Office 2007 build 3111

Microsoft Office 2007 build 3111 is an Alpha 4 build of Microsoft Office 2007 compiled on 27 June 2005. It is the earliest build available to feature the metal-styled UI, which is a placeholder style for the Ribbon UI.

Support
Windows XP and early post-reset builds of Windows Vista (such as 5098 and 5112) have been tested to work, with Windows 2000 support already being removed.

Setup

 * Setup has been heavily updated with an interface similar to that found in the RTM.
 * Two options are given when installing components: Local and Advertise. It is not clear what "advertise" means yet.
 * References to developer components like .NET Programmability Support are included.

Branding
Almost all strings referencing  have been replaced with , including on all of the startup screens (which are otherwise unchanged from 2003). However, there are a few strings that reference  and.

Metal-styled UI

 * Menu bars and toolbars in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Access have been replaced with the new metal-styled UI.
 * Several tools that relied on the previous UI are now displayed as pop-up windows or drop-down menus.
 * The Floatie has been added, which displays basic formatting commands when right-clicking in the editing area. In later builds, it is known as the Mini Toolbar.
 * Live Preview has been added, which temporarily applies formatting onto focused text or objects when any formatting option is moused-over.
 * The Quick Access Toolbar has been added, which allows options to be pinned for easy use.
 * Status bars are now fully customizable. Additionally, a zoom slider has been added.
 * The Options dialog for these programs were completely redesigned.

Themes
Themes are now universal across Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

Spell checker
The contextual spell checker can now detect incorrect usage of correctly spelled words.

Document Inspector
The Document Inspector has been added, which allows users to remove metadata from their file.

Office Open XML
This build already includes the Office Open XML file format, which is based on XML and uses the ZIP file container. Documents created in this format are up to 75% smaller than the previous one.

Office Help
Office Help now opens as its own separate window, rather than being a side-panel within the program. However, it does not work in this build.

Word

 * The word count is now listed by default in the status bar.
 * The ruler is now hidden by default.

Excel

 * Page Layout view has been added. In this version, it is used by default for new documents.
 * Charts now support 3D rendering, transparency, and shadows.
 * It is now much easier to insert charts into Excel documents.

PowerPoint

 * Support for more sound file types has been added.
 * Digital signatures can now be added into presentations.
 * Enhanced support for table pasting from Excel.

Outlook

 * Outlook was updated to use a similar color scheme to the metal-style UI.
 * The To-Do Bar has been added, which integrates calendar events, appointments, and tasks items into a concise view.
 * Word-wheeled search has been added, which instantly displays search results as characters are being typed in.
 * The search feature now includes indexing tools for faster results.
 * Outlook can now be used as an RSS feed reader.
 * Flagged e-mails and notes can now be converted to Task items.
 * Navigation panes can now be collapsed, along with any groups within it.

Access
SharePoint links can now be added to databases.

Publisher
The Content Store has been added, which can be used to add frequently used content for easy access later.

Timebomb
During installation, the date must be set to 2005 or else a timebomb will be triggered. However, each program handles it differently:


 * Excel disables all editing functionality.
 * Word disables all editing functionality, except the ability to insert symbols into documents.
 * PowerPoint editing functionality still works past the timebomb.

Activation
There is no activation system in-place with this build, meaning it can be installed without needing a product key.

Office assistants
The Office assistants are still included in this build, but they do not work since there is no option to enable them.

Outlook operations
Several operations in Outlook will fail, leaving features unusable in most cases.

Insufficient space
Sometimes, an "insufficient disk space for displaying font" error pops up in Word.