The Top 8 reviews are in on Office 2007 and here they are:

Ok, I know you are looking for early bird reviews of Office 2007 and here you are:

(Good reading for your Monday morning!) :)

1. ComputerWorld's Review
2. A Review from a Beta-Tester
3. CNET Editors' Review
4. ZDNet's Review
5. PC World's Review
6. PC Advisor (UK) Review
7. PC Magazine's Review
8. VNU Net (UK) Review

Lots of opinions but the general consensus is this - it's an awesome new game, y'all. You gotta experience it to see. Microsoft Office 2007 - upgrade your copy now!

Brand new program from Microsoft - absolutely FREE

Make sure and download your free copy of Microsoft Accounting Express here.

Office Accounting Express 2007 helps small business owners and bookkeepers save time on everyday tasks and build their business through online sales, invoicing, and payment processes.

Our templates are free in the new book!

Faith Wempen has done it again with the new PowerPoint 2007 Bible But you'll get an additional bonus when you purchase the book - 500 free professional templates - including many from Brainy Betty!.

From the Back Cover
Make an impact on your audience with PowerPoint 2007 To deliver a compelling presentation to your audience, you need to get the most out of PowerPoint's powerful features. In this comprehensive guide to PowerPoint 2007, experienced author and trainer Faithe Wempen shows you how to do both. You'll get up to speed on PowerPoint's new interface and the Ribbon—while you also find out what contributes to a good presentation, such as choosing the right amount and style of information for your audience.

• Format with Layouts, Themes, and Master slides
• Integrate drawings, charts, or data from a variety of sources
• Get beyond bullet points and reading slides full of text and learn to engage your audience during your presentation
• Add sound effects, music, animation, and video
• Present from multiple monitors and separate computers
• Design interactive or self-running kiosk shows
• Use SmartArt to quickly turn plain text into graphics
• Create professional-looking charts with a few mouse clicks
• Use any shape as a photo frame, and use WordArt for text effects

What's on the CD-ROM?

You'll find more than 500 professionally designed PowerPoint templates and backgrounds that you can use in your own PowerPoint presentations.

Please see Appendix C for details.

Also in the Book

Four special project labs highlight complete presentations that show a variety of ways to create content.

• Presenting Content Without Bulleted Lists
• Creating the Illusion of Movement with Static Graphics
• Designing a Menu-Based Navigational System
• Creating a Classroom Game

back from the office 2007 launch and I am frankly AMAZED.

wow. is all i have to say.

this new version is the shizznick.

so many cool new features and the graphical interface is simply awesome. some of the things I found MOST intriguing about Office 2007ad VISTA - the new operating system:

the search interface rocks. I really do believe i will shave off hours and hours this year trying to find stuff on my system -very smart.

the ribbon RULES. if you are a regular reader of my blog, you'll know that i was wary about this. however, when i saw it in action, i must say - it is indeed better than the old menu system.

the EXCEL graphs, tables and charts - this was too cool for words - the stuff you could do point and click. no longer is the need to be a number hound to understand your data!

the PowerPoint features: well, all I can say, is step OFF apple keynote - you have serious competition on your hands. you'll find GORGEOUS new presentations this year and the years to come thanks to the 2007 version.

OUTLOOK 2007 - simply rocks the darn ship altogether especially with business contact manager and microsoft accounting 2007. can ya tell i am excited? no punctuation in this entire blogpost! and.... integration with paypal and ebay and equifax? are ya kiddin me? can you say "lotsa stay-at-home entrepreneurs are going to flip over this??"

and VISTA - well, let's just say i am lookinf for once FORWARD to upgrading my system this year to accomodate this o/s. it's not only beautiful, but extremely functional as well.

kudos to microsoft. a lot of planning went into this. i can't wait to implement this new version.

If you are a corporate Microsoft Office user...prepare for change.

Microsoft Office 2007 is going to be somewhat of a shock to your system. I am looking forward to attending the Launch Event next Tuesday in Louisville (also taking place in many other cities around the nation). Being involved in the beta was an interesting thing in itself as was trying out the online version. (Read the blog posts below to "try out" the new Office 2007 yourself online.)

When I say prepare for a change - it's not a small thing.Generally speaking, all the ways you have become accustomed to doing things with the menus across the top of the screen - these are gone. Now, items change according to your actions - which is a little challenging at first to grasp and work with. Of course, my focus was on Microsoft PowerPoint 2007, as you can expect - but the changes have taken place across all the core Office programs - including Word, Excel, etc.

I think it is going to be a learning curve for many of you out especially in corporate America and educational institutions. And while I do not see immediate implementations - they are likely to occur further in the year for a lot of companies. (IT departments always tend to wait a bit on the side of caution to feel out if the program will work for other companies of their own size and what kind of problems to anticipate.

But, as far as preparing, I would suggest first understanding if your system is "ready" first for the change. Look at the system requirements and make sure that your processor and hard drive, RAM etc. is compatible before you run out and buy a copy.

We at Brainy Betty will be helping throughout the year - watch for new tutorials every week that will help you to navigate and use Office 2007 and achieve the most productivity without the frustration. Make sure to subscribe to this blog by entering your email on the right or add yourself to our newsletter list and we'll notify you when new content is being posted to the site that can help you.

Have a great week! Be creative! Be productive!
-Nan

Thank you.

I am so grateful to have such wonderful blog subscribers and to read the emails I get from people who have found solutions to their presentation problems. Please keep sending me emails or post replies here. I do read and respond to every one.

This week has been an eye opener for me in many ways.

As I learn to use Apple Keynote more on my new mac laptop I find that there are a lot of creative and unique aspects to that program. However, there are still many features I find that Keynote lacks that PowerPoint excels in. Keynote is for the highly visual user - makes sense that Apple tends to market more toward the creative community. It does have a simple beauty when presenting information in presentations, though. I suspect that the new PowerPoint 2007 will have a lot of Keynote users surprised - the new presentations and slide shows are just visually elegant as well.

Which got me thinking about presentations in general - we all do them and in some cases it has become a requirement in places we work or study to create presentations and display some learning or data or process or result in this format.

I think what a lot of us lack is the creative skill and the underatdning of design and spce and what works best to "display" data in a way that is persuasive but also pleasing to the eye. What I think I will start to do is to create a set of materials for visitors of the site to understand some basic design principles - including colors, layouts and the idea of schemes. If you think something like this may be useful for your particular situation, drop me a line and let me know.

Thanks and have a great week!

Nan @ brainybetty

A Great Way to Get the Office 2007 product for free (Shhhhh!)

All attendees (nationwide) who register and attend the Ready for a New Day Office 2007 launch event will receive a free copy of Microsoft Office Professional 2007. I'm not sure if this is limited to business owners or IT department executives, so please make sure and read the details here.

You register for the event by clicking on the Find an Event button (big orange on top of the page right hand side).... I totally missed that for some reason and spent about 10 minutes in frustration trying to figure out how to register.

Brainy Betty will be at the Louisville, KY event on January 30th, so if you see me, (Nan Shastry) please do come up and say hello!

Have a great week!

It' Heeeerrreee! Welcome to 2007!

Hi everyone! Welcome to 2007! I had a great holiday with my entire family - all assorted sisters, brother in laws, nieces and nephews. It was wonderful to be able to take some time off and relax, but... I'm glad to start a fresh new year!

Right off the bat, the new version of Microsoft Office 2007 is now ready to order. It becomes available on January 30th but you can preorder here. I've already ordered my copy and am pretty excited about getting it and upgrading. I've even taken a look at the new Windows Vista operating system as well. If you want a sneak peek to go and play in the new environment - go here.

I don't like resolutions - I never keep them - but here are my GOALS for this year:

1. To post more faithfully to this blog at least once a week.
2. To add at least 4 or 5 new items to Brainy Betty every month. I have 4 new things this month already:

• new sound files for your presentations
• new free smileys for email and other applications
• new flash that you can embed in your presentations (5 new that say "Welcome to 2007!) along with a tutorial about how to embed flash in PPT
• A new tutorial about how to create an animated PowerPoint background

3. to incorporate more video and audio and media into my site - and for your presentations

4. Oh, and the big one: to get my new business intellipodcast up and running before the end of January!

Have a great month and a prosperous new year, everyone!

- Nan

TEST DRIVE THE NEW OFFICE 2007 ONLINE FREE!

You are just a few clicks away from a free online test drive of the latest version of Microsoft Office programs. Take them out for a spin in this quick, easy-to-use, browser-based trial experience.

The real-time test drive does not require product installation or download—it's the fastest way to try out 2007 Microsoft Office system programs. In just minutes you can start exploring Microsoft Office through your Web browser on your own, or follow the step-by-step tutorials to experience all of its useful features.

Click here to begin.

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