The Microsoft Office Fluent user interface overview
When planning the release of the 2007 Office system Microsoft took on the challenge of making the core Microsoft Office applications easier to work with. Taking into account extensive usability data and recent advancements in hardware and software, the team has delivered the most significant update to the Microsoft Office user interface in more than a decade. The result of these efforts is the Microsoft Office Fluent user interface — a user interface that makes it easier for people to get more out of Microsoft Office applications so they can deliver better results faster.
Microsoft Office Word 2007, Office Excel 2007, Office PowerPoint 2007, Office Outlook 2007, and Office Access 2007 will feature a streamlined, uncluttered workspace that minimizes distraction and enables people to achieve the results they want more quickly and easily.
The Ribbon
In the Office Fluent UI the traditional menus and toolbars have been replaced by the Ribbon — a device that presents commands organized into a set of tabs. The tabs on the Ribbon display the commands that are most relevant for each of the task areas in the applications. For example, in Office Word 2007, the tabs group commands for activities such as inserting objects like pictures and tables, doing page layout, working with references, doing mailings, and reviewing. The Home tab provides easy access to the most frequently used commands. Office Excel 2007 has a similar set of tabs that make sense for spreadsheet work including tabs for working with formulas, managing data, and reviewing. These tabs simplify accessing application features because they organize the commands in a way that corresponds directly to the tasks people perform in these applications.
The Microsoft Office button
Many of the most valuable features in previous versions of Microsoft Office were not about the document authoring experience at all. Instead, they were about all the things you can do with a document: share it, protect it, print it, publish it, and send it. In spite of that, previous releases of the Microsoft Office applications lacked a single central location where a user can see all of these capabilities in one place. File-level features were mixed in with authoring features.
The Office Fluent user interface brings together the capabilities of the Microsoft Office system into a single entry point in the UI: the Microsoft Office Button. This offers two major advantages. First, it helps users find these valuable features. Second, it simplifies the core authoring scenarios by allowing the Ribbon to focus on creating great documents.
Norman Computer Services Ltd April 28, 2009