PowerWorld User Interface

2001 South First Street Champaign, IL 61820 [email protected] (217 ) 384-6330 Simulator 13 – New look of the Ribbon and Model Explorer When PowerWorld Corporation first introduced Simulator in the mid 1990s, we introduced a new user interface to power system analysis that was built on top of the Windows 95 platform. This interface made your power system analysis tool look and feel the same as other software you used on a daily basis. The heart of this interface was the familiar menu structure still used by most software today. In Simulator 5.0 we first introduced toolbars to the interface, which complemented the traditional menu structure. Since that time, Simulator has grown substantially as more and more features have been added to make your analysis faster, easier, and m ore convenient. However, the basic user interface with the menu structure and toolbars remained unchanged. Over the last few versions of our products, we have found it increasingly difficult to fit all these new features into the menu and toolbar structure in a manner that made the program approachable and continued our history of being easy to use for all users. The primary flaw with the menu structure is that all menu items and toolbar buttons visually appear to have the same priority, making it difficult to signal to the user the most commonly used features. As more features were added, the menus got longer m aking the program more difficult to navigate. To combat these problems, Simulator Version 13 introduces a new Ribbon Interface as a fundamentally different structure which replaces the old menu and toolbar interface. This innovation was first introduced in the Microsoft Office 2007 desktop applications, which ships with most computers running Windows Vista. In researching the development history of Microsoft Office 2007, PowerWorld found that it addressed many similar hurdles that we have found in our own development. We believe the new Ribbon Interface will be more efficient for you and will allow more flexibility when adding new features in the future. As part of the changes to the menus, a related change was also made to the old Case Information Menu. This menu in particular was getting exceedingly long, and our users often had a number of case information displays open simultaneously leading to a cluttered environment. To alleviate both of these problems, the new Model Explorer now provides convenient direct access to most case information displays in a single window. The remainder of this document will provide you a brief introduction to the new Ribbon Interface and Model Explorer. PowerWorld Corporation continues to produce software that is complex in its scope. At the same time, we invest in user interface improvement, ensuring that your use of the software remains both efficient and enjoyable. Mark Laufenberg President, PowerWorld Corporation

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PowerWorld User Interface