There are plenty of changes to the Office applications. Let's start by looking at what an application user will see, then we'll explain the move to SharePoint. Finally, we'll consider several important issues IT managers need to weigh when deciding whether to upgrade.

Goodbye menus, hello ribbons

Right from the start, you'll notice the most significant change to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access and many screens in Outlook 2007. Gone are the familiar toolbars and menus; they've been replaced by "ribbons" that house a variety of buttons, icons and graphics (see Figure 1). The ribbons have a dual purpose: to highlight features that users are likely use most often or want most (but have trouble finding), and to promote features at the point they're most useful.

For example, the Home ribbon in Word offers shortcuts for the clipboard (cut, copy, paste) and font formatting (font and font size, underlines and superscripts and so on) -- the kind of everyday tasks most of us use in Word. If you click inside a table, Word presents a special ribbon with just table options. When you move away from the table, the ribbon disappears. It's a good example of providing help right when you need it and staying out of the way when you don't.

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