Office 2007 Small Business Features

• Microsoft Office Small Business 2007 is a robust suite of productivity and contact management software tools created by the Microsoft Corp. Intended for use with the simultaneous launch of the Windows Vista operating system, MS Office Small Business 2007 launched in January 2007 with many new features and improvements from previous versions of the Office software.

Requirements

• The 2007 Small Business edition of Microsoft Office is intended to work best with Windows Vista, though it does run on both Windows 7 and Windows XP, provided the latter has Service Pack 2 installed. A 500 megahertz processor, at least 256 megabytes of RAM and at least 2 gigabytes of hard drive storage space are the minimum hardware requirements for running the software. Though the software will run on a computer that meets these minimum requirements, Microsoft recommends at least 512MB of RAM and a processor of at least 1GHz for optimum performance. The PC on which the software is running must have a monitor capable of at least a 1,024 by 768 pixel resolution, and must have Internet Explorer 6 or higher installed.

Included Software

• Microsoft Office 2007 Small Business Edition includes the full suite of MS Office software, including Excel, Word, Publisher and PowerPoint. It does not include a version of Microsoft Access, though you can purchase a 2007 edition of that software to use concurrently with the new Office interface and suite of tools. The software also includes Outlook with Business Contact Manager, which, in the 2007 edition includes an integrated contact management system that allows small businesses to sort, organize and track their customer relationships dynamically through Microsoft Outlook.

New Features

• The 2007 version of Microsoft Office Small Business edition features a redesigned user interface based around the Ribbon menu across the top. This is a graphics-heavy tabbed dynamic menu uniquely tailored to each of the applications included in the suite. The menu and interface both focus on delivering a more powerful range of options for the purpose of document creation. The help feature has been completely redesigned from its predecessors, and no longer features the Office Assistant software. The Business Contact Manager in Outlook is a new feature designed to integrate and streamline all aspects of customer relations management for the specific needs of small business users. Vista has handwriting recognition and speech-to-text voice recognition built into the operating system; hence, the 2007 edition of Microsoft Office for small businesses no longer has separate voice or handwriting recognition capabilities.