MS Office 2007

It was announced on the college daily email update a couple days ago, that Office 2007 is available for students to download. I wasn't very enthusiastic at the beginning. JC was interested in it and he downloaded the software. So I installed it on my laptop and later, on my work desktop.

I was editing some of my work that includes tables and figures using the MS Words 2007 for the first time. One of the new feature on MS Office 2007 is something called "Ribbon", which is a bunch of commands, but instead of using text only user interface, it comes with a graphical user interface. This ribbon thingy is taking up more working space than it is worth, so I hide them when not in use. Then another problem arise, when you need to search for a command, you need to CLICK from one ribbon to another, instead of just gliding from one to another like the older version and the menu will drop down. What a waste of motion economy!

MS effort to 'revolutionize' the office is definitely a good one. I needed to open up another word document, and I can't find the "File" menu. So fine, I will use CTRL + O, CTRL + S etc. I needed to format some of the sections, adding a Heading etc. and I can't find the "Format" menu. I tried to insert a row in my existing table and I can't find the freaking "Table" menu!!! I decided to customize the freaking ribbon thingy and change back to the older text version and guess what, I CAN'T!!!! I tried to customize it and I can't figure it out. It might be embedded in the software, but I can't find it. I tried to use the Help function, and frankly, after 10 minutes, I gave up.

Just the thought that I need to re-learn everything again, after so many years using Office just turned me off. Then, thinking about my dissertation, I am seriously considering uninstalling the MS Office 2007.

Piece of advice, if you do not have hours to learn everything from scratch, then DO NOT install MS Office 2007. @*^%(#&$^!^$&%$&#@^%*$^@!#$^!)@&#%$^*!^%^@)$#^&@$^%@$&%