Office 12 UI
Microsoft are holding their PDC (Professional Developers Conference) this week, and so there's a lot of new info coming out!
One of the things that people don't seem to have been expecting was the unveiling of a new UI for the next version of office.
There's a video available on channel 9 which demonstrates it, and is worth checking out!
Having watched the video, it is obvious that this new office version is more than just the next evolution of the tool!
They have made the bold move to get rid of the standard File,Edit,View menu structure and replace it with a tab based system that groups commonly used tasks. Also gone are the mass of toolbars that pop up whenever you do things like select an image for example. Instead these are replaced with context sensitive tabs.
Another major change is moving everything to more visual commands. Want to apply formatting to your table, then easily select from pictures of available formats for example! You don't have to worry about changing cells and rows individually, although you still can if you want!
The other major new feature they are calling 'live preview'. This means that you get to see exactly what your changes will look like in the document before you apply them. For example, when your scrolling through the list of fonts to find the one you want, the text in your document updates on the fly, but if you change your mind that's fine because none of the changes are stored away till you actually select an option!
There's a whole lot of other stuff shown in the video (e.g. zoom controls, and dynamically converting lists to diagrams in PowerPoint) and this mainly just covers the UI!
One things for sure, version 12 is looking like a major release for everyone's favourite office suite, and I can't see how OpenOffice and the like can compete! (except maybe on price :) )
One of the things that people don't seem to have been expecting was the unveiling of a new UI for the next version of office.
There's a video available on channel 9 which demonstrates it, and is worth checking out!
Having watched the video, it is obvious that this new office version is more than just the next evolution of the tool!
They have made the bold move to get rid of the standard File,Edit,View menu structure and replace it with a tab based system that groups commonly used tasks. Also gone are the mass of toolbars that pop up whenever you do things like select an image for example. Instead these are replaced with context sensitive tabs.
Another major change is moving everything to more visual commands. Want to apply formatting to your table, then easily select from pictures of available formats for example! You don't have to worry about changing cells and rows individually, although you still can if you want!
The other major new feature they are calling 'live preview'. This means that you get to see exactly what your changes will look like in the document before you apply them. For example, when your scrolling through the list of fonts to find the one you want, the text in your document updates on the fly, but if you change your mind that's fine because none of the changes are stored away till you actually select an option!
There's a whole lot of other stuff shown in the video (e.g. zoom controls, and dynamically converting lists to diagrams in PowerPoint) and this mainly just covers the UI!
One things for sure, version 12 is looking like a major release for everyone's favourite office suite, and I can't see how OpenOffice and the like can compete! (except maybe on price :) )
posted by Gezz at
9:30 pm
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