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Preview the Office 2007 Ribbon-Like UI Floated For OpenOffice.Org
recoiledsnake writes "OpenOffice.org has prototyped a new UI that radically changes the current OO.o interface into something very similar to the new ribbon style menus that Office 2007 introduced and which have been extensively used throughout Windows 7. The blog shows a screenshot of the prototype in Impress (the equivalent of PowerPoint), but this UI is proposed to be used across all OO.o applications. Some commenters on the Sun blog are not happy about OO.o blindly aping Office 2007, and feel that the ribbon UI may be out of place in non-Windows operating systems."
The Ribbon is no good even in Windows. And isn't it patented? There's no reason Open Office needs to ape Microsoft's mistakes.
It only sucks in office until OO.o can implement it. Flame on.
They want to take what's probably the single most reviled "feature" of MS Office 2007 and put it into OpenOffice? When one of the big selling points of OpenOffice, among people I've talked to, is that it looks and feels more like the Office they're used to?
Please tell me they're only thinking of putting it in as an opt-in option, not as the default or only option...
Dan Aris
Fun. Free. Online. RPG. BattleMaster.
Aww, *hell* no!
-V-
Who can decide a priori? Nobody.
-Sartre
Let me be the first to assure that the interface is also out of place in Windows OS'es. I'm still at a loss to figure out exactly what functionality that new interface added to Office. It did require us to purchase all new manuals and devote a considerable amount of time to retraining our users. Perhaps that was the "goal"?
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
What about patents?
Do you think they've read the evil part of the ribbon T&Cs where it says they won't come and get you patent-style unless you *make something which competes directly with office*??
Surely MS have not given permission for this?
(Our company was about to use the ribbon for all our crap until we read that bit - some of our stuff could arguable compete with Publisher or whatever the hell they call it nowadays)
A
Its a nice idea, I guess, and I understand that if you keep it closer to that one big name competitor, then you can make it easier for people to transition, but I prefer to dedicate my limited real estate on my screen to what I'm actually trying to work on, not the tools that I can use to get the job done. I can't imagine this interface on my eeePc. I think the only thing I'll be trying out on this interface is the option to set it back to the old one.
Support the EFF and Creative Commons. The war is coming, and they're supporting you...
If OpenOffice allows me to revert to the classic UI, or even a hybrid mix of the classic UI and the "ribbon-ized", then I think it's a good idea. However, if not, at least Gnumeric and AbiWord still have a sane UI.
I use Linux, Windows, and OS X. I have always found OS X to be the easiest of the three to use GUI-wise. Why is there such a following to a windows like interface? Go for better! 3-D, or maybe a new scheme all together. MS interfaces are just the most horrible things - stuff hidden in illogical places, five or six mouse clicks to do things... I can go on but perhaps others following will. There are other ways.
If the new UI is a user-selectable option, I can't see anyone having an issue with it. It may even help the adoption rate of Open Office, since it would be an easier transition for people used to MS Office.
If the new UI is the only UI, I predict a lot of yelling and screaming. Changing an existing UI is never a pleasant thing.
I like the Office 2007 ribbon now that I'm used to it, and the simplicity from tabbed toolbars over deep hierarchies in tall menus.
BUT... That "ribbon" in the article looks horrible! They've lost like ALL functionality but the buttons in them, and the design looks like a big step backwards. Note how Office 2007 ribbons add/remove rarely used commands as you resize the window, and crams in much more features in the space than OO.o there. I hope the end result will look nothing like in the preview. There are ribbons, and there are ribbons. :-(
Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
The problem with Office, aside from requiring a multitude of options/features to make it Everything for Everybody, is the menu navigation hell that was introduced back in '97.
The ribbon takes the concept presented with the (brain dead) AI that brought you the shortened menu with commonly used options (and made you think all your menu items were MIA), and laid them out with slightly larger, slightly more descriptive icons and sensible grouping.
May I be the first to say (and be damned for doing so) that a 'ribbon' interface for the GIMP would do wonders.
When I started rolling out Office 2007 at a company I used to work for I was asked, often, if the ribbon could be disabled. I went to the office support site (which is something Microsoft actually has right) and started watching training videos to see which ones I should suggest to users. The first thing the video said when addressing the ribbon was you were stuck with it, can't turn it off.
I personally prefer OpenOffice.org. I have a copy of Office 2008 for my Mac that I was given, I don't even have it installed now that I don't have that job anymore, I prefer using Neo Office on my Mac, and OpenOffice.org on my Linux machines.
That being said - the interface is fine, as long as it's optional, I'm all about customization and user preference.
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One of the most frequent criticisms I often hear regarding FOSS is that the applications don't "look and feel" like the OS or other software in the ecosystem. They don't always use the system-default Save/Open dialogs, menu style and common controls and for a lot of users, like it or not, gives the perception of out-of-placeness or inferior. Firefox is a prime example where going out of the way to fit into the UI based on the OS has helped user-comfort and therefore adoption.
If Windows 7 is going to implement the ribbon system-wide, it makes sense that OO.org would minimally make this an option, if not the default on the Windows release, even though I am amongst those who are not fans of the ribbon.
Forgive my spelling from time to time. I'm often posting during short breaks.
I wonder how much money was spent by Microsoft on usability studies to come up with this interface.
About the same amount for the usability studies that proved Microsoft Bob was soooo beneficial. We all know where that went!
Just because it came from Microsoft doesn't make it a good idea. Microsoft has had plenty of bad ideas.
Just because users are non-tech does not mean they are too stupid to use anything that doesn't look like Microsoft. Non-tech employees were using word processors and spreadsheets long before Microsoft invented GUI... Oh, wait...
Just because a lot of people hate something doesn't mean it came from Microsoft. Sometimes a lot of people actually hate something because it is a bad effing idea; it just happened to come from Microsoft (see #1 above).
He's not talking about the Ribbon interface though. He's talking about the custom window decorations that all apps (including Outlook) have in Office 2007. And he's right. None of them fit with windows XP at all and you can't easily tell which windows are active and focused because of the color.
Have OO have an option to output LaTeX.
Any toolbar that needs a SEARCH to find SEARCH is broken.
That flippin' Find and Replace moves all over the place, from application to application.
Why was this marked Insightful?
Let's see... I fire up Word, I go to the Home tab ... there's Find/Replace/Select, on the far right. Open up Excel, open the Home tab of the Ribbon ... there it is again, Find&Select, on the far right. Let's try PowerPoint... open up the Home tab, lo and behold, it's on the far right, looking exactly like it did in Word. Even Access puts the Find/Select/etc. box on the far right of the Home tab of the Ribbon.
So which applications were you talking about that do it differently? The ones that don't use the Ribbon? Well I have great news for you: All of the Office apps will have the Ribbon in Office 2010, so everything will be just as consistent as it is in Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and Access now. You might want to wait to upgrade until then.
P.S. Psssst... but between you and me, I use Ctrl-F.
Breakfast served all day!
I've been developing and supporting hundreds of Open Source projects and packages for close to 20 years now... and I "get it". But can we please stop imitating, and get back to innovating? Nobody likes the "ribbon", and it just confuses users. Ask them. Ask Windows users what they prefer.
Stop imitating, start innovating. Again.
Word and Excel have SOME consistency (except that they sometimes call it Find, sometimes Find and Replace. Sometimes it's an icon, sometimes it's not.) Sometimes it's a big icon, sometimes it's small. Now, let's go to Outlook:
Let's try to follow your instructions, when creating a new message in Outlook. Home tab? there isn't one. Maybe you mean the Message Tab which is located where the Home tab is in Word: Far Right? That's Spelling. No, Find is under "Format Text". How intuitive.
Next try to find "Find" when you are reading someone's message to you. Where's Find?
Now let's say you want to find a message in your Inbox. Where's find? OK let's try to find a message in a file folder. Where's find.
OK, let's go to Internet Explorer. Where's Find?
See? So much for consistency.
And using Ctrl-F proves my point. OK, so we're supposed to tell our users what? "I know the Ribbon sucks - just memorize this control sequence."