lipstick on a pig

I think the Windows and Mac versions of Office should have the same icons.
It helps with Microsoft's branding and these very different icons do not.

I really don't care about the look of the icons...I just hope that when I click those icons I don't have to wait 14 minutes for their respective apps to open.

Yeah if they spent as much time on the product design as they do on the icons and the splash screen each time, they might have something worth buying someday.

It's kind of hilarious how they still do that thing Microsoft does where they include extra "products" that simply duplicate the capabilities of others, or are split off from last years "products."

There are only really four products in Office and there always has been. This time they have six icons, but three of them are about communicating via email or text or whatever. Outlook and Messenger and "communicator" are really all the same thing (or should be).

It kind of reminds me how they shift the function and grouping of the control panel icons in every Windows release so no one can find them and so that they appear to be all new etc.

Anyone tried "Microsoft Communicator" yet? I tried looking it up but Microsoft's own web page on the product produces an error and won't display.

The new icons are ugly. Although I am a fan of the aqua style in general, I also like the newer photo realistic style in newer versions of OS X. Microsoft had the matching aqua style in versions past, why do they have to ruin it with something that matches Windows XP instead of OS X? Even if they just take the Windows icons, they are nice and photo-realistic style and would work fine!

New splash screen sucks too. Beta 2 screen is awesome.

Worst Icons Ever......

... they think this will make a difference.

Also sad is that I will no longer be able to arrange my Office icons in the dock to spell PEWX.

LOL....I do that as well.....too funny.

They're stylized, Aqua, and still evoke the brand of their component (ie, X for excel).

Given the clusterf*ck that was Office 2008 (No macros, seriously?), I'm still on 2004, but may move to 2011 if it's more stable a release than 2008 was.