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

Like Suzanne, the first customisation I make to my Toolbars (both main toolbar and the right-click toolbars that I use regularly) is to remove the Cut/Copy/Paste commands - along with italic, bold and underline). I always use the keyboard: a lifetime's habit (along with Control+S, Control+P and other windows-wide keyboard commands).

In Word2007, I am particularly annoyed that not only is the Clipboard Group given so much prominence on the Home Ribbon, but the Paste button is HUGE and the Format Painter uses a humungous area of screen real estate because it has been anointed with the words 'Format Painter' - which cannot be turned off. Just how much in your face is that? That's not bringing a command closer to the surface: it's slapping you in the face with a wet kipper.

I understand that for most 'normal' users (read unskilled Word users) the Paste button is the number 1 button. So what: why should that stop a skilled user from having the choice to remove it?

Let's redesign the keyboard layout and put the skilled users keys underneath to make more room for bigger keys for the unskilled users on top. There could be a whopping great big return key to make sure that the unskilled users are able to put in loads of space between paragraphs and an equally huge spacebar so that the same users can line up their columns of text...

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Terry Farrell - MS Word MVP

"Stan Brown" <the_stan_brown@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:MPG.2084b444d6fbfdd898ab23@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Mon, 9 Apr 2007 11:41:09 -0500 from Suzanne S. Barnhill
<sbarnhill@xxxxxxxx>:
No, Word has always provided a variety of ways to accomplish any given task,
to accommodate user preference insofar as possible, while still leaning to
making the UI most accommodating for the majority of users. I'll also add
that many users *do* adopt at least some keyboard shortcuts when they are
introduced to them, but most casual Word users (and that includes a *lot* of
users, since "everybody" has Word) don't have the same needs as power users.

I remember support for this in the MS blog that Joann pointed me to a
few weeks ago. It said that even people who used Ctrl-V a lot also
clicked the Paste icon a lot. Since then I've paid attention, and
even though I'm a keyboard guy I find myself using that Paste icon.
:-)

--
Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Tompkins County, New York, USA
http://OakRoadSystems.com/

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