At today’s IT Services Tech Talk, Carol Pendlum from Bell Industries Technology Solutions Group gave an overview of Windows Vista and Office 2007. While we will not roll these programs out on campus computers until summer 2008, we’ve started to see student computers running Vista and 2007, and expect to see many more this fall.
Carol’s Vista presentation mainly focused on hardware requirements, and which of the five editions you should choose if you want to run Vista on your computer. Carol recommended Vista Home Premium for most people, though some may like the added features of Vista Ultimate. We also took a look at some of the new features in Vista, including the Aero interface and the instant search functions.
Most of the talk was spent on Office 2007, which will be a bigger change than Vista for most people. A key change to Office 2007 is the enhanced user interface. Instead of menus and toolbars, the program now features a tool ribbon, contextual tabs, and galleries. Further, tools for opening, saving, printing, or otherwise manipulating a file are now grouped within the “Microsoft Office button.” Microsoft has created a user interface video that provides a detailed look at the new interface. The new interface offers a number of benefits, once you get used to the change.
Students, faculty and staff can purchase a Vista upgrade or Office 2007 at substantial discount through our Student Select store. If you’d like to try Office 2007 before you buy it, you can test the full version in your web browser (Internet Explorer only).
