Jensen Harris: An Office User Interface Blog

Office 2010: New Product, New Blog

Since we signed off on Office 2007 in October 2006, we've been hard at work on the next version,...

Author: jensenh Date: 07/17/2009

Table of Contents

Here's a categorized Table of Contents to help you discover posts you might find interesting or...

Author: jensenh Date: 03/13/2008

The Story of the Ribbon

I was reading through commentary from people who attended last week's MIX conference in Las Vegas....

Author: jensenh Date: 03/12/2008

Let's MIX it up!

Just a short note to let you know that I'll be presenting a new session during MIX in Las Vegas on...

Author: jensenh Date: 02/21/2008

Not Gone

It's been a while since I last wrote in this space. Many of you have been kind enough to send me...

Author: jensenh Date: 04/23/2007

Using RibbonX with C++ and ATL

Today's Guest Writer: Eric Faller Eric is a Software Design Engineer on the Office User Experience...

Author: jensenh Date: 12/08/2006

Windows, Office, and Exchange Business Launch

Today is the official business launch of Windows Vista, the 2007 Office system, and Exchange Server...

Author: jensenh Date: 11/30/2006

RibbonX Image FAQ

Today I'm delighted to present a new guest writer to the blog: Eric Faller, Software Design Engineer...

Author: jensenh Date: 11/27/2006

Licensing the 2007 Microsoft Office User Interface

For the last year or so, one of the questions I've been asked again and again has been: "Can I use...

Author: jensenh Date: 11/21/2006

Developer Resources for Office 2007 RTM

Now that we've released Office 2007 to manufacturing, developers can get started modifying their...

Author: jensenh Date: 11/13/2006

The Office 2007 UI Bible

I've published over 200 posts on this blog since I started it last September. With all of those...

Author: jensenh Date: 11/10/2006

Office 2007 Released to Manufacturing

I'm proud to announce that last Friday, November 3 at approximately 2:30 PM, we signed off on build...

Author: jensenh Date: 11/06/2006

Final Schema for RibbonX-based Solutions

This morning, I posted the final customUI XML schema for creating Office 2007 RibbonX-based...

Author: jensenh Date: 10/26/2006

Where Have I Gone?

I know in my last post I said that I'd be gone for a few days… and now those few days have stretched...

Author: jensenh Date: 10/24/2006

Taking a Few Days Off

You may have noticed that I haven't posted for the last week. I wish I could say that I've been on a...

Author: jensenh Date: 09/27/2006

RibbonX Updates for B2TR

Today's Guest Writer: Savraj DhanjalSavraj is a Program Manager on the Office User Experience team...

Author: jensenh Date: 09/15/2006

Beta 2 Technical Refresh Available Now

This morning, the Beta 2 Technical Refresh of the 2007 Microsoft Office system became available for...

Author: jensenh Date: 09/14/2006

Beta 2 Technical Refresh Available Tomorrow

This morning, we announced that starting tomorrow (Thursday, Septemeber 14) you'll be able to...

Author: jensenh Date: 09/13/2006

The Quick Customize Menu

One of the new features in the upcoming Office 2007 Beta 2 Technical Refresh that I haven't written...

Author: jensenh Date: 09/12/2006

Things of Beauty

One of our goals for the Office 2007 user interface was to make it easier to create beautiful...

Author: jensenh Date: 09/05/2006

Reality Check

It was with a bit of surprise that I read a flurry of stories on Friday with breathless headlines...

Author: jensenh Date: 08/28/2006

Giving You Fitts

One of the most well-understood and salient principles underlying the ergonomics of graphical user...

Author: jensenh Date: 08/22/2006

Which Color When? (Part 1)

As you probably know by now, each of the Office 2007 programs (both classic UI and new UI) have the...

Author: jensenh Date: 08/10/2006

On Writing

Some of you have noted that recently I've been writing a little less frequently than in the months...

Author: jensenh Date: 08/08/2006

I've written in the past about the approach we took to organizing options in Office 2007, including...

Author: jensenh Date: 08/04/2006

Evolution of the PowerPoint Home Tab

A few months ago, I made an attempt to give you a sense of the kinds of changes to the user...

Author: jensenh Date: 08/01/2006

The 96,000 New PowerPoint Slide Designs

It's the age-old question of presenters everywhere: "Which PowerPoint slide design should I use?" I...

Author: jensenh Date: 07/28/2006

New Product Icons for Office 2007

One of the projects our design team has been working on for the last year or so has been the...

Author: jensenh Date: 07/26/2006

Nice for Mice: Menu Tabs

Last week, I wrote about some of the work we've done to make the minimized Ribbon work well with the...

Author: jensenh Date: 07/24/2006

Taking the Minimized Ribbon to the Max

One of the many areas in which we've spent time since Beta 2 has been making working with the...

Author: jensenh Date: 07/20/2006

Office 2007 Silver on Windows XP Silver

On Monday, I wrote a little post with a screenshot of the third Office 2007 color scheme, Silver. I...

Author: jensenh Date: 07/19/2006

Silver Bullet

I couple of months ago I mentioned that we were working on a third color scheme for Office 2007, as...

Author: jensenh Date: 07/17/2006

Iterative Design Process Applied to Charting

I know I seldom do two posts in a day, but in addition to Rich's guest article, I wanted to point to...

Author: jensenh Date: 07/13/2006

Computers Can Do That? (Real People Study, Part 4)

Today's Guest Writer: Rich Grutzmacher Rich Grutzmacher is a Program Manager on the Office User...

Author: jensenh Date: 07/13/2006

Putting the Feedback to Work (Real People Study, Part 3)

Today's Guest Writer: Rich Grutzmacher Rich Grutzmacher is a Program Manager on the Office User...

Author: jensenh Date: 07/11/2006

Presenting Office UI Prodcasts

A couple of months ago I was interviewed by Shawn Murray, who is putting together a set of...

Author: jensenh Date: 07/07/2006

You Mean I Don't Need To Retrain Everybody? (Real People Study, Part 2)

Today's Guest Writer: Rich Grutzmacher Rich Grutzmacher is a Program Manager on the Office User...

Author: jensenh Date: 07/06/2006

Let's Talk About Customization

One topic that has come up frequently in our private beta newsgroups as well as here in blog...

Author: jensenh Date: 06/27/2006

Where do the Smiles go?

Over the last month, you've sent us thousands and thousands of comments about Office 2007 Beta 2...

Author: jensenh Date: 06/23/2006

Usability: Art and Science

Yesterday morning we were sitting in the office of one of our usability researchers watching some...

Author: jensenh Date: 06/21/2006

Dipping Into the Well

Yesterday I talked about the command well which exposes all of the features in the Office 2007...

Author: jensenh Date: 06/20/2006

Introducing the Command Well

There have always been certain commands in Office which aren't available as part of the default user...

Author: jensenh Date: 06/19/2006

No Longer Spellbound

One last thought about spell checking. I mentioned a few days ago how much I depend on red-squiggle...

Author: jensenh Date: 06/16/2006

The Spelling Check is Complete

Yesterday, I mentioned the new contextual spelling feature that is part of Office 2007. Writing the...

Author: jensenh Date: 06/14/2006

Every Which Way But Loose

One of the most amazingly useful features designed into Office is the red-squiggle underlined spell...

Author: jensenh Date: 06/13/2006

Next>