Clearly, Microsoft is taking a gamble with Office 2007 and the new interface
with respect to their existing user base. I don't know if it will pay off. I
do know--as someone who has followed the slow and meandering path of Word
from version 1 to the present--that getting accustomed to the ribbon was not
easy for me. I kicked and I screamed.
I ultimately forced myself to learn the new interface by agreeing to write a
book about it. About halfway through, to my surprise, I had switched to
writing in Word 2007 instead of Word 2003 because, as hard as it was to
admit to myself, I was finding myself more productive with Word 2007.
But, I recognize that not everyone is a glutton for punishment like I am,
and Office 2007 is decidedly not everyone's cup of tea. If you're content
and productive with Office 2003, then you should continue to use it. (Except
for Outlook, by the way, you can have both Office 2003 and Office 2007
programs installed side by side. I need to have Office 2003 to support
clients who haven't moved to Office 2007.)
Eventually, you might discover some of the things that Office 2007 does
better than Office 2003, and you might want to make the move. And, perhaps
by then, someone will have used the xribbon tools to build an add-on
menu/toolbar interface that mimics Word 2003.
But, until or unless you actually need something Office 2007 does, why put
yourself through the aggravation? There is a compatibility pack that will
let Office 2003 users open Office 2007 documents, by the way. So, if those
with whom you exchange documents convert and you don't, you won't be locked
out.
Office 2007 isn't for everybody. In fact, it might be that it's mostly for
people who've never used Office before.
As for billing $200/hour... where do I sign up???! ;-)
