Clint Covington: Software design, Microsoft Office Access : Office 2007

Where is it? Navigating Office ribbon commands

Clint Covington — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 08:37:00 GMT

The marketing team has produced three great tools for helping you find commands in the ribbon for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Click on the Start the Guide link to launch the interactive tools. These tools visually show you how to find commands from the previous version to the new ribbon. Here are the links:

Mor (the Access marketing guy) is working on a version for Access but it is a bit more complicated because of all the different mode switches and ribbons. I will let you know when it is available.

Comment from Alan: In the meantime, there is an Excel file you can download from http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/access/HA101666061033.aspx (at the bottom of the page) which tells you where Access 2003 menu options have relocated to).

Edited 3/13/2007 with comment from Alan.

Submit your own community template!

Clint Covington — Sat, 10 Mar 2007 03:15:00 GMT

I recently stumbled across some interesting work done by our Office Online team. They allow YOU to submit non-code Word, Excel, and PowerPoint templates to Office Online.

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/FX100595491033.aspx?pid=CL100632981033

Here are some samples of templates submitted by the community:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/recent.aspx

The process is relatively simple and straight-forward. You just need the courage to share your work, a dash of creativity, the new Office, Live ID, and the smarts to follow four steps.

https://services.office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/start.aspx

IMO - these type of community features are great for everyone involved. You get to track your templates and watch the number of downloads and content ratings rocket up. Office Online is one of the most popular sites on the web and opening it up for the community to exchange Office content is a great idea. Over time, it will be easier and easier to use Office Online to start new projects with content provided by experts in other fields.

I'm interested if people think it would be useful if we allowed Access templates to be submitted (assuming we ship the developer extensions with the ability to create templates--and no, I don't have an update on availability :-( ). Would you look for community databases or take the time to submit interesting schemas, forms, reports, and applications?

Talk back to me.

Seattle PI article "Microsoft Office 2007 sales twice that of previous version"

Clint Covington — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 21:50:00 GMT

These quotes are nice to see. I'm also hearing from online communities an dramatic increase in posts on the new version.

Microsoft Office 2007 sales twice that of previous version

Microsoft Corp.'s new Office 2007 software produced almost twice the revenue of the previous version in its first month of corporate availability, according to market research firm NPD Group Inc.

Sales rose 98 percent and shipments increased 61 percent, based on a December survey by Port Washington, N.Y.-based NPD. Retail sales more than doubled during the week of Office 2007's Jan. 30 consumer release, NPD said.

The New York Times "Purging Bloat to Fashion Sleek Software"

Clint Covington — Sat, 20 Jan 2007 09:40:00 GMT

NY Times has an good article about the new Office redesign. Nearly these articles are turning out really positive... Nice to see.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/18/technology/18pogue.html?ex=1169874000&en=46b182d68b8d6444&ei=5040&partner=MOREOVERNEWS

"Eventually, however, Microsoft Office developed a reputation for bloat and complexity. It was fully grown: tall, hairy and toothy.

"So what did Microsoft do then? It began shrinking Microsoft Office. In fact, the chief sales point of Office 2007 (for Windows XP or Vista), which arrives on Jan. 30, is that it’s simpler, it’s more streamlined and its documents take up far less disk space. "

"Excel, the world’s most popular spreadsheet, can now handle ridiculously large matrices of numbers (one million rows, 16,000 columns). Charts are fancier, and “conditional formatting” automatically applies color to cells whose numbers meet certain criteria. For example, cells in a temperature-tracking spreadsheet could show shades of blue for cold days, or reds and yellows for warmer ones. "

"Over all, Office 2007 is much more pleasant to use than previous versions. It seems to be the work of the New Microsoft, a company far more concerned with elegance, beauty and simplicity than the Old Microsoft."

The 20 Most Innovative Products of the Year - Office 2007 Tops PC Worlds List!

Clint Covington — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 08:24:00 GMT

When we started talking about the ribbon everyone knew it was a huge bet. It is nice to get some props! Here is what they have to say:

"Innovation? Microsoft? Yes, we were surprised, too, but the Redmond giant's latest upgrade of the world's most popular productivity suite introduces several new features that revolutionize how people work with documents (see our review). The most striking change is a "ribbon" at the top of the interface that replaces the traditional cascading menus and taskbars, and can expose functions you never knew were there. Through the suite's handy new Live Preview feature, you can see how formatting changes, for example, will affect your document prior to your making them."

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,128176-page,1-c,electronics/article.html

Wall Street Journal's (Walt Mossberg) take on the ribbon

Clint Covington — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 19:02:00 GMT

Walt Mossberg an often critical voice about Microsoft products has published his review of the ribbon in the Wall Street Journal.

http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB116786111022966326-mRGBGB2hIZH7SbdbE2Bg7YVHTDE_20070202.html?mod=tff_main_tff_top

There is also a video of his recap http://online.wsj.com/public/page/8_0004.html.

He didn't cover anything about Access but had some nice things to say about Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Here are a few interesting quotes:

"when Microsoft makes significant changes to Office, it's a big deal. And the latest version of the software suite, called Office 2007, due out Jan. 30, is a radical revision, the most dramatic overhaul in a decade or more."

"After months of working with the Ribbon and other new features of Office, I believe they are an improvement. They replace years of confusing accretions with a logical layout of commands and functions. They add easy and elegant new options for making documents look good. And they make it much simpler to find many of the 1,500 commands that Office offers, but had buried in the past."

"So, Microsoft deserves credit for being bold and creative in designing Office 2007. It has taken a good product and made it better and fresher."

"But there is a big downside to this gutsy redesign: It requires a steep learning curve that many people might rather avoid. In my own tests, I was cursing the program for weeks because I couldn't find familiar functions and commands, even though Microsoft provides lots of help and guidance."

"If you'd like to get more out of Office, especially in the area of how your documents look, Office 2007 is a big step forward, and worth the steep learning curve it imposes. If you're happy with Office now, or you mostly create plain documents where formatting and design aren't high priorities, it may not be worth the effort to buy and learn the new version."

Free 60 day trial download of Office 2007

Clint Covington — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 01:50:00 GMT

Here is a link to a free 60 day trial download of Office 2007 programs.

http://us1.trymicrosoftoffice.com/default.aspx?culture=en-US

As you know, Access is in the professional version. For those of you outside the US, you need to use the following URL's:

Canada: http://www.trymicrosoftoffice.com/canada
Japan: http://www.trymicrosoftoffice.com/japan
UK/Ireland: http://www.trymicrosoftoffice.com/ukireland
France: http://www.trymicrosoftoffice.com/france
Canada: http://www.trymicrosoftoffice.com/canada
Germany: http://www.trymicrosoftoffice.com/germany

SharePoint Server Review in CRN

Clint Covington — Fri, 17 Nov 2006 20:27:00 GMT

I just came across a nice article about SharePoint on CRN.

http://www.crn.com/sections/breakingnews/dailyarchives.jhtml?articleId=193700573

They did a good job summarizing the Excel Services that are part of the MOSS server

"Users can now publish interactive spreadsheets with Excel 2007 right into SharePoint, so the tool plays a key role in the creation of business intelligence portals. For instance, users can change views with Excel output by drilling down right from a portal page by using Microsoft Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox. No local installation of Office is necessary. Local Excel installation is only required when editing spreadsheets. "

As a founding member of the original Web Part team here is my favorite quote:

"Microsoft has done a great job simplifying the publishing process and added many new development capabilities. Solution providers, for instance, can now build on top of a large number of filter lists. Filters are Web Parts that automate mundane tasks. "

The article misses all of the good integration to make Access and Outlook consume and use list data. Access does a nice job providing the ability to combine lists, build great printed reports and take any list data offline. Outlook does a great job surfacing list RSS feeds, mapping event list data to calendars, surfacing tasks in the new task window, and surfacing contacts in the outlook contacts UI. We both use the new GetListItemsSinceToken to minimize traffic on the server and provide richer Offline scenarios.

PC Mag's Editors Choice - 4.5 out of 5 Stars!

Clint Covington — Tue, 14 Nov 2006 22:27:00 GMT

PC Mag just released a review of Office 2007. They gave Office a 4.5 out of 5 stars.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2052256,00.asp

I love this quote: "Once you get past the few minutes needed to navigate the new Ribbon interface, you'll wonder why Microsoft waited so long to get so many things right. "

They didn't cover Access in this review and actually missed the point that Access has the new UI.

“The new interface doesn't force you to rethink the underlying logic of your work, because Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Publisher, Access, Project, InfoPath, Visio, and OneNote all work basically as they did before—only more easily. Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook are the only programs to get the full interface upgrade. Actually, Outlook gets the new interface upgrade only in its content-creation screens.”

First reviews on Office 12 are available

Clint Covington — Thu, 17 Nov 2005 18:48:00 GMT

It is always fun to see your work get press! PCMag just published a review on Office 12 with few paragraphs about our favorite product, Access. Here is my favorite quote:

"With some slick productivity enhancements and a completely new interface, Microsoft Access 12 gets more of a makeover than any other Office component in the suite. The new interface is far more colorful and graphical, with tabs for navigating between screens instead of the blank workspace of older versions."

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1888060,00.asp

Information Week has also written about the new beta but didn't include much content about Access.

http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=174300686

Office Live is coming...

Clint Covington — Wed, 02 Nov 2005 08:58:00 GMT

This is a service designed for small businesses. It uses SharePoint as a large part of the service. From that Access perspective, I think this is a great thing for Access 12. As you know, Access 12 has many rich integration features with SharePoint. Looking forward, I believe many Office Live users will use Access as a rich frontend with link tables to their data stored in the Office live service. This should offer a great opportunity for Access developers as small businesses need more business app functionality than what is provided by the service. The SharePoint data should look just like a regular link table even though it is connecting to a web service.

Here is the signup link.

http://www.microsoft.com/office/officelive/default.mspx

Enjoy!