I like the concept of the "ribbon" but dislike the way it's organised and laid out in Microsoft Word and PowerPoint. The "ribbon" interface may have been a nov

I like the concept of the "ribbon" but dislike the way it's organised and laid out in Microsoft Word and PowerPoint. The "ribbon" interface may have been a novel idea for Microsoft, but it did have precedents in ealier software (although the implementation was obviously different). Here, for example, is a screenshot of Adobe PhotoDeluxe. Adobe discontinued this software in 2002: http://goo.gl/q1LFn http://goo.gl/q1LFn And here's a Lotus Word Pro screenshot with it's tabbed, floating "properties" palette: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Word_Pro.png http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Word_Pro.png In many ways, the Microsoft Office "ribbon" takes a similar approach, but anchors the ribbon to the top of the screen rather than in a floating palette. The examples above aren't identical to the Microsoft "ribbon" design, but they contain seeds of the same idea.