Use Office 2007 More Effectively

Avoid Compatibility Headaches

Works in: Word, Excel, and PowerPoint

Though Office 2007 has been out for almost a year, many businesses have yet to start using it. And if you're collaborating with people who rely on an older version of Office, you won't be able to share documents, since older versions of Office can't open Office 2007 files. Fortunately, you can tell your Office 2007 applications to save in the time-honored Office 2003 formats.

The process is similar in every Office application. First, click the Office button (the circle with the Office logo that appears in the top-left corner of the window). At the bottom of the menu, choose the application's Options (for example, choose Word Options if you're configuring Word). A window will appear with the options that you can configure. In the list on the left, choose the Save group. Look for the drop-down named 'Save files in this format'; here's where you can choose the old-school Office 2003 format for your application. Click OK to make your change official.

You also have a solution if you're stuck on the other side--in other words, if you have Office XP or Office 2003 and you want to open a document created in an Office 2007 application. You can download Microsoft's free Office Compatibility Pack to give your older Office applications the ability to open the newer file formats.

Save a File as a PDF

Works in: Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint, and Visio

Many business users often need to save a copy of their work in Portable Document Format, and Office 2007 adds a Save As PDF feature that performs the task. But this hidden gem isn't available unless you take extra steps to activate it. You can add the Save As PDF feature to all of your Office 2007 applications with one simple download from Microsoft.

Once you've installed the Save As PDF feature, you'll find it in the Office menu. To try it, click the circular Office button (in the top-left corner of the window) in whichever application you're using. Then choose the Save As, PDF or XPS command.

Switch Off the Ribbon

Works in: Word, Excel, Access, and PowerPoint

The Office 2007 ribbon, which groups functions into different tabs, is full of useful features. It's rather large, though, and it often hogs up a lot of space. Fortunately, you can temporarily clear it out of the way when you need the room (for example, when you have to work on a long Word document, or a data-packed Access database). Just double-click one of the tab titles that appear at the top of the ribbon to collapse it down to a single line that shows only the tab names. Double-click a tab title again to make the ribbon reappear.

You can still work with the ribbon while it's collapsed. If you single-click a tab title, the ribbon will appear just long enough for you to click a button, after which it will slide obligingly out of the way. If you prefer to rely on keyboard commands, you can press the Alt key to pop the ribbon into sight temporarily, and then press the letter for the tab and command you want to activate. (For example, in Word you can press Alt, then R for the Review tab, and then S to reach the spelling checker.) Once you've chosen a command, the ribbon will disappear again.