iGeneration
Zack WhittakerOffice 2010: new logo, Outlook, and user interface
Summary
Outlook 2010 has been seen out in the wild, courtesy of an anonymous source within the Education team at Microsoft.
This is major news for students as most universities have adopted to Office 2007, which thankfully, it seems for the time being, Office 2010 will sport the same user interface. However, with the release [...]
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Zack Whittaker
Biography
Zack Whittaker
Zack Whittaker started playing with computers before he could even tie his shoelaces; although that skill wasn't discovered until he was 10. Amongst many things, he is a good-for-nothing, pink sock wearing, British student at the University of Kent in Canterbury, UK working towards a BA (Hons) Criminology and Social Policy.
In between studying, drinking, and occasionally sleeping, he works with researchers studying neurological illnesses like Tourette's syndrome (of which he suffers from), and gives talks and lectures on disabilities.
He grew up in "Robin Hood Country" in Nottinghamshire, UK for the best part of his life, but still heads there on occasion to see his ever-supporting and loving family, godchildren and his friends. Although due to his age he may seem inexperienced and misguided, but he's already totalled up many years of work, education, knowledge and general (mis)adventure.
Outlook 2010 has been seen out in the wild, courtesy of an anonymous source within the Education team at Microsoft.
This is major news for students as most universities have adopted to Office 2007, which thankfully, it seems for the time being, Office 2010 will sport the same user interface. However, with the release expected late this year, most likely next year at some point, with an adoption already still very much under trial, I do not foresee universities jumping on the Office 2010 bandwagon just yet.
This is the About box, which at the moment sports only the license agreement and privacy statement. You can probably start to feel as to how this version of Office will present itself; bright, energetic and citrus in colour.
While the icons are still to be desired as they have clearly not been finished yet, you can tell from the revised user interface that a clean look is important to users. It also sheds some light as to what “OIS” and “InterConnect” are; possibly the new name for Groove?
And finally…
Outlook 2010 now sports the Ribbon toolbar, which was implemented due to the massive increase of features within the application. Depending on the back-end infrastructure, the next generation of Exchange Server will presumably offer more functionality along with Outlook.
As you can clearly see, most of the application has been blanked out as to first and foremost protect the identity of the employee, but also to ensure their emails and Outlook items are preserved.
The interface is less confusing, much cleaner and feels more seamless than before. I’ve never been able to get my head around Outlook 2003 or 2007, but perhaps if Outlook 2010 is put forward with Office Home and Student (or whichever way they decide to go with SKU’s) then it would give students a better email management system.
Whilst some sources remain to be sceptical, and understandably so, all evidence currently points to a final name of Microsoft Office 2010, or some combination of the name. We will have to wait and see, because Microsoft do love throwing a curve-ball at any given opportunity…
This other screenshot yields some interesting thoughts, also, with the name Office 2010 clearly displayed with a new orange logo. As the text suggests, this is currently “placeholder branding” but suggestions from around the web seem to point to it being the accurate name for the final product.
Excited? Dismayed? Leave your thoughts and witty banter below.
Zack Whittaker, the youngest in the ZDNet network, is a British student at the University of Kent, where he studies a BA (Hons) Criminology and Social Policy undergraduate degree.
Disclosure
Zack Whittaker
I worked at Microsoft as an intern a few years ago but have since cut my ties with them. I'm very grateful for their support over the years and the acquaintances I've made and the positive impact they've had on my future career. In spite of this, I remain impartial and unbiased to my views.
I don't hold any stock or shares, investments or industrial secrets in any company, but have signed confidentiality agreements with a number of UK and US organisations, whose names I am not at liberty to disclose.
I am highly involved with Kent Union, the University of Kent's student union, a charitable organisation which seeks to represent every student at either Canterbury, Medway, Tonbridge, Brussels or Paris campuses. Between May 2009 and December 2009, I was elected as a voluntary, non-salaried position - as welfare officer for Rutherford College at the university.
Between October 2009 and December 2009, I was elected as a voluntary, non-salaried position - as ordinary council member for Kent Union Council, the governing body for the students union. No other company, body, governmental department, non-governmental organisation or third sector organisation employs me or pays me a salary in any capacity whatsoever.
(Updated: 23rd February 2010)
Biography
Zack Whittaker
Zack Whittaker started playing with computers before he could even tie his shoelaces; although that skill wasn't discovered until he was 10. Amongst many things, he is a good-for-nothing, pink sock wearing, British student at the University of Kent in Canterbury, UK working towards a BA (Hons) Criminology and Social Policy.
In between studying, drinking, and occasionally sleeping, he works with researchers studying neurological illnesses like Tourette's syndrome (of which he suffers from), and gives talks and lectures on disabilities.
He grew up in "Robin Hood Country" in Nottinghamshire, UK for the best part of his life, but still heads there on occasion to see his ever-supporting and loving family, godchildren and his friends. Although due to his age he may seem inexperienced and misguided, but he's already totalled up many years of work, education, knowledge and general (mis)adventure.
More from “iGeneration”
Related Discussions on TechRepublic
Did you know you can take part in these discussions with your ZDNet membership?Talkback Most Recent of 31 Talkback(s)
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User Interface Changes
It looks good, but one thing that bothers me is the removal of the "Office Orb" in the top left hand corner of the Office 2010 suite, replaced by the style used by the ribbon in Windows 7's Paint and WordPad applications. Oh well, at least they're being consistent and bringing the ribbon to (presumably) all of the Office suite applications.kmkenney04/18/2009 09:34 AM -
Can't please everybody.
Well, Microsoft has a lot of customers, and one of the CONSTANT "problems" skeptics love to bring up is consistency. So Microsoft has to make a lot of compromises, and make a lot of difficult decisions.CobraA104/18/2009 11:09 AM -
how to please everybody
You *can* please everybody: you can give them a choice. I would like the choice to go back to the old menu, which I found understandable and customizable. I could make the things I use easy to find (like 'Update Field') and omit the things I never use (like 'Center paragraph').
The Ribbon may be right for some people, but it isn't right for everyone. And choice is an easy solution.mcswell07/03/2009 07:32 PM -
Nope, that woudn't please me
i would then complain that the program is bloated with useless crap that i don't want, just so suit some other people who are complaining.
personally, i don't know why they feel it necessary to have all kinds of custom GUI crap on every app they produce. Use the friggin standard windowing system like everyone else.latrosicarius@...07/10/2009 11:56 AM -
RE: Office 2010: new logo, Outlook, and user interface
I'm pretty excited about Office 2010, especially Visio and SharePoint. I can't wait to see what new features like data mashups and Visio services can do.
MS Office has the strongest integration between products and the best platform for unifying them all. I can't wait!crazydanr@...04/18/2009 10:28 AM -
Not planning on switching when it comes out.
Well, I've already got plans for upgrading to Windows 7, and frankly I don't have the budget for the new Office. As long as it doesn't break anything, I'll likely have to wait a year to upgrade.CobraA104/18/2009 11:14 AM -
New logo cost $750
What a good deal, it has a new 'logo' I am sold put me
down for 10,000 copies of it!
WOW, my life is now complete!
Thank you Mr. Gates
Christian_<><04/18/2009 12:34 PM -
Logo
I agree. And while you're at it, wouldn't you like some tail fins on your car?mcswell07/03/2009 07:34 PM -
Looks far messier... and are those black bars in Outlook for real?!
I could have done better with the logo too...
I'll stick with Office 2007 for now. Unless there's a compelling reason to upgrade (did they clean up the underlying code; halved the disk space requirement? I doubt it... they certainly didn't for Office 2007...)HypnoToad04/18/2009 01:06 PM -
RTFA.
the black bars are where the leaker redacted sensitive personal information.Geedavey04/21/2009 07:22 AM -
ZDNet Blogger
RE: OIS is surely Office Picture Manager
Could beI'm not sure, you probably know better than me to be honest.
zwhittaker04/18/2009 03:28 PM -
InterConnect
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_InterConnect
A quick Google search reveals there have been 2004 and 2007 versions of InterConnect.PB_z04/18/2009 05:21 PM -
A new look.
As long as you feel like you're getting something new and improved that's all that matters.kozmcrae04/18/2009 05:30 PM -
RE: Office 2010: new logo, Outlook, and user interface
Looks quite cool, and the thing makin me please is that intrface is kept same, coz most of us have an acquaintance to office 2007. Cool...lazy_bahrian@...04/19/2009 12:35 AM -
User Interface
Am I missing something here? I keep seeing posts where people are saying the user interface is the same as 2007. Sure the Ribbon concept remains, and I can just barely tolerate the line delimiters between the different groups, but now the section titles are NOT clearly separate from the icons? They mix in with the Icons and drop downs? now we have a "View" icon and wait, another "View" description right below it? At least the 2007 has a clear separation for the section title.
This new interface (and I'm pretty sure this won't change, a la Wordpad and Paintbrush in Windows 7) just rubs me the wrong way. Right now it looks like one big monotone mish-mash, not clear and organized like today's Ribbon.BeoStyx05/18/2009 03:13 PM
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