Recently I was in a SharePoint class and at the end of the day, the instructor showed a very cool tool which Microsoft has which allows you to check out user interface command differences between their Office XP (2003) and Office 2007 products (Access, Excel, Outlook, Powerpoint and Word). The command check is animated and is really cool ... can't remember when I last said that about a Microsoft web page! Better yet, the animation is in Flash, not Silverlight!
Here's how it works:
- Select the command from the Excel XP menu you wish to review
- The system them morphs to Excel 2007 and shows how to perform the identical command in the new release.
Try it! (link and select "Start the guide")
Here are two screen shots of the Excel pivot table option. Click to expand either image:
Excel XP - Pivot Table
Excel 2007 - Pivot Table
As someone with very complex spreadsheets and an encyclopedic knowledge of the "old" Excel commands, I find it extremely frustrating that my pace of work slows to a crawl when working on one of our machines that has been upgraded. The solution for now is to not use the machines with the new software, and I'm thinking about the reverse migration of those. Upgrading my main workstation would reduce my productivity dramatically, and I'll avoid doing it for as long as I can.
Microsoft has handled this change (such as it is) very poorly. Thanks for the tip on some tools that could help if I ever am forced into a corner and have to switch.
Posted by: tom brakke | November 24, 2008 at 07:25 AM