Microsoft's Office Labs: Searching for Mr. Toolbar

Is anyone besides me so annoyed with Office 2007's ribbon that they've considered add-ins like Classic Menu for Office 2007 and Toolbar Toggle? Perhaps you either didn't know about these tools or decided, like me, to suffer through the learning curve of the ribbon.

On Monday, Microsoft released an Office add-in of their own. It's called "Search Commands" (above, click to enlarge) and it allows users to type the function they are looking to do (kind of like I generally do with Google when I can't find an Office 2007 function in the place I expect it to be per Office 2003).

You have to look on Microsoft's new Office Labs site to find it though (can we put everything in one place, guys?), rather than their normal site.

According to Microsoft,

Search Commands helps you find commands, options, wizards, and galleries in Microsoft Office 2007 Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Just type what you’re looking for in your own words and click the command you need. Search Commands also includes Guided Help, which acts as a tour guide for specific tasks.

Of course, like some other Labs we've seen including Microsoft's own "Live Labs," and labs from some other small company of note, this is sort of a sandbox for new ideas. Also, upon installation, Microsoft will ask you to allow data to be shared with them: what you search for and what command you used. According to Office Labs:

This data will help us understand how the prototype is used in order to decide if and how it would be integrated into a product. If you have decided to not share data with us, no worries - Search Commands will not log any data.

Also today, Office Labs introduced "Community Clips," sort of a YouTube for Office 2007 tips.

Office Labs is working on other projects, but these are the ones currently released. While Search Commands is nice, I'd still like my Office 20o3 menu bar back (maybe I'm just too old-school). Heavy sigh.