Office 2010: New Product, New Blog

Since we signed off on Office 2007 in October 2006, we've been hard at work on the next version, Office 2010. As successful has Office 2007 has been, it represented but a first step in our journey towards rethinking the user experience of Office. Office 2010 will be, in many ways, the culmination of the work we started back in August 2003.

Recently, as the Office 2010 Technical Preview was finalized, I moved to a different team within Microsoft, working in a similar role for Windows. As a result, I won't be personally blogging about the Office 2010 user interface.

Luckily, the Office team has created the Office 2010 Engineering Blog as a hub for members of the Office engineering team to write about Office 2010. Clay Satterfield, one of the architects of the Ribbon and the Backstage View added in Office 2010, kicked off the discussion of the user experience today by publishing the first part in a series of posts about this new UI. Future posts from the User Experience team will delve into Ribbon customization, Live Preview paste, and many other enhancements in Office 2010.

I encourage you to check out the new blog, and to give feedback on the Office 2010 Technical Preview if you have access to it. Early feedback is an important part of the process of how we improve the user experience of our products, so feel free to dig and and let them know what you think!

Comments

• Anonymous
  July 16, 2009
  Do you plan on having a blog in your new position? I'm sure it's exciting! Your blog throughout office 2007 was  a beautiful insight of the handwork and logic behind the ribbon and more. And, you were clear, concise and it was full of visuals. Thanks for your hard work on it. It was a joy to read. I honestly think your blog was the best Microsoft blog ever, so please keep it up with your new role - at least when it's less hush-hush!

• Anonymous
  July 17, 2009
  Hi, Would just like to say "second that" to the commenter above. I only discovered your blog today, and your office 2007 talk was the best talk i seen out of Microsoft, ever. I really think that should be broken down and re-packaged for end-users. They would really enjoy that, and it would great some great loyalty for Microsoft products. PS. Are you on Twitter?

• Anonymous
  July 20, 2009
  I have to say me too in regards to your blog.  I learned a huge amount about Office 2007 in your blog and have be looking for a new one on 2010.  Keep up the great work.

• Anonymous
  July 23, 2009
  I fully agree with William Dowell! Your Office-2007-Blog was a great help during the 2007 Beta. I only today copied the URL for someone asking in the newsgroup for resources for their migration. And I would be very interested to read you point of view during the Office 2010 Technical Preview. I love that version already after only one week of testing.