Images: New looks for Vista, Office
Bill Gates
The September 2005 edition of Microsoft's Professional Developers Conference gets under way with a keynote address by Bill Gates and a "live preview" of the next version of Office.
Office 12 Word
With the next version of Office--currently dubbed Office 12--Microsoft plans to change the user interface to better fit the task a person is performing. The new look will apply to Word (shown here), PowerPoint, Excel, Access and parts of Outlook.
Office 12 PowerPoint
In the Office 12 version of PowerPoint, Microsoft is promising that users will see contextual tabs that present specialized features as needed.
Office 12 Excel
Excel screen shot. The first test version of Office 12 is due in fall 2005, and the finished product in the second half of 2006.
Office 12 Access
Screen shot of the Access program in Office 12.
Vista sidebar
At its Professional Developers Conference, Microsoft demonstrated an updated test version of Windows Vista, including its "sidebar" feature.
Sync Center
Sync Center APIs (application programming interfaces) are intended to make synchronization work more consistent and more centralized. Microsoft notes that the icons are not yet finalized.
Vista chess
The Vista release of Windows isn't all about work.