03-10-2006, 07:00 AM
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Executive Editor
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 29,160
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User Interface Visuals for Office 2007
"...at the CeBIT conference in Germany, we revealed the new visuals for the Office 2007 user interface. You can see a few screenshots of the new look on the Office 2007 UI Preview Site. If you've got a craving to see even more, I've created a mini-gallery of full-size screenshots from a recent build of the product below. Tomorrow, I'll be posting a guest article written by my colleague Brad Weed, head of the Office Design Group. He's penned an in-depth, behind-the-scenes look at the new visuals from his perspective as a designer."
As Windows Mobile users we're pretty much intrinsically tied to Microsoft Office, or at the very least Outlook, so I'm always interested in where Office is headed. The new user interface for 2007 is radically different than anything we've seen from the Office team before, and I for one welcome it. Office has looked the same for too long - time for some much-needed change. Most people don't like change, even if it's good for them.
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03-10-2006, 07:41 AM
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Sage
Join Date: Mar 2005
Posts: 800
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These are some nice changes. I do hope that such eye candies won't slow down standard computers.
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03-10-2006, 09:18 AM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Jan 2005
Posts: 108
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If ain't broke we ain't making money
Exactly why is change necessary? Or good? This has much less to do with benefitting the consumer and much more to do with increasing Microsoft's wealth by forcing companies to upgrade their software.
Changes to Office 2003 were often the result of geek-fantasy than actual consumer need. Are the Office products any better integrated than they were back in Office 95? Arguably not.
Perhaps Microsoft should try a new marketing strategy? Announce that there will be no changes to their software for the next 10 years.
LouisB
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03-10-2006, 10:37 AM
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Developer & Designer, News Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 12,959
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Re: If ain't broke we ain't making money
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Originally Posted by biglouis
Exactly why is change necessary? Or good? This has much less to do with benefitting the consumer and much more to do with increasing Microsoft's wealth by forcing companies to upgrade their software.
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There's more to Office 2007 than UI changes. You'll also notice improved functionality, improved usability and improved integration (for example, the new, XML-based file formats).
Going back to the UI, you might argue that a fancy and pretty UI does nothing, but look at Apple. They're bent on making every product of theirs look good, and suffice to say, it's been successful. Customers like flashy-looking products, and so do the developers.
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03-10-2006, 01:48 PM
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Neophyte
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 1
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Actually the UI changes were done specifically with the user in mind. The tabbed ribbon changes as you select a particular feature or edit certain objects. So if you click on an image, the image functions appear in the ribbon. The idea was to make the UI more context sensitive so that functions you wouldn't be aware of were exposed at the time they would serve you best.
It's a nice concept, let's just hope that people can adjust to the new design. Change can be hard for people to accept at times.
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03-10-2006, 01:58 PM
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Thinker
Join Date: Jul 2006
Posts: 357
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Re: If ain't broke we ain't making money
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Originally Posted by Darius Wey
There's more to Office 2007 than UI changes. You'll also notice improved functionality, improved usability and improved integration (for example, the new, XML-based file formats).
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Improved usability is yet to be seen, especially if you already know how to use Office efficiently. Commands that took only one keyboard shortcut in previous versions now take a whole long series of keyboard commands to activate. You'll also have to upgrade or reprogram all the custom toolbars and functions that you may have in previous Office versions. I'm open to change, but there's going to be a big learning curve with this. Furthermore, it looks like not all Office applications are going to get this new ribbon interface. Some will still have the normal File menu that everything else has always had (including Apple software). That's not what I call improved integration. Also, it's GUI no longer uses the system theme... again, that's the opposite of integration.
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03-10-2006, 01:59 PM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Dec 2005
Posts: 1,183
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Re: If ain't broke we ain't making money
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Originally Posted by Darius Wey
Going back to the UI, you might argue that a fancy and pretty UI does nothing, but look at Apple. They're bent on making every product of theirs look good, and suffice to say, it's been successful. Customers like flashy-looking products, and so do the developers.
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Oh yeah - Apple. That's the machines hardly anyone buys, right?
OK they look great. But there's more to life than looks.
Personally I hope there's a way to change the new toolbars so that they don't take up the top third of the screen like that ... especially if I have to use someone else's machine stuck in 1024x768 or worse (!) 800x600 mode!!!!
If the new tool bars are more usable, then that's fine, but since most of us use less than 10% of the features and functionality that Office give us I'm betting that uptake will not be all that high.
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03-10-2006, 04:58 PM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Oct 2002
Posts: 100
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If you want to know more about the whys of ribbons (the new strip across the top of the screen in Office apps), check out the many blog entries by Jensen Harris. He writes about many of the issues raised in this thread, including whether ribbons scale down.
As a heavy keyboard user I have nothing but praise for the new ribbons. They're simply awesome. Yeah, it takes you about 5 minutes to get the hang of it, but it's so much easier to make gorgeous using documents with them.
Neil
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03-10-2006, 05:38 PM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Dec 2005
Posts: 1,183
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Makes it look lik eit works exactly how I would NOT want it to work - i.e. hogs huge gobs of window unless the window is minute. I hope it works better than the movie suggests...
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03-10-2006, 06:13 PM
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Sage
Join Date: Jan 2006
Posts: 805
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Re: If ain't broke we ain't making money
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Originally Posted by SteveHoward999
Oh yeah - Apple. That's the machines hardly anyone buys, right?
OK they look great. But there's more to life than looks.
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I fully agree with you.
And yes, I'm one of those that the office software of MS is at peek now. They should give some time to polish the WM instead, IMHO. WM has great potential.
Sunny
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Linear Mode
