A series of screenshots of Office 2007 Beta 2 have been posted to a blog of Microsoft Office program manager Brian Jones. Apparently intended for public viewing, the screenshots show extensive reworking of the user interface. The controversial button tabs that deluged the early design have been removed, and the new functionality feature called the ribbon has been cleaned up and made nicer to look at. Tabs have been retained, however these have been tailored to more closely resemble the conventional menu bar. Drop-down lists of menu commands are still gone.
Top-level categories of commands do remain, though not in the traditional "File | Edit | View..." organization made almost canonical by Apple. In their place are command categories along an upper bar of tabs that now more closely resembles the conventional menu bar. But the contents of the ribbon, for each tab you click on, never descend on top of, or cover up, your work.
Icons that are used more often are now bigger, and have items clustered around them. For example, the Paste icon is featured in screenshots as much more prominent, in the upper left corner, in the Clipboard palette of the Write tab.