Office 2007 ribbon gets in users hair

Stan Beer
Sunday, 27 August 2006 19:30

Your IT - Home IT

After making a big noise about the benefits of its new ribbon user interface for Office 2007, Microsoft is acquiescing to user demands that the new user interface is confusing and takes up too much space.

As a result, Microsoft will give users the options to minimize the ribbon which will then revert back to something more like the standard drop down menu system.

Microsoft has been criticized in the past for adding so many features to its Office products that many have been hidden and difficult to find among the myriad of choices available from drop down menus. The ribbon was meant to dig out buried features and make them more readily available to users.

However, as can be witnessed from tester complaints, the ribbon has not yet succeeded in convincing all users that it has achieved its objectives.

Despite this, however, feedback about Office 2007 has been generally positive throughout the tester community. The true test, however, will be when the product comes to market in the new year.