Office 2007

Office 2007 brings some significant changes in the user experience and some additional products to UAB. Under the Campus Agreement UAB will be entitled to Office 2007 Enterprise. This version includes all the common products (Word, Excel, Outlook, Publisher, Access, and PowerPoint) along with 2 additional products (One Note and Groove). As can be expected Office 2007's myriad of new features make compatibility with older Office versions an issue, including the change to new file formats and document extensions.

Microsoft has addressed these compatibility issues in the following ways:

First, documents created in the 2007 versions of Word, Excel, Publisher, and PowerPoint can be saved in previous version formats...but this may reduce or eliminate some features.

Second, Word 2007 and Excel 2007 utilize a ‘compatibility mode' feature that lets 2007 users work on documents created by previous versions while maintaining the formatting and features used within the 2007 document compatible with the older version. This feature is automatically active when an older document is opened within Word 2007 or Excel 2007.

Third, Microsoft is making available ‘Compatibility Packs' for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. These packs, when installed along side Office 2000, XP, or 2003 allow users to open, edit, save, and create files using the new Office 2007 file formats.

Unfortunately, Access 2007 is not compatible with previous versions and automatically converts previous version documents to Access 2007 when opened. No option for saving documents in a prior version is available for Access.

Office 2007 is now available as a download through this web site.

New Add-ons for Office 2007

Microsoft Corp. has posted add-ons for Office 2007 that allow users to save files in the electronic paper PDF and XPS file formats. These features had previously been stripped from the suite under pressure from Adobe Systems Inc. These add-ons are available to download directly from Microsoft.

• 2007 Microsoft Office Add-in: Microsoft Save as XPS  
  This download allows you to export and save to the XPS format in eight 2007 Microsoft Office programs. It also allows you to send files as e-mail attachments in the XPS format in a subset of these programs.
• 2007 Microsoft Office Add-in: Microsoft Save as PDF  
  This download allows you to export and save to the PDF format in eight 2007 Microsoft Office programs. It also allows you to send files as e-mail attachments in the PDF format in a subset of these programs.
• 2007 Microsoft Office Add-in: Microsoft Save as PDF or XPS  
  This download allows you to export and save to the PDF and XPS formats in eight 2007 Microsoft Office programs. It also allows you to send as e-mail attachment in the PDF and XPS formats in a subset of these programs.

Additional information on Office 2007 can be found utilizing the following links:

• Office Enterprise 2007 Product Guide
• Office 2007 File Format Reference