I just saw a [video demo of Office 12](http://radio.weblogs.com/0001011/2005/09/13.html#a11150).
Wow! Microsoft has an ace with their new UI.
**Context sensitive ribbon**. You can show more actions in the same limited screen real estate. For the average user that means discovering more features they never knew about. And you’ll be surprised how many people buy software just to get a feature that’s already in Office, but burried in the menus.
So does the future hold less tedious PowerPoint presentations, or just more fade-in and roll-around effects?
**Fully functional menus**. The text lists we call menus have been around, virtually unchanged, since Windows 3.0. Time to move on, and how about making menus all about actions? Office 12 does just that. Actions for resizing tables, picking up style, running calculations. Instead of being a hyperlink to the action, the menu is the action.
**The shy bar**. This is one of my favorites. It brings the toolbar to where the action is, and all based on gestures. If I highlight text, that means I want to do something with it. Office 12 reads my mind. Pop comes the toolbar, a context menu without the right click. Time to bring back the one button mouse?
**Instant preview**. Finally I can actually try out the different layouts/fonts I’ve been hearing so much about. Another way of putting less UI between you and what you want to do.
Would I recommend it? Absolutely. If you’re getting into Office, this one makes you more productive and better styled. It’s all about _’here’s what you can do, now try it out’_.
Would I upgrade? Eventually, when the next machine I buy comes pre-installed with Office 12. After years of tinkering with Office products, 12 is just an incremental improvement.
But the whole point of this post … if you’re working on a new product, a product I haven’t used and mastered before, and you want me to own it — own as in use its features and hype it around — start with Office 12 as your UI design guidelines.