Url: http://www.microsoft.com/office/preview/asx/Off…

I recently ran into this video that walks people through what exactly the “Ribbon” is in the new Office (2007?). While I like generally what they are trying to achieve, I still think they are missing the mark a bit. Especially when it comes to Outlook.

My understanding is that all the office products except Outlook have gotten this new look/feel. I don’t quite get this.  I spend lots of time in Work and PowerPoint so these new features are nice, but in generally I am getting what I want out of those products. My sore point (and its been a sore point for years now) has been Outlook.

Outlook is the new Crystal Reports to me. An indepensible tool that I spend far too much time in and that is the best of a very bad lot of programs. Is Outlook better than Thunderbird?  Sure.  But so is GoogleMail.  I still have a ton of problems with outlook and performance.  I haven’t gottem my hands on Office 2007, but when I do that’s where I’ll be most interested in the changes.

It seems to me that Outlook is getting over-looked in the 2007 revamp.  Much like what happened in Office 97.  Microsoft needs to look hard and understand that Outlook is the first program I am open, and often the last thing I close.  Making it perform better (especially in the use of threads during the retrieval of mail and subsequent running of rules) will win them more friends than more eye-poping charts in excel.

But that is just my opinion…I could be wrong…

Shawn