Click thumbnail to see the new "ribbon" interface in Mac Office 2011. (Courtesy Microsoft)

Get ready for the ribbon, Mac Office users. But it probably won't be as bad as you're probably thinking.

Microsoft's Mac software group has always faced a balancing act -- trying to meet the expectations of longtime Microsoft Office users while making the experience feel native to Apple's operating system. That challenge just got bigger, based on new details emerging today about the next version of the software.

Office for Mac 2011, slated for release this year, will create more connections to the Windows version, giving Mac Office users new ways of collaborating on documents with their Windows counterparts through Microsoft SharePoint or a Windows Live ID login. But the more obvious change, up front, will be Mac Office's adoption of the "ribbon" interface previously rolled out for the Windows version of the product.

The ribbon, a strip of icons and commands across the top of the window, is meant to reduce the need to use drop-down menus. Introduced in Microsoft Office 2007 for Windows, it was greeted with mixed and sometimes negative emotions from users, particularly those accustomed to previous ways of doing things.

However, it doesn't stand to be as much of a shock for Mac Office users. Microsoft's Mac Business Unit had already introduced something similar to the ribbon -- dubbed the Elements Gallery -- in the current version of the software. By adopting the ribbon from the Windows version, Mac Office 2011 will essentially be adding more stuff to that strip across the top of the page, reducing the need to use popup "toolbox" menus.

The company says the response from early customer testing has been positive.

"Despite the fact that we brought this over somewhat from Office on the Windows side, they really found it to be very Mac-like, as well," said Amanda Lefebvre, senior marketing manager for the Mac Business Unit. "That was a big goal of ours. Familiarity, but also Mac-like. We want to make sure that it's a natural experience on the Mac."

Kurt Schmucker, senior evangelist in the group, said the idea is to make more of the software's features "discoverable," rather than hidden beneath menus. For those who may not like it, he noted that the Office for Mac ribbon will be collapsible, letting users remove it from the screen if they don't want it. In addition, the persistent drop-down menus at the top of the Mac screen mean that they will still be able to access commands the old way.

The new interface is part of a series of announcements being made by the company this morning at Macworld Expo in San Francisco.

In addition, the company is showing how the new Mac Office version will work in conjunction with Microsoft SharePoint, Windows Live and Office Web Apps to let people collaborate on documents online. Features include icons giving indications about other collaborators' status, and the ability to send them messages from inside the document.

The next version of the Mac Office programs will also support information rights management technologies currently in the Windows version of the product, letting Mac users access and use documents within the restrictions that the document creators have established for viewing, printing and other functions. In addition, the new Outlook email client for Mac (which is replacing Microsoft Entourage) will support .PST archiving, allowing users to import their archived messages and other items from Outlook on Windows.

The company says Office for Mac 2011 will be available by the end of this year. Microsoft hasn't yet announced pricing or other details.