Visions & Concepts: Become a Ribbon Hero

The idea of Ribbon Hero was hatched at Office Labs (a sort of playground for prototypes here at Microsoft) as a way to encourage Office users to learn, through game play, how to be more productive in Office —using, what else, the ribbon. Teaching through game play is becoming increasingly popular, and for good reason: It works. The point of this experiment is to discover whether scoring points, competing with friends, and earning achievements will motivate people to explore the ribbon more in-depth.

It’s pretty simple: You download it the program and it shows up on your Word, Excel, and PowerPoint menu bars. You just start working in the program. With each command you earn points, certain commands (recording macros, using Style Sets) earning you more points than others (using Bold, Italic, or Underline). You also earn points by playing challenges and then by making use of the skills you've learned during the various challenges. The Ribbon Hero "watches" what you do and then suggests challenges for you to do, to expose you to new features.

Also, take a look at Doug's Office Casual video about Ribbon Hero and learn why he thinks it's one of the best "training + fun" activities he's seen in a while.

Okay, so look: The download is free, you can play on your own time, and you'll get better each passing day. What more motivation do you need? Go get Ribbon Hero and watch your office productivity skyrocket (and your need to complain sink).

"We can't all be heroes, because somebody has to sit on the curb and clap as they go by." — Will Rogers

— Crabby