[Ben G.]

Time moves on. Word 2007 is so many things. Much more than any of us have
been able to implement, nor ever will. It's really a toolkit, or to use a
geek term framework, for knowledge workers -- I won't go into explanations
here.

If you want to use it as a word processor, then it's amazing. I struggled
with 2007 until I changed my thinking about it. The revelation for me was to
erase all the old versions of Word from my mind. I think nostalgically
about Word for DOS (bundled with the first MS Mouse -- steel ball), those
were in the CPM vs. Windows days. And I think nostalgically about Word for
Windows versions prior to 2007, too. The key for me was to think of Word
2007 and the ribbon as an entirely new thing. When I started asking myself,
"if I were the developer, where would I have put x, or y, or z", the new
paradigm made sense very quickly."

The new paradigm and the new functionality amaze me, yet I still think it's
more a beta than a version 1.0 product. Especially when it comes to file
interoperability, and there are a whole lot of bugs to resolve. What worked
for me, once I got comfortable with the new paradigm was getting the
Microsoft Book "Word 2007 Inside Out". It helped me through the bugs, such
as getting Building Blocks to work (deleting a file that holds the index to
the building blocks is the solution, and Word 2007 will rebuild the index).

I have nothing to do with Microsoft Corporation. In fact, I use to develop
a whole load of things using JAVA and use to spit on Microsoft for mucking up
a whole lot of things (sorry, Bill).

I think the .Net framework is an amazing paradigm for coding, and Word 2007
is equally amazing for knowledge workers, that is if people figure out that's
what Word 2007 is all about.


"h_james" wrote:

The new interface (the so-called ribbon) appears designed to frustrate and
completely kill the productivity of experienced Word users. Is there ANY way
of getting the old toolbars back (not to mention shortcut key combinations)?
Or do I simply have to buy another copy of Office 2003?