Let's review briefly:
- Starting off with the new Template Gallery in Office 2011, this feature allows you to quickly and easily pick a template from the built-in designs to the thousands of templates online giving you a head start to create great looking, professional documents.
Yay, more templates that nobody will use! Bonus points if they include business letter templates in Comic Sans.
- Core features in Outlook for Mac like the Conversation View help you sort emails easily to keep track of what you need to do. Additionally, the new file-based database is faster and provides more stability with Time Machine support.
So they've discovered threading? Wow, how novel. As to the "file-based database", how many years of munging people's PST files (anybody else remember the "2GB PST lose"?) did they ignore before they FINALLY got with the program?
- Tying all of the new features together is the Office for Mac ribbon, designed as an evolution of the Office 2008 Elements Gallery while also utilizing the classic Mac menu and Standard Toolbar giving you the best of both worlds. We have put the most commonly used controls at your fingertips making it easier for you to find what you need. You can even minimize the ribbon and the Toolbar for more screen space or for the more advanced users who rely on keyboard shortcuts.
Translation: Now with a FOURTH place that we can stash commands so you'll be totally confused! Did we mention that it's cleverly designed to be context-sensitive, so you won't even be able to see where the command you want *should* be until you're in just the right spot in the document?
Hopefully, they'll come out with a slightly more compelling case for why people should shell out the $$$ for an "upgrade" besides the above and "it will suck less, we promise!"...
