...people will quickly adjust to the new look and appreciate the revamped features.
Julie Larson-Green, the Microsoft group programme manager who headed up the new design for Office, predicted that the time it takes to relearn things won't be extensive.
"We think it's somewhere between two days to two weeks, depending on your comfort level," she said.
But not everyone will give Office 12 that much of a chance, acknowledges Steven Sinofsky, the Microsoft senior vice-president in charge of Office. He likens it to a magazine that goes through a major redesign, knowing that some people will cancel their subscription.
"Some very small percentage of people are going to react overwhelmingly negative," Sinofsky said in an interview. "I'm prepared for that."
About time
Despite the risk, Jupiter Research analyst Michael Gartenberg said some sort of overhaul was long overdue.
"It has gotten to a point where the product is very unwieldy," he said.
But, he warned, Microsoft may still face a tough sell. "Microsoft has to convince [corporate customers] not only that the new version is better, but also that there is not a significant amount of retraining that is going to be required for users."
Somewhat ironically, it may be toughest to switch for the power users who have suffered to learn many of the 1,500 current commands. "In some ways it is hardest for people who know Office the best," Larson-Green said.
For most people, though, Microsoft believes its new interface will be far more palatable than today's way of doing things.
When editing in Word, for example, the ribbon presents only those choices that have directly to do with formatting content. And even then, the goal is not to present every possible option, but rather the couple of dozen choices that represent the majority of the clicks people typically make.
"You use things like 'bold' a lot more often than you change your margins," Larson-Green said.
In addition to the ribbon, Microsoft is...
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Talkback
Biggest problem is the package deal that comes with Microsoft Office. Buy into it and soon you'll bounce your head (as details pop up their ugly head as you move along) against things that require upgrading or purchasing something else (the domino effect that makes it impossible to oversee total impact) in order to reach the next level of whatever functionality. If not, you'll have to do with reduced functionality or deal with other things that'll irritate the hell out of your users.
Even stranger. In order to get there you'll first need to purchase, learn, deploy, migrate, tune, tweak, compromise, teach, maintain and what not that what you thought would give you opposite results.
That all adds up. Significantly and in more ways then just financial. As such you might want to start now by deploying various alternatives here and there including trial versions of Microsoft Office newest versions once you can. And see what problems and benefits come with that. Then give it a best effort to make it all work (you'll have to give an effort no matter what you choose anyway). Some months later, next year, maybe the year thereafter you'll have a rich list of findings backed up by in-house tried and tested experiences and expertise across the board that'll allow you to make the best choice (which could be a mix) that best serves the (business) needs of all.
Save massive amounts by switching to OpenOffice and Windows, start using Firefox for greater (free) internet securiy. Then you have greatly reduced your dependency on a monopolist vendor, will be in a stronger position to negotiate future deals or switch to an alternative OS if needed.