Microsoft announces Office for Mac 2011

The Elements Gallery is my biggest gripe with Office 2008. I’m glad to see Microsoft completely overhauled it in the new version:

Most notably, there’s a new Ribbon at the top of each document window. (If you want a preview, check out Office for Windows; the ribbon is already in there, although the Microsoft Mac team members we spoke to said they had learned a lot from the criticism the Ribbon took when launched on Windows.) The Mac version of the Ribbon doesn’t replace any menu bars, but it does replace Office 2008’s controversial Elements Gallery, which took some fire from Mac users for its size and inflexibility. This new Ribbon is designed to give users quick access to each program’s most commonly used tools. Unlike the Elements Gallery, the ribbon is customizable and, if you want more screen space, completely collapsible.

Also, Visual Basic scripting makes a return. Based on the screen shots, the new version looks like a great upgrade.