Power users who complain features are missing need to use the program to do something rather than just rummage through the basic ribbon tabs you switch from thinking about how you do things to thinking about what you want to do, which can feel like giving up control but makes you more productive in the end.Īnd while the menus are gone for good and there's no classic view, you can still use old keyboard shortcuts.

It's a good test of how many features you actually use in a program to time how long it takes you to get your first context tab. And no, not everything is obvious at first glance, mainly because features don't appear until you're in a position to use them, so the Outline tools aren't visible until you switch to Outline view. Yes, you'll need to learn where everything is again.

Features that have been in various Office applications for years have been put where you can find them and use them.Įven Bill Gates has found features in Excel he had never noticed before - and congratulated the team on what he thought was something new. For the apps in Office 2007 that have the ribbon, we would say Microsoft has succeeded. Whether you call it user interface or user experience, everyone has an opinion and it's hard to get right. That means we'll see a rash of products that don't benefit from the ribbon interface and some that take good advantage of it to simplify and organise function, although none of them will be in direct competition with the Office apps.

Expect to see more ribbon interfaces from Microsoft - and from other software developers because Microsoft has announced the way other companies can licence the interface. The core Office apps don't have menus or toolbars any more just a context-sensitive ribbon of tools. Microsoft Office 2007 at Amazon for $75.99 (opens in new tab).

Microsoft office for mac 2007