Office 2007 or 2003?

jmck87

Hi guys,

Im getting delivery of XP pro today to install on my macbook using bootcamp...

So now that ill have windows Ill be getting either Office 03 or 07.... if you like the windows partition is for work and mac for the rest...

Only thing is Im not sure what Office 07 is like... never used it... have seen it on a friends laptop and was not impressed by Word... very different interface from 2003... I know id prob get used to it but will still be using 03 a lot in work....

My question is how does the 2007 Excel compare to the 2003 version? I do a lot in VB writing macros.... is there a new VB interface too?

2003 or 2007?! which do you prefer?

Cheers guys.

Gillie

03 all the way for my.
My co worker has 07 and he's convinced that it's slowing down the Laptop on him.
I love 03. Love the interface.

mukki

yeah 2003 is soo clear and simple, using 2007 a month now, and still wasting time trying to find the right icon or menu

ob

At first I didn't like 2007, but after a couple of months I find I can do things a little bit quicker. I also find the performance of 2007 better than 2003 (on the same hardware).

My recommendation would be to go for 2007, you'll have to get used to the ribbon interface, but it won't take long.

The 'Save As PDF' feature is also very handy (and overdue!).

jmck87

Yeah I heard about the Save as PDF feature... pretty cool allright....

Fair enough point about getting used to it.... but id be switching to 2003 in work.... no choice... so im thinking it would be easier to have both the same....

Food for thought though.. thanks lads.

astrofool

Switched to 2007 at home last night, much better performance (i'm pretty high spec already). Ribbon takes getting used to, but is much better once you've made the change, you'll also find handy tools you never knew existed.

[edit]It'd be pretty weird for office to slow down a laptop, especially when it's not running, he must have a process somewhere taking up the CPU, and/or the office install made a fragmented hard drive worse and he needs to defragment.[/edit]

ethernet

jmck87 wrote:

Yeah I heard about the Save as PDF feature... pretty cool allright....

Yes, after you download and install an add-on . Just use OpenOffice instead.

jmck87

As great as Open Office is.... 90% of my work is in the VB macro editor.....

Heinrich

jmck87 wrote:

As great as Open Office is.... 90% of my work is in the VB macro editor.....

Have you tried Open Office? I believe that you can run macros in it so there must be some form of editing available.

As a matter of interest, how many out there actually buy Microsoft software as distinct from acquiring it?;)

Stephen

I found office 2007 ok... except for Outlook 2007. Despite being the most 2003-like part of Office 2007 it is also the slowest, at least when running in Exchange mode anyway. That alone made me switch back.

ob

There was a update released in April to address a performance issue, maybe that would help.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/933493

I use it in Exchange mode and have not had any issues with performance, although my OST file is only around 1.3Gb...

Currently trialing 2007 in work. I love it but I know the users are going to scream blue murder looking for the right menu options.

Lots more nice features in Outlook 2007 too

timada

While Word 2007 is a pretty radical departure from earlier versions of Word, Outlook 2007 is more of an incremental step. My guess is that Outlook simply didn't benefit from having its entire interface scrapped; instead, selected parts of the program were reworked with the new interface model. It's consistent enough with the old version not to be a huge distraction, and the changes are mostly subtle and positive.:rolleyes:
<snip>

Jaoibh

I've been using 2007 at home and at work for the last 6 months and its horribly slow its turned my fastest machines into 486's its like being back on my old P1 133mhz with 16mb of ram you double click an excel work sheet and you sit and wait... and then you wait somemore and then you get pissed off and just go to a machine with Office 2003.

Not to mention that every time you go to save a doc it trys to save it into the new office extensions *.docx and *.xlsx and of course 2003 wont open them. Oh and while I'm on my rant all the feckin menu's are screwed up as well I dare you to find the insert menu!

kaimera

*yawn*

office2k7 is excellent. If you can't find a menu then there's not a lot of hope for you tbqh. :rolleyes:

You can change the default file save extension to .doc if you bothered to look.
and 2003 can open .docx if you have the compatibility patch installed.

I hate using 2003 in work and coming back to 2k7 at home. Same as going from win2k to Vista.

sebastianlieken

would yes all stop livin in the past, move forward ffs. office 07 is perfect unless ur sum ignorant, dull half-wit whos afraid of something new

Design_Dude

2003 is much quicker, uses less ram and is a lot simpler. 07 is full of big toolbars with fancy looking icons.

pd101

I find 2007 much better. It took a while to get used to it but once you do it is much quicker and easier to use. I especially like the tab system. Less clicking

dulpit

Office 2007 is class if you ask me... The only small problem i have is that i always save everything by just clicking on save, and my brutal college (cork institute of TECHNOLOGY) doesn't have the add-on for older versions of word to view the new docx format... Very annoying...

Also agreeing with someone from above i hate using older versions of office now..

kaizersoze

dulpit wrote: »

Office 2007 is class if you ask me... The only small problem i have is that i always save everything by just clicking on save, and my brutal college (cork institute of TECHNOLOGY) doesn't have the add-on for older versions of word to view the new docx format... Very annoying...

Also agreeing with someone from above i hate using older versions of office now..

Go into settings and change the default save option to '97 - 2003 Document'. It won't save as .docx anymore unless you choose 'Save as'.

mick.fr

Come on guys you got to be blind if you are saying Office 2003 is a lot easier than 2007.
I have to say I was looking at some features when I first used it, was a bit confused, but after a week I was grant. A lot faster to access the usual stuffs.

I have no performance issue whatsoever with Office 2007, I use it on 2 laptops and 1 desktop, all good specs with 2GB+ of RAM.
Your PCs must have low specs.

Dan_21

I have been using Office 2007 since the Beta. I could never go back to any other versions. Excel is great and I have all the little buttons I use alot on the Quick Access Tool bar. Buttons Like "Paste Values Only" etc. The quick access tool bar is one of it's greatest assets

The best thing about Excel 2007 is that it actually uses your precessor(S) where as the previous versions didn't

It is indeed a huge step forward from the old version and at first glanace you would decide to uninstal it but if you give it a few days it really is a major imporvement over the older versions. I set it up on a colleagues note book and gave him a quick tour, which helped alot, as I had learned the "easy" stuff, like where the hell the options were! This guy would not be the greatest at MS stuff but after his lap top died and he was given a new one he begged me to give him 2007 again as he couldn't handle going back to 2003.

i Office 2007

dulpit

kaizersoze wrote: »

Go into settings and change the default save option to '97 - 2003 Document'. It won't save as .docx anymore unless you choose 'Save as'.

Oh i know, but i prefer docx format (it looks better...)

mathias

Another vote here for 2007 , it was a bit mystifying at first , but now , I love the highlight and rollover effect , so that you can see changes before you do them , thats priceless in my opinion.