Topics | How to ... |
| Used to an earlier version? | advice on making the transition for users of previous versions of Office |
| Parts of the new Interface | Names of the items on the screen | The Office Button | manage documents, print, or exit the program |
| The Help Button | searchable help |
| Ribbons | big bars of buttons |
| Groups | categories of buttons on a ribbon |
| Option Buttons | more advanced options |
| Quick-Access Toolbar | a place to put your frequently-used buttons |
Well, fuggedaboutit!
Really, I mean it. Microsoft designed the user interface from scratch for Office 2007, and you'll go crazy if you try to remember a 1-to-1 mapping of each thing you did before and the way you do it now. The good news is that Microsoft made the new interface so that the things you will take fewer mouse-clicks to accomplish.
If you really need to find out how to do something, based on the way you used to do it, here's a link that will help:
Word 2003 to Word 2007 command reference guide
All the programs in Office 2007, have an "Office Button" that you use to open and save files, as well as print or send them.
Clicking on that button opens up the following menu:
The main list of commands appears on the left. Notice that some of the commands have a small right-facing triangle next to them. That means that there are various options available for that command.In the picture above, the user has clicked on the "Save As" command. This brings up a sub-menu associated with the Save As command, on the right. The picture above is from Microsoft Word. The other Office 2007 programs have a similar Office Button menu, but with the file types specific to each program. All the office 2007 products now allow you to save your documents in PDF format.
It's easy to use help, it's just hard to find the button!
In any Office2007 program, just look in the upper right-hand corner, for the blue circle with a question mark in it. If you click on it, you get a dialog box, where you can enter words to search for, or choose a topic to browse.
The Office 2007 programs have a wide tabbed "ribbon" area across the top of the window. Clicking on each of the tabs at the top of the ribbon will show a different set of tools on the ribbon. Here is the "View" ribbon in Word:
There are also some "contextual tabs" that are not visible unless you are working in the context that they would be used in. For instance if you are working within a table in Word, you will see two new tabs.
There are a lot of tools on each ribbon! To make it easier to find the tool that you're looking for, tabs are divided into groups of related tools.
When you're looking for a tool, you should start by choosing the tab that fits the general category you want, then look for the group that fits what you're looking for
Often a group doesn't show all the available commands, just the most common ones. When that's the case, there will be a small "option button" in the bottom right-hand corner of the group:
Clicking on the option button will open a dialog box where you can change more options related to the group:
The Office 2007 programs provide a special toolbar, where you can put the command buttons that you use most often. This is called the "Quick Access Toolbar" and is located at the top left corner of your window, next to the Office Button.
To add command buttons the the toolbar, click on the down arrow to the right of it:
The CSC-151 course does not require that you purchase any software. All Le Moyne PCs have Office 2007 on them.
Last updated on August 24, 2010