Even amongst those schools who are moving to Office 2007 this summer, one common fear is whether students/teachers will be able to quickly transition to the new Fluent interface in Office 2007. (From talking to schools that have already made the move, this wasn't an issue, and any new software actually re-engages students in a process of discovery that they look forward too). If you want more help, then I've just come across these brilliant add-ins for Office 2007. Basically, it adds a new menu bar to your tab called "Getting Started".
This is the tab for Word 2007, but there's also ones for Excel and PowerPoint 2007. And it adds on an interactive guide to find commands, links to online training, video demonstrations for overviews and getting started, and even links to the online discussion forums. If you're installing this summer, then perhaps this is another thing you can do to help your staff and students to get started quickly on the first day of term...
Download the new tabs using the links below:
Word 2007 Add-in: Get Started Tab
Excel 2007 Add-in: Get Started Tab
PowerPoint 2007 Add-in: Get Started Tab
This is a good idea - we are looking to implement Office 2007 later this year and the user interface is one of our biggest hurdles. I actually think the pupils will (as usual) pick it ip faster than the teachers so our main training push will be with staff.
We have found that an increasing number of our pupils now have Vista and Office 2007 at home so the need for pupil training is diminishing - especially after christmas when many pupils get new hardware.