Customer Reviews
The worst. Ever. 
2008-03-12
Vista has a twin, and its name is Office 2007. And I'm embarrassed to admit I failed to do the research I should have done, and typically thoroughly do before buying anything. Yes, it got me. I was lulled by thoughts of, "I know Windows and Office applications like the back of my hand--how different could it possibly be?" And why shouldn't I think that given the compatibility and cohesion of past Office versions? Like many I'm sure, even with new or updated MS products I've pretty much always been able to, at the very *least*, intuit and immediately execute core commands--read: effective and efficient productivity right out of the box. Well, that party has come to a brutal ended with the Office '07 suites. With its completely new interface (within which the same user-friendly Office functions we've all come to know and love are purportedly buried), MS has released a product I've found to be astoundingly unintuitive and difficult to learn (i.e., nowhere near worth the time it would take to figure out), not to mention incredibly slow to run. Then, once I started to get the hang of the method to their madness a little bit, my feeble hopes were quickly dashed when I discovered there to be MINIMAL ability to customize menus, toolbars, buttons, functions, etc such that I could better take advantage of said "improvements". Can't wait to see the new TV commercial Mac will inevitably come up with to mock this mock-worthy software. Don't get me wrong folks, overall I'm a big PC/MS/Win/Office fan. But, wow, for these and other troublesome reasons already described elsewhere, this one has left me utterly stunned.
MS Office 
2008-02-25
This software is required for school work and future employment. Since I'm already familiar with earier versions, this one is easy to use. I like the consistency of the command ribbon, tabs, and options between the parts of the suite.
Microsoft finds a way to make things more difficult....again. 2007-12-18
I have been using a trial version of Office 2007 and it has been nothing but difficult and frustrating. I am an advanced user of Excel and PPT, however in this version I feel like a beginner - as if I've hardly ever used Office products before. The use of the ribbon instead of the drop down menu completely changes the entire user experience and I will definitely not be buying '07. I recommend going to the MS site and downloading a free trial of '07 prior to purchasing - I really had no idea how different the interface would be and I'm glad I only have a trial version and can easily get rid of it.
Backwards In Time 2007-12-13
I believe the next time Microsoft makes a new version of the Microsoft Office Suite, perhaps they should go back to DOS. I have never had the displeasure that I have now since purchasing this software suite. Imagine everything you know about Microsoft Office being stripped away and being replaced with a new program that has the same exact functionality (nothing new what so ever), only every button, check box, function, and flexibility being stripped away. What you are imagining now is the new 2007 version. If you buy this program, the moment you start it for the first time, you will realize you made a mistake. Go back to 2003.
Orifice 2007 2007-12-03
After all these years, the trolls in Redmond still have not learned how to produce user-friendly software. There was no reason to make the changes to Office that they've made; it was simply a way to justify an unnecessary upgrade that has turned out to be a downgrade. Users with a moderate understanding of how Office operated will find themselves flummoxed when attempting to do things they had finally learned how to do in the old version.
The much-vaunted ribbons are confusing and counter-intuitive. Microsoft addresses this problem by offering free self-paced trainng courses, apparently oblivious to the fact that time iS money, unless of course, it's Microsoft's time.
At the very least, one expects backward compatibility, that is unless you're dealing with Mr. Bill's minions. I loaded Word files created with Office XP, only to find the Office 2007 converted them with serious defects, like inserting tabs in all paragraphs whenever you inserted one in a single paragraph. And, of course, if you delete a tab stop from one paragraph, you delete it from all of them.
Useless.
I Was Pleasantly Surprised 
2007-11-02
Microsoft Office Small Business 2007 is the complete suite of productivity and contact management tools for accomplishing your business tasks. Manage customer and contact information in one place, while producing professional-quality communications and manage marketing campaigns in-house with a full suite of powerful tools. Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 integrates contact management directly with Outlook, for better control over your customer & prospect information, e-mail messages, phone calls, appointments and more. With Office Small Business 2007 you can save time, stay organized and spend more time with customers. Business Contact Manager in Outlook 2007 helps you manage and track your marketing activities Use Powerpoint 2007 to create more dynamic business presentations - It features an extensive library of slide layouts; new tools for charts, diagrams and tables; quick preview changes and more Distribute marketing materials in PDF format -- convert easily from Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Publisher and Access files
Offensively incompetent software design, do not touch this 2007-10-30
Sorry Microsoft, but your "ribbon" user interface is the most retarded upgrade feature ever. It renders all your Office applications useless. I have no interest spending hours to learn a completely different UI and to recustomize the toolbar all over again (I'm not even sure if it's even possible to customize the "ribbon"). The ribbon is ugly and WAY, WAY, WAY, WAY too big.
My advice: try to avoid upgrading for as long as possible.
MS Office Small Business 2007 2007-09-26
Bought it for the contact database feature. Still trying to get used to it. Looks effective at first glance.
Open Office is free -- get it instead 2007-09-16
openoffice dot org
OpenOffice: open source "equivalent"
All the power 90% of you people need, and zero cost. TINY download. SMALL space consumption on drive. EVEN a portable version. Can open and save Microsloth documents
FREE. no licensing hassles. no demonic EULA.
Dumbed down and harder to use 
2007-07-29
The new ribbon design is supposed to make it easier to learn and use. It may be for some new users but for experienced users, it isn't. This version takes away some critical nuts & bolts customization features and many tasks now take longer to perform. This is not due to the learning curve, it is the inherent nature of the way the ribbon works. Once you are familiar with the program, nothing is faster than the old menu structure. If Microsoft added an option to allow users to choose between menus and ribbons, it would be the best of both worlds, satisfying the needs of both new and experienced users. The new version does not run macros as fast however. My recommedation for existing users: keep Office 2003 for as long as you can and consider going to Open Office when Microsoft no longer supports 2003 (unless they restore the functionality in a newer release of 2007).
