Way back in April 2009, I posted a piece on CIO.com titled “Office 2007 Doesn’t Really Suck; It’s Just Misunderstood.” Little did I know it would create such a fuss.

Over the past 11 months, the piece has received a smattering of comments, many of which are tinged with vitriol. Office 2007 doesn’t just suck, according to CIO’s readers; it’s reviled, despised, detested, loathed.

Taking a stand by sticking with an earlier version of Office is hardly a political move.

Here’s a sampling of the comments:

“I’m a longtime Office user (since its inception). Office 2007 is an abomination and shows just how out of touch those developers are with real world use and workflow.”

“Thought my suckage meter was just already broken or something, it being beyond the warranty period, but as the 10 or so days went by from having installed this step backwards in software development, and having not latched onto what I had assumed was some kind of groundbreaking innovation in GUI, I started to suspect that Microsoft’s product itself had gone beyond the limits of my suckage meter and broken it… and everyone here has affirmed that.” Read more…

admin Office 2007, Rants AT&T, CIO.com, FORTRAN, Help Desk, Icelandic, Office 2007, software support, Swahili

Although most tech publications are reporting on Microsoft Office 2010, the reality is that a significant number of U.S. companies have yet to finish the Office 2007 upgrades they purchased before the recession hit.

Windows 7 is upon us. New operating system, new Office suite. Let the games begin.

According to a leading industry source, about 50 percent of enterprise-sized IT infrastructures are running mixed Microsoft Office end-user environments. That’s a whole lot of wasted investment.

Then there are companies who waited for that whole Vista debacle to blow over. They kept XP and Office 2003, with the aim of upgrading when Windows 7 was released.

Windows 7 is upon us. New operating system, new Office suite. Let the games begin.

We have compiled a list of the most common Office 2007 user questions and issues, and it was recently published by IT World. You can read it here. Take notes, and happy migrating.

PC Helps also recently published a white paper on the subject, titled “The Myths and Realities of an Office 2007 and Windows 7 Migration.” Download the free migration kit here.

MORE INFO IN: Desktop Application Support | Contact PC Helps

admin Office 2007, Office 2007 Migration Assurance Program, Windows 7 ITworld.com, Microsoft, Office 2007, ROI, Windows 7, Windows XP

This just in: According to a recent survey by Technologizer.com, early adopters of Windows 7 are a happy lot. That’s a 180 from the Vista mess, and it’s good news for Microsoft, not to mention corporate IT departments.

Eighty-four percent said their switchovers “went off without meaningful hiccups.”

For the survey, which was conducted mid-November, more than 550 early adopters were asked about their upgrade processes. Of them, 84 percent said their switchovers “went off without meaningful hiccups.” (Of the users surveyed, 46 percent upgraded from Vista and 32 percent from XP.)

This is significant, writes Technologizer founder Harry McCracken, considering the fact that when XP was rolled out, a PC World study found that more than half of those who upgraded reported installation difficulties.

And then there’s the issue of the actual product and its usability. Windows 7 fares OK there as well. According to the survey, 79 percent of those who upgraded from Vista reported that they are “extremely satisfied” with 7; 61 percent of XP users feel the same.

It’s not all good news, however. Users are having problems with two main issues in Windows 7: missing drivers and application incompatibility – both of which were expected. Read more…

admin Office 2007, Windows 7 drivers, Harry McCracken, PC World, technologizer, upgrade, Vista, Windows XP

Migrating to Windows 7 and Office 2007 is a massive undertaking, no matter your company size. Preparation is vital to a successful transition. Using the information and data points we’ve culled from many successful migrations with our mid- to enterprise-size clients, we have organized this collection of best practices and common occurrences:

Most Common Support Calls

Many corporate workers have been using Windows XP for some time now, so a learning curve with Windows 7 is inevitable. Below are some factors that will affect your employees’ productivity with the new operating system:

• Elimination of the Quick Launch toolbar and the Vista sidebar (if applicable)
• A new taskbar with icons only
• Changes to auxiliary apps like Windows Movie Maker and Windows Mail
• New features like Federated Search, Windows Mobility Center, Aero Peek, Jump Lists

Best Practice – Provide consolidated training on these features before deployment or make sure Windows 7 experts are standing by and are readily available the day of deployment. Downtime is costly.

As for Office 2007, its radically different interface will result in an even steeper learning curve. The design is such a departure that your employees will hit snags just trying to figure out how to perform basic tasks like saving and formatting. Here are some issues that may cause problems: Read more…

admin Office 2007, Windows 7 migration, Office 2007, Windows 7

While I’m aware that many users are annoyed with Microsoft Office 2007’s new ribbon interface, I did not anticipate how much anger I would stir up by penning a post in its defense.

They have no familiarity with command lines and scripts. They think Linux is a Peanuts character.

A few months back, I wrote about a schoolteacher whose administration upgraded the entire faculty to Office 2007, but failed to offer them training or support. Not only was her employer letting her down, I argued in the piece, the administration was wasting the money it dumped into the software investment.

Office 2007 doesn’t really suck, I stated; it’s just misunderstood. Read more…

admin Office 2007 Linux, Office 2007

What a difference a little style makes. If you compare the hype surrounding the release of Microsoft’s Windows 7 with that of Apple’s most recent gadget line, you’d think someone had died.

Gartner group is calling the new operating system “all but inevitable.” Sounds kind of like the flu.

Here is a sampling of the words that have been used to describe Windows 7: “much better”; “less prone to unexpected delays”; its impact on PC sales “won’t be huge”; and there are “good things to be had” with the new OS.

Sheesh.

In an opinion piece in Tuesday’s New York Times, Robert Cyran and Una Galani write that “if the key to happiness is low expectations, then Microsoft’s customers and investors have it in spades.” Read more…

admin Office 2007, Windows 7 Apple, Gartner, key to happiness, New York Times, XP, ZDNet

I was a little overconfident when I climbed in the six-person inflatable raft in preparation for a trip down western PA’s Youghiogheny River. I reluctantly put on the egg-yolk-yellow plastic helmet; it stunk of mildew, and flattened my pigtails. The vest was no better. Still, everyone else was wearing them, so I figured I should too.

I’d been rafting before, about a decade ago, somewhere north of Philadelphia on the Delaware River. From what I can remember, it wasn’t the kind of activity that required much skill. We didn’t wear helmets. I think someone even brought a cooler of beer along.

This trip was different. As the guide explained, 16 people have died rafting with this company. Granted, that’s in the entire time the outfitter has been operating and most were the result of pre-existing medical conditions. Plus, he noted, millions of others who have taken their trips have survived.

I had been rafting before, about a decade ago. From what I can remember, we didn’t wear helmets. I think someone even brought beer along.

My crew sailed through the first four rapids with ease, which bloated our confidence even more. At the fifth or sixth set of rapids, we had let down our guard.

First man overboard.

Riding rapids willy-nilly is like embarking on a software migration without help. It invites disaster, or at the least, discomfort.

We made it through the first four rapids because our guides prepped us. Before each challenge, they demonstrated hand signals and told us which way each side of the raft would be paddling and when, when to stop paddling, when to get down to prepare for a collision, etc. If you followed their directions, you had a chance of making it through without capsizing.

Like riding choppy rapids for the first time, with an Office 2007 migration, you have no idea what to expect because of the version’s redesign. The radical change in the Microsoft Office 2007 interface causes migration questions that are different from those that were typical in other Office version migrations. Read more…

admin Office 2007 Delaware River, Office 2007, software migration, whitewater rafting, Youghiogheny River

If there is one constant in these sour financial times, it’s that there’s no dearth of stories about corporate waste. And that’s good news for us, as our company makes a living boosting productivity.

Training and support transform smart phones from “fun toys” into powerful business tools.

The most recent is a witty report published by TechRepublic, titled “IT Budgets: How to waste money.” The nine-page report offers 10 tips on effective money-wasting, including doling out too much money on energy, unnecessarily purchasing new hardware, and spending too much on travel.

All of the tips are worth a look, but here are a few we’d like to amend/elaborate upon:

Spend too much on mobile technology. Yes, spending too much on mobile technology is a waste of money – when you don’t show your employees how to get the most out of it. Training and support transform smart phones from “fun toys” into powerful business tools. Write that down. Read more…

admin Office 2007, Outsourcing Office 2007, smart phones, software support, TechRepublic, upgrades

Despite the reports that IT spending is down, CIOs are still expected to keep their IT infrastructures current, which may mean committing to an Office 2007 migration. Read more…

admin Office 2007, Office 2007 Migration Assurance Program, ROI, Worker Productivity BlackBerry, golf, migration, Office 2007, Outsourcing, productivity, ROI, Windows Mobile

People inside Microsoft have openly related a story about Bill Gates’ initial evaluation of Office 2007. He congratulated them on a number of new features, but the additions weren’t exactly fresh; they were introduced with Office 97.

Hearing about Gates acting human is always a pleasure, but why would anyone at Microsoft admit that he didn’t know about features that had been a part of one of his company’s premier products for 10 years? (Another question: How is it that they still work there?)

The answer is simple: Office 2007 does what it was designed to do. That is, to make it easier for users to find features that were buried in previous versions’ meandering menu structures. It turned Gates into a guinea pig, enlightening him about product functionality he didn’t know existed, even though he had undoubtedly seen it before.

But the redesign’s success brings two new challenges to help desks, which they didn’t face with earlier Office upgrades.

The first is bringing users up to speed. The new interface renders even the most perceptive employees helpless when trying to complete tasks they’ve done for years. Read more…

admin Office 2007, Office 2007 Migration Assurance Program, Outsourcing, ROI Bill Gates, guinea pigs, migration, Office 97, upgrade