Word 2007 Learning Curve

You may also find it helpful to the Office 2007 add-in that helps find
commands in Word, PowerPoint and Excel. It's a prototype developed by
Microsoft Office Labs and they want to get lots of feedback to understand
how it is used.

You can get it from this link:

http://www.officelabs.com/projects/searchcommands/Pages/default.aspx

--
Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP

"BK" <nospam.TakeThisOut@nospam.com> wrote in message
news:%23TjfRA06IHA.1420@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
> You may find the Microsoft interactive guides helpful. The screen display
> is the familiar Word and Excel 2003 screen. By pointing and clicking on a
> feature you want to use, a help tag pops up and tells you where to find
> this feature in 2007. Give it a try and see if it helps. Click on the
> START THE GUIDE button about halfway down each page.
>
> http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel/HA101491511033.aspx
>
> http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word/HA100744321033.aspx
>
>
> "Liontamer" <Liontamer.TakeThisOut@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:56500415-D7B7-4E78-88EA-9A5472753F8E@microsoft.com...
>> JMB
>> I can relate to your frustrations. And I can offer you this piece of
>> advice. Everything takes time. Unfortunately, when it come to computers
>> everything is an exact science. There's always an answer for some issue
>> or
>> concern. Your prior experience will help you digest new stuff. It may
>> not
>> always work the same way. But at least you've got a sort-of head start.
>> You
>> know something about the language being used, so you might have some
>> insight
>> on how to proceed or what to look for in an answer. Look, I am also
>> dealing
>> with a learning curve too. And I just can't believe how much information
>> there is to learn and comprehend. However, here's something I find
>> helpful.
>> When things really start to "burn your brain" take a break! Get away
>> from it
>> all. Come back later. You'll be refreshed and feel better. I used to
>> teach
>> in the computer field a few years ago. And you don't lose stuff you've
>> learnt in the past. It just helps you learn new stuff in the future. Be
>> patient with yourself. You'll figure it out. It just takes time.
>>
>> "JMB" wrote:
>>
>>> I'll make an honest attempt to give this question/feedback a positive
>>> twist.
>>> I have been using Word/Excel etc. for years now and consider myself
>>> somewhat
>>> of an expert user. Now I have a new computer with Vista and Office 2007.
>>> And
>>> I essentially find myself facing this predicament of going up an
>>> enormously
>>> steep learning curve, i.e. relearning how to wordprocess and spreadsheet
>>> almost from scratch all over again. The new and improved of Office 2007
>>> apps
>>> may look much more "politically correct" than in previous versions, but
>>> so
>>> far my experience has been that it can hardly get any less user friendly
>>> and
>>> more convoluted than this. I'm giving it a very serious try here, but
>>> I'm
>>> also beginning to think about throwing in the towel. Anybody out there
>>> that
>>> can offer any useful advice as to how I can actually start using the
>>> Office
>>> 2007 applications without letting all my previous experience and
>>> know-how
>>> completely go to waste?
>>> --
>>> JMB
>
>

"Liontamer" <Liontamer DeleteThis @discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:56500415-D7B7-4E78-88EA-9A5472753F8E@microsoft.com...
> JMB
> I can relate to your frustrations. And I can offer you this piece of
> advice. Everything takes time. Unfortunately, when it come to computers
> everything is an exact science. There's always an answer for some issue
> or
> concern. Your prior experience will help you digest new stuff. It may
> not
> always work the same way. But at least you've got a sort-of head start.
> You
> know something about the language being used, so you might have some
> insight
> on how to proceed or what to look for in an answer. Look, I am also
> dealing
> with a learning curve too. And I just can't believe how much information
> there is to learn and comprehend. However, here's something I find
> helpful.
> When things really start to "burn your brain" take a break! Get away from
> it
> all. Come back later. You'll be refreshed and feel better. I used to
> teach
> in the computer field a few years ago. And you don't lose stuff you've
> learnt in the past. It just helps you learn new stuff in the future. Be
> patient with yourself. You'll figure it out. It just takes time.
>
> "JMB" wrote:
>
>> I'll make an honest attempt to give this question/feedback a positive
>> twist.
>> I have been using Word/Excel etc. for years now and consider myself
>> somewhat
>> of an expert user. Now I have a new computer with Vista and Office 2007.
>> And
>> I essentially find myself facing this predicament of going up an
>> enormously
>> steep learning curve, i.e. relearning how to wordprocess and spreadsheet
>> almost from scratch all over again. The new and improved of Office 2007
>> apps
>> may look much more "politically correct" than in previous versions, but
>> so
>> far my experience has been that it can hardly get any less user friendly
>> and
>> more convoluted than this. I'm giving it a very serious try here, but I'm
>> also beginning to think about throwing in the towel. Anybody out there
>> that
>> can offer any useful advice as to how I can actually start using the
>> Office
>> 2007 applications without letting all my previous experience and know-how
>> completely go to waste?
>> --
>> JMB

Well I've been using Word since Word 3.0 and I am finally throwing in the
towel on Word 2007. I cannot express how disappointed I am in how
needlessly complicated Microsoft has made this program. I will stick with
Excel and PowerPoint 2007, although they didn't improve them either. Word,
however, is my bread and butter - it's what I work in all day and what I
work in at night. I just can't get it to customize appropriately, no matter
how many ways I try. I finally got the AutoText imported and AutoCorrect
entries, but my custom toolbars and menus are lost. I get them to appear
once in a while, but they never stick, no matter how many different
convoluted ways I tried to get them to show up.

My macros are okay - they were easy to find, but everything else, which I've
worked so hard to fine tune exactly the way I wanted them, is just buried
under way too many clicks in this new version. I love learning new
software, but I'm throwing in the towel for the first time ever. It's back
to Word 2003 for me both at home and at work.

I'm beat, done, finished. I've never cried "uncle" before with any new
software, even Vista, but I've wasted far too much time and come to the
conclusion that Word 2007 will never meet my needs. Ever.