Microsoft Corporation's Office products have an installed base of more than 25 million licensed users. More than 90% of the Fortune 500 companies use Microsoft Office. Microsoft completely redesigned the Office interface when it produced Office 2007. Microsoft's goal was to make the Office 2007 interface easier than ever to use, as well as more integrated among other applications and the Internet.
By redesigning the interface, Microsoft in effect did away with menus and toolbars and replaced the interface with an ever-changing ribbon across the top of the Office product screens. To many Office old-timers, the ribbon was a bold move—Microsoft did away with the interface we've been using for what seems like forever. At first, the ribbon might frustrate you. You'll find yourself wondering, "Where's that option I need?" If you look up at the ribbon, you'll probably find it! The ribbon changes depending on what you're doing at the time. If you need a feature that you used to have to hunt through menus to locate, you'll probably find it on the ribbon. Office pros are happily finding that after a session or two with Office 2007, they wonder how they ever worked efficiently with the clunky menus and toolbars that used to be there.
Brand-new Office users may not ever know how well they have it with the new interface. The ribbon makes it far simpler to master Office than the menu system did. In addition, the graphical features of Office 2007, especially when used with a Windows Vista–compatible computer with Aero graphics capabilities, make learning Office 2007 a pleasure—and a quick pleasure at that.
You probably are anxious to get started with Office 2007. Take just a few preliminary moments to acquaint yourself with the design of this book, as described in the next few sections.
