When you first open up Microsoft Office Word 2007, Excel 2007 or PowerPoint 2007, you will see a lot of features that look familiar, such as your Word document workspace or Excel worksheet. But you'll also notice a brand new look at the top of the window.

Old Look

New Look

The new Office 2007 products have a new ribbon interface instead of the menu bar found in previous versions. The ribbon is an area across the top of the screen that is divided into tabs. Each tab contains the commands that you already know how to use. The organization of the commands may be a little bit different from before, but this change greatly improves the user's ability to use and find features in this new version. With a little time and exposure, you'll find that the ribbon is simpler to use and the commands easier to find. Click here for a short overview of the ribbon interface. Here are links to reference materials published by the University of Victoria Students Facilites Group (PDF):

• Office 2007 Overview
• Word 2007
• Excel 2007
• PowerPoint 2007

Office 2007 also introduces new XML-based file formats. Documents created in the Office 2007 versions will have a x at the end of the filename extension – .docx, .xlsx, and .pptx instead of .doc, .xls, and .ppt. Documents created in Office 2007 will not open in older versions of Office unless you have the Microsoft Office 2007 Compatibility pack installed. If you are using Office 2003 on Windows XP, you may be prompted by Office to automatically download the compatibility pack as you attempt to open a document created in the 2007 version. If you would like to have Office 2007 installed, please contact the IS&T Call Center at x5050 or call.center@csuohio.edu.

Here are resources that can facilitate a smoother transition to Office 2007:

• IS&T Training department offers ‘Introduction to Office 2007’ courses. lease refer to the IS&T Training webpage for the schedule of classes.


• SkillPort, CSU’s online training system, offers self-paced Office 2007 courses and references that you can access from work or home. SkillPort is available free to students, faculty and staff. To access a class, go to www.csuohio.edu/training and use your CSU ID and CampusNet password.



• Microsoft provides a number of online help and self-paced training courses which can be found at
  http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/training/FX100565001033.aspx.



• Microsoft also developed visual, interactive reference guides to help users quickly find their favorite Word, Excel or PowerPoint 2003 commands in the new Office 2007 version. We suggest that you bookmark these links for quick access.

Word: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word/HA100744321033.aspx

Excel: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel/HA101491511033.aspx

PowerPoint: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/powerpoint/HA101490761033.aspx

• Other Resources

Introduction to the New Microsoft® Office Fluent™ User Interface

Becoming Acquainted With the Word 2007 Home Ribbon

Brown University
Excel 2007 Tutorial
PowerPoint 2007 Tutorial

University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire
Office 2007 Common Features
Word 2007 Tutorial
Excel 2007 Tutorial
PowerPoint 2007 Tutorial