The key new feature in Office 2007 is the Ribbon which is designed to eliminate the need for the standard toolbars. However, in doing so the Ribbon also takes up much more screen space then the toolbars did, in fact, you could probably stack three toolbars on top of each other in Office 2003 and it will equal the screen space that the Ribbon occupies. The Office 2007 UI lead program manager said that this was the primary complaint with beta testers and reviewers. The upcoming Technical Refresh of Office 2007 Beta 2 will include some improvements and a slightly slimmer Ribbon is expected although many details have not been revealed.
There are currently three different ways that you can minimize the ribbon which many people have not been informed about. You can either press Ctrl+F1, right-click on the Ribbon and select “Minimize the Ribbon”, or double-click on the selected tab. A new auto-minimize feature, which had been removed from Office 2007, will be making a comeback. It is know as the Menu Tabs tool and whenever you left-click on a tab in the Ribbon it will pop-up with the contents of the tab. When the user clicks away or finishes what they are doing it will automatically hide itself. There is a movie available (WMV format) for those people who want to see this in action.
I am excited to see what new changes they will do to the Ribbon. They have already included a new Silver theme (pictured above) which is a mix between the kinda pastel blue and the dark black. I definitely like the new theme the best and a slimmer Ribbon would be a great addition!
News Source: CRN
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Tags: Pre-Release, Software
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