Obtaining Your Ribbon License

Once you decide to consider using the Ribbon interface, you’ll need a license. You don’t have to make an immediate decision about working with the Ribbon. Microsoft provides an evaluation license at http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/office/bb218965.aspx. I was surprised to see that, for once, Microsoft’s agreement is easy to understand and lacks the usual legal gobbledygook. The valuation license provides with you access to the 2007 Office System Document: User Interface Evaluation Design Guidelines. The downloads consist of two hefty documents: 2007 Microsoft Office System UI Design Guidelines - Evaluation.doc (10.4 MB) and 2007OfficeUIDesignGuidelinesEvaluation.pdf (5.3 MB). You only need one of the two documents; they both contain the same information. The evaluation license is good for 30 days, at which time you’ll need to sign up for the full-fledged license.

If you decide that the Ribbon is the answer to your application development concerns, then you’ll want to get a long-term license. Surprisingly, Microsoft doesn’t place any additional onerous requirements on you when you decide to use the Ribbon for your product. You can find these licensing terms at http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/office/bb218966.aspx. After you read and sign your agreement electronically, you’re ready to begin developing your Ribbon application.

Developing Your Own Ribbon Application

This article has addressed several concerns. The most important concern is why you would want to use the Ribbon interface in your next application. It’s time to get past the power user who is working with an application in different ways each day and address the needs of the common user; the one who trudges through the same process repetitively and finds all of those menus and toolbars both confusing and unnecessary. The second concern is that using Microsoft’s new interface in an application need not be hard. Even though Microsoft seems to have missed out on the need for development tools, third parties have stepped in to address this requirement. Finally, you don’t have to worry about hiring a lawyer to license Microsoft’s technology for your application. The terms are easy to understand and even easier to comply with. Using the Ribbon for any task-oriented application is a win for the developer, support staff, and user alike.

BIO

John Mueller is a freelance author and technical editor. He has writing in his blood, having produced 78 books and over 300 articles to date. The topics range from networking to artificial intelligence and from database management to heads down programming. His most recent book is “Microsoft IIS 7 Implementation and Administration” (Sybex, ISBN: 978-0-470-17893-5). His technical editing skills have helped over 56 authors refine the content of their manuscripts. You can reach John on the Internet at JMueller@mwt.net and his Web site at: http://www.mwt.net/~jmueller/.