Microsoft Alters Office to Anticipate Users' Needs
Posted on: Saturday, 24 September 2005, 12:00 CDT
LOS ANGELES - The next version of Microsoft Corp.'s Office software will feature simpler graphics and try to anticipate users' tasks as the company hopes to make the product easier to use, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates said Tuesday.
Microsoft hopes the new features will entice users who have found it unwieldy to wade through the dozens of tool menus and other features packed into Office, the software suite that includes Word, PowerPoint, Outlook and Excel.
The stakes are high because Office is a cash cow for Microsoft, even as it ventures further into areas such as Internet search and video games.
For Microsoft's fiscal year ended June 30, the unit that includes Office had operating income of nearly $8 billion, on revenue of $11 billion. The company's overall revenue was $40 billion.
Mr. Gates used this year's forum at a software conference to give a preview Office 12 and the next generation of Microsoft's operating system, dubbed Windows Vista. Both are due out next year.
The previews focused on their use of graphics to give consumers more ways to manage information on the computer screen.
That's a growing issue as software applications become more complex. For instance, the first version of Word had 100 commands. The 2003 version has more than 1,500 commands and 35 tool bars.
"We need to make it easier for people to visualize information that comes from different directions," Mr. Gates said.
The Office redesign is meant to make it easier on the eyes, with the myriad of menu boxes fading in and out of view depending on what tools are being used.
The idea is part of an industrywide trend toward personalizing technology based on user habits. For example, Microsoft rival Goo- gle Inc. recently updated its desktop search capability to present relevant information based on a user's Web surfing habits.
Microsoft also plans to focus more on how companies can use the software instead of servers.
Source: Augusta Chronicle, The
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