Customer Reviews

Microsoft Word 2007 [Old Version]

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(67)

 

 

Microsoft has taken a gigantic leap backward with Word 2007. The interface is horrible...virtually unusable. Everything takes forever to find now. The simplest commands are no longer located in any logical place. I spend 75% of my time hunting for stuff that used to be easily and predictably placed in the interface. This product is an attempt by Microsoft to impress somebody with a slick looking interface. Unfortunately, usability was not just a low priority - it was completely excluded from the list. I cannot use this garbage. I need a word processor that let's me spend my time writing instead of looking up stuff in help.

The new version of office should be provided as part of a training seminar on what not to do when building a user interface. The new ribbon style of interface fails in all points, putting specialty features used in a fraction of documents, such as mail merge, reviews and citations, front and center while burying standard features amidst a bewildering array of outsized toolbar buttons. With no "classic view" option or equivalent, the end effect is to reduce professionals, who have become accustomed to a standard interface over many years, to spend several minutes hunting through an interface that makes little logical sense to accomplish what should be a five second task.

If that were not enough, the new version of office breaks backwards compatibility for a number of standard features when working with documents saved in older formats and with 3rd-party plug-ins. Indexes do not port over nicely between versions, nor do a number of other minor features, while the 3rd-party application Camtasia caused Power Point to crash to desktop repeatedly.

In return for these types of headaches, the new version offers almost nothing new in the way of features or fixes to longstanding bugs and quirks. Essentially we are offered the same word processing, spreadsheet and presentation applications spruced up with an unintuitive user interface that may look "gee whiz" during a demo, but quickly fails to impress when it comes to actual usage.

As a professional who heads up a technical publications department for a software firm, I've watched productivity drop dramatically when it comes to using the new office for creating materials. I can only hope that Microsoft in the future spends less time worrying about how snazzy the gradient fill effects are and starts to again to look at the functionality that made its products great in the first place.

Microsoft had done it again. An updated product where the user interface looks slick on the surface but is a nightmare to use. It seems like they are so large that all they care about is looking good, actual ease of use does not seem to be a priority. The beauty of the original was the ability to customize the buttons you use often to be right in front of you when you needed it. The ones you didn't need could be in drop down menus to go get here and there as required. Now you have to literally search for the command you need through multiple pages of options, most of which you will never use. You get to see what a great product it is every time you need to perform a function by having to search through all the other functions Word can perform trying to find the one hidden one you are looking for. And apparently they are so concerned about their customer's needs and wants that they left no option to use the classic view. They seem almost to have known just how awful the new interface is so to avoid nobody actually using it they left you no option if you upgrade or buy a new computer.

We purchased this program thinking that it would eliminate some of the bugs from earlier versions of Microsoft Word. Instead, it multiplied and amplified them. Whoever designed this program seems never to have spoken with a secretary. Our word-processing staff, who have years of experiece with many different systems, including earlier versions of Microsoft Word, found it frustrating and unusable. Documents that took only minutes to type took an hour or more to format. The simplest functions, from inserting page numbers to aligning paragraphs, required extensive searches through a maze of templates. Nothing was simple or intuitive. And when we attempted in desperation to escape from the program into a friendlier alternative environment, we discovered that even that had become a major project. The program offers seductively pretty graphics, but ruins office productivity.

Microsoft claims that the new "ribbon" interface allows users to more easily find and explore options. This may be true for new users; I wouldn't know. For those who use office programs daily and are well versed in the various options available, the new ribbon is infuriating. Worse, Microsoft offers no option to return to the classic menu system. I have seldom been so frustrated with an update. It's as if the people who traditionally use their products were completely ignored for the sake of new users.

I am an office manager and administrative assistant which means I use MSWord, PowerPoint and Excel all day long.

MS Word's changes are beyond awful. I cannot find anything, I spent almost all of my time in a massive state of angst over where things are and cannot understand why this was done. Did MS even THINK about the actual day to day end users? My office bought me a brand new everything computer and I had to give it to one of the bosses here as he rarely uses Word - I bought ANOTHER computer and then I had to go buy a used copy of MSWord 2003 so I could actually get back to work. I certainly hope they know about this and will come out with an MSWord 2008 that goes back to the drop down menus, etc. that we all know how to use. Who has time to completely re-learn the whole thing? Word Perfect is easier at this point and I don't LIKE Word Perfect.

Word 2007 is a perfect example of why you shouldn't try to fix something that was never broken. Instead of improving Word, they made it ugly and just plain annoying. An experienced user can figure out how to use it...but the hunting and searching for functions that used to be a snap to find is a frustrating, time-consuming waste. The toolbar is now a "ribbon" that's a cluttered mess of icons instead of quick, simple pull-down menus. I wish I'd done more research, and I'd have ordered an older version of Word with my new laptop. THIS SYSTEM SUCKS. I think they were trying to court Apple users and instead alienated their loyal MS customers. One star isn't low enough.

Highlight : If you already know how to use Microsoft Word, then never upgrade!

As mentioned in the other reviews, the user interface is completely different. All functions are meant to be picture oriented under various tabs that you have to search through for everything.

If you are familiar with excel, it's even worse. Continue with the older software as long as you can.

I read the reviews and figured everyone was just too sensitive. I couldn't really believe that MS would actually put out a product that had completely rebuilt the UI of their most successful product ever and not provide a compatibility option and also create one of the most unusable interfaces I have ever seen.

My company bought the product for my new laptop and I installed it and I tried to write my first document this evening and was flabbergasted. None of the 1-star reviews do this product justice. It should be MINUS TEN STARS.

Believe the reviews. Do NOT purchase this product unless you have no choice and are willing to endure many painful hours unlearning EVERYTHING you have learned about MS Word over the past 10+ years and fumble around trying to figure out how to do things in the "brave new world".

Micro$oft should be totally ashamed of this product and frankly it seems that a U.S. Depart of Commerce mandated recall providing full refunds to anyone who wants it is in order. I am going to see if I can get our company's money back and purchase a surplus copy of MS Office 2003.

TOTALLY UNBELIEVABLE!!!

Our school switched all the faculty over to Word 2007 at the beginning of this academic year and I have been cursing ever since.

a.) Simple tasks take forever. This morning I typed a simple quiz for a history class...nearly thirty minutes of wrangling and it still looks awful.
b.) The hellforsaken program makes formatting hash out of nearly every document it touches, especially anything imported from Google Docs.
c.) All the annoying automatic formatting rules are still there; yet now it is even harder to figure out how to turn them off.

Blessedly, my personal laptop still has an older version, else I would be completely sunk.

Sorry Bill, you just lost a long-time user.