Thursday, October 11, 2007

Not sure to buy Microsoft Office 2007 or not?

The new Microsoft Offic e 2007 have been released for several months. Microsoft Office 2007 Professional edition retails close to $500. So, if you are trying to decide whether the newest addition to the Office suite product line is worth the money you may be interested in knowing that you can download a trial version or you can get some hands-on experience in your web browser.
On the Microsoft Office home page (www.microsoft.com) you will notice a lot of links about the features of the 2007 suite. You can view screenshots and brief videos showing some of the changes that can be found in the 2007 versions of Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, Publisher, and Outlook. And, after you have read the articles and seen the visual media, you can now download a trial version. You will need to create an account and answer a brief questionnaire related to your use (whether it be personal or professional) of the Office suite products. After your account has been set up Microsoft will scan your computer to make sure the download will be successful. If you do not have enough memory or hard drive space, the application will advise you to view a trial version in your web browser instead. Once the trial version is downloaded to your computer you will need to verify your account by responding to an email. In return you will get the trial key code needed to activate your free trial version. At any point of the trial you can elect to purchase the full edition key code and purchase Microsoft Office 2007.

The trial includes the 2007 versions of Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, Publisher, and Outlook. Some of the features have been disabled since it is a trial version. But, you can still do plenty of actual hands-on work in these programs to get a grasp on the changes.
The first thing that you will notice when you open a new Office 2007 program is that the traditional menu system has been replaced with a new tab system. Each tab will open a more visual and intuitively grouped set of commands as opposed to a written list. There is no tab replacement for the typical "file" menu instead you will use the Office 2007 icon in the upper left to open files and save changes.

Whether you download the trial version or view it through you web browser, you will have a similar experience. You can log back into the web browser version as often as would like so you don't have to download it to get a full trial experience. The trial version will help answer your questions about the latest Office upgrade better than any article or screenshot can.

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