Story: Inside Office 2007's files

More in this Special Report

• Microsoft Office Standard 2007

  Review Microsoft Office Standard 2007 is a worthy upgrade if you need to make sleeker-looking documents and presentations to share with others, and Outlook is better than ever. However, you can stick to your current software if you don't feel that it lacks anything.

• Word 2007

  Review If you're ready to let go of old habits from previous versions of Word and want to make sleeker-looking documents, Word 2007 is worth the upgrade. However, less expensive alternatives deliver its core features without the clutter.

• Excel 2007 RTM

  Preview Excel 2007's radical overhaul is attractive if you depend upon spreadsheets that can display data patterns visually with charts and conditional formatting. Plus, the new interface places formulas and other number-crunching tools within easy reach.

• PowerPoint 2007

  Review Microsoft PowerPoint 2007 makes prettier presentations, so an upgrade may be in order if your work is particularly image-focused and you don't mind relearning the application. If PowerPoint 2003 serves you well, however, it offers most of the same features, albeit with flatter-looking graphics.

• Outlook 2007

  Review If you work with Microsoft Outlook on a daily basis, this upgrade can make scheduling simpler and emailing more interesting. Still, we wish Instant Search and email rendering were better.

• Inside Office 2007's files

  Tech Guide For the first time in a decade, Microsoft will introduce new file types for its Office software. Here's what you need to know to use the new files in older Office versions and how older Office files will work in the new Office 2007.

• Office 2007's new file formats

  Video Microsoft is forcing a new file format upon Office users for the first time in a decade. How can you get old and new Office documents to work together?

• Inside Word 2007 RTM

  Slide show This complex word processor offers tons of new tools as well as a new file format that might both delight and confuse those who upgrade from older versions of Word.

• Inside Excel 2007 RTM

  Slide show A renovated interface and a new file format make Excel 2007 RTM drastically different from its predecessors.

• Inside PowerPoint 2007 RTM

  Slide show PowerPoint 2007 puts its features to the fore while offering more graphics abilities and more accessible document security.

• Microsoft Office: Then and Now

  Slide show  Help, where did Undo go? Here's where to find that and other must-have commands in the new Word, Excel and PowerPoint 2007.