As we're in the process of rolling out MS Office Standard 2007 at the office (and the 18-year-old is on the 29th of January released all over the globe), I'm gladly trying it out and pulling no stops at trying all the new functions, especially as Microsoft has dubbed this version to be enchanted.

I'd say it's not very enchanted at all, as much as in need of fixes. I'll show you what I mean.

To the left is a picture displaying what Word 2007 looks like when one single document is open on my computer. The document is represented by the icons to the left. The icon to the right, however, does nothing; clicking it does nothing other than bevel it, and it's there until Word shuts down. Weird. Do also note that the icons on the Startbar items differ. I think this problem has to do with the fact that I'm using a double-display solution from Matrox, which somewhat baffles Office 2007 ((I haven't used this setup on any newer version of MS Office than 97, by the way.)).

To the left this time, is a picture displaying the Office Diagnostics application, which has found an error in my MS Office-installation. It was automatically started after Excel crashed a few times in a row, attempting to open a shared workbook. Problem is, the very same thing happens after MS Office finished diagnosing my problem - and fixing something, which took appx. 12 minutes on a brand-new Dell GX620 computer. I can think of two things that cause this specific problem: 1) said double-display solution and/or 2) the fact that the workbook in question has been edited and saved through OpenOffice. On the other hand, both of these matters were in-place when I was using Office 97, which didn't cause any problems, so...I think Office 2007 just needs to be fixed. Until then, I actually have to use OpenOffice Calc to open said workbook ((Yes, the workbook in question is an Excel 97-file, and not an OpenOffice Calc-file.)).

When I installed MS Office 2007, everything sailing very smoothly, "MS Office has been successfully installed". I can't help but think that the mentioned problems are a few bumps on the road for Office 2007. I've sent these to Microsoft for analysis, and well, here's to quick patching and really smooth sailing for MS Office in 2007!

edit: it'll be interesting to see what Apple cooks up on the office-front; Think Secret believes iWork '07 will be addressed during the Apple keynote exhibition next week, and office-suite-wise, it looks like they're going to release an MS Excel-killer. Well, not really. It looks a bit like Excel 97 that has been ironed, I say, but we'll just have to wait and see what changes that entails, as well as for the other iWork-apps that will most likely be subject to change.