Office 2007 UI Change, ribbon too big, annoys Beta testers

Mr. Analog · August 25, 2006, 08:09:25 AM

Microsofts star feature for Office 2K7 has been modifed so that it collapses into... wait for it... MENUS! Hah!

Quotein the next technical refresh of the Office 2007 beta, users can set the ribbon to automatically minimise whenever it is not being used, effectively making the ribbon headings look like traditional menus. (Windows has long offered a similar auto-hide option for the taskbar.)

Though I expect the changes were brought on more by

QuoteThe product "will face some serious foot-dragging at both the individual and corporate levels,"

Not that Windows users are stubborn or anything *runs in a corner and holds old W2K style Start Menu tightly and hisses*

Oh yeah *slaps head* the article:
Microsoft winds back Office ribbon

Lazybones · August 25, 2006, 08:29:52 AM

As long as it is an option.. Must be all those users that run at low resolutions... I could see that bar taking up lots of room

Shayne · August 25, 2006, 08:32:09 AM

I LOVE IT! Probably the best UI change I've seen in YEARS. Sure low res probably has a small part to do with the annoyance, but others I'm sure just preferred the way it "used to be" so when they advance people hate it and when they don't they are criticized for lack of innovation. the Internet if full of @%&#ing whiners.

TheDruid · August 25, 2006, 09:19:01 AM

Quote from: Shayne on August 25, 2006, 08:32:09 AM
the Internet if full of @%&#ing whiners.

No just picky users. The most classic one i ever ran into was when i was working for Alberta Learning. A user wanted the developers to remap the key board to better fit her left (single) hand typing. *smacks head into a wall repeatedly*

Melbosa · August 25, 2006, 10:10:32 AM

I really enjoy the new Office suite. I think it is the best advances in the Office series M$ has made in years.

Mr. Analog · August 25, 2006, 10:29:56 AM

Quote from: Melbosa on August 25, 2006, 10:10:32 AM
I really enjoy the new Office suite. I think it is the best advances in the Office series M$ has made in years.

What are the best advances? I haven't tried it yet, so I'm curious.

Lazybones · August 25, 2006, 10:34:03 AM

Quote from: Mr. Analog on August 25, 2006, 10:29:56 AM
Quote from: Melbosa on August 25, 2006, 10:10:32 AM
I really enjoy the new Office suite. I think it is the best advances in the Office series M$ has made in years.
What are the best advances? I haven't tried it yet, so I'm curious.

Two big things, and they mainly deal with the UI.

1. The ribbon actually contains the items that you are most likely to use in a given day, there are simmly more buttons visible.

2.Live preview. If you highlight a block of text and start going though the font browser the text IN the docment will change as you go through the list so you will know exactly what the change will look like.

Mr. Analog · August 25, 2006, 10:52:31 AM

Quote from: Lazybones on August 25, 2006, 10:34:03 AM
Quote from: Mr. Analog on August 25, 2006, 10:29:56 AM
Quote from: Melbosa on August 25, 2006, 10:10:32 AM
I really enjoy the new Office suite. I think it is the best advances in the Office series M$ has made in years.
What are the best advances? I haven't tried it yet, so I'm curious.

Two big things, and they mainly deal with the UI.

1. The ribbon actually contains the items that you are most likely to use in a given day, there are simmly more buttons visible.

2.Live preview. If you highlight a block of text and start going though the font browser the text IN the docment will change as you go through the list so you will know exactly what the change will look like.

That's it? I saw those changes in the video for MS Word 2007 a while back (posted here I think) but that's the big sweeping change to Office? Tell me there's more. Please!

Thorin · August 25, 2006, 11:14:09 AM

Change to how the UI works means change to how a person does their job. Change to how a person does their job means that person has to learn something new. A person having to learn something new means a person who cannot get their job done as fast as before, at least until they learn the new way of doing it. Keeping in mind that most people don't care how they do things, as long as they do it the same every time, most people will at least initially gripe about a big change like The Ribbon.

Nevertheless, I'm glad to see that Microsoft is trying something new. From what I've read and seen online about The Ribbon, it seems very straightforward - this is critical, because if a user can use The Ribbon and in the first couple of minutes has figured out how to do their daily tasks with it, they'll *like* it. If it takes them an hour to figure it out, they'll *hate* it.

As Joel Spolsky says, your UI is a good UI if it does exactly what the user wants and expects it to do. It doesn't matter if it matches exactly with any other UI, including the UI of previous versions of the same software.

I'm guessing that the beta testers who asked for changes found that The Ribbon didn't do exactly what they wanted and expected it to, so they "asked for changes" (aka "complained about changes").

I'm a fence-sitter at this point, mostly because I haven't played with it yet. I know that Microsoft has made some smart moves in the past when talking UI (for instance, the pop-up on the bottom-right of your screen for new IMs, new Outlook emails; everybody intuitively understood these) and some bad moves, too (self-re-organizing menus that hide some items? that's always a nightmare for me when family or friends ask for help).

Thorin · August 25, 2006, 11:16:00 AM

Lazy, you forgot the brand-new (again) document format. Everything into a zip file, and a Word doc is no longer a single file but rather a collection of objects. I'm sure that's gonna cause some headaches for Druid, if he doesn't switch jobs before Office 2007 comes out...

TheDruid · August 25, 2006, 12:05:03 PM

Quote from: Thorin on August 25, 2006, 11:16:00 AM
Everything into a zip file, and a Word doc is no longer a single file but rather a collection of objects.

We've already dealt with this for info path. No big deal really. But updates will be required.