Topic: Office 12

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Gates described enhancements in the forthcoming version of Office as the biggest advance for the application suite in more than a decade.

Demonstrated for the first time today, the software delivers a "thoroughly redesigned, results-oriented user interface" that aims to allow users to focus on what they want to do rather than how they do it.

This user interface replaces traditional menus and toolbars with a set of highly graphical command tabs that correspond to the tasks people want to accomplish.

Command tabs containing features and functionality for specialised tasks appear when customers need them and disappear when they are not relevant.

This approach to organising and presenting commands will make it simpler for users to find and use more Microsoft Office capabilities to get the results they want, Gates claimed.

"This is the most significant release of Microsoft Office since Office 95. Office 12 has all the essential ingredients to deliver an incredible productivity boost for millions of people around the world," he said.

"But that's only half the story. The expansion of server and developer capabilities in Office 12 are a great illustration of what is possible with today's platform."

In addition to more effectively organising and presenting Office functionality, the new user interface aims to help users more easily create documents.

Instead of editing and formatting one element of a document at a time, graphical galleries in Office 12 simplify the process by presenting a selection of potential layout results from which people can pick and click.

So-called Live Preview technology shows how each possible selection will change the document. According to Microsoft, customer research has indicated that people respond best when they can see what their final work will look like.

Office 12 is expected to ship in the second half of 2006, with a limited beta release this Autumn.

Excel:


Word:


Powerpoint:


Outlook:


Outlook 2:

[IZ]

Meh. As long as it still does word processing, I'm good.

[Roger]

I'm sticking with Office XP

[VulturEMaN]

I doubt I'll be able to give everyone my copy if i get one. I've been using the same burned copy of Works and Office XP forever...and on everyone else's comp.