It looks like the interactive Office 2007 advertisement on MSN was so successful back in April, the advertising team have collaborated to do it again. For a limited time of today only, users will be able to experience a taste – more like just licking the peel of a tub of yogurt – of the new user interface experience in Office 2007 otherwise known as the Fluent interface, formally “Ribbon”. The PR company has sent me this blurb,
Tomorrow, Friday, July 13th, the MSN.com homepage will once again display the new Microsoft Office 2007 user interface (UI) so users can experience the new features of the latest version of Office. The page will be transformed to look and feel like Microsoft Office 2007, just like last time. Users will find the new Office navigation ribbon at the top of MSN.com, and will actually be able to use it to customize the page as though they were editing a document.
This “live preview” (nice pun Wagged) of Microsoft Office 2007 is one day only, and it is an awesome way for computer users to check out the newest version of Office without having to purchase it.
Compared to the trial back on April 19, this revision of the same advertisement offers a few minor improvements however keeping the same format and same effects. Unfortunately last time the advertisement may have been overshadowed by the Virginia Tech tragedy. Powered by Flash and Javascript, the Live Previews feels much more responsive in this version than it was where gradual transitions made it a little difficult to see what exactly changed.
If you’ve missed this piece of amazing advertising initiative that is not only interactive and fun, but also informative and highly impactful, then you better send your browser over to MSN.com. Some users may not experience the new experience in their first load, so please rinse and repeat. Otherwise you can also activate/deactivate the experience by clicking the link in the top right corner. Enjoy!
Wow, I have to give marketing some credit here, this is really nice. This makes up for the lackluster ‘The Wow is Now’ campaign.
Do you ever visit NineMSN, Long? Or do you just stop by MSN every so often?
@Michael: Once in a blue moon I visit MSN to check out what’s new.
A Ribbon interface for IE would be intresting. Flock, and IE8 Activities are a big part of the future of web browsing, and as such, imagine a Ribbon Bar for Activities, and other misc but often unused stuff like printing.
It would be better used for me then the Live Bar, and I use that one alot with my IE browsing (and my space for toolbars is small… I’m really fussy about the bars taking up too much space).