Microsoft Picture It 7 Free Download

Anyone who uses Microsoft Role will agree on two things: It's a powerful drove of applications, and information technology needs improvements.

Hither are six programs that bring Function a lot closer to what it should be. The first three work beyond multiple Office applications, improving the much-loved–and much-hated–ribbon-based interface. The other three are application-specific, giving Outlook, Word, and Excel additional capabilities that Microsoft either didn't remember of or didn't bother with.

For links to these downloads all in ane convenient identify, see our "Six Downloads to Meliorate Microsoft Role" collection.

User Interface Improvements

Function Tab

If you've always had multiple Excel worksheets open at a time, you know the frustrations of switching among them and keeping track of which is which. The same goes for Word documents and PowerPoint presentations.

Extendoffice.com's Office Tab adds tabbed certificate management to those iii applications, making the chore much easier. As with the tabbed Web pages in your browser, you can hands switch between tabs, rearrange them, or right-click for a card of options.

Extendoffice also sells carve up tab programs for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, simply if you use whatsoever two of those applications, the total Office Tab program costs less.

Download Function Tab | Toll: $25; 30-mean solar day gratis trial | Supports Office 2003, 2007, and 2010 (does not nonetheless back up PowerPoint 2010)

Search Commands

Do you know, off-paw, which ribbon you demand to change Word's AutoCorrect options? Or which Excel ribbon you need for sorting a worksheet? In that location'south always a characteristic that y'all simply know is effectually somewhere, just Help is a far too wearisome and painful mode to observe information technology.

This freebie from Microsoft Role Labs won't eliminate your demand to ask such questions, only information technology volition probably provide answers. Simply get to the Search Command ribbon and enter a keyword to bring up a row of appropriate icons. One is spring to be the item yous want.

Search Commands works in the 2007 versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

Download Search Commands | Cost: Complimentary | Supports Office 2007

Classic Card for Part 2007

If you miss the old Microsoft Role user interface–the one with menus instead of ribbons–Classic Bill of fare is a dream come true. Install information technology, and yous're back to the Discussion, Excel, and PowerPoint you beloved.

And Addintools, the creator of this download, brings dorsum the carte the right way: Information technology augments the ribbon interface rather than replacing it. Classic Menu simply adds another ribbon–one with the quondam, familiar menus and, as a bonus, the old, familiar toolbars. It's at that place when you want it, but you can always click on another ribbon and use the more modern interface when the mood strikes you.

Every bit the name implies, this program is for Function 2007. Addintools sells similar add-ons for the various Office 2010 packages.

Download Classic Menu for Office 2007 | Price: $30; 30-day free trial | Supports Function 2007

Specific Application Improvements

Lookeen

Y'all have a lot of information stored in Outlook–your entire contact list, appointments, countless e-mail service messages. And the merely thing you have to search information technology with is…Outlook.

Unless you're willing to drop $twoscore for Lookeen, that is. Then you lot'll accept all sorts of fast, indexed searches at your fingertips. For instance, y'all can select an email message and click the Conversations icon to bring up all of the messages that Lookeen thinks are part of the same conversation, also equally perchance relevant appointments and contacts. Other searches volition notice elements added today or this calendar week, or items that are "more similar this."

It can fifty-fifty search outside of Outlook, making it a desktop search tool.

Download Lookeen | Price: $40; 14-day complimentary trial | Supports Outlook 2003, 2007, and 2010

CrossEyes

Word documents aren't sausages–there's nada gross near seeing how they're made.

With Levit & James's CrossEyes, yous can come across exactly what'due south going on within a Discussion certificate. Is that word bold and reddish because someone assigned a particular way to it, or simply because someone made it bold and red? That sort of difference ways a lot when y'all're altering a certificate'due south look, especially if you're not the but person who has worked on that file.

Not every Word user needs CrossEyes; simply if you take to reformat other people'southward work, it's a approval.

CrossEyes is currently on version four. Version 5, which is in public beta as I write this, supports Word 2010.

Download CrossEyes | Price: $30; 15-24-hour interval trial | Supports Give-and-take 2003 and 2007

ASAP Utilities

This Excel add-in puts all sorts of tools onto the application's ribbon. With it, you can format the on-screen view (hiding grids, zero values, and other possibly distracting $.25), select the cell with the smallest or largest number, select all the cells with errors, freeze panes on multiple sheets at once, and simultaneously salve the current file and create a backup.

That'southward but a small sample of all the means this tool allows you to manipulate numbers, text, links, and information. And if its vast offerings get likewise confusing (information technology'south actually for Excel power users), yous tin can put your nigh-used options in the customizable 'My favorite tools' menu.

And if things get too frustrating, you tin can relieve some tension by pulling down the ribbon'due south Start menu and selecting Funny (error) letters. I got 'Error saving file! format drive now?'

Download ASAP Utilities | Price: $49 for commercial apply, after 90-solar day trial period; free for noncommercial use, unless "you don't desire to be forced to update to the new version twice a year…or if yous similar this program and retrieve it is worth the money." | Supports Excel 2000, 2002/XP, 2003, 2007, and 2010 (32-fleck)

Contributing Editor Lincoln Spector writes PCWorld's Respond Line column and blog.