A recommended change from 2003

Microsoft Office 2007 is a software "pack" if you will, containing Mircosoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Access, Microsoft OneNote.

What Are These Products?

Microsoft Word is a rich feature-full text editor.  It saves files in a docx format by default, which cannot be opened in Office 2003 without the compatibility pack.  You can also save it as a doc from the save as screen.  Most people are familiar with Microsoft Word, so I will go in detail about the differences between 2003 and 2007 instead of describing what Word is.  Microsoft Word 2007 features a ribbon style layout and the same basic features as Word 2003, even though finding them takes some getting used too.  Calabri is now the default font instead of Times New Roman, and many other fonts have been added.  Basically, Word 2007 allows you to customize more and easier than Word 2003.

Microsoft PowerPoint is a slide show presenter that I am sure most of you are familiar with.  In 2007, the ribbon layout is also present and themes for slide colors and patterns are easily available and easy to add, clicking on the picture of it applies it to all slides.

Microsoft Excel is mostly intended to plot data.  It basically a big data chart that can make different graphs for you.  I do not use Excel very often so I cannot tell you many of the new features except for the ribbon layout exists, and adding graphs is mush simpler in my opinion.

Microsoft OneNote is one of my favorites.  It is designed for, notes!  It is very handy if you own a tablet, since it captures your handwriting and allows you to drag it around, change the size, and numerous other things.  You can also use it just to type up notes with a keyboard.  This gives you basic text editing features and the ability to position your text anywhere since you can separate it out to many different text boxes.  It is difficult to describe and one of the most undermentioned programs out there.

Microsoft Access is a database tool which I have used once 4 years ago (2003 version) and thus cannot comment on it.

I would recommend upgrading to 2007 to everyone who wants more and easier customizability and OneNote.  It takes some getting used to but it is defiantly worth the switch.