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Preview the Office 2007 Ribbon-Like UI Floated For OpenOffice.Org
recoiledsnake writes "OpenOffice.org has prototyped a new UI that radically changes the current OO.o interface into something very similar to the new ribbon style menus that Office 2007 introduced and which have been extensively used throughout Windows 7. The blog shows a screenshot of the prototype in Impress (the equivalent of PowerPoint), but this UI is proposed to be used across all OO.o applications. Some commenters on the Sun blog are not happy about OO.o blindly aping Office 2007, and feel that the ribbon UI may be out of place in non-Windows operating systems."
It's disallowed by MS specifically for Office-like applications. (nothing else)
I have always assumed that clause was added to gain a usability edge over OpenOffice.
So this could be interesting. *grabs popcorn*
Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
I have a eeePC myself and I love the ribbon after I've minimized it, after that it works like a horizontal dropdown menu which is a plus because of the limited screen size. A minimized ribbon is actually smaller than menubars and toolbars. YMMV
It only sucks in office until OO.o can implement it.
Correct. After that, it sucks in both of them.
Alexander Peter Kristopeit bought his basement from his mommy for one dollar.
What. The. Fuck.
They aren't even slightly alike. For one thing, it's attached to the window (floating toolbars *gasp* FLOAT). Floating toolbars generally didn't have multiple tabs of obtions in them-- I suppose there's no technical reason they couldn't have, but in my entire time using Classic Mac I never saw one. There's only one ribbon, where the typical Classic Mac app would have more than one floating toolbar. The ribbon has groups and a somewhat fluid grid layout, Classic Mac floating toolbars were just a simple grid.
Who modded this "Informative?" The ribbon is *nothing like* Classic Macintosh floating toolbars. The only similarity I can even think of it "they both have buttons."
Comment of the year
If you minimize the Office 2007 ribbon, it takes the exact same amount of space as a menubar. Even when not minimized, the ribbon is smaller than the default Office 2003 toolbars. I don't know who keeps spreading this misconception, but please stop-- the ribbon uses no more pixels than the menu/toolbars it replaced.
In short, Microsoft *did* think of the small displays. You're just assuming they didn't because your head is full of misinformation from reading Slashdot.
Comment of the year
Umm traditional toolbars show or hide elements based on window size...
The ribbon just tries to do it intelligently by hiding stuff you might not use as often, while a toolbar just uses icon placement to determine which to hide.
You clearly don't use Office 2007, or are a moron. Outlook 2007 is the single Office 2007 application that DOESN'T use the ribbon interface. That apparently won't happen until Office 2010.
Actually, it doesn't. Compared to the default office 2003 menu it's actually a few pixels slimmer.