Jensen Harris posts today about the Office 12
MiniBar - an in context formatting toolbar in the new version of Office. This looks like a terrific innovation in
user interface and should svae miles of mouse travel to make a quick format change to a selection. Jensen writes:
"When you select text in Office 12, the MiniBar appears "ghosted" above the text you selected. If you move
closer to the MiniBar, it fades in and becomes a miniature toolbar you can use to apply Bold, Italic, Font Size, Color,
etc. As you move the pointer away from the edge of the MiniBar, it fades away to nothing. So, if you don't
want to use the MiniBar on selection, just move your cursor a few pixels away and it dismisses."
There's a small (under 1 MB) movie linked from Jensen's post that shows the MiniBar in action.
