Slashdot Mirror
Office 12 Exposed
damieng writes "The Programmers Developer Conference (PDC) has unveiled
the user interface for Microsoft Office 12. Bearing more than a passing resemblance to Aqua and brushed metal looks from Mac OS X the menus now appear to operate more like a tab popping-out the right toolbar instead of a sub-menu."
But this is an interesting trend: Apple has monopolized the headlines recently. ArsTechnica is all about Apple, Slashdot can't seem to get enough of them, and now Microsoft is emulating its Apple product?
What's next, Intel Processors branded with "Apple Outside" stickers on them?
"Diplomacy is something you do until you find a rock." --Richard Pound
A more interesting question is, are they going to have 7 versions of Office too?
Coming soon: Office Nano - productivity tools for managing post-it notes.
Doesn't it stand for "Professional Developer's Conference" ?
It is similiar to an old friend. It gives me a comfortable feeling... knowing that everything is going to be all right, and the world is NOT coming to an end.
Grandpa: "See kids? The ocean levels are not raising, the ozone layer seems to flux from time to time (but it will still be around for many years), and Microsoft is still ripping off ideas from everyone else without even attempting to innovate."
It looks like they used Microsoft Access 12 for their server's database.
Disclaimer: I don't know how to put that link in as some text atm, but whatever.
Will wank off Linus Torvalds for fame.
Even Less of the screen actually showing my document! Hooray progress!
-- 'The' Lord and Master Bitman On High, Master Of All
does MS insist on "revolutionizing" UI's? With all of the importance developers place on standardizations of code, why do they feel that does not also apply to UI design? Even my grandmother is capable of using a menu bar, and every OS has some variant of that.
Kent Simon Multitheft Auto
Yeah, and apparently there's not even enough room for Clippy!
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery .
This looks more like a parody of aqua though
The only things certain in war are Propaganda and Death. You can never be sure which is which though
Indeed, this is just another example of the oft repeated truism about Linux on the desktop. With its two major toolkits (Qt, GTK), Linux will never succeed. It needs to be more consistent, like Windows with its... (IE, Office, Media Player, Visual Studio, ...) 5+ different toolkits that Microsoft uses, and many other toolkits that other applications use (Trillian, iTunes, Winamp, ...).
When will the Linux community learn that it has to be consistent to be accepted at large? They must be consistent and use a different toolkit for every application, not just two.
I've come for the woman, and your head.
If they can't figure out what goes where while they are rearranging the save dialog, what hope do the end users have of finding things.
version that cures sleep disorders for whole groups at a time. Otherwise known as Power Point.
Evil people don't think they're evil. - George Lucas, Making of Ep III
You must be new here. It's always Windows fault.
And as usual, they manage to not only steal the Apple look but do everything to cheapen it and make it look as ugly as possible. Is there really nobody within the Microsoft moloch who has some feeling for style?
I find that when MS first shows new products, they usually have garish UI as to guage peoples reaction to it, but ultimately, MS usually cleans things up and implements the UI nicely.
After seeing early beta and previews of Visual Studio 2005, I was appalled at how garish and unsavoury the UI was in that application. The menus had this aweful gradient fill on them and looked out of place, and the rest of the interface was ugly and simply crap. Even the new dock window overlays were poorly implemented. A year later, and the current Beta 1 of VS2005 looks very clean and more unified.
Same goes with Longhorn where an eraly beta was just garish.
I think MS actually listens to your bitching and simply offers these previews in order to test the waters and see how people feel about them. If you don't like them, bitch loudly and it will change.
I haven't thought of anything clever to put here, but then again most of you haven't either.
... Clippy?
French Clippy: "May I help you with that surrender letter?"
1. Office Expensive
2. Office Very Expensive
3. Office Very Very Expensive
4. Office Just $99.95/month lease Edition
5. Office Faust Edition - Contract With Ballmer
6. Office Warezed Bittorrent Edition
7. Open Office - Free Edition
New Stunning Features Like: WormInviteEmailReader (TM), Personality Clippy: 4yoKid "Why are you writing a letter?", Troll "Fuck that letter, check this site [goatse.cx], 1337 "100k5 1*k3 Y0uR3 7rY1nG..." and no less than 1000 new slide transitions for powerpoint that will impress every PHB to increase your salary.
Ricer Clippy: "Yo, I see you're writing a paper. It'd look mad tight if you changed the font of the title to Wing Dings and made it bright red."
"People that quote themselves in their signatures bother me" - athakur999
7 versions of office might actually work, or perhaps better yet, 7 versions of Clippy, representing different demographic subtypes:
don't forget:
Canadian Clippy: "That's a letter, eh? Why aren't you writing colour correctly? You should center the word centre too, eh?"
French Clippy: "You write with no passion! Why do I bother helping you, you know nothing of how to write! Come back when you learn how to write if you want my help, monsieur!"
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
You needed Clippy for that last post...
"I see you are trying to write a joke. I'm sorry, you do not appear to have the humor component installed."
WYSIWYG? Hardly. it is more:
WYSIWYP -What you see is why you're Pissed!
- Minutus cantorum, minutus balorum, minutus carborata descendum pantorum.
In soviet russia, letter writes you!
All of you forgot the dreaded Jewish Mother Clippy: "Oh, so you finally decide to write! What took you so long? It's not like your father and I have years left with you, you know! And when am are you gonna get married and give us some grandkids?!"
Allegedly real newspaper headline from 1998:
Man Struck by Lightning Faces Battery Charge
AIM clippy: OMFG!! Yuo r riting a letter?!? lololol!!! want me 2 help yuo? im good at riting stuff!!1 LOL!!
Behold, another webcomic!