Microsoft Dynamics CRM UK Blog

Microsoft Office 2007 vs. The World Cup

Phantom Of The Opera...

Unlike the vast majority of the English population, World Cup fever has, by and large, passed me by - I heard on the evening news that England won by two overs today (or something along those lines). Given that most of the country is only working half-days with the first match of the day starting at 2pm, I thought I would take a leaf out of Bill Gates book, and embark on my very own "Think Week". There's a lot happening in the world of software, especially with the recent Beta 2 release of the 2007 Microsoft Office System to anyone with access to the Internet.

There are an awful lot of new capabilities in this release of Office desktop and server products, including Enterprise Content Management, Workflow, Excel Services, InfoPath Web Forms, Business Data Catalogue, Enterprise Search and so on, I thought I would start to brush up my knowledge. My prefered approach to learning is to watch recorded webcasts, rather than reading through piles of whitepapers, but what I didn't realise was that there is a vast amount of content publically available.

So far I have only started working my way through this content, but as a caring, sharing kind of guy, I wanted to share it with you all. First of are a number of free 2007 Microsoft Office e-learning training courses available here.

• Course 4697: Introduction to the New Microsoft Office User Interface - In this course, you will learn about the changes to the user interface and how to use the new customization tools. Additionally, you will gain new skills to immediately perform and improve everyday tasks.
• Course 4622: What's New in Microsoft Office Access 2007 - In this course, you will learn to create, populate, and analyze data in an Access 2007 database.
• Course 4623: What's New in Microsoft Office Excel 2007 - In this course, you will learn about new features, such as conditional formatting and an enhanced business intelligence analysis tools. These tools enable you to easily organize and analyze business information.
• Course 4624: What's New in Microsoft Office InfoPath 2007 - In this course, you will learn about the new features that enable you to convert existing Microsoft Word and Excel forms into InfoPath 2007 forms.
• Course 4625: What's New in Microsoft Office OneNote 2007 - In this course, you will learn how to manage your text, voice, and Tablet PC-based notes in one application. You'll also learn how to use the power of this application to share your notes with others to create a collaborative work environment.
• Course 4626: What's New in Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 - In this course, you will learn what's new with the user interface for creating messages and appointments. You'll also learn about enhanced task-management capabilities.
• Course 4627: What's New in Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007 - In this course, you will learn how to use the new tools in PowerPoint 2007 that are designed to empower you so that you can easily create dynamic and engaging presentations.
• Course 4628: What's New in Microsoft Office Word 2007 - In this course, you will learn about the more intuitive user interface and easy navigation that brings most popular tools to your fingertips, enabling you to create professional-looking documents.
• Course 4629: What's New in Microsoft Office Visio 2007 - In this course, you will learn how to start to use this business and technical diagramming program by taking advantage of the latest features to quickly create flowcharts, process diagrams, and organizational charts and analyze business intelligence data with new Pivot Diagrams.
• Course 4698: What's New in Microsoft Office Groove 2007 - In this course, you will learn how to create and manage Workspaces, how to share files and project information by using the Workspace, and how to enable effective team communication and collect information using forms.
• Course 3370: Getting Started with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (Beta) - In this clinic, you'll explore the 2007 Microsoft Office System to understand how it provides many benefits to an organization, including enhanced collaboration, personal productivity, and an effective enterprise content management solution. You will also explore the design goals and features of Office SharePoint Server 2007 and learn how to manage documents and Web content using Office SharePoint Server 2007.
• Course 3199: Getting Started with the 2007 Microsoft Office System (Beta) - This clinic covers ECM, Enterprise Project Management (EPM), and Collaboration and Business Intelligence. It also highlights the benefits of the new functionality and outlines the business value of deploying this system in an organization.
• Course 3369: Getting Started with Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 (Beta) - This clinic covers the benefits and business value of deploying Windows SharePoint Services, provides an understanding of how Windows SharePoint Services contributes to the collaboration solutions from Microsoft, and outlines the skills and knowledge required for an organizational deployment.

Next are a number of Technical WebCasts recorded as part of the customer TAP programme earlier this year:

• Office 2007 New User Experience Part 1
• Office 2007 New User Experience Part 2
• Office 2007 Developing In Word 2007
• Office 2007 Core Excel Advances
• Office 2007 InfoPath Forms In Outlook
• Office 2007 New File Format Overview
• Office 2007 Servers Overview
• Office 2007 Windows SharePoint Services Collaboration
• Office 2007 Enterprise Content Management Part 1 - Document Management
• Office 2007 Enterprise Content Management Part 2 - Web Content Management
• Office 2007 Knowledge Management
• Office 2007 Business Intelligence
• Office 2007 Server Development

Next, there are number of developer-focused ScreenCasts available on http://channel9.msdn.com:

• Building ASP.NET Web Parts for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0
• Creating and Deploying a Feature for Windows SharePoint Services V3
• Extending the Office 2007 UI with a Custom Ribbon
• Extending the Office 2007 UI with a Custom Task Pane
• Creating and Using Event Handlers in Windows SharePoint Services V3
• Creating Custom Document Information Panels
• Getting Up and Running with Excel Services
• Creating Custom Workflows with the SharePoint Designer 2007
• Generating Office Documents using the New Open XML File Formats
• Customizing a Windows SharePoint Services V3 site with the SharePoint Designer 2007
• Creating and Using Site Columns in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0
• Creating and Using Content Types in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0

Finally, if you have had enough of being presented to, then you can download a complete 236-page Microsoft Press book on the subject of SharePoint:

• Seven Development Projects for Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Windows SharePoint Services Version 3.0

Now, a rough calculation puts this as over 30 hours of content plus several hours of reading, which should keep you more than occupied over the next couple of weeks if you have nothing better to do.

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights