MS office 2007 style filtering

I am specifically refering to the filtering capabilities that are available from the field level drop down filter as opposed to the filtering capabilities of the customer filter dialog. An experienced user educated in the use of the custom filter dialog is able to produce most of the results found in the MS Office style filtering (2007 or otherwise). However, I feel that the filtering enhancements in Office 2007 enable a less experienced (or knowledgable) user to perform some very powerful list filtering.
#1 - filters are now checked lists, so a user is able to filter against multiple values simultaneously. (The pivot grid supports this, but I don't think the xtragrid does)
#2 - discrimination of the functionality of the filter drop down has been added based on data type (text, number, date).
#3 - for date filtering, a natural break down of a date (Year to Month to day of month) is provided in a checked tree structure. This enables for quick selection of filters such as (between May 1, 2006 and May 31, 2006) without much effort on a part of the user
#4 - for date filtering, the concept of a relative filter has been introduced where the user can select a filter such as "This Month". This could allow for some great synergy with the ability to save and restore a grid layout where a user could filter a grid to view "last months orders" and then always see "last months orders" as time progressed without having to alter the filter.
#5 - for numeric filtering, the concept of a relative filter has been introduced to allow for filters such as top 10, or above average, below average (this one would also be useful in the pivot grid as you could achieve the ability to do top and bottom lists at end user design time without the need to code the functionality or provide pre defined fields)
#6 - along with the ability to pick specific values, filters that are relative to the list, and a custom filter, the user is also given the ability to perform certain custom filter functions directly from the filter drop down such as "starts with…"
With respect to #2, I believe that since we are in a strongly typed environment (and not at the mercy of analysis of the list), I can see this ability being expanded in the following way. Say I have an XPCollection bound to the grid of class "Order" and that class contains a property for "Customer". The use of the discrimination concept and the use of the expanding menus concept could allow for the user to drop down the customer column filter, go to the "customer properties" menu, expand it, and then get a list of propertyes such as "Name, Street, City", expand the city item, and perform a filter on the City. This essentially would allow for the end user to create a filter of "show me all orders for customers whose city is Chicago" without being introduced to the complexity of a sub query. (I realize this could also be achieved by adding a column which shows the customer's city; however, I still feel that this kind of functionality would add enhanced value to the control).
Thanks,
Mark