin-c

Don't think I've heard of that version of XML. I assume it means 'Object Oriented' XML which makes no sense as XML is already Object Oriented. So it's probably Microsoft's name for its own 'standard'.

No.
It means Office Open XML.
It is an attempt to make matters around XML standards very confusing.
Top management at Microsoft was very, VERY annoyed, when OpenOffice.org XML - a file format used by a competing product OpenOffice.org became an ISO standard. So they created completely incompatible format and in spite of OOo gave it a very confusing name.
See
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ooxml
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenOffice.org_XML

There was big controversy when Microsoft used extreme brute force to push their OOXML format through an ISO standardisation process some time ago. They finally managed to make it a standard. The result was many ISO officials in various countries resigned or at least protested strongly. Funny thing is, some journalists ran files produced by MSExcel and MSWord through a OOXML validation tool and found out that a simple Word or Excel document breaks the standard in literally thousands instances.

Just read the Wikipedia article about OOXML and follow the links. You will see I am not exaggerating.

[Nathan Campos]

I preffer to use the best and more stable version of Microsoft Office. Version 2003!
Also, OpenOffice have many more(and better) features than Microsoft and other commercial offices suites.

One of the best features of OpenOffice is the one-click PDF creation. In Microsoft Office Word, you need to install 3rd party softwares to add a virtual printer that creates the PDFs for you.

Also, in OpenOffice you have a cross-platform program and format, that you in nearby any OS can edit and read your files. PDF is a good and very cross-platform format, but you can't edit it in any platform.

Another good alternative is Google Docs, but it have a lot of limitations. But at the other side, you can open and edit files that any OS that have internet connection and a good browser.

But the office pack choose is very personal. I have my favorite office, you have another and it's like cars and OSs.

[DawnFalcon]

Originally Posted by kacir

OpenOffice.org XML - a file format used by a competing product OpenOffice.org became an ISO standard.

Um. This isn't quite true. The name of the standard is OpenDocument.

And ironically, OpenOffice dosn't follow it - or rather, OpenDocument was the standard some versions back, the current OO file format is a very early draft of the next version of OpenDocument...

Nathan - Eh. There are perfectly good PDF printers (I use Bullzip) which work fine with Office, I'd not really list that as a limit. Sure it's third party, but I use it for printing PDF's from a number of apps so...

[Nathan Campos]

Originally Posted by DawnFalcon

And ironically, OpenOffice dosn't follow it - or rather, OpenDocument was the standard some versions back, the current OO file format is a very early draft of the next version of OpenDocument...

Yeah that's true.

Originally Posted by DawnFalcon

Eh. There are perfectly good PDF printers (I use Bullzip) which work fine with Office, I'd not really list that as a limit. Sure it's third party, but I use it for printing PDF's from a number of apps so...

I agree with you, I use doPDF, that I like very much and I use it principally to make PDFs of reports from my mySQL server and logs of my applications that I develop.

[13xforever]

Originally Posted by Nathan Campos

One of the best features of OpenOffice is the one-click PDF creation. In Microsoft Office Word, you need to install 3rd party softwares to add a virtual printer that creates the PDFs for you.

Well, in Office 2007 you could install free addon to add such a capability (this feature was removed from beta at the release date due to some licensing concerns) or after installing the service pack.

Office 2010 will have it from the beginning.

PS: happy new year