Bits Why the Microsoft Office Ribbon is still rubbish

Greetings!

No.

No.

Still is.

On one of my jobs I installed OpenOffice on all machines, and now LibreOffice. No issues since Office work level there is very basic, just had to make sure everybody saved documents in .doc, .xls, etc to assure outside compatibility. The costs savings were very nice, too.
On another job I switched my own W7+ribbon Office machine for a XP+classic Microsoft Office. Had to use ribbon for ~6 months before a classic Office machine was available, unfortunately LibreOffice had some issues with macros.

Funny thing with ribbon is that I had less conflicts using it in W8 Explorer than in Office. That kind of surprised me. To me the simpler functions done in Explorer are more adquate to a ribbon than the more complex Office tasks.

PS:

Some luck there:

 

I have two massive empty spaces either side of my document. It would be nice if I could shove the ribbon in one of those spaces. Or split either side.

Also Libre office takes care of all my home document editing. I don't think I'll ever buy office.

 

The complaining about the Alt keyboard shortcuts is silly - they are there for those without a mouse, and for them they work great. Traditional hot keys for use in addition to a mouse which you say were better are still there and still work just fine.

Ribbons in concept are fine, but the one thing I don't like about the newest ribbons is the focus on style over usability - e.g. in 2013 everything went white, the page names are all capitalised. It's just horrible to work with as you can't see what's a button any longer - most of the usability feedback and hints are gone in an effort to fit to some fashion guru's style of the month.

 

I agree the white scheme isn't great. It lowers the readability of the interface

 

This exactly. So why not use a Photoshop style workflow?

 

Haven't you then run into compatibility issues with documents then sent to Microsoft Office users wishing to view your work? Or is it just for you?

I've been sent documents in the past from people using the open source "version" and have been unable to open it. Even when asked what format it's in, I've been told to go and download a copy of the software to view it. Being at that stage in procurement, let's just say those documents were never viewed and that particular company were never used either.

Just because you may not like Microsoft Office doesn't mean the whole planet doesn't like them either.

 

Whoah, didn't expect this article on bit-tech; I thought I was on the wrong site. Is this Market research for $ms?

 

I presume it was an .odt (OpenDocument Text) file and Word told you it was "corrupt"? Well, Microsoft deliberately not fully supporting open standards is not Libre Office's problem, is it?

 

If I have to send something to someone else it usually goes in .pdf. Everyone had adobe reader anymore and they can copy and paste if they need to edit it. Might not work for a "professional" solution, but it suits my needs well.

 

What's the problem. It works, well. I used it for a long time in my last job, in my new job I use Libre Office. I miss the ribbon.
Personally I find the old menu driven system harder to use, but I tend not to worry about the design elements of software, I just get on with it and adapt. Maybe one day, when I head up the UK department at MS I might start to care, until then "adapt & overcome"

Also I've only had 2 issues of incompatible documents between MS and Libre and that was about 18 months ago IIRC. But I'm not a power user.

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk

 

Not being able to find stuff with the modern ribbon that I could access easily before the pile of crap ribbon came along.

Having read recently about how Ballmer created an overly competitive feudal system within Microsoft I can see now how they managed to make so many bad choices. When a company is at war with itself, the products it produces are equally chaotic.

 

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/...K5XsSGrKRp181euxkTAoBtSdi790zkTY2QUxaywkHMtbg

 

But that isn't Microsoft's problem, is it? With Microsoft Office being the "Standard" and most commonly used Office Suite, shouldn't the less popular meet their standards and not the other way round?

 

That isn't really the way internationally agree upon standards work.
When a large group of company's (including Microsoft) come together to agree upon a standard, you normally expect those company's to follow through with what they have agree on.

 

you can always create your own tab, with the bits you use in it, turn off the tabs you don't want showing etc

 

Yeah, customising the ribbon is great. Especially adding buttons to custom tabs that run commonly-used macros, for example.

 

All the old shortcuts still work - even those based on the menus which no longer exist. I still use Alt+I, S to insert a symbol, though I get a pointed message telling me I'm using an old shortcut.

I generally like the ribbon, though it has some oddities. IIRC, page break and section break are on different tabs, for example.

 

I find it odd that they make such an effort to put as many common used items right in your face on Office (other than hiding save and print, WTF!)... But when it comes to Windows 8, they made every effort to hide everything.

 

That's because Windows 8 has been designed for Content consumers, and not Content creators.
Metro is the antithesis of a power user, its for the computer illiterate younger siblings, the older grandparents, or the mother "who just wants to look up apple pie recipes."

 

What did they hide (besides the control panel; I'll give you that, but I just pin it to the taskbar)?