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Microsoft® Office 2007 Quirks, Confusions & Solutions

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Opening New & Recent Documents, Saving and Printing

The replacement for the File Menu is not immediately discernable to the newcomer, as it is disguised as the Microsoft® Office Button Button image. Behind this button is the standard File Menu, including the Save, Save As, Print, New and Open features. The Office Button also holds many of the features that used to be found on the Tools Menu. This can be accessed by clicking on the Options button at the bottom of the menu that appears. top of page top

 
 

Microsoft® Office 2007 and Acrobat® Professional

Office has a known issue with generating a PDF using Acrobat®. It is still possible to generate a PDF using the Print command, and then selecting Adobe PDF as your printer, however much of the formatting of your document will be lost. It is possible to circumvent this issue by selecting the Office Button, then hovering over the Save As area. There is the option of using the PDF and XPS add-in to save as a PDF. Using this feature will preserve more of the document formatting. Once the document is saved as a PDF, the new document will work with Acrobat® Professional. top of page top

 
 

Customized Toolbars

Many people have inquired about the customization of toolbars. In Office 2007, the tools are anchored to the Ribbon, and so it is not possible to move toolbars around the screen as with previous editions of Office except in Publisher and Outlook®. It is still possible to have a personalized toolbar by using the Quick Access Toolbar. This is a small bar of tools that are immediately to the right of the Office Button. To add or remove buttons, click on the small arrow to the right of the Quick Access Toolbar. For those who like to have a different toolbar for different documents, this is an option with the Quick Access Toolbar.top of page top

 
 

Word Count

A feature that many people use, that is not immediately obvious is the word count. There are now two locations for this feature. There is a running total number of words continuously displayed in the bottom left-hand corner of the window which is similar to the location in the Office 2004 suite for Mac. If you need to run a sectional count, the full word count feature can be found on the Review Tab under the Proofing group. top of page top

 
 

Getting More Out Of PowerPoint

At the moment, VIU has set the defaults on Microsoft Office programs to save documents in the 2003 file format. This eliminates compatibility issues while the full implementation has not yet taken place. The difficulty with this is that this causes much of the new functionality in PowerPoint to be turned off. In Word it is possible to change the default for each session, however this is not the case for PowerPoint. In order to work in the newest version of PowerPoint it is necessary to save your file in the newest format.

To do this, select the Office Button, and click on Save As. Next, select the dropdown menu for the Save as type field and select PowerPoint Presentation (*.pptx). Your presentation will now have full functionality. If you will need to use the presentation on a machine that does not have Office 2007 it may be necessary to convert the file back to PowerPoint 97-2003.

Save As Dialog Box top of page top

 
 

Table of Contents Crashes Document

Sometimes using the table of contents update feature causes an error that forces Word to close. The best solution is to save your file prior to inserting and/or updating your table of contents. Once you have updated your table of contents, save your file again.top of page top

 
 

Metric and Imperial Rulers

Most of the campus computers are automatically set to imperial rulers, which is handy since our paper sizes are still listed in this format. Some users have noted that their upgrade also changed their rulers to metric. If this happens, or if you would prefer to have your ruler in metric, you can change the ruler by following these steps:

  1. Click on the Office Button
  2. Click on Word Options at the bottom of the Office Button menu
  3. Click on Advanced and scroll down to the Display section
  4. Select the units that you prefer (Inches, Centimetres, Millimetres, Picas, etc.)
  5. Select OKtop of page top
 
 

Outlook® Quirks

  1. Outlook may crash, or freeze your computer if you do not have enough RAM, or if you have certain add-ins.
  2. Outlook uses the new User Interface (Ribbon) for composition of mail, however the general Outlook Interface is similar to previous versions.
  3. Outlook now has a feature that allows you to create a business card. This is a nice looking feature, but we have found that the file size of the business card increases each time it is sent (forwarded or replied). There will likely be an institutional policy on the use of these features at some point in the future.
  4. Okay, so you are a calendar whiz, then you will love this new feature. Calendar now allows you to classify your appointments. The colour coding has been available for a while, but now you can give each colour a title, and add more.
  5. While many web pages talk about being able to send text messages to mobile clients, this requires an account, and so it is not available.
  6. Removing the back and forward buttons causes the home page to be blank. Do not do this, and if you do, reset your toolbars. top of page top
 
 

Excel® Add-Ins (Analysis ToolPak)

Anyone who uses Excel® for statistical analysis knows that you need to have the add-ins turned on in order to use the data tools. In Office 2007 there is a new pathway to get to the add-ins.

  1. Click on the Office Button
  2. Click on Excel Options at the bottom of the Office Button menu
  3. Select Add Ins from the buttons on the left
  4. At the bottom of the Add Ins menu is a Manage section
  5. Select Manage Excel Add Ins and click on Go
  6. Select the features that you need from the dialogue box
  7. Select OK.
  8. Your tools will appear on the Data tab of the ribbon top of page top
 

Getting Help

Microsoft® Office 2007 has changed the look of the help button. You can still access the help pages by using the F1 key, and now the help button is a small blue question mark in the top right-hand side of the window.

The button looks like this: Help Buttontop of page top

 

Return to the main Office 2007 Reference Page.