Re: Another great example of how Word 2007 "brings commands closer to the surface"

There are two separate issues here. You say that 2007 has improved
features. I don't question that. My question is, was it necessary to
remake the entire Word user interface to produce these new features? Let's
say that Styles works better in 2007. Fine. Was it necessary to eliminate
the toolbars and replace the file menu by the Microsoft Office button in
order to improve the Styles feature? If you can't answer yes to that
question and similar questions, then you have not justified the total remake
of Word in 2007.

This is not a matter of whether I and others are "closed-minded" to Word
2007's good features. It's a matter of whether the destruction of the total
user interface of Word was needed to arrive at those good features.



"Beth Melton" <bmelton@xxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:uFD4VoZeHHA.4604@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I didn't say it took months, I was saying that I've spent over 18 months
using Office 2007 and feel as though I have an "educated" opinion of
things.
I was very opinionated about a few things, just as most who have only
scratched the surface, but then I realized I was viewing things as I
viewed
my switch from WP 5.0 to Word, or WordBasic to Visual Basic. It was then I
decided to hold off forming an opinion on various matters until I gained
more insight. There are still things I don't like but there were things I
didn't like in the older versions as well.

To be perfectly honest, I think I could type until my fingers are blue, as
opposed to talking until I'm blue in the face (<g>), and it won't make a
bit
of difference. Those who want to view the change with an open mind will,
those who don't, won't. It's like trying to tell convince a hard-core WP
user
of the benefits of Word. ;-)

Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email can not be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Co-author of Word 2007 Inside Out:
http://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/books/9801.aspx#AboutTheBook

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/

"Larry" <larry328NOSPAM@xxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:eKWSWHUeHHA.3536@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Beth,

What you're saying is that you had to spend months of your life
completely
re-learning and re-customizing Word to your needs, with the previous 15
years you had spent learning Word being lost, all for the benefit of
some
marginal improvements in the efficiency of some tasks.

Second, the improvements you mention did NOT require the total redesign
of
the interface. For example, you write:

Plus those who were familiar with some of the advanced features will
likely find them
easier to use. One quick example is AutoText. Previously you had to
create
a
style and associate the entries with the style in order to create an
organized AutoText menu. Now it's a matter of creating what is now
called
a
Building Blocks and assigning it to a gallery and a specific category
using
a dialog box.

Well, AutoText could have been changed without, e.g., getting rid of
Toolbars and menus!

Similarly, greater ease of use in learning Styles did not require a
radically revamped Word. It just required that the Styles feature
itself
be
changed.

I have nothing against MS adding new features to Word. But to destroy
the
basic user interface of Word and basic features and capabilities that
millions of people have invested many years of work in, and replace it
with
another, is just wrong.




"Beth Melton" <bmelton@xxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:uftwizTeHHA.1244@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I've been using Office 2007 for over 18 months and at first, like the
majority I hated it. I thought MS made a bad move, it was going to
fail,
and
so on. I don't feel that way anymore. (Heh, you should have seen some
of
my
"persuasive feedback" - the comments you've made are mild in
comparison -
especially when it came to removing the ease in toolbar/menu
customization.
<g>).

But you know, even though I know how to customize the Ribbon it's
really
not
necessary for me to customize it for my every day work. I have come up
with
alternate methods that fit my needs. For example I have several
templates
that have a customized QAT with commands for specific tasks and I
load/unload them as global templates according the task at hand. (I
still
have a complaint about the inability to float toolbars....)

After using the new interface I can now honestly see how it actually
does
improve work flow and I can perform tasks in Word that used to take a
half
hour or more in a few simple clicks. And it places capabilities that
were
once used exclusively by power users into the hands of everyone. Plus
those
who were familiar with some of the advanced features will likely find
them
easier to use. One quick example is AutoText. Previously you had to
create
a
style and associate the entries with the style in order to create an
organized AutoText menu. Now it's a matter of creating what is now
called
a
Building Blocks and assigning it to a gallery and a specific category
using
a dialog box. And there was difficulty remembering what you called
them,
now
they are more visually oriented for insertion (and yes you can still
assign
keyboard shortcuts if you want).

Form development is another example. The ability to easily create bound
forms in Word has been a long standing request and that functionality
is
now
available using Content Controls AND they automatically update without
the
need to add extra steps or use a macro. Content Controls also resolve
another long standing request, to protect portions of a document for
data
entry without losing spell check and other functionality.

Oh, and Styles have been lifted up and are easier for beginners to use.
Even
the basic beginner books are including how to use and modify styles.
And
I've noticed many of the beginning Word books are encouraging users to
use
formatted space between paragraphs instead of empty paragraphs due to
the
new defaults. (Thank goodness!!)

BUT in order to fully see and understand these capabilities one can't
be
resistant to change. That was my stumbling block for several months. I
wanted Word (and the other Office apps) to function as I was accustomed
to
them functioning for over the last 15 years. To use the new versions
effectively it does require a bit of change, such as change how you may
have
previously accomplished a task but in the end it is faster and more
efficient. The key is if you want to embrace the change or fight the
change.
If you fight it then you'll hate it and find it lacking. If you embrace
it
you may just find what I have found, that change can indeed be a "good
thing".

Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email can not be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Co-author of Word 2007 Inside Out:
http://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/books/9801.aspx#AboutTheBook

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/

"Larry" <larry328NOSPAM@xxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:ePicUCKeHHA.320@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


Beth,

You've opened my eyes. Now I understand the logic behind Microsoft's
destruction of Word. By the same logic by which the menus were
eliminated,
since the "majority" of users don't create custom toolbars and custom
menus,
MS just did away with them as well. Or at least made it much harder
to
create and install them--I haven't figured this all out yet. In any
case,
the former beautiful feature by which you opened the Customize dialog
box
and could effortllessly create a new toolbar and give it a name put
on
it
what you wanted seems to be gone.

Hey, folks, the "majority" of users also never create a macro, never
edit
a
macro, and never assign a custom keystroke to a macro or to a
built-in
command. So, by MS's logic of only keeping features that "most"
users
use,
how come MS didn't eliminate VBA, eliminate macro recording,
eliminate
macros, eliminate the Macro dialog box, eliminate the VBA editing
interface,
and eliminate the Customize Keyboard dialog box???

The great thing about Word was that it had thousands of capabilities,
and
each user, depending on his interests, might only deal with a small
part
of
them. So each person could in effect have his own "Word." But now
we've
moved away from such diversity toward a single uniformity. A single
"majority rule" determines what will be in Word. Only what the 90
percent
of users who are mediocre users will determine what is in Word.
Everything
that a more skilled and creative or just idiosyncratic user of Word
might
want to access is to be eliminated. That appears to be the logic.

The only thing that saves the situation from total disaster is that
MS
has
not yet been completely consistent in its program of destruction, so
it
has
still left some "non-popular" features in place.

Larry







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