Copying my custom settings for Office 2007

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Notabot
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Copying my custom settings for Office 2007

Post by Notabot »

We got a new computer, and I know I've done this in the past, but I can't remember how to copy all my custom settings from Office 2007 (especially Word) to the new machine. Most of the google entries seem to focus on Outlook, which I don't use, or talk about registry changes, which I didn't do last time. Anyone remember what I'm forgetting?
Thanks!
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Denyer
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Post by Denyer »

http://www.technologyquestions.com/tech ... chine.html ?

That's for XP->Vista, and USMT is now part of AIK apparently. May not be exactly user-friendly; http://www.windows-noob.com/forums/inde ... 96-usmt-4/

What is it exactly you want to transfer? 2007 was a POS in terms of customisation opportunities, so it might be quicker to jot the changes down on paper, and templates should be in a specified directory ready to copy over.
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Post by Notabot »

Yeah, that's what I wound up doing pretty much. I was hoping to easily bring my custom quick toolbar at the top and some of the other settings over, and I know I did that somehow when I put 2007 on my laptop. I wound up just firing up the laptop next to the new machine and going through item by item manually making it match. I'll have to move the custom dictionary over too, but didn't need that for yesterday.

I am pretty disappointed with the customizability of 2007. There have been so many times when I've thought, "I wish I could do this with one click or just set it as a default." It's not a bad program per se, but seems to assume that the user knows less what he/she wants than Microsoft does.
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Denyer
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Post by Denyer »

I'd agree it wasn't a bad program if not for the productivity hit. I'm led to believe 2010 isn't quite as shit in terms of being able to set up most-used stuff in one place... only 2007 is supported at work at the moment, and I keep it around with 2000 for the improved track changes functionality, PDF export (where virtual printer drivers don't give good enough results) and Excel being able to handle more data.

Given the ability to stick the things I use most frequently that aren't keyboard shortcut friendly on one bar (and ideally it not waste so much vertical space, although since getting a 22" monitor this is a bit less of an issue) and yeah, in terms of core functionality it isn't terrible. As it is, I'd like the people who decided to make it non-optional to die violently for the same reason as spammers -- they're shaving time off people's lives unnecessarily.
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Post by Notabot »

I'm kind of curious as to how much of the world has actually switched to the .docx format instead of .doc. I know when I send an email attachment of Word, I just automatically put it in .doc for simplicity's sake. After the years that .docx has been around, though, I wonder if I'm doing that needlessly sometimes.
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Denyer
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Post by Denyer »

Slightly more tech-oriented people will be using the compatibility pack and should be able to open them... but off the top of my head, I can't remember any Word features that are both useful and rely on the newer container format. Plus it's easy to set .doc as the default format to save in.

2007 was also the first version to introduce product activation, IIRC, so there's almost certainly more pirated installs of 2003 out there. 2003 has kept its value on the second-hand market reasonable well too, although I managed to score a fairly cheap copy when I finally upgraded from 2000 myself...

There are tentative rumours the successor to 2010 will either ditch the ribbon or make it optional. We'll see.
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Post by Sixswitch »

Office XP had online activation.

I know that many businesses are still using Office 2003 over Office 2007 - My place of work is going to 2010 sometime this year.

I think that might be more down to the unfamiliarity of the interface(the ribbon, many things in new places, etc) for users rather than the poor quality of the software itself though.

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Post by Denyer »

Possibly I'm thinking of the point at which OGA got a bit more aggressive. The copy of 2003 Pro I've got is still in its shrinkwrap.

Can software really be considered separately from its interface?
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Post by Sixswitch »

Denyer wrote:Possibly I'm thinking of the point at which OGA got a bit more aggressive. The copy of 2003 Pro I've got is still in its shrinkwrap.

Can software really be considered separately from its interface?
No, but I'm talking more that retraining staff was the overriding issue rather than any actual problems with it. I should probably have been clearer.

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