Two steps forward, one step back

Great Article loved it

thats just about the same way i think of it "out of touch" it isant as well productive as the others. im not sure why but it just isant

 

I have been using Office 2007 since beta 2 and I love it. I find it much easier to have a good looking document than before. That being said I have never really used any of the more fancy formating options before this version of Office so the switch wasn't hard.

 

Hi lealwai!

First and foremost, welcome to the forums!!

Next, in answer to your question - yes, I have really used the software. But please don't take my article as bashing the interface. Indeed, if you read closely, you'll see I praise it at every step, I just doubt how well the business community will accept it. My point wasn't to say MS shouldn't have updated it, but instead I question how well these changes will be accepted, how that translates to sales of the product, and how those sales will translate to future innovativeness and updates.

With that clarified, carry on!

 

Funny that the colum By Mr. Canes before this was complaining about Vista being automated to the point of stupidity, and in your article Office 07' is complicated too much for it's own good.

I believe 99% of the population will conform to the new aged software at some point, except for third world countries that have ancient computers and rely on a mass of pirated software to sustain in this modern capitalist world of ours. Very few will be burdened by 07'. and those that are shouldn't allow the new interface to marr the experience of being at the forefront of world-class software.

Taco

 

My issue is why should corporations need to send staff on courses to learn the programme? If their literate enough to learn, just give them the software and you'll soon pick it up.

I installed the beta word, and i spent 10 mins just trying to find how to open a document (big cicle in top left), but then i was off.

 

^ I agree with you. However, people like free rides... If they can get some time off work to go listen to some guy talk about office for a day or two then why not?
If people don't get this sort of course they simply use it as an excuse if they do something wrong. "Well I was confused about the new software so I could not get that report to you sir."

Some people just play the system. People like that will always be around.
With that said some people just do not pick up on new things or are scared of exploring. I know that sounds funny, but I know a few people that are great at things once they are shown but have no ability to simply fiddle with something to learn about it.

 

Quoted For Truth - sadly it applies to at least half the people I work with:
8% great explorers,
12% marginal explorers,
50% need to be shown once,
10% need to be shown repeatedly,
10% deathly afraid of the unknown,
10% no fear of exploring & no clue of what all they've just messed up

 

Have you ever worked with the average corporate user of a Microsoft Office program? Most users don't ever get past the basics of typing. I would say most don't know how to use even 5% of the features in the programs. If corporations would invest a little more in training for something many people use 4 to 5 hours a day the productive gains would likely pay for themselves in weeks, plus you would have a happy work force which decreases turnover, which saves more money, etc.

 

once you've learnt the new office you won't want to go back to 2003 or wherever you'v come from.

That's my experience and that of the people who've used it either on my computer or through the "live" demo which works using Citrix

 

The problem I have with office in general is the price of it (so does my mum), its the reason I use OOo and my mum uses a school edition of 2003 and then has to do her publisher work at school.

 

Finally some new good interface design coming about to try to replace the standard File-->Open. You knock them for producing software with increased usability just because it changes the way you have to work....?

I've used said 2007 copy and I was mightily impressed, yes it takes a little getting used to but once you get to learn it, youll like it more, same with most things.

by all means carry on bashing MS but I think they've done a fine job. More forward thinking please.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89sz8ExZndc

I also believe it meets old Ben Schneidermans golden rules far better than the original design.

1 Strive for consistency.
Consistent sequences of actions should be required in similar situations; identical terminology should be used in prompts, menus, and help screens; and consistent commands should be employed throughout.

2 Enable frequent users to use shortcuts.
As the frequency of use increases, so do the user's desires to reduce the number of interactions and to increase the pace of interaction. Abbreviations, function keys, hidden commands, and macro facilities are very helpful to an expert user.

3 Offer informative feedback.
For every operator action, there should be some system feedback. For frequent and minor actions, the response can be modest, while for infrequent and major actions, the response should be more substantial.

4 Design dialog to yield closure.
Sequences of actions should be organized into groups with a beginning, middle, and end. The informative feedback at the completion of a group of actions gives the operators the satisfaction of accomplishment, a sense of relief, the signal to drop contingency plans and options from their minds, and an indication that the way is clear to prepare for the next group of actions.

5 Offer simple error handling.
As much as possible, design the system so the user cannot make a serious error. If an error is made, the system should be able to detect the error and offer simple, comprehensible mechanisms for handling the error.

6 Permit easy reversal of actions.
This feature relieves anxiety, since the user knows that errors can be undone; it thus encourages exploration of unfamiliar options. The units of reversibility may be a single action, a data entry, or a complete group of actions.

7 Support internal locus of control.
Experienced operators strongly desire the sense that they are in charge of the system and that the system responds to their actions. Design the system to make users the initiators of actions rather than the responders.

8 Reduce short-term memory load.
The limitation of human information processing in short-term memory requires that displays be kept simple, multiple page displays be consolidated, window-motion frequency be reduced, and sufficient training time be allotted for codes, mnemonics, and sequences of actions.

 

Nice article but have to disagree on this one. After using MS Office with the ribbon for quite long now, I don't really see how this article can make sense. It seems as the new office has everything that was missing. Inserting formulas into word docs is so easy now, as with inserting anything for that matter. I've seen people use more features with this office, because before they would just not find most features which were hidden in the default OFF toolbars. As for Office gurus, well they can perform most of the stuff with their keyboard shortcuts anyways.

I don't know maybe it's just me though. But now I'm motivated to DO more in word. When it's just a click away, I tend to add a correct symbol or subscript when typing up physics lab, or add that effect on a picture when inserting one.

 

Installed the beta a while ago and tried and dismissed striaght away, didn't like the look or the feel but, then I thought I'd try it again.

Installed it, looked around and bit, get really annoyed at the fact that the UltraMon buttons (the ones that let you move it to other screens and spans across the screens etc...)
Hated the new style that they've put on, the Vista esque style, I still use the 'Wistler Watercolour' theme as it small and sleek. I hate the fact that it won't skin like the rest of Windows.

I also dislike the way your last used docs come up when you press the 'logo' button, i much prefred the way 2003 did it.

I think i'll be restoring Office 2003, I do like the 'band' idea, its cool, takes some getting used to but file menus are so easy, dare i say it there 'old school' we've always have file menus.

Just my 2 cents
GiGo

 

This is the exact reason why MS decided to come up with the ribbon interface in the first place. The ribbon's main task is to show the user what he/she might want to do. A lot of people have of course become familiar to their way of doing things, remembering where that specific task resides in the menu hierarchy etc., and I understand them very well. However, I think more people will benefit from just having to look to the ribbon for the tasks specific to what they are working on right there and then. If you are working with a table, the table tools are shown, with an image and the image tools are there. Just like they should be.

In addition, the ribbon is a great tool for those of us inclined to explore the software a bit. It is really easy to find new and useful tools due to the fact that with the tabbed layout of the ribbon, there is an amazing plethora of choises available with just a few clicks. I myself only discovered the concept of referencing (bibliography) with this edition of Office, and that has to be one of the most useful tools in, at least, Word. For the functions that have become a bit obscure, like open, save, undo etc., I have always used keyboard shortcuts, so I didn't really notice that much, bu surely MS could've implemented those a bit more intuitively.

All in all I have to say that Office 2007, along with IE7, is the best bit of software to come from Microsoft in a very long time, and I was extremely disappointed when I heard the ribbon would not be implemented in Office 2008 for Mac. I'm seriously considering installing XP via Bootcamp on my MacBook just to get it (I'll still have to check out 2008 when it's out later this year, though). I understand very well the mixed reactions, change this significant is difficult to adapt to, but I think this will be a winning recipe. It's easy to grasp for those new to Office, shouldn't be hard to get used to for most regular Office-users, and it puts all tools in arms reach for the experienced user.


** EDIT **

Just realized how old this thread is, but hey, this bump should bury itself pretty fast me thinks