Microsoft Office 12: Many Changes, Hard To Learn

According to PC World, Microsoft Office has a big learning curve. The interface has changes significantly, here are a few highlights; has replaced drop-down menus and toolbars with a set of tabs in what Microsoft calls the "ribbon," an inch-high toolbar that displays key functions relevant to the selected tab.

When the user clicks on the Write tab in Word, for example, the ribbon shows font and formatting options as well as the cut, paste, and find/replace functions that used to live in the Edit menu.

Like its predecessors, Office 12 is a mammoth program; most of us are unlikely to ever use most of its features. Alas it is impossible to retain the old interface but according to PC World the new interface has its advantages, and the move to XML is clearly a good one.