You might be one of thousands of computer users who work at home or in small businesses that don't have access to IT professionals down the hall. It's time to upgrade to Microsoft's new Office 2007 but perhaps you don't know where to begin.

   Office 2007 marks a dramatic shift in the way you use Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Access. The menus are gone and so are the toolbars. Even power-users can feel helpless when they first switch to Office 2007.

   Microsoft replaced the menus and toolbars users have known for more than a decade in hopes that Office would be easier and not more difficult to use. It's Microsoft's goal that Office 2007 is simpler for newcomers because commands are no longer hidden beneath layers of menus that often make little sense. The risk Microsoft took was alienating their current huge user base. Users may not always like where each menu command is in Office but they know the programs and don't want to learn a new set of commands.

   You can smooth your transition to Office 2007 by knowing a few guidelines that will make the move far simpler for you. Here are the top five tips that will make the transition to Office 2007 far more easy and seamless:

1. Watch the new Ribbon - The top of your Word, Excel, Access, and PowerPoint screens now sports the new ribbon. The ribbon is a row of buttons that are larger, more graphical, and more active than any toolbar or menu. The ribbon changes constantly depending on what you're doing. Click an Excel graph, for example, and the ribbon changes to display all the activities you may want to do with the graph. Click a PowerPoint slide's title and the ribbon changes to give you text-formatting commands. Think of the ribbon as being an ever-changing menu with toolbar buttons that you never have to memorize. When you need a command it is there.
2. If all else fails try a menu command from the past - Many shortcut keys you used in previous versions of Office still work. In Office 2003 you can press Alt-O, F to open the Font dialog box. This keystroke opens the Format menu and then chooses Font. No Format menu appears in Office 2007 but if you press Alt-O, F in Word the Font dialog box appears. Sadly, not all menu-related shortcut commands from earlier Office versions work. To the extent that they do, your transition to the new version will go smoother.
3. Let Office 2007 format more for you - Perhaps the most-talked about feature in Office 2007 is its live preview for documents, tables, and graphs. Import a table from Excel into your PowerPoint presentation and the boring row and column format makes the most exciting presentation drab. After you copy that table into your presentation, PowerPoint's ribbon changes to display Table Styles, a set of colorful table-formatting styles. You're not limited to the 6 to 8 styles you see on the ribbon either! Click the arrows to the right of the ribbon's style buttons and a drop-down window appears with many more format and color combinations. In real time PowerPoint changes the table to that style's color and design as you move your mouse over the various icons. When you see a style you like, click it and the entire table instantly changes.
4. One of the easiest ways to change the entire look of your document is to select a different theme. A theme is a collection of styles, colors, and formats that you can apply to your document all at once. Write a company newsletter or financial worksheet and click the Page Layout tab across the top of your Word or Excel ribbon. Click the leftmost button labeled Themes and a series of themes appears. As you move your mouse pointer over the themes your document instantly updates to reflect that theme. Click to select a theme and apply it to your document. Themes are especially useful for changing the entire appearance of a worksheet in one click.
5. Create your own themes - Perhaps your small business uses a company logo and a set of colors that don't match any of the existing themes. Just create a document or worksheet that uses your standard font, color, and formatting. Click your ribbon's Themes button and choose Save Current Theme. Every time you create a document in the future you then can quickly apply your personalized theme and never need to take the time to format and change the colors again.

   Making the transition to Office 2007 certainly requires a bigger thinking shift than previous upgrades did. Nevertheless, the move doesn't have to be painful especially when you're armed with these 5 helpful insights that smooth the upgrade you will make.