Office 2007: Changes are Coming
Plenty of new commands have been added to Microsoft Office over the years. Until now, most of those commands could be accessed through a variety of menu items and toolbars. This type of interface has grown very familiar among computer users and is also used in practically every other desktop application.
Over the past few years, Microsoft began to discover that many Office users were requesting new features that already existed. The problem? They couldn’t find them. It was becoming increasingly apparent that Office had outgrown its long familiar system of menus and toolbars. It was time for a change.
For Office 2007, Microsoft is completely replacing the menu and toolbar organization system with a new concept: task-oriented “ribbons.”
Each ribbon in Office 2007 is a panel located along the top of the application window in place of the old menus and toolbars. Ribbons are organized by task, such as “Insert” and “Page Layout.” Each ribbon contains context-sensitive commands.
For the past several weeks, we’ve been trying out a test version of Office 2007 here at Wisdom. While the new interface took a few minutes to get used to, we find it to be more logical and user friendly.
If you’re interested in trying out the new Office, Microsoft is currently offering Beta 2 as a free download for IT developers and enthusiasts.
Of course, there are plenty of other new features in Office 2007 besides the new interface but for now we just wanted to cover the most obvious change.
What are your initial thoughts on the new interface? Leave a comment and let us know.