Microsoft PowerPoint 2007: Worthwhile February 18, 2007

Finally! I found something I really like about Office 2007: Powerpoint. The shapes are great, and each slide contains an icon menu in the middle of it for things you can do in the slide. I understood it immediately and can't wait to get cranking. So this is the first really useful contextual functionality I've encountered with the Office trial I'm using at home. Just for fun, I'm using PowerPoint to store and organize the screenshots for our new QuickBooks integration.

Today I'm working on making some UI improvements to the QuickBooks integration. The dev team did a great job; led by Jonny, the functionality is really superb and will make a difference to those of you who need both tight integration with QuickBooks and a relatively painless setup. "We're close on this one, I can feel it (yes, another Ghostbusters reference)."

On Office, I'm still perplexed by the menuing system; a Microsoftie advised it would be a long learning cycle, but maybe it would grow on me. We're trying to make software that you can use without looking at a manual. It's a tall order, but we're close.