Book Reviews,  Personal

Reviews of Microsoft Vista and Office 2007

I do not plan to be a guinea pig for Microsoft’s release of its new Vista operating system. Even though I have already read one review in which a Mac user is switching to a PC in order to use Vista (Gasp!), I will not be drinking the Kool-Aid any time soon. As with all Windows operating systems, it will take a couple of years to get all the bugs worked out. I don’t have time for that.

The new Office suite, however, is a different story. I have been using the Office 2007 software for the last couple of weeks, and I think it’s outstanding. Two new Office features have already revolutionized the way I use my PC: (1) the blogging feature in Word and (2) the RSS capability in Outlook.

First, Word 2007 allows you to write blogs in your word processor. Blog posts can be composed, edited, and published directly from Word. For the last couple of weeks, I’ve been writing my blog posts in Word and then hitting the “Publish” button. Even after a blog has been published, I can edit it in Word, hit “publish” again, and Word automatically revises what was previously posted. This feature has made blogging much more efficient. (Another helpful new feature on Word 2007 allows you to publish any Word file as a PDF).

Second, Outlook 2007 has a feed reader that automatically downloads RSS (Really Simple Syndication) material directly to Outlook in the form of e-mails. I no longer have to browse twenty different websites in order to check for new content on my favorite blogs and news websites. Once I set up the RSS feed, the information comes to me.

For a full review of Office 2007, I highly recommend Gary Krakow’s, “Office 2007: A revolutionary revision.”

Recommendation: Wait for a while before upgrading to the Vista operating system. Don’t be a guinea pig. Upgrade to Office 2007 as soon as possible. It’s great.

12 Comments

  • Bret Capranica

    Denny, thanks for the tips. I’ve been trying out Office 07 for a few days and am hooked. Our pastoral team is moving to it today. We were tempted with Vista, but listened to similar “Kool-Aid” warnings and went with Office alone.

    For a pastoral team like ours who work both at the office and home, applications like Business Contact Manager and Groove are becoming some of our most important administrative tools.

  • D. Taylor Benton

    Dr. D,

    I have had 07 office for several months, I will tell you, the only down i have seen is that last semester, no one or no computer recognized any thing i saved or wanted to display. That is something that comes with newer versions of software I realize. Other than that…its great…funny enough, I am in the middle of researching for new Laptop, and most likely, I will be going to a Mac, with office suite 07 on it….i don’t know how that is going to work out but we will see! If anyone has any pointers on Macs, lemme know!

  • dennyrburk

    Dustin,

    Word 2007 saves documents as “.docx” files. But you can save your files in the old “.doc” format if you want to. It’s not hard to do, and it keeps everything compatible with older versions of Word.

    Luf,
    Denny

  • D. Taylor Benton

    Since my last post (about 2 hours ago), I just Bought a New Sony Vaio to replace my other Sony Vaio (which was turning 6yrs old). It has windows vista which I am typing on right now, I like it. again i have only owned it for less than an hour now, but it is very nice compared to xp, lots of goodies in terms of intergrating internet with entire computer, along with neato screens and flashy looks!

  • Micah

    Concerning Vista: it’s pretty, but it doesn’t do anything better than Windows XP. In fact, Microsoft finally got it right with XP and beta-testing indicates that Vista is a complete mess (IE7 is even less secure than any previous browser). Everyone I’ve known to try Vista has gone back to XP (thankfully they had media available since most machines are preloaded and you don’t own the operating system media).

    Concerning Macs, I’ve never seen a more simple and straightforward operating system. It will cost you more, and though I hear good things about Ubuntu, open source essentially means build-it-yourself, which I’m only partly willing to do.

    Concerning Masters, did you fall off a boat or drink some funny kool-aid? Every penny you give to Microsoft supports that fact? So? Be concerned with the Kingdom and not the world. Until Jesus stops loving the lost, stops dining with sinners, stops giving to Caesar what is his, and starts needing Bill Gates’ approval to do good, I don’t see how Bill Gates’ political motivations make any difference in the Kingdom, much less the world.

    Then again, I use Macs, so what do I know?

  • Robert I Masters

    Micah,
    You didnt read Mark Pilgrims evaulation of Mac vs Ubuntu did you! Here is the link…http://diveintomark.org/archives/2006/06/02/when-the-bough-breaks
    Bill Gates impacts the world more then any person on earth.(financially speaking).Sphere Soverienty is the word. Good Kuyperian theology.
    Are you a Peitistic, Anabaptist by chance…serious question?
    Have you honestly tried Ubuntu lately! It is a better product then anything out there free or not!
    Live CD is so simple!
    Sola Deo Gloria

  • Paul

    I’ve seen a house fly, a horse fly, and a dragon fly, I even seen a needle wink its eye! But I done seen ’bout ev’rything now that I’ve seen a site called “What Would Jesus Download.”

    Of course, a site like that could only be one of two things…

    1) a site mocking Christians (it’s not, and I’m glad, there’s far too much of that out there already)

    or

    2) some sort of site for hawking one’s own wares as the sort of thing that Jesus Himself would use. And lo and behold! That’s exactly whats we gots here!

    Seriously. Should we be shocked that the guy who is trying to convince the Christian world to switch to his Linux-based software would also try to convince the Christian world that his biggest competition is Satan incarnate?

    If you’re buying that, then I’ve got a Christian bridge for you on Mars that I’d be willing to sell…

  • Micah

    Robert, first I’d like to apologize for the tone of my previous comment, which was inappropriate. Second, I don’t need to read Pilgrim’s analysis to make up my mind–I don’t take a bandwagon approach to my opinion. I still stand by open source being great for advanced users (which I may be) but not for 90+% of users. I’m in the business of recommending hardware/software and I won’t recommend open source to a user until they prove that they can handle it.

    Second, I’ve only been to college and therefore don’t know what those words mean.
    I’d classify myself as a politically-left, socially-conservative, baptist who belongs to a church with which Denny’s quite familiar. (My wife calls it a reformed baptist church, but I maintain that since we haven’t split in the past five years that can’t be possible.)

    Really, none of that makes any difference. What makes a difference is that no man, great or small has any power over Jesus. Not even if he’s got a legion of demons at his side (who, by the way, are apparently smart enough to run away). That said, I don’t see how any one man’s politics make any real difference concerning the kingdom Jesus has established. If I were to take your recommendation to it’s full application, I’d be living in a cave in the hills making my own appliances, eating my own crops, because I’d be scared to purchase anything from a sinner and fund their selfish, unrighteous death. Would you like to move in with me and become catholic? We can whip ourselves daily for penance!

    The question, of course isn’t whether you can make a difference for Jesus in this world, but will Jesus do something with you that the world can see? Will you be a part of the kingdom he’s established?

  • Micah

    I’d like to append my last comment by changing the second second to thirdly, adding or removing a few commas, and changing one it’s to its. Thank you very much.

  • D. Taylor Benton

    Paul,

    AMAZING, HALARIOUS, AND STUNNINGLY TRUE! before we know it, if we want to be like Jesus we will have to buy a christian car, eat christian food, have christian electronics, live in a christian neighborhoon in a christian built house, and talk christianese (which most of us do already). It’s funny how Jesus broke down socio-economic and cultural barriers instead of built them. I think if we are to be like Christ, we need to be salt and light, not Amish!

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