Microsoft’s mystery ‘Moorea’ Office 15 application has been found to create web based image galleries.
The ‘Moorea’ application is present in early builds of Microsoft’s next-generation Office suite, codenamed Office 15. Microsoft describes the application as ”everything you need in one place.” Roberto Branni has been busy posting a number of videos relating to Moorea recently. The latest one shows off web based galleries, created from Moorea. Microsoft’s splash screen, present at the beginning of the gallery, states “Now loading a lavishly immersive experience.” Microsoft is known to be creating an “immersive” browsing and application based touch version of Windows 8. The presence of the Immersive naming could indicate that Office 15 will be tied closely to Microsoft’s next-generation Windows 8 operating system.
The latest leaked video demonstrates a touch based gallery available via the web. The gallery appears to be powered by an ActiveX control, activated in Internet Explorer. The image gallery is backed by smooth animations and hover over prompts for images. It’s unclear exactly what Moorea is and how Microsoft plans to implement it across Tablet and desktop devices. However, Microsoft’s Metro based UI for Outlook leaked fully recently, following the first Office 15 screenshots in early March. The early Outlook screenshots also revealed that Microsoft is implementing a Metro UI across its next Office product. The screenshots also reveal a more flattened user interface within Outlook. Microsoft’s Outlook UI no longer seems cluttered and provides users with direct access to their mail in a simple and yet familiar way. Microsoft’s Metro design language is an internal code name for a typography-based design languages created and used by the company. Microsoft originally started using Metro in Media Center and showcased a full version in the company’s Zune products. Microsoft’s latest mobile operating system, Windows Phone 7, also features the Metro look and feel throughout. Microsoft has started to use the Metro UI on more of its web properties to produce a clean, fast and simple look.