Free PDF - “First Look: Microsoft Office 2010”

[Idoine]

Originally Posted by Lo Zeno

... The right choice would have been to allow user to choose between the old User Interface and the new ribbon: new users would find the Ribbon, and old users could switch to the old interface. With time, people would get used to the Ribbon, but those old users who needed to be productive quickly could keep the old interface until they learnt the "new way"...

Honestly, do you really think that if "old users" had the choice, they would switch ultimately on the ribbon ? I don't think so. I continue to see people on XP that use the Windows 2000 Start menu, for example.
Many users, if they're not pushed to change, won't change on their own volition. The need of security in stillness is powerful...

And by the way, as a teacher, I appreciate that these people need formations, so I have work !

[DawnFalcon]

There is a choice, it's called MenuOffice. Or there can be a large drop in productivity, that's the company's choice.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by DawnFalcon

There is a choice, it's called MenuOffice. Or there can be a large drop in productivity, that's the company's choice.

I'm afraid I've never heard of that. What is it - some sort of "add in" which restores the "old" interface to Office 2007?

[djgreedo]

Originally Posted by DawnFalcon

There is a choice, it's called MenuOffice. Or there can be a large drop in productivity, that's the company's choice.

I've worked with Word for years. I have seen no such drop in productivity from people moving on to Word 2007. In fact, after a small learning curve most people use Word more powerfully and efficiently than before.

I personally have noticed a leap in my efficiency with the new ribbon interface, though at first I hated it.

I am in charge of formatting and layout of my company's documents, and I have seen an increase in people using styles properly since the switch to Office 2007. People are using features they didn't know existed when they were buried in the Word 2003 menu.

Word 2007 makes it easier for new and inexperienced users to do things properly and to find the common functions they need; as an advanced user it makes me work more efficiently, and any time lost to learning the new interface was gained back quickly in improved efficiency.

I'm now using Office 2010 beta at home and it is basically Office 2007 with a few improvements - much like Windows 7 is Windows Vista with a few improvements. The new find bar on the left of the window is a great little feature in Word 2010, and the ribbon can be customised without fiddling with XML (though I'm yet to fully explore the ribbon editing in any detail so I'm not sure how powerful the options are - certainly better than the non-existent options in Office 2007).

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by djgreedo

I've worked with Word for years. I have seen no such drop in productivity from people moving on to Word 2007. In fact, after a small learning curve most people use Word more powerfully and efficiently than before.

My problem, I think, is that I use Office 2003 all day, every day, at work, and Office 2007 only very occasionally at home. I'm sure that if I were to use Office 2007 all the time then I'd soon get used to it.

[PennyPie]

Don't know if it's been mentioned, but MS lost a court battle over something they added to Word. The ruling states they are banned from selling Word after January 10, 2010.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/1..._n_400866.html

I know, doesn't really have anything to do with the topic at hand, but thought it was interesting......

[HarryT]

It's a very, very minor feature of Word that they've agreed to remove as a result. Doesn't affect the functionality of the program at all.

[stustaff]

Originally Posted by HarryT

It's a very, very minor feature of Word that they've agreed to remove as a result. Doesn't affect the functionality of the program at all.

it affects it enough that you wont be able to buy the software anymore Harry.

so in effect it makes the pruduct literally unsellable thats a pretty big impact on functionality

[PennyPie]

MS asserts that it will have a revised version available by the January 11 deadline. I dunno...have they EVER had a product ready by a predicted release date?

[DawnFalcon]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I'm afraid I've never heard of that. What is it - some sort of "add in" which restores the "old" interface to Office 2007?

Yep, it's a third party addin which gives you the menus back. It's not free, either, but it's worth it when you have to use Office 2007.

Here.


djgreedo - Great, well, your experience is drastically in contrast the ones I've had at several organisations (and I'm not kidding about drastic, we're talking 30-40% changes), and is directly contrary to my own experience. If you want to slow me down, make me use Office 2007 with only the ribbon. It also actively discourages me from using features because of the time required to locate them.

[stustaff]

Originally Posted by DawnFalcon

Yep, it's a third party addin which gives you the menus back. It's not free, either, but it's worth it when you have to use Office 2007.

Here.


djgreedo - Great, well, your experience is drastically in contrast the ones I've had at several organisations (and I'm not kidding about drastic, we're talking 30-40% changes), and is directly contrary to my own experience. If you want to slow me down, make me use Office 2007 with only the ribbon. It also actively discourages me from using features because of the time required to locate them.

ditto.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by PennyPie

MS asserts that it will have a revised version available by the January 11 deadline. I dunno...have they EVER had a product ready by a predicted release date?

Yes, frequently. Windows 7 was released early, in fact. Microsoft actually have a pretty good record when it comes to release dates.

[weedfreak]

Originally Posted by 13xforever

Now we have Windows 7 (which in reality is simply a tweaked Vista) and suddenly everyone likes it. Now we have Ribbon 2.0 and I think a lot of people will switch their sides too.

Now, that's debatable. Proof, please?

I would not even think of touching any MS product, and I used to work for them. I have been MS free for 10 years and do not miss anything except the restrictions on how I work and the cost.

Linux + OpenOffice = bliss

[calvin-c]

Originally Posted by Laurentiu

Isn't that a step backward? All previous versions were compatible 100% with the previous one.

No. This isn't the first time programs have introduced new file formats, and it won't be the last-and every time there are compatibility issues when transferring documents between early adopters & late adopters.

IMO it's incumbent on the person who upgrades their program to understand that *they* have made a personal change & it's rude and inconsiderate of them to expect everybody else to make a similar change to keep up.

OTOH Microsoft has made the compatibility pack available for free, for exactly this reason. My suggestion is, if you don't want to/can't remember to save documents in the older format before sending them to others, keep a link to that compatibility pack on hand & email that along with the document.

Of course by now, 3 years after 2007 was introduced, it's my opinion that most people should have that-but experience has shown that I'm wrong in that. Don't know why, but I still hear from quite a few people who not only don't have 2007 (no surprise there) but also haven't yet installed the compatibility pack.

The link, BTW, is http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en Just in case you don't already have it.

[calvin-c]

Originally Posted by zerospinboson

More accessible styles support makes it heaps better. Changing every italicized word, or every indented blockquote, or every heading has become a lot easier to do. While this feature already existed at least in office2003, the fact that they put it where people would find it (and integrated it into the spellcheck thing) is very nice.

I do hate to disagree with people, but in pre-Office2007, every function was hidden in a random place. Now only some of the functions are, and they are generally in a more logical place. Why is it bad that it's in a different place when the new place is at least more logical?

Logical to whom? It still seems random to me-and *differently* random, which is what gets in the way of productivity.

Styles are a poor choice as they're used by very few people. Of course those that do use them use them extensively-so it's a typical Microsoft approach, cater to the 'big' users & ignore the myriad 'little' ones. (I can document the use, at least locally, by checking my support records. And since I operated a support service, not an in-house help desk, those records cover the local geographic area-not the local company. I see no reason why people living in this area would use Word in a significantly different manner than people living elsewhere, so I'm assuming the application of my local experience to users in general is valid. That's an *assumption*, not necessarily a fact.)

But even considering styles, what makes putting them on a ribbon any better than putting them in a menu? Or maybe it's because you prefer your 'menus' pre-customized? Also based on my experience I've found that few users customize their menus-but I customized mine, and put my styles in a sub-menu list. Access to a style took 3 keystrokes. Hardly what I'd call 'hidden' but it did take some work to set it up. So Microsoft saved me the work, at the cost of 'hiding' the location from me (because they're no longer on the menu/ribbon where I'm used to finding them).

Now this isn't unique to Office 2007 either-Microsoft has done the exact same thing (with different functions) on every version of Office since I started using it (and I don't remember the first version of Office, but I do remember using Word for Windows 1.0). The only new thing in Office 2007, as far as I can see, is replacing menus with ribbons-and I don't really care about that. Force me to use it for 6 months or so & I'll get used to the new locations. Of course you'll get less productivity out of me for those 6 months, but that's part of the price you pay for upgrading.