The new Microsoft Office. There are things I’m looking forward to, and things that I’m dreading. I’m glad that Microsoft is going to start using the XML OpenDocument standard now (though… They are doing some strange things with XML.. But at least it’s a baby-step in the right direction), but I’m very, very worried at their new menu interface they call ‘The Ribbon’. Gone are the drop-down menus and toolbars. According to this article you can’t even change ‘The Ribbon’ to suite your personal needs. That concerns me a lot. In fact, here’s a quote from the first article (whose link is bellow):

“If you’re not happy about learning a new interface, you’re out of luck: Unlike Windows XP, which allows users to revert to the Start menu and Control Panel of previous versions of Windows, Office 12 doesn’t offer a legacy interface option–a design decision that will likely irritate those who’ve grown accustomed to Office’s old face.”

“Irritate” is an understatement if you ask me. Here is the full text of that article, from PC World: Microsoft Office 12: Big Changes, Big Learning Curve

There is another link inside that article to some screen shots of ‘The Ribbon’ interface. Here is that link in case you’re just interested in that: Office Gets an Extreme Makeover

Yeah.. So.. What do we do? Other than move the whole business world away from Microsoft and towards other options (like the free and fabulous OpenOffice), we’re just going to have to get used to it, weather we like it or not… Praising the great and powerful Gates while we swipe our debit cards through the machine for another $400 MS Office product that he says we can’t live without.

[sigh]