Where To Find It

A Guide to Office 2007

© Mike Splane 2007

Changes to Office 2007 common to Word, Excel and PowerPoint

Interfaces

The interface has been radically redesigned. Most of the old icons are still available, but they have been rearranged in different groupings.

You do not have an option to use toolbars and menus. Instead, the icons are organized and displayed in a new way, in Tabs. You can think of a Tab as a menu that shows icons instead of words. The whole set of tabs is called the Ribbon. The Tab’s contents are divided into sections called Groups. The Groups can contain individual icons or collections of related icons listed in Categories. So you still have a hierarchy like you are used to using, but instead of the main menu, sub menus, and sub-submenus, you now deal with Tabs > Groups > Categories > Icons (TGCI).

In the lower right hand corner of many groups you’ll see a small checkbox. You can click on these to access the familiar dialog boxes found in older versions of Office.

When you open an Office 2007 application, you’ll see a circular shape called the Office Button in the upper left corner. Clicking here accesses the tasks that used to be found on the File menu. You can customize the user options through this button.

There is one small, customizable, toolbar, above the Tabs and Ribbons, called the Quick Access Toolbar. Under “Customize” and “More Commands” you can turn icons on and off and you can add additional icons. It even has an option to create your own shortcut keys. To move this toolbar above or below the tabs, right click on the menu bar and select that option. You will also find an option here to show or hide the tabs.

The labeling of icons has been improved. When you mouse over the icon you see the name of the icon, the shortcut key associated with that task, and a brief description of what the icon does. This feature can be turned off if you don’t like it.

The status bar on the bottom of the screen has been greatly enhanced. To see a long list of options, right click on the status bar. You can choose to display any or all of the options.

As you mouse over different formatting options, you see a “live preview” of how the document will look like if you select that option. You can turn this feature off. Look for Options after selecting the Home Button, and then look for the Popular tab.

Graphics

As you mouse over a graphic, special design and formatting tabs and groups will open for that object. As you mouse over options in the tabs the graphic will change its appearance, showing how it will look if you select that option.

When selecting a format for your graphic, you often have several rows of icons to choose from. Only one row is displayed, but you can scroll through the selection. Click on the down arrow to the right of the icons to see the complete set.

The 2003 version of Office had an icon that provided a choice of 6 pre-defined charts: an org chart; radial diagram; pyramid diagram; Venn diagram; cyclical diagram; and target diagram. These charts, along with dozens of new ones, are included in a category called Smart Art on the Illustrations group of the Insert tab. Org charts are found in Smart Art in the Hierarchies category. Venn Diagrams are found in the Relationships category.

The gradient effect works differently; you have to select the color as a separate task before you select the type of gradient. The colors dialog box looks very different, and is harder to use.

The individual icons for lines, arrows, rectangles and ovals are gone. They are included in the Shapes category on the Illustrations group of the Insert tab. This roughly corresponds to the “AutoShapes” pull-down option of the old drawing toolbar, except that the “more shapes” option has been eliminated.

Features in Word 2007

Some new icons and features:

• There is a cool new feature that will automatically generate citations for you in MLA or other formats. You’ll find this on the reference tab.
• There are icons to change the height and width of a graphic. You’ll find them on the Size group on the Illustrations tab.
• There is an icon to add a caption to a graphic. This one is on the Caption group tab on the References tab.
• There is an option to add text, automatically set up in a heading style, to quickly build the table of contents entries. Look on the Table of Contents group on the References tab.

Tables

After you create a table, two additional tabs, Design and Layout, will open when your cursor is in the table. The Layout tab corresponds to the old Tables menu. The Design tab replaces the Table AutoFormat option with a different set of tables, called Quick Tables. This tab includes the shading and the borders options. You’ll find the old Borders and Shading dialog box under Table Styles/Borders. You’ll see the old borders icon here.

The AutoFormat features for tables and predefined charts have been eliminated, replaced by groups that allow you to choose from several design options.

Formatting Text

The Normal style has been redefined to what used to be called Web style in the 2003 version. This style automatically adds spacing between every line of text. The old Normal style is available. It is called Normal No Spacing. The new default text font style is Calibri, instead of Arial or Times New Roman. This document uses the Calibri font.

You can access the old formatting toolbar by double clicking in the document. It shows up faintly above and to the right of your cursor’s location.

Mail Merge

Mail Merge has its own tab specifically designed for this feature.

Features in PowerPoint 2007

One thing that is missing in the new PowerPoint is option to create a Summary Slide. This icon was found on the slide sorter toolbar. It created a slide that listed the titles of the other slides.

Task panes are no longer available. Graphics work quite differently. See the section above on common changes.

Features in Excel 2007

Interface

The formula bar has an icon to the right of it to expand and collapse the viewing area, which is useful for viewing long formulas. You can also click and drag, both horizontally and vertically, to change the area of the name box and formula bar.

In the lower right corner there are three icons to display different views of the worksheet: Normal, Page Break Preview, and Page Layout.

There is also a slider bar to zoom in and out on the worksheet. Clicking on the ends of the slider bar will cause the display to grow or and shrink by 10 percentage points.

Icons

Excel has added many new icons so users can quickly perform tasks that used to be handled through dialog boxes. On the alignment group of the Home tab, there are icons to vertically align text, to wrap text, and to control orientation. These features used to be accessible through the format cells dialog box.

On the Formulas tab, Function Library group, there are several new icons to display the different categories of functions. Unfortunately, they forgot to include an icon to show ALL functions, so if you don’t know the category your function is in, then you may run into problems. You can still access the old function dialog box by using the pull-down menu next to the AutoSum icon.

Also on the Formulas tab, in the Formula Auditing group, there is an icon to Show Formulas. This is a toggle switch to change what is displayed in the cell. The default is to show the results of formulas. This icon lets you see the actual formulas. The keyboard shortcut to perform the same operation, CTRL and ~, still works.

On the Page layout tab, in the Sheet Options group, there are icons to display gridlines and to display Headings. Headings, in this context, are the letters across the top and the numbers down the side of the worksheet.

Features

One feature that you will either love or hate is the Formula AutoComplete. When you start to type a formula starting with a letter, it shows you a list of functions starting with that letter. You can turn this feature off. Select Excel Options under the Office Button and look for the Formulas options.

The tasks involved with formatting, inserting, and deleting of rows and columns, have all been grouped together on the Home tab, in the Cells group.

The “clear” options, available on the Edit menu in earlier versions of Excel, are gone.

Dialog Boxes

The data sort dialog box is different. To sort using more than one parameter, you have to click on Add Level.

The alignment dialog box has been revised to add more options.

The Format Cells dialog box is available through the Home tab by clicking in the bottom right corner of either the Font group or the Number group. Different tabs in this dialog box open, depending on which group you accessed it from.

Excel Charts

The Chart wizard is gone. Both the procedures and the graphics are new, and the process is more complicated. You only select data, not labels, before creating the chart.

Where to find icons, and complete tasks, in PowerPoint 2007

PowerPoint 2007
Task or Icon	Tab	Group
Animation Effects (Preset)	Animations	Animations (Animate)
Backgrounds	Design	Background
Bullet Points	Home	Paragraph
Color Themes	Design	Themes
Custom Animation	Animations	Animations
Date and Time	Insert	Text
Design Styles	Design	Background
Drawing Toolbar Objects	Insert	Illustrations
Formatting Text	Home	Font or Paragraph
Group Objects	Home	Drawing/Arrange
Header and Footer	Insert	Text
Hyperlinks	Insert	Links
Loop	Slide Show	Set Up
Movies	Insert	Media Clip
New Slide	Home	Slides (CTRL + M)
Notes Page	View	Slide Master
Set up Show	Slide Show	Set Up
Slide Layouts	Home	Slides
Slide Master	View	Presentation Views
Slide Numbers	Insert	Text
Slide Timings	Animations	Transitions to This Slide
Sounds	Insert	Media Clip
Transition Effects	Animations	Transitions to This Slide
View – Normal	View	Presentation Views
View – Slide Sorter	View	Presentation Views
View – Slide Show	Slide Show	Start Slide Show (F5)

Where to find icons, and complete tasks, in Word 2007

WORD 2007
Task or Icon	Tab	Group
Alignment	Paper Layout	Paragraph
Arrows	Insert	Illustrations/Shapes
Background	Paper Layout	Page Background
Basic Shapes	Insert	Illustrations/Shapes
Blank Page	Insert	Pages
Bold	Home	Font
Borders	Home	Paragraph
Borders	Paper Layout	Page Background
Bullets	Home	Paragraph
Change Case	Home	Font
Clear Formatting	Home	Font
Clip Art	Insert	Illustrations
Copy	Home	Clipboard
Copy Special	Home	Clipboard
Cover Page	Insert	Pages
Cut	Home	Clipboard
Decrease Indent	Home	Paragraph
Drawing Toolbar Icons	Insert	Illustrations
Drop Cap	Insert	Text
Endnotes	References	Footnotes
Find	Home	Editing
Font Color	Home	Font
Font Dialog Box	Home	Font
Footer	Insert	Header
Footnotes	References	Footnotes
Format Paintbrush	Home	Clipboard
Grow Font	Home	Font
Header	Insert	Header & Footer
Highlight Text	Home	Font
Hyperlinks	Insert	Links
Increase Indent	Home	Paragraph
Indents	Paper Layout	Paragraph
Italics	Home	Font
Line Spacing	Home	Paragraph
Line Spacing	Paper Layout	Paragraph
Lines	Insert	Illustrations/Shapes
Margins	Paper Layout	Page Setup
Multilevel List	Home	Paragraph
Numbering	Home	Paragraph
Orientation (printer)	Paper Layout	Page Setup
Ovals	Insert	Illustrations/Shapes
Page Break	Insert	Pages
Page Number	Insert	Header
Paragraph Dialog Box is under Line Spacing Options	Home	Paragraph
Paragraph Spacing	Paper Layout	Paragraph
Paste	Home	Clipboard
Picture	Insert	Illustrations
Print area	Paper Layout	Page Setup
Print settings	Paper Layout	Page Setup
Printer Selection	Paper Layout	Page Setup
Rectangles	Insert	Illustrations/Shapes
Replace	Home	Editing
Select (The big arrow from drawing toolbar)	Home	Editing
Shading	Home	Paragraph
Show Hide Format	Home	Paragraph
Shrink Font	Home	Font
Sort A-Z	Home	Paragraph
Strikethrough	Home	Font
Styles (New)	Home	Styles
Styles (Old) option in a pull down menu.	Home	Styles
Subscript	Home	Font
Superscript	Home	Font
Symbol	Insert	Symbol
Table menu - creation	Insert	Tables/Layout
Table menu - customization	Insert	Tables/Design
Table of Contents	References	Table of Contents
Text Alignment (RLCJ)	Home	Paragraph
Textbox	Insert	Illustrations/Shapes
Underline	Home	Font
Water Mark	Paper Layout	Page Background
Word Art	Insert	Text