New Features in Word 2007

Revised User Interface

The new Ribbon groups tools by task; the commands you use most frequently are close at hand.

1. Tabs are designed to be task-oriented.
2. Groups within each tab break a task into subtasks.
3. Command buttons in each group carry out a command or display a menu of commands.

Create Professional-Looking Content

• Building Blocks - predefined content reduce the errors associated with copying and pasting frequently used content.
• Quick Styles – quickly format text and tables
• Document Themes – apply the same colors, fonts, and effects to your documents for a consistent look.
• SmartArt™ diagrams - adds a professional look to diagrams.
• New charting engine - Shared diagramming and charting help ensure a consistent look across your documents, spreadsheets, and presentations.
• Compose and publish blogs directly from within Word
• The Equation Builder helps you construct editable, in-line mathematical equations using real mathematical symbols, prebuilt equations, and automatic formatting.
• Live word count keeps track of the number of words in your document as you type.
• Typographic capabilities offer improved bulleted and numbered lists, numbered list styles, and new fonts.
• Citation Manager and Reference Builder give you the ability to add references, footnotes, endnotes, table of contents, table of figures, or tables of authorities. Format your reference automatically by selecting a predefined style guide, including APA, MLA, The Chicago Manual of Style, and others.
• Contextual Spelling Checker helps you avoid common mistakes and misuse of similarly spelled words.

Share Your Documents and Content Confidently

With Office Word 2007, you can share documents with colleagues to gather feedback efficiently (with Office SharePoint Server 2007).

• The tri-pane review panel makes it easy to compare and combine two versions of a Word document.
• The Save As Portable Document Format (PDF) or XML Paper Specification (XPS) format option gives you the ability to share your documents with people who may not have Word.
• The Document Inspector feature helps you detect and remove unwanted comments, personally identifiable information, hidden text, or other information from documents so that private information stays that way.
• Digital Signatures can be added to a document to help others verify that content has not been changed since it was published. A new signature line can be added to prompt other Word users for their signature, or to provide a visible digital signature within your documents.
• Reading Mode offers you an immersive, full-screen reading experience that makes online reading easier, reducing the need to print. New navigation controls and typography display improvements make the reading experience better than ever.

Connect Your Documents to Important Business Processes

Office Word 2007 offers a host of integration points to enable organizations to build powerful solutions that are easy to use.

• Ecma Office Open XML Formats give developers unprecedented access to the contents of your documents, enabling broad interoperability with a wide range of programs and solutions.
• The Document Information Panel helps you have users enter the correct metadata by making it possible for you link document properties to Microsoft Windows® SharePoint Services or to other external data sources.
• Content Controls help you structure the document authoring process by requiring specific types of information or by adding sections of documents that may not be edited or reformatted.
• Custom-defined schema support of the Office XML Formats enables developers to host their own content within Word documents, using their own custom XML vocabularies. Instead of expensive translations, custom XML content is hosted directly within the file.
• Data Bindings in Office Word 2007 provide developers with an easy way to link the contents of external data sources and custom-defined schemas to their Word documents.

File Formats

Word 2007 documents are saved as Office XML files.  Older versions of Word are not compatible with Word 2007.   Word 2003 and 2000 are supposed to detect when you first try to open a DOCX file, and then prompt you to download and install an Office 2007 Compatibility Pack. After you’ve done this, the older Word should convert your Word 2007 files and remove incompatible features. When you reopen that same DOCX file again in Word 2007, the file’s original elements are supposed to stay intact. If you open an older DOC file within Word 2007, it will run in Compatibility Mode, shutting off access to some of the newer program features; therefore, two documents within Word 2007 may display different formatting options.

Rollover Style Galleries

Rollover style galleries let you preview the changes in document. Some people find the constant shape-shifting of the galleries distracting. Some options, such as for adjusting margins, use an older-style dialog box rather than the live preview menus.