MS Office 15 Beta Coming Soon

Still trying to figure out the Ribbon toolbar interface first introduced in Office 2007?  Well, I've got some news for you.  It looks like Microsoft's next version of Office is going to have yet another interface facelift, hopefully for the better this time.

Several Microsoft rumor mill sites have reporting that Microsoft is getting ready to release a public beta for their next iteration of Office -- code named Office 15.  Don't let the number 15 fool you however, We're not talking about Office 15 as in Office 2015.  Instead, this is simply an internal number that Microsoft uses.  

The actual release date looks to be late 2012 according to many sources inside Microsoft.  This timeframe coincides with the expected release of Microsoft's newest PC operating system, Windows 8.

Cutting the Ribbon

So what do we know about Office 15 at this point?  As mentioned previously, the current Ribbon UI is going to be scrapped in favor of Microsoft's currently preferred interface, called Metro. Metro is the same user interface found in the Windows Phone 7 OS as well as the upcoming Windows 8 OS. The Metro UI has an emphasis on easy to read typography and clean lines.  

So far the interface has gotten high praise when Microsoft has implemented it, so hopefully it can be retrofitted to be a usable interface for the Office suite of applications such as Word, Excel and PowerPoint.  I also like the fact that Microsoft is finally attempting to unify its product lineup with a single user interface design.  Despite the fact that we'll have to learn yet another interface, I welcome the extinction of the dreaded Ribbon toolbar found in Office 2007 and 2010.

Other reported Office 15 features include a smartphone inspired "tiled" launch screen known as "Moorea" and built-in touch screen interpretability. Clearly from the feature leaks of Office 15, Microsoft has tablets on the brain. Personally,  I can't say that I'm terribly excited about the tablet device additions as I only see myself using Office with a tablet when I'm in a pinch and there is no PC in sight.  But for others that want to rely on a tablet, this comes as welcome news.

Besides the UI revamp and tablet additions, there isn't much more known about Office 15, so it's difficult to say if businesses should plan to budget money for the upgrade next year or not.  The good news is that we'll know a great deal more as soon as the beta is released in a few weeks.