January 10th, 2007
First look at Mac Office 2008
C|Net's Elsa Wenzel has an early look at Mac Office 2008 from Microsoft's Mac Business Unit today with the first screenshots I've seen that show where the suite is headed. Noticeably absent is any sign of the Ribbon-driven UI introduced in the core applications on Office 2007 for Windows. The Mac Business Unit has publicly announced that support for the new Office XML-based document formats will be made available later this year for users of the current Mac Office and it will be baked into the new release.
The big enhancements shown in Elsa's post include enhanced desktop publishing tools in Word, home and small business accounting templates for Excel, Office 2.0 Art (the new Smart Art tools included in Office 2007), and a new My Day application that shows the day's appointments and tasks in a widget-style floating window.
Head on over and check out the post to learn and see more.
Frankly, I'm rather surpised at this design direction. I've said on a number of occasions that I think the contextual intelligence and fresh approach to workflow shown in the Ribbon is a big roll of the dice for Microsoft in Office 2007. As the Windows version of Office is used in relatively conservative corporate and enterprise environments where big changes are generally received with guarded concern over training and support costs, this gamble is all the more critical and worthy of attention. What I don't understand is why these same innovations and fresh ideas about the user interface and experience aren't being offered to a community of users whose platform of choice has defined innovation in the user experience for many years and where it stands a far more likely chance of being adopted and used with enthusiasm.
I figure it either has to be a decision driven by technological impediments to doing on the Mac what they've done on the Windows platform or a financial decision relative to the size of the potential adopting audience.
Update: A post over at TUAW by David Chartier suggests that some of the Ribbon UI's goodness appears to have been incorporated into Mac Office 2008. An image gallery is available (shot off the screen during the onsite demo at MacWorld).
Marc Orchant has been building, testing, and sometimes breaking hardware and software for 25 years. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
