Making Sense of Microsoft Office 2007

Salespeople want tools that will make them look good in the eyes of their customers. The new Office 2007 is loaded with new tools that absolutely increase communications and the appearance of all of its documents whether in Outlook, Word, PowerPoint, or Excel. The user interface has changed dramatically and it might require a typical user might to spend more time looking for things that are no longer where they used to be.

Microsoft’s objective is to make the overall software experience simple and pleasant. Based on extensive customer research and usability studies, the user interface was designed to reduce clutter and make it easier to discover the rich features. Ultimately, it is about the creation of great-looking documents.

The most apparent difference before with Office 2007 is the Ribbon. Unlike the toolbars on past versions that held a selection of tools with buttons so small that were hardly recognizable until a tool tip appeared, Ribbons are arranged so that the tools are more logically grouped.

The strategy is intended to make it easier to find the tools needed for the job at hand. The command icons are grouped together in tabs that have similar functions.

The Ribbon has several basic Tabs across the top of the application. Each represents an activity area with those similar functions. Each Tab has Groups that show related items together. Commands are the buttons themselves, a menu, or a box where information can entered. Sometimes a Group will have a Dialog Launcher that will show more options than are in the Group itself. When the Dialog opens, it will appear very similar to the dialog in previous versions of Office.

SmartArt is Microsoft’s new graphic way to display lists of information. The shapes and designs have been categorized based on what you are trying to show: lists, processes, cycles, a hierarchy or a relationship.

If you have already got a list and want to convert it to SmartArt, you can select the text, Right-Click and select Convert to SmartArt. A variety of available choices will appear for you to choose.

Live preview is a wonderful feature that allows you to mouse-over an effect and immediately see what it will look like in the document without having to apply it, undo, and find another effect. For instance, you could select text, and see what it would look like with a different font, size, color, or other effect. Another example would be to select a SmartArt graphic and easily see what it would look like with a different color combination applied, or shadows, bevels, or other effects.

Picture Tools give you some of the same features found in photo editing software applications like Photo Shop and Picture It. Select a picture and choose from a variety of styles that will apply different shapes, edges, borders, or shadows.

The basic tools are also available like brightness, contrast, re-coloring, and cropping. You can take a normal picture and apply any of the shapes found in the extensive list like stars, hearts, geometric patterns, and lots of others. Some of the effects include a variety of shadows from different perspectives; a glow around the picture with unlimited colors; soft edges like vignettes, a variety of beveled edges, and even choices of different 3 dimensional rotations.

One of my favorites and surely to be one of all real estate agents is the ability to change one picture to another picture but have all of the formatting remain the same. This is going to allow you to make templates for flyers or postcards and changing the picture will be quick and easy.

Some valuable things for real estate agents have been taken out of the mainstream of the product that will leave a person longing for the old version if they don’t know where to go. For instance, previous versions of the Outlook contact record allow you to link one record to another or as many other records as you like. It is perfect for linking referrals together or linking all of the parties to a transaction.

It just isn’t anywhere to be found on the Outlook 2007 contact record. However, you can get it back if you know where to look. In the main Outlook screen, click Tools, Options, Preferences tab, Contact Options. Select “Show Contact Linking on all Forms.”

Another thing that is obviously missing from Word and Excel is the feature that sends a document as HTML which means it embedded into the body of the email message. Some people will never open an attachment and by sending it this way, you have a better chance that they’ll actually look at it. Besides that, it looks good.

The easiest way to be able to send documents by email is to customize the Quick Access Toolbar at the top of Word and Excel. The procedure is the same in either program. Click on the Office button, select Word Options or Excel Options, Customize. Select from the All Commands list, Send to Mail Recipient and Add to the list on the right side of the dialog. When finished, Click OK.

In my estimation, upgrading to Office 2007 is a great investment. It’s all about making you look good in the eyes of buyers and sellers.

You won’t need to upgrade to Vista operating system. If you are running a computer with Windows XP, Office 2007 will run just fine. Do to the graphics handling, you might choose to increase your RAM memory.

There are several versions of Office 2007 and it can be confusing to know which to get. The four core products needed to run your real estate business are Outlook, Word, PowerPoint, and Excel. Access isn’t necessary unless you plan to build your own customized database. Most agents will use Outlook for their database and if they need to add more specific real estate functionality to it will use an add-in like Respond that gives you lots of content and the ability to do campaigns.

Don’t worry if you have several computers in your work group and are concerned that if you upgrade one, you’ll need to upgrade all of them. You can a free download from www.Microsoft.com/downloads called a compatibility pack that will allow 2003 version to open the new file formats found in Office 2007.

The new documents are XML which will do two things for you. It will make them more secure and the file size will be smaller. The familiar Word .doc will become a .docx. The PowerPoint .ppt document will become a .pptx.

The familiar File menu items is obviously missing from each of the Word, Excel, and PowerPoint applications. It has been replaced with the Office button. When you click on it, you’ll get the chance to open a new or existing document, save, save as, and basically most of the things done under the File item. A list of the most recently opened documents will appear and the very inconspicuous button labeled Options.

Previous versions of Office used Tools, Options to get to many of the defaults and other choices. It is now, more logically, located here. You’ll need to explore what things can be controlled from here, but one that I use frequently is the Customize for the Quick Access Toolbar.

You really need to know where to find how to set your own words to AutoCorrect. I had to look around a lot, even after I had found it several times because it used to be in the Tools menu. It is now found on the Office button, Options, Proofing. Any words you define in one application will be defined in all of the main Office products…very convenient.

Obviously, this article can’t address all of the changes in this awesome product. Even a CRS approved one-day class like Marketing with Microsoft Office, which has been rewritten for Office 2007, is constrained by time. For more information about attending or sponsoring a class, go to www.PatZaby.com/Seminars.

For those people changing from previous versions of Office to 2007, it is a little like moving into a new home. The things you purchased for the new home were delivered at the same time as the things coming from your old home and someone put them away for you; they’re all there, you just don’t know what closet, cupboard, or even room that they’re in.

Making It Make Sense for Microsoft Office 2007 by Seminars & Systems by Pat Zaby is a series of over 100 tutorials that will show you step-by-step how to get up and running with Office 2007. Instead of pouring over help files or manuals, you can watch a movie that will show you exactly how to do it while listening to the narration that will help you understand exactly what you are doing.

You can even “pause” the tutorial and repeat the steps you’ve just viewed on your computer. Once you’ve caught up, you can resume just where you left off. It’s like having a tutor sit next to you telling you exactly what to do. Not only is this a great learning tool, it is a great reference tool too. It takes time and effort to figure out how to do certain things and if you don’t repeat the process soon, you’ll forget. It will be like trying to learn all over again.

Making It Make Sense for Office 2007 will make it convenient for you to find the movie you need and watch it when you need it. You won’t have to spend time training new assistants or team members. Just make sure you have this powerful reference tool available for them to watch.

The only disadvantage to Microsoft Office is that most of the content needs to be created. The Marketing Library collection is a series of templates for Outlook, Word, PowerPoint , and Excel that give you worlds of content that can be used immediately as it is or customize it any way you want. For more information, go to www.PatZaby.com.