n addition to the dramatically different user interface and new file formats shared with other Microsoft Office 2007 programs, Microsoft Office Word 2007 also claims a number of improvements and new features.

  1. Spend less time formatting with Quick Styles and Document Themes designed to make it easy to quickly change the appearance of text, tables and graphics throughout an entire document.
  2. Improved formatting and organized page layout features in the Word 2007 Ribbon make it much simpler to find the options you want to customize your documents. Plus, context-sensitive tabs for Picture Tools, Text Box Tools, Table Tools and other document elements, give you easy access to the formatting features you need when you need them.
  3. New SmartArt diagrams, a new charting engine that links to Microsoft Office Excel 2007, and enhanced graphics help you create great-looking content with 3-D shapes, transparency, drop shadows, and other superior effects.
  4. Quickly assemble documents using Building Blocks, a feature of the Quick Parts tools. Building Blocks are frequently used, standard pieces of content in a document (contact information, cover pages, disclaimer text, signature blocks) that you save to be reused in other documents. These enhanced tools are similar to AutoText entries created in previous versions of Word.
  5. Easily share documents with other people with the choice of saving as Portable Document Format (PDF) or XML Paper Specification (XPS) format without adding third-party tools. (Free Microsoft add-in needed).
  6. Use the new tri-pane review panel to review, compare, combine, and see what changes were made to a document. Reviewing is also now more intuitive from the dedicated Review tab in the Word 2007 Ribbon.
  7. Remove tracked changes, comments, personal information, and hidden text (sometimes called metadata) from your documents using the Document Inspector to help ensure that sensitive information is not shared when your documents are published.

© Dawn Bjork Buzbee