Improved User Interface
The Office Standard 2007 user interface makes it easier for people to use Office applications. The streamlined screen layout and dynamic results-oriented galleries let you spend more time focused on your work and less time trying to get the application to do what you need. As a result, the Office Standard 2007 interface can help deliver great looking documents, high-impact presentations, effective spreadsheets, and powerful desktop database applications.

The Ribbon
Office Standard 2007 features the Ribbon, a new device that presents commands organized into a set of tabs, instead of traditional menus and toolbars. The tabs on the Ribbon display the commands that are most relevant for each of the task areas in the applications. For example, in Word, the tabs group commands for activities such as inserting objects like pictures and tables, doing page layout, working with references, doing mailings, and reviewing. For added convenience, the Home tab provides easy access to the most frequently used commands. Excel has a similar set of tabs that make sense for spreadsheet work including tabs for working with formulas, managing data, and reviewing. These tabs make it simple to access features because they organize the commands in a way that corresponds directly to the tasks you perform in the application you're using.

The Microsoft Office Button
Many of the most valuable features in previous versions of Office were not about the document authoring experience and instead focused on all the things you can do with a document: share it, protect it, print it, publish it, and send it. Although this focus had its advantages, previous releases lacked a single central location where a user could see all of these capabilities in one place. Office Standard 2007's new interface, however, bring together the capabilities of the Office system into a single entry point: the Microsoft Office button. This button allows for two major advantages. First, it helps users find these valuable features. Second, it simplifies the authoring process by allowing the Ribbon to focus on creating great documents.

Contextual Tabs
Office Standard 2007 features contextual tabs which bring important and appropriate command options to the user's attention precisely when they're needed most. Certain sets of commands are only relevant when objects of a particular type are being edited. For example, the commands for editing a chart are not relevant until a chart appears in a spreadsheet and the user is focusing on modifying it. In current versions of Office applications, these commands can be difficult to find. In Excel, however, clicking on a chart causes a contextual tab to appear with commands used for chart editing. Contextual tabs only appear when they are needed and make it much easier to find and use the commands needed for the operation at hand.

Galleries
Galleries are at the heart of the redesigned applications, and they deliver a set of clear results to choose from when working on your documents, spreadsheets, presentations, or Access databases. By presenting a simple set of potential results, rather than a complex dialog box with numerous options, galleries can simplify the process of producing professional looking work. For those who prefer a greater degree of control over the result of the operation, the traditional dialog box interfaces are still available.