Posted on Friday, February 24 2012 @ 17:16 CET by Thomas De Maesschalck
ARS Technica
spotted leaked pictures of Microsoft's Office 15 at
The Verge. The images reveal the software giant is trying to fuse its ribbon interface with Windows 8's Metro layout.
The Office 15 applications have an interface that has been substantially pared down. The ribbon itself will now default to being collapsed, and the gradients, panels, and dividing lines that are a major feature of the current Office interface have for the most part been removed.
Getting rid of this clutter is a major feature of the Metro aesthetic. So too is the greater dependence on typography and words, rather than icons; as another nod to Metro ideals, the ribbon's tabs now use upper-case type, and instead of using icons to switch between mail, contacts (renamed "people" in Office 15, aligning it with the terminology used in Windows Phone and Windows 8), calendars, and tasks, Outlook 15 will use Metroesque words.
