Ensight - Jeremy Wright’s Personal Blog

Office 12 is More Than Just a Pretty Face

by Jeremy Wright on September 14th, 2005

There have been some comments in the blogosphere, based off my post yesterday, that seem to think that the new version of Office, dubbed Office 12 (Microsoft is oh so creative), is really only a cosmetic upgrade.

I’m still under NDA, so really the only thing I’ve been able to comment on so far is that which Microsoft themselves have released. Here’s what they’ve released:

- new UI
- search throughout
- data-driven graphics
- click-n-pick (ie: hover over something and you get a live preview, click it to select)
- integration with SharePoint

There are lots of things that were NOT demo’d, such as Outlook’s time management improvements, workflow stuff, data modelling and protection, team-oriented features and all kinds of power user stuff. This release is the biggest Office release ever in terms of fundamental changes, new features and focussing of the application (which some might think is all a big oxymoron).

I can’t say what precisely’s changed or why it’s good, but I did want to let folk know that it is more than just skin-deep. For some people it won’t be, because of how they use Office, but for many, many people (Sales folk being ones that were specifically targetted), it will be. That said, even if it’s just a new UI… That UI makes people incredibly more productive which is still a Good Thing. But, if a UI isn’t enough for you, rest assured that there’s more coming.

Technorati Tags : office12, microsoftoffice, o12, microsoft

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POSTED IN: Ensight News, IT News & Thoughts