Microsoft Office 2007

Microsoft Office 2007 is a significant upgrade to the Microsoft Office suite, featuring extensive changes to the traditional application interface. In Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Access 2007, Microsoft replaced the traditional toolbars and menus with the Ribbon, which provides access to all of the program's commands, grouped by category. The Ribbon was designed to make the Office applications easier to learn and use, since the Ribbon exposes all of the application's commands. In previous versions, many of these commands were buried in a maze of hidden toolbars and menus.

In addition to the Ribbon, Microsoft introduced these notable changes and new features in Office 2007:

• The Microsoft Office button provides a central location for document management commands, such as opening, saving, and printing files. In previous versions, most of these commands were located on the File menu.
  
  
• New options make it easy to prepare final copies of your document and publish your files.
  
  
• The Live Preview feature allows you to preview various formatting options in your document before applying any changes.
  
  
• New file formats, which utilize XML technology, are intended to reduce file size and increase security.
  
  
• A customizable status bar allows you to display a variety of program and file information.

Most of the features above apply to Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Access 2007. Microsoft Outlook 2007 also includes some of these new features. Other Office programs, including Project, Publisher, and Visio, appear more like previous versions.

Because of these extensive changes, we strongly recommend that Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, and Outlook students take courses using the version of the software that they are using at home or work. Our Office 2003 and Office 2007 training options are described below.

Courses for Experienced Office Users

If you have experience using a previous version of Office, consider taking our Transitioning to Office 2007 course to get up to speed with the new interface, features, and file formats in Office 2007. This half-day course is intended for users with Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, or Access experience who are planning to upgrade to Office 2007 or who are evaluating the software for a future upgrade.

After taking this course, you can continue your Office training by taking intermediate or advanced Office 2007 courses appropriate for your needs and level of experience.

Courses for New Office 2007 Users

If you are new to Office 2007 and don't have any previous experience with Microsoft Office, you should take one of our introductory-level application courses in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, or Access 2007. These courses cover application-specific features appropriate for beginning users, as well as an introduction to the Office 2007 interface, including the Ribbon and the Microsoft Office button. We are currently offering several courses in Office 2007 and will be adding to these offerings over the next several months. Check our class schedule to view current offerings.

Courses for Office 2003 Users

Many companies are not planning to upgrade to Office 2007 immediately but will instead continue to use Office 2003 for the next year or two. If this describes your situation, our Office 2003 courses may be your best choice. We will continue to offer a full schedule of classes in the Office 2003 applications. These courses are also appropriate for students who are using previous versions of Office, such as Office 2000 or Office XP.

Getting Additional Course Advice

If you have additional questions about which classes are right for you, our course catalog includes detailed descriptions of the topics covered in class, as well as links to the table of contents from the course handout. You can also visit our Microsoft Office Course Advice page for more information about Microsoft Office versions.

Our student advisor, Paul Westermann, can also help you find the class that's right for you. You can reach Paul by phone at (314) 984-9000 or through e-mail at info@micros.umsl.edu.