Office 2007 blows
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Apr 22, 2009
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At work, the IT overlords forced us to upgrade to Microsoft Office 2007, which would seem to make sense because the version we had been using was at least 6 or 7 years old. Not that you should always upgrade old software when it gets past a certain age, but newer versions of software often have improvements that can help you do your job. Such is not the case with Office 2007. Here's why: - It's slow. This isn't solely a Microsoft problem. It's an everybody problem. All new software is slower, less useful, and more bloated than old software. They say it works best when used on some Pentium octo-core 12GHz processor. Guess what, idiots: I still simply use Word for word processing and Excel for calculations. If my uses haven't changed, the hardware requirements shouldn't change either.
- It's ugly. Many people disagree with me on this, and that's fine. But the fact of the matter is that the entire user interface is changed, and as a creature of habit, I don't like change. Hence it's ugly. Also, I don't like ClearType. It hurts my eyes for some reason. Thankfully, Microsoft didn't give me the option to disable it. Awesome.
- It's different. This is the most important thing to me. Microsoft Office has essentially been the same product since I started using it circa 1998. The new versions that came out (2000, XP, 2003) never changed the core functionality to an extent that I would even notice. There were a few slight UI changes, but other than that, the product went through a long cycle of constant improvements. But with 2007, everything is different. There's a ribbon bar instead of toolbars. The menu system is completely different. When starting a Word document, I have no idea how to change styles. When using Excel, I feel like I have to relearn the program I've been using half my life. And that's the kicker: Software should help you get stuff done; it should never get in the way. Office 2007 gets completely in the way of me getting my stuff done.
I'm seriously considering downgrading.
Update: I downgraded to 2003, and Microsoft Office is usable again. #technology
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Peekaru (1)
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Apr 22, 2009
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This makes me quite happy. Mostly because it looks like an alien clawing its way out of the mother's torso. #products
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