Microsoft Office 2007 Home and Student Edition (3 User Licence) (PC)

I'm writing this review after buying 4 copies for my company. As an advanced user (PowerPoint & Word) I used to give presentations for others on how to use the software to increase productivity.
I'll be short and focussed about my opinions. Firstly, the ribbon interface! It looks very pretty and is a great idea for anyone new to Office. For any advanced user though its a different story. Firstly it cannot be customised (by default), so if you built your own toolbars in earlier versions then you're out of luck. Secondly, and most frustratingly, is where all the icons are positioned. I think Microsoft, desperate to appear to be doing something new, have just randomly mixed up the icons! Luckily the right-mouse button is always as useful and contains the same contents as earlier versions. If you don't believe me, here's a very quick example: In Excel you want to add a new row. You click on INSERT, but there's no mention of it. Instead its under HOME (possible the most ambiguous name possible).
Another niggle is the endless amount of formatting options for emails. Given that Outlook uses its own Word format to code the message, its highly unlikely anyone reading your emails without the same Outlook version won't see anything near as pretty as the one you composed. Come on Microsoft - let's work to web standards please!
And as for the XPS file format... Dear Microsoft, the world uses PDF for read-only formats. Why try to re-invent the wheel and add yet another download for your IT department to deal with?
Once the confusion of the buttons passes, there's not much left to warrant the new release. It's new, it's flashy, but it just doesn't push the boundaries forward in the way that previous versions have done.

The basic idea behind the continued development of a software product is to improve the usabilty, performance and reliability of a product. To move the product forward. Well, this is the philosophy that I've adhered to in 12 years as a professional software engineer. Perhaps somebody should tip off the project managers and developers at Microsoft. Like Vista, MS Office 2007 is nothing less than an abortion on legs; at total mess. Unlike Vista, there doesn't even seem to be an option to revert to the classic Word/Excel look and feel.

Thinking of buying it? Do yourself a favour and download Star Office; it's 60 quid cheaper and far more intuitive and usable.

Microsoft Office 2007 Home and Student Edition (3 User Licence) (PC)

... They attempt to fix it. The end result is an insanely unorthadox formatting system that rather than simplifing documents, makes life alot slower and frustrating; particularly when you're due to write an essay for University.

Why change the old layout of tabs and formatting tools? The new look/set-up may look cleaner and more modern in an attempt to look Mac-Like, but it fails because rather than simply choosing an option from a drop down menu, you have to traul through silly tabs on a new chunky bar above the document (for Word) while PowerPoint isn't even worth starting on...

One of the biggest nusances that others have highlighted is that this new version of Office isn't directly compatible (when saving files) with older versions of Office. To exchange files between a computer with an older version of Office, I've had to download a 144mb 'update' called Open XML which converts the file from being 'docx' to simply 'doc'. This is 2008 - new versions of software should be simpler!

The only ipostives to come out of this experience:

- The zoom feature is now a slider, for easier viewing on docs
- When using the Undo/Redo feature, you can act on multiple actions without having to keep clicking the tab
- I still have my trusty and nippy copy of Office 2002 under the bed!

I was basically forced to change from Office 2003 into 2007 when my computer crashed taking with it all installed programs (Microsoft actually had something to do with it ;) which I took as a sign from above (Bill Gates?) that I should bring my software a little up to date.
After several weeks with the new software I am still undecided whether this was the right move. Frankly, I have yet to find a single function which would really make a difference.
The new layout is fancier but this is not what I expect - I need quick access to rather basic functions instead of dozens of functions the purpose of which I will never discover. Let's face it, I need my computer for writing. I can create an odd table every now and then but that is the limit to my computer skills. Within this fairly limited set of needs I found the new Office to big to handle.
Obviously, I am to blame to some extent, I got used to doing things "my way" over the years and now "my ways" are no longer accessible or I have to trailblaze across allegedly "intuitive" software. My basic problem is that the new Office knows too well what I want when I don't want it at all (still haven't mastered the tricky art of numbering within a single Word document starting from 1. several times).
I couldn't avoid the upgrade forever as my students started sending me essays in the new Word format which I could not open any longer but if I could I would probably be happier with the old one. And this is my conclusion - if you already have an older version of Office and it works, don't change it. It just isn't worth the money and the bother.

Objectively this product is neither as good or as bad as many of the reviews here state.
It is overpriced although there can be few people on the planet who are not eligible for a discount in some form or another. It is bloated with features that don't make a lot of sense and quite why they have moved everything about is beyond me.
However there are not many things it can't do and it does repay a bit of time learning its functionality.
It is worth looking at some of the open source alternatives before you plunge in and whether it is really an improvement over 2003 is a moot point.