Re: the designers of the OFFICE 2007 UI must be retarded!

I have to agree with Matt here. There are things I like and don't like about
the ribbon (It is a little weird when you get extra tabs because you are in a
table or working with a graphic), but it does expose features that have been
there that I didn't find before. I always use keyboard commands to do things
like open, new, save, and print, but I can see the round button being
confusing. Why does the save button end up outside the circle when open is
in the menu? The recent document addition of the pin is nice... I can't
count on all my fingers and toes the number of times I wished I could have
forced an item to remain in the recent list because I had to open several
other files and it got knocked off.

In all the years I've been using Office, my biggest complaints were the
"personalized menus" (which I personally thought were *much* worse of a
design decision than the ribbon because nothing was ever in the same place
twice) and multiple items on the clipboard. Even though the ribbon is
context sensitive, at least it is predictable. Personalized menus are always
the first thing I turn off in Windows and Office. I've never liked multiple
items on the clipboard because it always seems to take longer to figure out
which of the 12 items is the item I wanted to paste than it does to just
re-copy something. This also gets turned off on my systems right away. I've
heard rumors that Microsoft is going to add the ability to go back to tool
bars. I guess we will have to wait and see.

I'm really happy that Microsoft has taken a page from Macromedia's
"Libraries" and "Snippets" (ok, the idea of reusable parts wasn't really new
with Macromedia, but that is what first came to mind for me when I saw this
feature) with the new "Building Blocks" features. This is going to be very
helpful for creating documents. If you've ever worked with a template that
says: "Copy from this point to that point and paste here to create a new
chapter", I think you can appreciate the ability to simply add a chapter
"building block" (Ok, I'm not thrilled by the name, but I can play the role
of apologist for the capability).

My biggest complaint with the interface is just with the colors. Yes, they
are nice and easy on the eyes, but the title bar is so light colored, I find
myself clicking the window to make it active when it already is, because the
light color doesn't look like it is in focus.

Ben

"matt" wrote:


I dont know,

i find the ribbon more useful and many things that i would have never found,
i now did. if you are having problems getting use to the new ui give yourself
about 20min to go through powerpoint,word and excel and you will find it much
more helpful.
change isnt always bad
"John Jay Smith" wrote:

If I spend 1 hour explaining everything, will MS listen? I can give you such
a detailed explanation why the stupid ribbon is stupid, and how you could
make a better UI. I can make you graphics with arrows and balloons showing
you all their stupid bad ideas... LOL I don't think they will change the
whole
office 2007 concept just because I say so. They made bad decisions and they
aint going back!
Its up to the service pack 1 to try to add the old UI back as an option
after they will see the complaints of all the people and the sales drop,
THEN they will have panicked and will start listening!

So what are we left with? Me ranting, and you sucking up to MS, following
what trash they pull out
with no critical mind!





"Greg Bowers" <usenet3@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:i5kf72hh8ctkdd0klgirju1j4btbi89dbg@xxxxxxxxxx
Since you're an expert on human interaction and know how "novices to
experts" think, perhaps you can be specific about how the toolbar/menu
GUI could be improved to fix the following problems:

1. How to add more features to a universally acknowledged "bloated"
interface.
2. How to address the number one requested new feature in Word: an
existing feature! People were requesting features that were there,
but just too hard to locate in the GUI.

Then, tell us what is specifically wrong with the new GUI. And don't
say dockable toolbars. I know some love them, but I'm an expert user
and I've found no use for them and I don't believe novice users have a
use for them.

Feel free to read this blog for rationales on many of the new GUI
elements:

http://blogs.msdn.com/jensenh/default.aspx

Of course, the designers of this GUI know that not everyone will like
it. You obviously don't like it. I've disliked menus for awhile and
the fact they've gotten rid of them immediately improves the GUI for
me. I also like slick looking GUIs, so the look works for me. I
won't really know if it works well until I have to produce a large,
technical document, but first impressions are good.



On Fri, 26 May 2006 18:19:41 +0300, "John Jay Smith" <-> wrote:

You theory does not stand. I am not your average Joe.

I have never complained about a change in a program! Not with win95, 98,
XP.. not with any version of office, not even with any other product
around!
(with the exception of windowsMe and netscape6 & 8 that were ALL
abominations!)

I am not against change and love it......until now, what I am seeing what
MS
is doing with its products!

Trust me, this is not some kind of fantasy I live in. The new GUIs have
problems.. BIG ones.
I have trained hundreds of people ranging from kids to 85 year olds, from
novices to experts.
I know how they think, and I know what they need!

These new GUIs are NOT what they need! I can understand that the old
toolbar
things had problems.
But that could be fixed easily and the problem should have been cought
before they released that type of toolbar in the first place. I like new
things. But new things must have improved functionality.

The underlying true reason for the change of gui on vista era products
have
nothing to do with improvment of
the "user experience". Its all about marketing.. because they want to show
that these are not just another
update of their products but they are actually something new.
Ok they are new, but they are not for the better.... I want change, I
want
improvments.. I just DEMAND they be intelligent ones.. since what they do
now affects millions of users! MS should hire me for my advice.. it seems
that I know more about computer - human interaction than they do!

I will still be using MS products even if the new GUIs stink, I will
adapt..... but that should not stop me from expressing my opinion about
them!






"Brendan S" <Brendan S@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:D3B4210B-BF28-4458-B721-8CEF623B0839@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Everyone has differing opions on this kind of issue. When Windows 95 was
released there were a large number of stalwart 3.1/3.11 fans who refused
to
accept the new interace. Almost 10 years later we can't even conceive a
Windows without the Start Button. Yes, the new interface is going to
take
some people a little time to get used to, but this is actually a major
new
version of this product for Microsoft.

People complain that nothing ever changes between versions, I have heard
that complaint a number of times about the 2000/2003 office upgrade.
This
new
UI for Office matches the Vista UI and provides a new sleek look to the
system.

I use 4 screens on my work desktop and I support many users of 8 or more
screens, and I rarely see anyone detatching their toolbars. Most people
keep
their Word config with the standard and formatting toolbars at the top
for
as
long as they use Word.

The UI is still very configuable, but if you really feel that strongly
about
loosing the 2000/2003-style interface then the simplest answer is to not
install 2007. Nobody's forcing you to. Why try and rant at Microsoft for
trying something different for a change? That goes for the Office,
Vista,
IE7
and WMP11 interfaces.





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