Office Gets an Extreme Makeover

Just when you thought Microsoft Office's look was as unchanging as the old Volkswagen's, the folks in Redmond decided to cook up a whole new way to work in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Access. Out are toolbars, drop-down menus (with a few noteworthy exceptions), and most dialog boxes (or at least they're harder to find). In as a replacement is the new Ribbon, which aims to put frequently used items one click away. The revamped interface will debut with the new suite (as yet unnamed, but currently called Office 12) in the second half of next year.

Office 12 Changes

Ribbon, Live Preview, Gallery

Command Tabs, Zoom

Contextual Commands