Office 2007 Beta - Ribbon Review

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Office 2007 Beta - Ribbon Review

By Adam Myers ⋅ May 24, 2006 ⋅

By now you have heard of the new format of many of the Office 2007 applications. Microsoft calls this feature “The Ribbon.” I call it the thing that makes my life a lot easier. Not only do I use Office applications on a day to day basis, I also train others on how to use it. The Ribbon makes teaching others how to use programs like Word incredibly easy. No longer do you have to remember where a command is buried. Even though the organization has been decent in Office for some years, certain things still remained buried. This is no longer a problem.

Gone are the days of File, Edit and View. Welcome to the world of result oriented menus. The idea behind The Ribbon is to unhide all of the commands and get them out and in front of you. Screen shots don’t really do The Ribbon justice. It is surprisingly clean and compact and stays out of your way. If you really want, you can double click on the top of The Ribbon and collapse it away until you need to use it. However, according to the Office User Interface Blog, you actually gain space!

One of the best parts of The Ribbon is its contextual nature. Above you can see the default options. When you click on an object, such as a picture or a table, you are given one or more options. These options are highlighted then go away when you aren’t working with that specific object anymore.

The Ribbon also gives you live previews of almost all formatting changes by simply hovering your mouse over the option. For example, when you highlight some text and look through the different styles, as you mouse over the styles, the text changes. If you don’t choose any style, everything stays the same. This feature alone should be worth its weight in gold.

Some people have worried that this is another step away from getting rid of keyboard shortcuts. Well, that is just silly. On most of the improved tool tips, the keyboard shortcut is listed. On top of that, they have made it very easy to use the ribbon with your keyboard. By pressing ALT, different menu options are given little labeled boxes. Press the key that matches the label and it is as If you clicked on it. Quite frankly, Word has never been easier to use without a mouse.

Another great feature is the new Quick Access Toolbar. Next to the Office icon in the upper left hand corner are commands that you use the most. In my screenshots you will see Save, Undo, Redo and Print. Any command can be put into the Quick Access Toolbar by simply right clicking on the command and choosing “Add to Quick
Access Toolbar.”

Speaking of that Office icon, known as the Office Menu, is where you go to get everything you need to work with your document. This is where you go to save, print, etc. Another thing you may have missed is the bottom bar. In the bottom right hand corner, you have all the tools for changing how your window looks. In the bottom left hand corner, you have the status bar (that can be customized by right clicking on it).

The true disappointment with The Ribbon is that it is only in a few applications. Outlook doesn’t use The Ribbon (until you compose an e-mail). OneNote and Visio are also Ribbon-less. I don’t mind change when change is good. This Ribbon is very good, and very well thought out. So, it is a shame that its use was limited!

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