Office 2007 To Scare Users

Just when we thoght Steve Balmer had finally accomplsihed his best with office, the family decides users need to start another learning process to use their latest incarnation of the ofice suite.

A radical overhaul of the interface does not seem promising from my point of view considering the fact that the UI has always been the major selling point of Office.

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1933229,00.asp

I'm in the beta program for office 2007 (or office 12 previously) and I must say that the interface while different is much-much simpler to use, no more remembering if the option you want is obscured away 6 levels deep in a menu.

Hunter, can you please post a few screenshots of the new MS Office user interface?

For screenshots of Office 12, check this link; http://pdc.xbetas.com/?page=o12preview1

if you want to see anything in perticular let me know and i'll see what I can do.

Also worth noting a new beta build is due out next week some time (an email from microsoft came today)

I'll let you guy's know whats different when it comes out asap (microsoft always manages to get good internet speed 600kb/s+, and I'm on holidays for 2 weeks) :-)

[img width=550 height=600]http://pdc.xbetas.com/images/word12-3.png[/img]

A change of UI is just confusing. People use Microsoft Office because they are familiar with it!

The initial thoughts exactly. I mean, other quiver do their best to copy office, else why would open office include an office assistant? Many programs aim to build interfaces like office.

I haven't had any problems adapting to the UI changes in successive releases of Microsoft Office and I suspect this is the same for most people.  I'm also sure that Microsoft will not knowingly sacrifice their cash cow (i.e. Office) by rendering the new UI too intimidating so whilst it is of course natural to be concerned we should perhaps wait and see what the final implementation delivers before passing final judgment

They posted an updated version of the beta today, downloading it now,

I'll let you guy's know how it goes.

Wow, you guys are really on top of the game. Newest releases mattered to me when I was a lab consultant. Now, I'm just a casual Ms Office user. I downloaded OpenOffice the other day, and the similarity with Ms Office is remarkable. I'm sure that is not unconnected with Microsoft's decision to shuffle things a bit.

Should be. M$ are really wanting to nail their competitors in with this one, this time. With its lucrative Office suite in decline, M$ is feeling the heat. Moreover, Office 2003 hasn't been the runaway success that Microsoft had wanted and so they're putting in a lot in this Office 12.

Let them hope users upgrade and migrate to this version, because as far as I can tell, there has been no outstanding improvement to the Office suite since Office 97. Just some new task bar here, an added XML sh*t there. After years of lackluster upgrades and increased competition, they are overhauling the interface and praying we all switch.

I'm actually pretty impressed with it to be honest, everything is well laid out and easy to use.

Everything just "feels" right.

I'm actually pretty impressed with it to be honest, everything is well laid out and easy to use.

Everything just "feels" right.

Are you saying previous versions were difficult to use?

oasis:

Are you saying previous versions were difficult to use?

People usually get used to doing things a particular way, even if that method is rather convoluted. It takes research to figure out better ways of doing things. Most users don't even think that there CAN be an easier way until it's given to them.

Yes in previous version's some features were so well hidden away half the time nobody knew what I was talking about.

Now it's much easier to explain things.