Third party controls
Component vendors such as Dundas, ComponentOne, FarPoint and Infragistics will be looking to adopt the Office 2007 look-and-feel for the Windows Forms versions of their custom controls. We spoke to Andrew Flick, product manager of NetAdvantage for Windows Forms at Infragistics, who told us that the company will be incorporating the Office 2007 look-and-feel into NetAdvantage 2006 Volume 3 which is scheduled for release in October this year – possibly before Office 2007 itself ships: “We feel confident that the way Office 2007 is looking now is the way it will look when it ships.”
Andrew continued, “For example, our WinToolBars component will give developers the opportunity to change a property setting that will switch the control to an Office 2007 ribbon style. This ribbon will have all the expected features such as the new file menu portrayed as a 'big circle'. We'll make it easier to support the new mouse-over effects, and we'll have a full suite of scheduling controls that implement the numerous enhancements that you see in Outlook 2007.”
He added, “Upgrading to the new WinToolBars ribbon control will involve creating tabs and groups and then, because of the way the control is architected, developers will be able to re-use their existing tools inside the ribbon. It'll be a very easy transition. Customers who've already built applications with NetAdvantage will get these components as part of their subscription, and will be able to update their user interfaces with relative ease.”
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