Microsoft Office 2007 Standard Edition - Product Review

Microsoft Office 2007 has nine new versions to fit the needs of any home or business user. At the low end is a version with basic word processing and spreadsheet needs and it ranges to the a powerhouse for a large corporation. Microsoft Office 2007 Standard Edition is in the second from the bottom tier and is made for basic processing needs for home or a student user. Office 2007 Standard Edition includes Excel, Word, PowerPoint and Outlook.

Microsoft Office 2007 Standard has a new user interface the make it easier and faster to find the things you need to use. The old gray tool bar is replace with a bright blue tabbed Ribbon tool bar. All programs in Office 2007 share the same new graphics engine to allow to create elaborate projects. There is also a new style menu that allows you to preview new fonts, colors, and images before you apply them to your project. There are themes for Office 2007 available for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint so you can create cohesive projects.

There is little customization but there is a Quick Access tool bar that allows you to add common functions to find easier. Keyboard shortcuts remain almost the same so if you are familiar with them on older versions you won't have to learn new keyboard shortcuts.

New users will like the new Ribbon tool bar which allows the user to easily and quickly find what you need. Users that are used to the old gray tool bar and drop down menus might find the change a little cumbersome at first but will quickly adapt once it's seen how much it improves speed. With over 1500 commands in Word, the Ribbon allows you to find these commands easier than the old gray tool bar style.

SmartArt graphics are also new in Office 2007. SmartArt has predesigned themes to help you create lists, cycles, relationships and more. It helps you create a very visual presentation that helps better display your message to your audience. Your audience are better able to interpret data and the visual appeal will capture and hold their attention.

As in previous versions, Word in Office 2007 has spelling and grammar check. There is also a new word contextual spelling tool to also check that you are using the word correctly in context. This will catch incorrect usage of "your" and "you're" and "their" and "they're". Another great new feature is a live word count.

Microsoft Office 2007 Excel has improved visualization tools with new data bars and more colorful effects for graphs. This makes it easier to interpret data at a glance. Excel also has more tools and options to create professional looking charts. You can now customize headers and footers with the new Page Layout View.

PowerPoint 2007 comes with many prepackaged layouts that you can customize to suite your needs. You can add 3-D effects, shadows, and other visual effects to your presentations. There are also improvements in rich text and typography effects to help you customize your presentations. PowerPoint 2007 comes with preexisting templates for a cohesive effect throughout all of your different parts of a presentation.

Microsoft Office 2007 has increased security measures to help your private information stay private. There is a new document inspector that crawls your documents looking for hidden components so you can share your documents without worry. Office 2007 can also help you recover your documents after a system crash. Outlook comes with better spam protection and you can preview attachments before opening them.

Outlook 2007 also helps you get and stay organized with a to-do bar where you can place tasks, emails, appointments and calendar information. Outlook will now allow you to subscribe to Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds within Outlook.

For the new or seasoned Microsoft Office 2007 user, you will find the new features and upgrades helpful in creating impressive PowerPoint presentations and rich text documents. Excel can be used both in the home for budgeting and in a small business. If you need a little more than basic processing needs, this is an affordable option with enough features to completely customize your project quickly and easily.