Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) Office could be in for a "Metro" style upgrade, CEO Steve Ballmer hinted last week. In any case, the company is "working hard on what it would mean to do Office Metro style," Ballmer said, according to Computerworld's Gregg Keizer.

Metro is the name of the design language for Microsoft's touch-based, tile-based user interface that originated with the now-defunct Zune music player and landed in the Windows Phone 7 OS.

With Windows 8 slated to sport a Metro-style touch-based interface, Microsoft watchers have been wondering whether the latest version of the system will embrace such a dramatic change in look and feel. Some analysts expect Microsoft to retain a desktop version of the Office package and "Metro-ize" it for tablets.

To get a sense of what the Windows 8 Metro interface will be like, take a look at a slideshow by InfoWorld's Galen Gruman. As Gruman notes, the screen doesn't have menus, windows, frames or any other traditional user interface elements visible. It just shows content, with large text and open spaces to make it friendlier to the small screen. 

Microsoft made it clear to developers last week that Metro is the future, notes ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley. Metro-style apps are "the modern, immersive applications that are going to get front-and-center billing," she writes. Meanwhile, "Desktop" apps, which can also run on Windows 8 computers, can have the same look and feel as classic Windows apps. In other words, they "don't assume that users will want/need to rely on touch as the primary way that they interact with them," she writes.

For more, see:
- see Gregg Keizer's post at Computerworld
- see Galen Gruman's slideshow at InfoWorld
- see Mary Jo Foley's post at ZDNet

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