Office 12 is not due out until late 2006, but PC World is showing pictures of Microsoft's "innovative" user interface. The magazine's Dennis O'Reilly gushes:

Just when you thought Microsoft Office's look was as unchanging as the old Volkswagen's, the folks in Redmond decided to cook up a whole new way to work in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Access.

But what's new? Every GUI "enhancement" illustrated by PC World is already found in other software available last year -- not a year from now:

Ribbon
- replace toolbars, but looks just like them.
- contain "most of the options used most often", which means not all are there.
- cannot be customized, unlike toolbars.
- already exists in PaintShop Pro 8.

Real-time Changes
- as a new style is selected, changes are shown in document right-away
- already present in most products.

Coming Attractions
- example is Quick Formatting displays available fonts and sizes
- already present in the Atlantis word processor I use

Zoom with Ease
- use slider to zoom document larger and smaller
- already present in Google's Picasa
- also avaialable in most apps by holding down Ctrl key and rolling scroll wheeel, such as in the Opera Web browser I am typing here (but not Internet Explorer)

Commands in Context
- only the options apply to selected item show on ribbon
- this sounds exactly what was promised with right-click menus back in Windows 95. But as you will have found, right-click menus never inclulde all options, and neither will the ribbon.
- also present in PaintShop Pro 8.

In my estimation,it is taking Microsoft 2.5 years to catch up with user interface enhancements found in products already delivered by its competitors.