The release of Microsoft Windows Vista made headlines. So maybe you missed the release of Office 2007 on the same day. Like Vista, Office 2007 offers significant improvements.

Here are some of my favorites:

THE OFFICE RIBBON

Office 2007 has a beautiful new look. At the heart of the new look is the Office Ribbon. It moves most of the commands out into the open.

The Ribbon replaces the toolbars from previous Office versions. When you click on a menu, you don't get a dropdown list of commands. Instead, the Ribbon changes.

The Ribbon will be a shock for longtime Office users. It took me awhile to learn where things were moved. But it will prove more intuitive to Office newbies.

DOCUMENT INSPECTOR

It is important to watch what you reveal when sharing documents electronically. You may have heard news stories about Word documents revealing sensitive information.

Office 2007's Document Inspector is designed to help you safeguard your data. Before you share a file, it inspects the contents.

Just click the Office button and select Prepare, then Inspect Document. Click Inspect to search for a variety of elements.

The Document Inspector reveals hidden text, comments, versions, document properties and personal information.

TO-DO BAR

Outlook does much more than e-mail. It keeps you organized by managing your contacts, appointments and tasks.

In Outlook 2007, you can see your list of to-do items in any view. The To-Do Bar sits at the right side of the screen.

At the top, you'll see a monthly calendar. Below that are lists of upcoming appointments, tasks and e-mail flagged for follow-up.

LIVE PREVIEW

In earlier versions of Office, formatting involved a fair amount of guesswork. You needed to apply a change to see how it affected your work.

Office 2007 features Live Preview. You can preview a change to your document without applying the change.

Because the preview is instantaneous, formatting is easy.

INSTANT SEARCH

I'm a fan of Vista's Search feature. I'm happy to see that Office 2007 has a similar search feature.

In Outlook, you click Inbox or another folder. Type a term into the Search box. You'll get a list of results from that folder matching your term. Search results update as you type; terms are highlighted for quick reference.

There are eight different versions of Microsoft Office 2007. They range from Home and Student ($150, full version) to Ultimate ($680, full version/$540, upgrade version). To see Office 2007 in action, download the free 60-day trial (http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/products/HA101741481033.aspx).

Contact Kim Komando at gnstech@gns.gannett.com.