I'll be the first to admit that I'm figuring this out as I go along. So I might be wrong. On the other hand, I'm going through exactly what you'll go through when you switch to Vista and Office 2007. So here's what I want to know: Why is it that when you're using PowerPoint and want to apply a template to a new presentation, it's called a "Template" in the Help system, but when you want to apply the exact same I’ll be the first to admit that I’m figuring this out as I go along. So I might be wrong. On the other hand, I’m going through exactly what you’ll go through when you switch to Vista and Office 2007. So here’s what I want to know: Why is it that when you’re using PowerPoint and want to apply a template to a new presentation, it’s called a “Template” in the Help system, but when you want to apply the exact same template to an existing presentation it’s suddenly called a “Theme”? More generally, why did Microsoft decide to radically change the user interface on its entire Office suite? You could make the case that the old interface was too confusing. You could, but you’d be unconvincing, because confusing or not, it was familiar to tens of millions of experienced users. By definition, a change as radical as the one we’re facing is much more confusing, and to no good purpose: Changing File, Edit, Format and so on to Home, Insert, Design and so on really doesn’t make much difference. Microsoft could just as easily have applied its “Ribbon” interface to the old menus (I’m assuming it’s the Ribbon that’s supposed to be the big deal in confusion reduction). My guess: In moving from closed, proprietary document formats to XML, Microsoft is taking a huge risk. Where previously, Office’s critical mass created a de facto standard that prevented effective competition, the new docx format is open and accessible – in relative terms, easy for competitors (primarily OpenOffice) to offer in their own office suites. The old Office user interface held to the same basic conventions as those used in OpenOffice, which meant that supporting a mixed environment … especially during a transition … might be feasible for less-conservative customers. Once a company makes a commitment to Office’s new and radically different interface, though, the picture changes. Acclimating employees to Home/Insert/Design menus accompanied by the dreaded Ribbon is plenty of change to take on. Doing so, only to then acclimate them to a different suite’s File/Edit/View menus is a different matter. So I’m guessing the new interface is Microsoft’s way of trying to preserve lock-in without the proprietary file formats that used to make it easy. But of course, it’s only a guess. Regardless, Microsoft is in a risky position right now – in much the same place Novell was way back when, when it moved from the Bindery to NDS (Network Directory Services, the predecessor to eDirectory). In both cases, the change from migration was sufficiently large that it encouraged customers to look at alternatives from other vendors as being no more painful than the upgrade itself. Which brings us to you. If you’re ever going to be open to alternatives to Office, now’s the time. – Bob Powered by ScribeFire. Technology Industry