Vista Look for Office 2007 in Windows XP

I’ve been running Beta 2 of the 2007 Microsoft Office System on my main laptop for a couple of weeks. At first I was a little bit hesitant to install the Beta of my main machine since I actually need to get some real work done as well (sometimes I feel like a real Information Worker!). But so far I only experienced some minor glitches, so I can uninstall the old, trustworthy Office 2003 bits from my machine (I went for the side-by-side installation of Office 2007). Some of my colleagues are running Vista Beta2 as their main operating system but I didn’t dare to do that yet. But those guys have the really slick looking black/gray UI in Office 2007, old-fashioned people (like me) have the blue UI.

Last week I discovered that you enable the Vista look in Office 2007 even if you are running on Windows XP! You can go to the Word options window (or Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, … doesn’t matter since it’s a global setting) and in the Personalize section select the Windows Vista (gray) color scheme.

Tadaa, the complete Office suite will now run with the Vista color scheme! The screen shot below is Word 2007 but all the other client applications will use the color scheme. You won’t get of course the nifty transparency effects, but the gray UI looks great also on the WinXP Silver color scheme.

Update: for the people that can't find the options in Word: Mike posted the solution in the comments:
For those like me who couldn't find it, Word Options is ...
- Click on the icon at the top-left of the screen (left of the diskette icon - the pop-up says "File") 
- Word Options is at the bottom !

14 Comments

  • I'll give you $20 (not really) if you find out how to do the same thing in Outlook in less than 10 minutes WITHOUT creating/replying/deleting a mail message.

  • I`m working in that scheme for 3 month. It looks like an old feature...;)

  • Cool, thanks Jan I had no idea...

    Took me a long time to find the "Word Options" button

  • Hi Jan,

    I have been running Beta 2 on my main machine for the last month at least; I installed it as soon at it came out.

    However, I would *not* recommend others to install it as it is not quite ready for prime time yet. I probably have 2-3 visible crashes per day, plus each 2-3 days I get a feedback applet that sends crashes to microsoft, showing that stuff is crashing at least 5-10 times per day....although much of it behind the scenes stuff that obviously does not crash the main app.

    It does look great....and I think Office 2007 will be more important that Vista....But it is not ready for prime time just yet.

    ie Dont put it on your parents computer..

  • Hey Jan,

    Come on, why don't you install Office 2007 on the real thing (Vista Beta 2 :) ). Join the dark side :)

  • Yes, Jeff's right (only he could find it - I can't!)

    Could you add to the blog item where the Word Options button is?

  • For those like me who couldn't find it, Word Options is ...

    1. Click on the icon at the top-left of the screen (left of the diskette icon - the pop-up says "File")

    2. Word Options is at the bottom !

  • Just installed 2007 and I do like where Microsoft's going with this one. however I do crash a LOT when using Outlook. it frequantly crashes when an email is opened from the inbox and once and a while upon reply...

    anyone share this?

  • To change the look & feel from within Outlook 2007, Go under Tools > Options > Mail Format > Editor Options. Color Scheme is there at the bottom of the first section under Personalize.

  • i have got win XP, can i install office 2007 on this platform

  • Ditto for the last question--should an English major install office 2007 with win XP? Thanks.

  • Please can someone help. I recently purchased a laptop that had the Vista operating system installed and I had it upgraded to Vista Business.

    I have noticed that when I launch my outlook (2003) it is this piercing blue color that really starts hurting my eyes. I have did as many theme and appearance changes possible and nothing seems to change it.

  • Does anyone know how to change office 2007 to look like office 2003?

  • what are the requirnment to download Vista Look for Office 2007 in Windows XP.....
    tell me about process of downloading...

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