Office 2007 - Apology for Siji
Posted: February 18, 2007, 10:34 pm
In the last two weeks, I've become intimately familiar with Office 2k7. I just finished putting together a 19 page report in Word '07, and a 50ish page slide show in Powerpoint '07.
Though I like both of the new Office Apps, mostly due to the 'Live Preview' feature when modifying a style or design, I feel I owe Siji an apology.
When Office 2k7 initially came up in a post, he stated he didn't like the ribbon interface for a variety of reasons. Initially I thought it was just Siji being Siji. I've argued with him in the past about when to embrace new applications and technologies. I never posted anything negative, but now I find myself agreeing with him.
The ribbon interface isn't horrible, but I'm also not sure it's good. Where before you'd have toolbars up for the features you use the most, now accessing a feature means remembering which part of the ribbon it's on, clicking to go to that part of the ribbon and then clicking the feature. For those keeping score at home, that's two clicks where in previous versions of Office there only would have been one. I had read that depending on what you had selected, the ribbon would display the appropriate options, but that doesn't appear to be the case at all times. Also, in the same way that a grocery store's merchandising (the layout of what they sell) sometimes leaves you scratching your head, there are times within the new office apps where you find yourself wondering why feature X is on ribbon Y instead of ribbon Z.
It's not all bad. As I said, the 'Live Preview' is awesome. The inline formatting menu is awesome, and for image inclusion and editing, the functionality they've lifted from the acquired Visio is makes using the suite much, much easier. They've also included language translation and reference lookup within the application which is really nice and very handy.
Overall it's a good thing, but the ribbon interface, like Siji said can be a real pain in the ass.
Though I like both of the new Office Apps, mostly due to the 'Live Preview' feature when modifying a style or design, I feel I owe Siji an apology.
When Office 2k7 initially came up in a post, he stated he didn't like the ribbon interface for a variety of reasons. Initially I thought it was just Siji being Siji. I've argued with him in the past about when to embrace new applications and technologies. I never posted anything negative, but now I find myself agreeing with him.
The ribbon interface isn't horrible, but I'm also not sure it's good. Where before you'd have toolbars up for the features you use the most, now accessing a feature means remembering which part of the ribbon it's on, clicking to go to that part of the ribbon and then clicking the feature. For those keeping score at home, that's two clicks where in previous versions of Office there only would have been one. I had read that depending on what you had selected, the ribbon would display the appropriate options, but that doesn't appear to be the case at all times. Also, in the same way that a grocery store's merchandising (the layout of what they sell) sometimes leaves you scratching your head, there are times within the new office apps where you find yourself wondering why feature X is on ribbon Y instead of ribbon Z.
It's not all bad. As I said, the 'Live Preview' is awesome. The inline formatting menu is awesome, and for image inclusion and editing, the functionality they've lifted from the acquired Visio is makes using the suite much, much easier. They've also included language translation and reference lookup within the application which is really nice and very handy.
Overall it's a good thing, but the ribbon interface, like Siji said can be a real pain in the ass.
