Testing Windows Beta 2007

For the past couple of months I’ve been testing Microsoft 2007 Beta. At first it was a bit frustrating but after say half an hour it’s real easy to use.

After the initial shock of the interface I can now say the ribbons concept is fantastic. The problem with the old version is that while it had all the features of the Beta version – you had to dig so deep into the menu to find them that you often forgot how you get there.

I think Microsoft may finally broken the 80-20 syndrome which dictated that most users only used about 20 per cent of the system’s capabilities. With ribbons I think that you can easily access about 90% of what Beta has to offer. For instance, I am now actually quiet adept at using Excel – in the past I had to ask our finance person what to do on all but the most simple tasks.

Conditional Formatting, formulas broken down by category visually, Styles, Mail Merge, merge and center [excel], freezing panes, grouping... and more are just one click away.

The new interface also encourages you to experiment with your documents. Power Point is great too.