Well, I just installed the initial pre-release version of Office 12. I remember reading something online about it a while back and I was kind of scared of it. I do a lot of documentation support for the projects I work on, so I frequent Office a lot. The new toolbar-focused user experience just didn't set well in the back of my mind. After opening it for the first time, I freaked... Where's my menu!? I want my Tools > Options! I want my... umm... what else was up there? I honestly don't even remember. View, Styles, Format... I found myself vaguely remembering what options I had because I didn't even use them that frequently. Hmm... Maybe I can give this thing a shot.
Anyone who works in software development knows that you're always plagued with usability issues because of "stupid users." There's nothing you can do about it. With Word's hundreds or thousands of options, I found myself around quite well. With Office 12, tho, I have one: File. What the heck is that!? Under that menu, I have 8 options: new, open, save/save as, finish (i.e. digital signatures), send (i.e. fax), print, and close. Everything else is laid out on a toolbar. Initially, you're given 6 toolbars. Only one is visible at a time, but there are tabs above them to select the one you want. Each of these are broken out into related groups. The toolbars are context-sensitive, so if you add a picture, for instance, a new Picture Tools toolbar pops up.
I have to admit that I'm very impressed. This is definitely a new way of thinking and I look forward to seeing it in more apps. This really gives me a lot of ideas. Don't know whether that's good or bad, but I'm interested in seeing how these tools pan out after using them for a while.