Product Description

Microsoft Office Professional 2007 is a complete suite of productivity and database software that will help you save time and stay organized. Powerful contact management features help you manage all customer and prospect information in one place. Develop professional marketing materials for print, e-mail, and the Web, and produce effective marketing campaigns in-house. Create dynamic business documents, spreadsheets, and presentations, and build databases with no prior experience or technical staff. You will learn new features rapidly using improved menus that present the right tools when you need them.

Main Features

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #221 in Software
• Brand: Microsoft
• Model: 269-11093
• Released on: 2007-01-30
• Platforms: Windows Vista, Windows XP
• Format: CD-ROM
• Dimensions: 1.50" h x 5.30" w x 7.30" l, .90 pounds

Features

• Upgrade version designed for those computers with Windows server 2003 or later and Windows XP SP2 and later
• Includes the 2007 versions of Publisher, Excel, Outlook, Outlook with Business Contact Manager, PowerPoint, Access, and Word
• Edit and analyze a financial spreadsheet, create an important presentation, or build a customer database; find and use the features you need faster and more easily
• Create and publish a wide range of marketing materials for print, e-mail, and the web with your own brand elements including logo, colors, fonts, and business information
• Intuitive look and feel, including task-based menus and toolbars that are automatically displayed based on the feature you are using; work offline on your laptop or Pocket PC and then synchronize data when you return to the office

Amazon.com
Microsoft Office Professional 2007 Version Upgrade is a complete suite of productivity and database software that includes the 2007 versions of Publisher, Excel, Outlook, Outlook with Business Contact Manager, PowerPoint, Access, and Word. Powerful contact management features help you consolidate all customer and prospect information in one place, while improved menus present the right tools exactly when you need them.

The new look and feel of the 2007 Microsoft Office system automatically displays the menus and toolbars you need when you need them. View larger.

Tasks are easy to follow up on because they are included on the new To-Do Bar and within Outlook reminders. You can also drag tasks onto your calendar. View larger.

You can customize the new information dashboard in Office Outlook 2007 with Business Contact Manager to display your sales pipeline. View larger.

Business Contact Manager also combines contact, customer, and project information in one place. View larger.

Create, preview, and send personalized e-mail publications with Office Publisher 2007 using new E-Mail Merge. View larger.

With Access tracking templates, you can create databases and generate reports quickly. View larger.

Professional 2007 also lets you develop professional marketing materials for print, e-mail, and the Web, and produce effective marketing campaigns in-house. In addition, you can create dynamic business documents, spreadsheets, and presentations, and build databases with no prior experience or technical staff.

This update version of Professional 2007 is designed for use by those computers with the following operating systems: Windows server 2003 or later and Windows XP SP2 and later.

Which edition of Office is right for you? View a comparison of Microsoft Office 2007 editions.

Fast and Efficient Operation
Whether you're working on a financial spreadsheet, creating an important presentation, or building a customer database, Professional 2007 helps you find and use the features you need faster and more easily. The intuitive look and feel of this software, including task-based menus and toolbars that are automatically displayed based on the feature you are using, improves your productivity. With Publisher 2007, you can create and publish a wide range of marketing materials for print, e-mail, and the web with your own brand elements including logo, colors, fonts, and business information. Or take advantage of hundreds of professionally designed and customizable templates, and more than 100 blank publication types. This software also lets you reuse text, graphics, and design elements, and convert content from one publication type to another. You can also combine and filter mailing lists and data from multiple sources, including the 2007 versions of Excel, Outlook, Outlook with Business Contact Manager, and Access, to create personalized print and e-mail materials, and build custom collateral such as catalogs and datasheets.

Save Time and Stay Organized
Because it contains so many efficient software options in one package, Professional 2007 gives you access to a multitude of options that save you time and keep you organized. For example, Outlook with Business Contact Manager lets you create, manage, and track marketing campaigns, while PowerPoint gives you the ability to craft more dynamic presentations from an extensive library of customizable themes and slide layouts. When it's time to create powerful charts, SmartArt diagrams, and tables, you can quickly preview formatting changes using the new graphics tools in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint and save yourself time-consuming future edits.

Office Excel 2007 makes it easy to analyze data. View larger.

Locate and Prioritize E-mail
Because so much important communication is now done via e-mail, Professional 2007 includes several features that help you manage key correspondence. Instant Search capabilities in Outlook with Business Contact Manager let you quickly find critical information while the Color Category feature helps you to easily sort and manage e-mail messages. And because nothing is more inefficient than troubleshooting problems that compromise the security of your computer, this software package includes improved junk mail and anti-phishing filters to filter out unwanted e-mail and manage the remaining messages.

Keep Track of Tasks and Deadlines
Keeping track of appointments and deadlines can be stressful, but Professional 2007 streamlines the process so you're ready for whatever the day brings. For instance, the To-Do Bar in Outlook with Business Contact Manager consolidates your tasks, e-mail messages flagged for follow-up, and appointments in one view. Additionally, tasks scheduled in Outlook appear on your calendar, or you can drag them directly onto your calendar to help you stay organized.

Manage Customer Information in One Place
Outlook with Business Contact Manager also provides a complete customer and contact management solution by centralizing all contact, prospect, and customer information--including communications history, projected sales value, and probability of closing, and tasks. This makes it easier to manage prospects and respond to customers. You also can store all types of communications with each customer in one place, including e-mails messages, phone calls, appointments, notes, and documents.

Including charts in Office PowerPoint 2007 is easy. View larger.

Capitalize on Key Opportunities
The success of your business depends upon taking advantage of key opportunities that come your way, and Professional 2007 offers several features to help prevent any lost or missed connections. Outlook with Business Contact Manager provides a customizable homepage that helps you forecast sales and prioritize tasks. Enhanced reporting features provide a consolidated view of your sales pipeline using a variety of flexible reports that you can easily modify to suit your unique business needs.

Visualize and Analyze Information
Excel provides new tools for filtering, sorting, graphing, and visualizing information so you can analyze business information more easily and make more informed decisions. For more advanced analysis, improved PivotTable and PivotChart views are now much easier to create. Manage business information using efficient tools for easily creating databases and organizing and visualizing information. Access helps you create new databases easily, with no experience required, and also includes a library of predefined database tracking applications for the most common business processes. And thanks to the task-based user interface and the datasheet view, (which is similar to Excel), it's more intuitive than ever before. When you're ready to consolidate your data, easily create reports with a single click and use improved tools to filter, sort, group, and subtotal data.

More Efficient Marketing Campaigns
Outlook with Business Contact Manager has exciting features that help you easily create, manage, and track marketing campaigns while Publisher can combine and filter mailing lists and data from multiple sources--including Excel, Outlook, Outlook with Business Contact Manager, and Access--to create personalized print and e-mail materials. This feature also enables you to build custom materials such as catalogs and datasheets. You can then use Outlook with Business Contact Manager to track and assess responses so that you can determine the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns.

Versatile, Flexible Operation
Because the future of your business may depend on your ability to work on-the-fly or from various locales, Professional 2007 lets you work offline on your laptop or Pocket PC and then synchronize data when you return to the office. Whatever the size of your business, Professional 2007 is versatile and flexible enough to help you manage everyday tasks, while ensuring that you're ready for whatever the future brings.

From the Manufacturer
Microsoft Office Professional 2007 has new tools for managing customer and business information to help you save time and work more effectively. The suite contains the following Microsoft Office programs: Word 2007; Excel 2007; PowerPoint 2007; Outlook 2007 with Business Contact Manager; Publisher 2007; Accounting Express 2007; Access 2007.

Note: This is an Office Professional 2007 Version Upgrade.

What's New?
The 2007 edition of this product includes many new features and benefits, including the ability to create great-looking documents faster. New graphics and visual galleries help you create more dynamic documents and presentations.

In addition, the suite enables you to find commands and help with ease. An improved user interface and help system make it easy to find the tools you need to get things done. Another key improvement is that you can now work more securely and confidently. An improved Document Inspector and automatic document recovery help to protect your work. You also get the ability to track and analyze business information. Gain insight into your business with new tools for organizing and visualizing your information. Moreover, you can now work more efficiently and effectively. New tools help you work faster and create more professional documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. There are also improved tools to help you manage sales and marketing activities. New contact management and marketing tools help you manage sales leads and marketing communications.

Familiar Programs, New Features
One of the many reasons to upgrade to the 2007 version of this suite is that you can manage, analyze, and communicate your information in more dynamic ways with new versions of familiar Microsoft Office programs. Here's a preview of what each of these programs has to offer:

Access 2007

• Get started quickly with no prior experience using a new library of pre-built databases.
• Create reports with one click and use improved tools to filter, sort, and group data.

• Save time and get organized by managing everyday tasks like invoicing, inventory, payroll, and reporting-all in one place.
• Sell inventory through online marketplaces like eBay and get paid faster using PayPal.

• Create custom publications and marketing materials in-house for print, e-mail, and the Web.
• Manage e-mail and print marketing campaigns using Outlook 2007 with Business Contact Manager.

• Control your e-mail with new Instant Search, category coloring, and junk e-mail filtering.
• Manage contact information in one place, including e-mails, phone logs, meetings, and tasks.

• Apply professional formats to your document with one click and instantly preview changes.
• Communicate more effectively with new high-impact tables, charts, and SmartArt diagrams.

• Organize and analyze data with new tools such as Conditional Formatting for sorting and visualizing information.
• Create more attractive and professional looking charts with enhanced visual effects.

• Create dynamic business presentations faster with new themes, layouts, and styles.
• Add visual impact with new SmartArt diagrams, charts, and tables and quickly preview changes.

Customer Reviews

Wait for this upgrade -- Important Things to Know
Normally I might wait to install a new software upgrade, but I just got a new laptop and thought it would be best to use Office 2007 with the new Vista operating system. I was wrong.

You would expect that a multi-billion dollar company like Microsoft could put out a powerful and bug-free piece of software. But after a month of using Office 2007, you get the distinct impression that this software is not ready for public release. Microsoft should be ashamed.

I don't know the root cause of my problems, but I have to stress that I am running a clean install of Office 2007 on Vista, so there shouldn't be any software conflicts or issues.

So what are my issues? The list is long:

-- My biggest concern is that MS Word constantly hangs and stalls. It can making editing a document very painful. I suspect the problem is when I put images or Visio diagrams into a document. But that is something the old MS Word was able to do without an issue. Oddly, if I have a colleague open the document and save it out in Word 2003, the problem goes away! What?! It's killing my productivity.

-- When ever I cut and paste from an old document, Word hangs for 15 to 20 seconds. And often the formatting and margins in my new document go haywire. I keep having to spend a ton of time fixing things. This never happened in the old Word. This is another time killer.

-- Every few days, Outlook 2007 starts telling me that it cannot display my email folders. Uh oh! I have to completely restart my computer to see my email again.

-- Outlook 2007 breaks many graphic emails that people send -- they look like a mess. It is because Outlook 2007 does NOT render HTML correctly since it uses the Word engine, not Internet Explorer to display email. I have no idea why Microsoft did this, but they have got to fix it.

-- Many of the issues in the old Word 2003 still haven't been fixed. If you place an image, it can often be hard to get it to appear correctly. Why can't they solve this one?

-- While most Office programs have the new ribbon interface (which I like), some programs like Visio 2007 do not. So you have to remember how to use two interfaces. Couldn't Microsoft find the time and money to update ALL its programs? Give me a break.

-- On a few occassions in Visio 2007, my files have failed to save correctly. At first I thought this must have been my fault, but it's happened to me a few times and can't be a coincidence. A few times I've gotten an error message and lost my work. Ug.

-- Word and Excel 2007 use a completely new file format. So anyone you send a document to has to have 2007 installed (which isn't likely the case). To get around this, you can save it down to a 2003 file format, but then you end up with two files on your hard drive -- one in the new format and one in the old format. What a pain! Also, there definitely seems to be an issue with Office 2007 opening older Office 2003 files. Could be the cause of many of my problems, but there is no way I can avoid using old files. They should have worked harder on compatibility.

There are good things about the new 2007. I do like the new interface design and the new features in Outlook 2007 are amazing for organizing tasks and sharing your calendar.

But I don't think it's fair that Microsoft released a product so full of serious, serious bugs that have cost me hours and hours of extra work. I didn't spend hundreds of dollars on a beta product and don't think the public should have to suffer. Surely they can afford to do better!

NEW ADDITION TO MY REVIEW:
Today I discovered that I can no longer paste Excel charts into Word like I used to. When I try, the chart goes in, but any bars/lines disappear.

Worth the upgrade
I have been using the Professional version of this software for about 6 months now. The beta version had some bugs but that is why it was a beta. I became fluent in MS Access while I was working in the corporate world and took that knowledge with me when i started my own business. I wish I had had 2007 when I developed all my software tools around MS Access. It would have greatly reduced my development time. The new interface takes a little while to get used to but now it seems second nature to me. I can even confidently do mail merges between apps. That is something I have always had trouble remembering how to do since i don't do it everyday. The only reason it doesn't get a 5 star rating is that I think the upgrade price is a little steep.

Steep learning curve
I deeply regret Microsoft Office Professional 2007 UPGRADEupgrade. The new ribbon means that I have to completely relearn commands that I have used effortlessly for years. Some users find the ribbon to be intuitive; to me it is cluttered and obscure. It has become a game in my office, when we are searching the first time for a command, to see whose guess will lead us to the hidden treasure. Unfortunately, in our intensely busy, deadline-driven office, we don't have time for this.

Especially disappointing is the lame Help, which I have finally abandoned. I've had to resort to Google-searches for the commands I need.

The only way I have been able to get any work done in Word or Excel is through the prior version's keystroke commands, which are still built in. But you have to know the entire series of keystrokes.

I feel betrayed by Microsoft. Such a sudden and dramatic change with so little support for users of prior versions has slowed my work to a crawl.

You would probably like Office 2007 if you are new to Office, if you tend to use just the basics or if you really like exploring new software. If you have invested a lot in using prior versions and just want to get your work done, be prepared to lose a lot of time. Either way, I strongly recommend downloading a trial version before buying it.