Office 2007 introduced a new graphics engine that lets you add special effects to text and graphics.  These effects have been expanded and enhanced in Office 2010.

Text Effects

To add special effects to text:

1. Select the text you want to change.
2. Click the Text Effects button in the Font group on the Home tab of the ribbon.



3. Click the effect you want, or select additional effects from the menus at the bottom (Outline, Shadow, Reflection and Glow).

Artistic Effects

Word 2010 includes a number of new ways to modify graphics in a document.  All of these options are in the Adjust group on the Picture Tools/Format tab of the Ribbon.

The options in this group are summarized below:

In Office 2007, the Ribbon could not be customized.

In Office 2010, you can customize the Ribbon to add new buttons, new tabs or new groups.  You can also rename the existing tabs and groups to suit your needs.

To add a new tab or group to the ribbon:

1. Click the File tab.
2. Click Options to open the Word Options screen.
3. Select the Customize Ribbon category on the left.

Use the controls in this screen to add commands to the ribbon, or to create new tabs or new groups.

The .DOCX and .DOCM file formats introduced in Word 2007 were not compatible with earlier versions of Word.

Note: The DOCX format does not allow the document to contain macros.  If the document contains macros, save it as a DOCM (macro-enabled) file.

Word 2010 file formats are now compatible with earlier versions.

When you open files created in Word 2003 or earlier, the file will open in Compatibility View.  However, you can convert the file to the 2010 format so that you can take advantage of new features in Word.

To convert an earlier Word file:

1. Open the file you want to convert.
2. Click the File tab, select Info and click the Convert button.
3. Word will display the following message:



4. Click OK.

Tip:  If you want to save the original version for reference, save a copy with a different name before you do the conversion.

The much-maligned Office Button in Word 2007 has been replaced by a File tab, which includes the standard File options (New, Open, Save, etc.), as well as a collection of options for creating new documents and managing documents once they are created, such as printing, sharing, and encrypting documents.

Clicking on the File tab brings up the new Backstage View, which hides your document and displays a full screen of controls.

The options in Backstage View are summarized in the table below:

Microsoft Word 2007 and 2010 lets you create blog postings and publish them directly from Word. (Actually, I’m doing it right now!) Using Word is generally easier than most blogging software, which requires users to edit HTML code.

To create a blog posting from Word:

1. Click the Office button.
2. Select New, select New blog post, and then click the Create button (lower right corner).
3. Click the Register Now button in the dialog, and then select your Blog provider from the drop-down list.
4. Enter the appropriate information into the New Blogger Account dialog box.
5. Click the Picture Options button if you want to select a picture provider from the drop-down list.
   (If you don’t use a picture provider, select None-Don’t Upload Pictures.)
6. Type your blog posting, and click the Publish button on the Ribbon to publish it to the blog. (When you publish, Word will prompt you for your Username and Password.)

One of the new “Mac-like” features of Windows 7 is your Taskbar customization options. The Mac shows your icons at the bottom of the screen. As you hover over an icon, it magnifies. As far as I can tell, there isn’t a difference between an open app and a closed one in terms of appearance.

Windows 7 provides a version of that. First, there is no Quick Launch toolbar. When you drag an icon to the Taskbar, it shows up where the open icons are. The difference is that the open icons have a box around them to let you know they are open. The Word icon in the example below shows that there are three files open. When you hover over the icon, you can see each file and select the one you want.

You can make the icons smaller, which I did initially. I went back to the larger size from a combination of aging eyes and better visuals on the icons.

You can customize the Taskbar and the Start Button as you did in XP and Vista: Right-click on the button and select Properties. You can keep this behavior (combine icons, hide text), turn it off when the taskbar is full, or never use it. Initially, I turned it off and went to small icons. But I find myself liking the new look.

And while we’re at it, the Desktop Preview box at the far end of the Taskbar is kind of cool—hover over it and it makes your windows transparent so you can see your desktop—but there is a slight hesitation before it happens that is annoying. Much faster to press Windows Logo Button + D to minimize everything and Windows-D to restore it. Both of these happen instantly.

With past versions of Word, it has been challenging to completely remove changes made to a document while Track Changes was enabled. This problem sometimes resulted in embarrassment when a final document was sent with a history of changes and revisions hidden in the document and unknown to the author.

Luckily, Word 2007 has resolved this problem. Before distributing a document, you can use Word’s Document Inspector to completely remove all comments and revisions.

To prepare a document for distribution:

1. Click the Office button.
2. Point to Prepare and select Inspect Document.
3. Word will display the Inspect Document dialog box.
4. Check the first option: Comments, Revisions, Versions and Annotation.
5. Check any other options you want Word to inspect.
6. Click the Inspect button. (Word will prompt you to save the document if there are unsaved changes.)
7. Word will display the inspection results.

If any comments or revisions are discovered, you can permanently remove them by clicking the Remove All button in the Document Inspector dialog.

Students don’t realize how easy they have it these days…

Remember typing out a bibliography on a typewriter, only to make a mistake at the bottom of the page and have to type the whole darn thing over?  Or having to type the bibliography over because your professor required the Chicago style sheet and you used MLA?  No more.

Word 2007 includes a new bibliography feature that makes it easier than ever to manage sources and create a bibliography, according to the style rules you select.

As you conduct research, you can add each source to a master list of sources.  For each source, you’ll fill in the title, author, publication date, etc.  When you write the paper and quote one of your sources, you can insert a citation simply by selecting one of the sources from your list.  When you’re ready to create your bibliography, Word will create it automatically from the sources you entered.

Word 2010 will open documents in Protected Mode that fail validation, have been downloaded from the internet, are located in potentially unsafe location and include attachments.

Protected Mode opens the document as read-only, minimizing the exposure to a potential security threat.

Although Microsoft recommends against it, you can disable Protected Mode if you find it annoying.

To disable Protected Mode:

1. Click the File tab on the Ribbon.
2. Click the Options button to display the Word Options dialog box.
3. Click the Trust Center category on the left.
4. Click the Trust Center Settings… button.
5. Click the Protected View category on the left.
6. Disable any of all of the protected mode options by clearing the check boxes:

After 27 years in the business, you end up with a few observations. Ron Miller, an old friend of mine, interviewed me about Vista, Office 2007, and my observations on technical writing. All opinions expressed are my own, but I did get a chance to say some things. Take a look at the interview: http://www.daniweb.com