5 things you'll love about 2007 Microsoft Office System

The Microsoft Office Fluent interface

Before

Seemingly hundreds of menus, thousands of options... It’s said that most of the features that people wanted to see in the 2003 Office release were there – but no one could find them.

After

After the biggest change in the 2007 Office system is the Fluent interface. It’s breaks up the commands on offer into more obvious groups. Flick between them and you’ll see everything neatly laid out.

Office Open XML

Before

The creaking old .doc format has been here for what seems like forever. It’s too old-fashioned, only sticking around due to the need to keep businesses in sync.

After

.docx is simpler and more efficient than the .doc files of old but still just as capable. Your files are now smaller so your software can handle them faster; they’re also more robust so your data stands more chance of recovery in case a document is corrupted.

SmartArt

Before

The 2003 Office release featured WordArt and the tools to lay out simple diagrams, charts, tables and other structured images. However, trying to do so was always fiddly.

After

SmartArt creates several types of diagrams and gives you precise control over the branches, the look of each section, any 3D effects and colours to assign to the different areas, and anything else you could want.

Save as .pdf or .xps

Before

Unless you knew that the person you were sending a file to was running the same version of Microsoft Office as you, there was every chance they wouldn't be able to open the file upon recieving it.

After

Now you’re only one click away from adding support for .pdf and .xps formats, which guarantee that not only is the recipient able to read your file, but also that the document appears on their screen exactly as it does on yours, regardless of their office suite or computing platform.

RSS feeds

Before

RSS feeds allow you to recieve content from websites without ever visiting them. There were plug-ins that would let you do this in Outlook 2003, but nothing built into the software itself.

After

Outlook 2007 comes with RSS support built in. Incoming posts look like mail, ready for you to check up on the day’s events. RSS feeds can also provide access to files, such as the latest updates on your favourite photo sites, podcasts and more.