Microsoft is winding down the beta program for Office 2007 as it prepares for a release to manufacturing before the end of the month. On Oct. 25, Microsoft will close its Office Preview site and stop allowing downloads of the beta. The Beta 2 Technical Refresh, made available last month, will be the last build available to testers. As previously reported, Microsoft will not be issuing a third beta or release candidate of Office 2007, although the development team has continued to make tweaks to the product.
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Member since:2006-04-21
This seems unlikely:
from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_2007#The_Ribbon
Some tabs, called Contextual Tabs, appear only when certain objects are selected. Contextual Tabs expose functionality specific only to the object with focus. For example, selecting a picture brings up the Pictures tab, which presents options for dealing with the picture. Similarly, focusing on a table exposes table-related options in a specific tab. Contextual tabs remain hidden when the object it works on are not selected.
When will Microsoft learn that computers are dumber than users, and some users are apparently more intelligent than their interface designers?
Member since:2006-04-21
Member since:2005-07-11
Actually, contextual tabs work just fine. You have to click on the object you want to edit for the correct tab to appear, but it works in a predictable way so it's not bad at all like collapsable menu.
I've been using Office 2007 since the public beta was released, and I have to say it's great. It took me about a week to get myself reoriented and I don't think I'd want to go back at this point.
Member since:2005-07-25
They don't do that any more. I'm trying to find a post on Jensen Harris's blog I read once detailing why it looked right at the time, why this was actually wrong, a promise never to do it again 
and how to turn it off. This includes the menus you had to scan twice (once half-full, once full) and the "toolbar-on-one-line" idea (ugh!)
Member since:
2006-04-21
Does it attempt to predict what features you want to use, like the "collapsible menus" or whatever they're called in older versions of Office? More to the point, does it actually ****ing WORK this time?