Friday, September 16, 2005

Microsoft to replace menu bar with feature docks

Microsoft plans to ditch the menu and icon bar and move to what Microsoft calls "ribbon" - docks providing more transparent access to the functionality of software. This new navigation bar consists of a tabbed command bar, which will open "galleries" in the location of today's icon bar. The aim of this change is to better provide a visual representation of the kinds of formatting choices users can make without needing to set a number of individual elements to achieve it. Basically, if you want a configuration change – say, margins to be wide or narrow or short or tall, you can pick out what you want from a gallery as opposed to configuring several items in a dialog box. Microsoft believes that this will revolutionise the way we use software.

More here.

No comments: