The 2007 Microsoft Office system aims to make the core Microsoft Office applications easier to work with. Taking into account extensive usability data and recent advancements in hardware and software, the Microsoft team have delivered the most significant update to the Microsoft Office User Interface in more than a decade.
The result is the Microsoft Office Fluent User Interface - so called because it is designed to help users become more fluent in the use of the Microsoft Office Applications. It is visual and more dynamic which makes it easier for people to find and use the features that they need to get more out of Microsoft Office Applications and deliver better results faster.
The Microsoft Help facility in Office 2007 will often direct you to video demonstrations as well as written documentation to help you make the best use of the new features. Alternatively, go to http://office.microsoft.com, click on Help and How-To tab and search for any of the following:
The Fluent User Interface Demo
The Fluent User Interface Video
Interactive Office 2003 to 2007
THE OFFICE BUTTON
A big change in Office 2007 is the Office Button (located in the top left hand corner of the screen). It gives one -stop access to the most common Microsoft Office file and system commands (the ones that you used to access via the File and Tools menus).
Several of the Commands on the Office Menu are direct Commands, and some of them have Sub Menus:
Click Pin this document to the Recent Documents list:  if you want to permanently keep a document. Icon changes to 
The Microsoft Office Menu can also be used to change Office Application Settings. In order to do this, click Word Options on the bottom of the Office menu (see above), view available features, amend as required and click OK:
THE MINI TOOLBAR
Whenever you select text in a document the Mini ToolBar appears giving instant, easy access to Text Formatting features:
THE RIBBON
The biggest change to the user interface is the use of the Ribbon which consists of a set of Tabs containing well organized Commands. It takes the best of Menus and Toolbars and combines them into one easy place to quickly find all the features and functionality that you need via a fresh, highly visual layout.
The example below shows the Word 2007 Ribbon:
Hiding the Ribbon
To hide the Ribbon, double-click the Active Tab e.g. the Home Tab:
Restoring the Ribbon
To restore the Ribbon, click any Tab e.g. the Insert Tab:
Organization of Ribbons
Ribbons are organized in a similar manner in all of the Office 2007 Applications. The only difference is that the Tabs on the Ribbon vary depending on which Application you are using.
Tabs are used to logically group all the features that you need when working in a document, spreadsheet or presentation. Each Tab is organised around a particular set of activities such as writing a page or laying out a page in Word 2007.
Within each Tab, Commands are organised into Command Groups and represented by Icons. Screen Tips (obtained by hovering over an Icon) will tell you exactly what each feature does.
TABS
Tabs may be ordinary Command Tabs which can be accessed on the Ribbon at all times or Contextual Tabs which only appear when needed.
Command Tabs
An example of a Command Tab is the Insert Tab which contains Command Groups relating to Pages, Tables etc:
The Home Tab
In each of the Office 2007 applications, note that the Home Tab contains the most frequently used features. In Word 2007 this includes Command Groups for the Clipboard, Font, Paragraph, Styles and Editing commands:
Contextual Tabs
Contextual Tabs appear on the Ribbon when you select an Object in the document, spreadsheet or presentation with which you are working. These Tabs go away when you deselect the Object. This helps keep workspace clean and uncluttered.
For example, when you select a Picture in a Word 2007 document, the Format Tab on the Picture Tools Contextual Tab appears giving you specialised Tools for working with Pictures:
VIEW DOCUMENT
Use Zoom slider on Status Bar (located in bottom right hand corner of the screen) to quickly zoom in or out of a document:
SubMenus
Notice that some of the buttons on the Command Groups have Sub Menus. For example, in Word 2007, the small arrow below the Table command on the Insert Tab indicates that there is a Sub Menu. To open the Sub Menu, click the arrow:
Traditional Dialog Boxes
The traditional Dialog Boxes for some of the Command Groups on the Ribbon are still available. To open a traditional Dialog Box for a particular Command Group, click the Dialog Box Launcher in that Group e.g. the Font Dialog Box on the Home Tab in Word 2007:
This will activate the traditional Font Dialog Box:
You can make your changes here and then click OK.
GALLERIES
Galleries offer a quick, easy way to get the results that you want. A Gallery is a collection of thumbnails that depict the result of applying specified formatting (Font and Styles) changes to your document, spreadsheet or presentation. Expand the gallery to display all of the thumbnails or click the up and down arrows to scroll though gallery thumbnails on the Ribbon.
For example, in Word 2007, you can expand the Quick Styles Gallery to see a selection of predefined formatting styles for your document text:
LIVE PREVIEW
When browsing through Galleries, the Live Preview feature in the Office 2007 suite allows you to view the results of Formatting changes (like Font and Styles) in Real Time enabling you to quickly decide what looks best. Most Galleries have a Live Preview facility.
For example, in Word 2007, hover the mouse over a Style and that Style will be applied to any highlighted text in your document.
Apply the previewed formatting, by clicking the selected Style or press ESC to Cancel live previewing without applying any changes.
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