It is perfectly reasonable to be concerned about compatibility - to which
there are many aspects - but I don't understand why you want to buy 20k new
licences, and train 20,000 users, in order not to use the new facilities.
All that Compatibility Mode does is suppress some elements of the UI which
provide new features which cannot be stored in the old format. It does not
suppress all 2007 features in the UI and doesn't, AFAIK, suppress any in
VBA. Your users will see it and need to understand what it is and what
effects it has, and that must be part of the training you give them. I
cannot imagine for a moment that imposing it would in any way reduce the
amount of support they will need, or benefit them, or you, in any way. As it
doesn't seem possible - and I see the same as you report - the question is,
of course, moot.
--
Enjoy,
Tony
"funnybroad" wrote in message
...
Not want compatibility for 20k users? How many companies do you know of
who
can roll Office 2007 out to that many users that quickly to not have to be
concerned about compatibility?
If you know of any, please let me know so that I can learn how they do it
without bringing its I.T. support staff to its knees.
"Tony Jollans" wrote:
A couple of points to ponder ...
Firstly I have to wonder, if you're rolling this out to 20K users, why
you
want compatibility. How many users will you have who remain on an earlier
version?
Secondly, I think you need to be aware that, even in compatibility mode,
your users will still see compatibility prompts in some circumstances and
may also see other effects of constantly saving down-level. They may need
more training to work this way than they would to use the product in
'normal' mode and I think their experience of using the product will be
less
enjoyable, and may be more confusing, in compatibility mode.
--
Enjoy,
Tony
"funnybroad" wrote in message
...
Thanks for your response, and you're right... for one person,
especially
an
experienced user, it's minor
But multiply it by the 20,000+ not-so-experienced users we have to roll
this
out to. Then it's not so minor.
The users will have to be trained that 1) getting into compatibility
mode
for new docs in Word is different than Excel and PowerPoint (source of
confusion) 2) they need to immediately save a new document in Word
before
editing it (awkward) -or- try to remember what features are not 100%
feature
refresh (there's a long list) -or- try to explain the gruesome details
of
handling the compatibility prompts when they do finally save the
document.
Call me crazy, but I think user experience for our users is important,
and
a
lot of confusion can be avoided if Microsoft could just make their
software
behave like it's described in their resource kit.
The benefit I'm hoping for is this: EVIDENCE. Unless I can
demonstrate
to
our Microsoft TAM that this issue is a problem with the software, and
not
with something we're doing wrong with our installation of it, they
will
charge us money to open a "ticket".
So I try to gather information from various sources (including
discussion
groups) as 'evidence'.
Thanks again Tony, I appreciate it!
"Tony Jollans" wrote:
As I've said elsewhere, Compatibility mode isn't really very useful
and
most
people think there are more important issues in need of attention in
Word
2007. At best, your problem is a very minor one and, although I can't
speak
for Microsoft, I doubt you will get what you consider a satisfactory
resolution even if you pay for it; I would think that the best you
could
expect would be a change to the web page so that it tells you what you
already know.
What benefit were you hoping to get out of this?
--
Enjoy,
Tony
"funnybroad" wrote in message
...
PUHLEEZE get someone within Microsoft to acknowledge the problem and
either
give me a solution, or a timeframe when I can expect one.
"Dian D. Chapman, MVP" wrote:
PHULEEZE don't post the same question to multiple groups!
Dian D. Chapman
Technical Consultant, Microsoft MVP
MOS Certified Instructor, Editor/TechTrax Ezine
https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile/Dian.Chapman
Free PC Tutorials: http://www.mousetrax.com/techtrax
Free Word Tricks eBook: http://www.mousetrax.com/books.html
Optimize your business docs: http://www.mousetrax.com/consulting
Learn VBA the easy way: http://www.mousetrax.com/techcourses.html
On Sat, 7 Jul 2007 13:32:02 -0700, funnybroad
wrote:
According to the O2k7 Resource kit (specific page link below), if
you
set
your default save format to the 97-2003 formats, when you create a
new
document in Word, it should automatically open the blank document
in
[Compatibility Mode]. I've tried two completely different
installations
(one
at work with one set of media, and another at home with a
different
set
of
media), and this isn't the case. I have to first save the new
blank
document
before [Compatibility Mode] kicks-in.
Excel and PowerPoint behave as described in the res. kit. New
workbooks
and
presentations open up automatically in compatibility mode if
you've
set
the
default format to the 97-2003 formats.
Link to page in Resource Kit:
http://technet2.microsoft.com/Office...3.mspx?pf=true