Slashdot Mirror


Microsoft's Age-Old Image Library 'Clip Art' Is No More

hypnosec writes Microsoft has finally bid a goodbye to the age-old Clip Art image library found in its Office products as its usage has been declining over the years. Redmond replaced the Clip Art's online image library with Bing Image Search. This means that people searching for online images inside an Office app will now be directed to a gallery powered by Bing Images that will bring in results from around the web. Bing's copyright filter based on the Creative Commons licensing system will let users get royalty-free images which they can use, share, or modify for either personal or commercial use.

110 comments

  1. Good riddance by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Clipart to me is 1990s, even if it's used today, you're better off googling for it (not binging).

    1. Re:Good riddance by MightyYar · · Score: 2

      For reasons that escape me, my kids' teachers use clip art on everything. You get a flyer with 5 words on it and twice as many clip-art renderings of school buses and apples.

      --
      W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
    2. Re:Good riddance by i+kan+reed · · Score: 2

      It's because kids don't need good graphic design.

    3. Re: Good riddance by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Even worse IMO is that comic sans font my boss always puts on her PowerPoints. No easier way to look immature and idiotic than to use that.

    4. Re:Good riddance by dywolf · · Score: 4, Funny

      "Clip art being replaced with Bing Images"

      At first I like: YAY!
      And then I was like: DOH!

      --
      The guy who said the election was rigged won the presidency with the second-most votes.
    5. Re:Good riddance by operagost · · Score: 5, Insightful

      And it's in Comic Sans, amirite?

      --

      Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
    6. Re:Good riddance by Thud457 · · Score: 1

      But what of curation?
      If I do a web image search, I get 2,000,000,000,000,000 possible matches to wade through. With maybe 0.0001% of them being simplified line art or, heaven forfend, SVG.
      Also, that random pile of images has no cohesive style.


      wow, me break /.'s spellcheck. There's a surprise.

      --

      the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

    7. Re: Good riddance by DarkKnightRadick · · Score: 1

      You can actually choose to insert your own from your computer or use another search provider I think. I subscribe to Office 365 for Business and have used the clip art search exactly once, switching to using Google via Chrome after a few minutes of a fruitless search of the Bing results (plenty of good results, just didn't find what I wanted).

      --
      "There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death." Proverbs 16:25 (NKJV)
    8. Re:Good riddance by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Have you ever looked at Microsoft Office's clip-art? It also has no cohesive style, and is full of awkward goofy styles and oddly specific pictures that you can't imagine being appropriate for any document other than "how not to use clip-art".

    9. Re:Good riddance by jeffmflanagan · · Score: 1

      > you're better off googling for it (not binging).

      Why, other than anti-Microsoft bias? If Google doesn't also have this creative commons filter, Bing has become the superior product for clip art searches.

    10. Re:Good riddance by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oh I don't know, maybe type "line art" or "svg" in to the search query? Honestly, you're purposely being obtuse and only looking for a reason to whine.

    11. Re:Good riddance by MightyYar · · Score: 3, Funny

      I'll open the ".DOC" file that they send via email and see :)

      --
      W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
    12. Re: Good riddance by Threni · · Score: 2

      Or the email with the link to the page containing a list of URLs pointing at PDF files. Because it's easier to do all that than to read whatever is in the PDF file on a web page somewhere.

    13. Re: Good riddance by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're right. Everyone who wants clip art is going to know to type SVG in.

    14. Re: Good riddance by MightyYar · · Score: 3, Insightful

      We should make an email viewer that de-moronifies school emails. In all fairness to the teachers, the content delivery systems that they are stuck with are also very painful.

      --
      W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
    15. Re:Good riddance by EvilSS · · Score: 4, Informative

      If Google doesn't also have this creative commons filter, Bing has become the superior product for clip art searches.

      It does.

      --
      I browse on +1 so AC's need not respond, I won't see it.
    16. Re:Good riddance by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Joke's on them; I don't have Comic Sans installed.

    17. Re:Good riddance by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In before every old clip art image is replaced with an off-color (to bypass content filters) photos of a guy's testicles. You want apple.jpg? red testicles. A watermelon? green testicles. etc

    18. Re:Good riddance by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Joke's on you, the font is embedded into the document.

    19. Re: Good riddance by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Clip art does not specifically refer to SVG or any vector format. If you don't already know what an SVG is, then you don't need it.

    20. Re:Good riddance by nmr_andrew · · Score: 2

      It could be worse...the first grade newsletters that get sent home from my daughter's school are .pptx (seriously). I think I've only seen Comic Sans once or twice so far, though.

    21. Re:Good riddance by OakDragon · · Score: 1

      I'll open the ".DOC" file that they send via email and see :)

      If you're lucky. If you're not, it's a ".PPT" file.

    22. Re:Good riddance by Firethorn · · Score: 1

      At work we'll get emails with attached powerpoint slide(~4MB) with around two lines of text for this or that event. They don't bother to put any information about the event in the body of the email so we don't have to fire up powerpoint to figure out what they're advertising.

      --
      I don't read AC A human right
    23. Re:Good riddance by praxis · · Score: 2

      > you're better off googling for it (not binging).

      Why, other than anti-Microsoft bias? If Google doesn't also have this creative commons filter, Bing has become the superior product for clip art searches.

      Why? Because I've found Google to provide better search results than Bing. That's why. Do you believe that the only reason people use Google instead of Bing is that they have an anti-Microsoft bias?

    24. Re:Good riddance by gronofer · · Score: 1

      Google can't select for public domain (or CC0) however. On the other hand, the Bing search seems to be pretty bad, missing images from Wikimedia Commons for example.

    25. Re:Good riddance by armanox · · Score: 1

      As someone with a very public anti-MS stance, I'll admit that I've had good results come back with Bing. If a GIS doesn't bring back what I'm looking for, Bing will. It's just their general web search that I can't get used to.

      Also, Bing's video search is far ahead of Google's

      --
      I'm starting to think GNU is the problem with "GNU/Linux" these days.
    26. Re:Good riddance by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I've also found google is better at more technical articles while bing is much better at entertainment and social stuff.

  2. Death to Clip art! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    IT'S ABOUT TIME!!
    I have always hated clip art.

  3. Another feature replaced with tracking by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Another feature that was previously offline that has now been replaced with an online only feature that will track you.

    I have nothing inherently against online features but the fact that they /always/ go hand in hand with tracking causes me to be against.

    1. Re:Another feature replaced with tracking by viking099 · · Score: 1

      The summary seems to imply that they were already tracking users and their usage of the clip art library.

      More and more it seems like just keeping Office XP or 2010 around is the best bet. How much you hate the ribbon would determine which one you keep, I guess.

    2. Re:Another feature replaced with tracking by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Heaven forbid they improve features by letting you easily insert more images in to documents

    3. Re:Another feature replaced with tracking by smooth+wombat · · Score: 0

      At least with Office XP you don't have deal with the huge flaw in Word where it insists on displaying two pages side by side on the screen rather than one page at a time.

      Not being able to see one page without shifting around screen resolution and zoom levels is inexcusable, yet Microsoft apparently feels usability is far down the list of things it needs to worry about.

      Sort of like large portions of FOSS software.

      --
      We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
    4. Re:Another feature replaced with tracking by Richard_at_work · · Score: 1

      What huge flaw? "View -> One Page". Done. No side-by-side page layouts.

    5. Re:Another feature replaced with tracking by smooth+wombat · · Score: 2

      No, it doesn't work because then the page is set to the left of the screen.

      What I and thousands of others want is for a single page, centered on the screen, just the way it used to be before Office 2010 came out.

      Without fiddling with your zoom level or screen resolution, this cannot (currently) be done.

      --
      We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
    6. Re:Another feature replaced with tracking by jones_supa · · Score: 2

      For me, in Word 2010 the page seems to be set to left side of screen, but jumps to the center when I click the "100%" button in the View tab.

    7. Re:Another feature replaced with tracking by jeffmflanagan · · Score: 1

      Or you could view it as a small clip art library being replaced with a much larger one. PCs aren't islands anymore, and it would be dumb to keep mostly unused clip art on your local machine. Is there any reason to be concerned about Microsoft knowing what legal clip art you use, or is that just the paranoia that has so many /. users so lost and confused these days?

    8. Re:Another feature replaced with tracking by bickerdyke · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I'm concerned about the Bing filter not working (or people maliciously manipulating their pages into being displayed as CC when Bing searches it) and then being sued. With the current clipart library, I knew it came with a licencse to be used.

      --
      bickerdyke
    9. Re:Another feature replaced with tracking by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Put on your tinfoil hat and post A/C!!

    10. Re:Another feature replaced with tracking by Richard_at_work · · Score: 1

      Stays in the centre for me, regardless of the zoom - Office 2013 here.

    11. Re: Another feature replaced with tracking by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Heres a flaw: create a .doc in 2003 highlight some text and save it. Open it in 2010 and try to remove that highlighting.

    12. Re:Another feature replaced with tracking by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Or you could view it as a small clip art library being replaced with a much larger one.

      PCs aren't islands anymore, and it would be dumb to keep mostly unused clip art on your local machine.

      Computers are nothing more than tools to get things done. Configuration providing users with the most value for input effort trumps all nebulous philosophical calculations.

      If a clip art library consumes a few hundred megabytes or even a few gigabytes so be it. Who cares?

      What I care about is wasting time with search engines linking to their usual mass of low SNR bullshit and having to deal with unknown and sometimes intentionally deceptive licensing terms.. I suspect most people using MS clip art libraries are not lawyers.

    13. Re:Another feature replaced with tracking by jbengt · · Score: 1

      Get out of Draft View and go to Print Layout view.

    14. Re:Another feature replaced with tracking by siliconsmiley · · Score: 1

      Browse incognito?

  4. No longer OOXML ISO compliant then? by badger.foo · · Score: 2, Informative

    If I remember correctly, the OOXML ISO standard that was rushed through some years back included specifications for a clipart library not entirely unlike the Microsoft Office one. I suppose this move means that Microsoft has give up on adhering to its wholly-owned ISO standard.

    --
    -- That grumpy BSD guy - http://bsdly.blogspot.com/
    1. Re: No longer OOXML ISO compliant then? by Threni · · Score: 1

      I think standards and APIs are popular/important only while you're trying to achieve dominance, but afterwards you can stop all that. Google (reader) and Netflix can tell you all about that.

  5. Coming Soon! by Somebody+Is+Using+My · · Score: 2, Funny

    Microsoft ClipArt365, a subscription-based online product where you can the entirety of MS's ClipArt library anywhere in the world*. Never worry about not having the right piece of ClipArt at your fingertips; just use our quick ClipSearch** feature and you'll have the right art at your fingerprints in moments! Then simply insert the art into your Word(tm) document, Excel(tm) spreadsheet or Powerpoint(tm) presentation with a single-click!***. All this for $12/mo or $120/year!

    * Internet connection required.
    ** Internet Explorer 12.1 or higher required
    *** Requires Office365 or higher. Art cannot be inserted into other documents. Internet connection required to view document with clipart.

    1. Re:Coming Soon! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Microsoft ClipArt365, a subscription-based online product where you can the entirety of MS's ClipArt library anywhere in the world

      But can you accidentally the entire internet?

    2. Re:Coming Soon! by ColdWetDog · · Score: 1, Troll

      Log in next time Mr. Balmer.

      --
      Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
    3. Re:Coming Soon! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ah, the old "if you respond negatively to Microsoft bashing, you must be Mr. Balmer." A trolling classic that never gets old.

    4. Re:Coming Soon! by Zaiff+Urgulbunger · · Score: 0

      Microsoft ClipArt365, a subscription-based online product where you can the entirety of MS's ClipArt library anywhere in the world*. Never worry about not having the right piece of ClipArt at your fingertips; just use our quick ClipSearch** feature and you'll have the right art at your fingerprints in moments! Then simply insert the art into your Word(tm) document, Excel(tm) spreadsheet or Powerpoint(tm) presentation with a single-click!***. All this for $12/mo or $120/year!

      Not sure I'd have even modded that funny. Right now, MS might be perfectly happy to play fast and loose with other peoples copyright, but it won't be long before they see a potential revenue stream and buy up someone like iStock.

    5. Re:Coming Soon! by halivar · · Score: 4, Funny

      If the chair fits, throw it.

    6. Re:Coming Soon! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      None of what you are saying is true. Only on Slashdot would people flip out over free clip art and start hallucinating monthly fees. The remaining Slashdot users are the worst, now that all the smart people left, and the site is all people who think they're smart because they can't self-assess with low-quality brains.

    7. Re:Coming Soon! by oldmac31310 · · Score: 1

      I think you the verb.

      --
      http://www.acetonestudio.com
    8. Re: Coming Soon! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes but where did they all go?

      Reddit is 75x worse and I think the average level of education there is preschool.

      I try Soylent every now and then but reading the comments there is like watching paint dry: so boring you want to stab your eyes out.

      That leads me to believe a lot of the old school slashdotters simply resigned themselves to a life of hobby enjoyment such as tinkering with RapberryPis or something.

    9. Re: Coming Soon! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Bill Gates already owns Corbis.

    10. Re:Coming Soon! by jez9999 · · Score: 0

      * Internet connection required.
      ** Internet Explorer 12.1 or higher required
      *** Requires Office365 or higher. Art cannot be inserted into other documents. Internet connection required to view document with clipart.

      I think you forgot:
      **** Service not guaranteed to be available 365 days a year.

    11. Re:Coming Soon! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, yes you can

  6. Copyright filter? by ArcadeMan · · Score: 1

    Bing's copyright filter based on the Creative Commons licensing system will let users get royalty-free images which they can use, share, or modify for either personal or commercial use.

    How does that filter works? Do images have internal metadata about licensing? Or is "copyright filter" just another way of saying that searches will only occur on websites hosting Creative Commons photos and images?

    1. Re:Copyright filter? by ihtoit · · Score: 1

      I'm guessing it'll have a filter for a meta "Licenc(/s)e" field. Not all images will have this meta field, they'll be hidden from search results. Instant hit for those companies that have a deal with MS to fix the filters so their images are at the top of the return listings every time...

      --
      Political debates have me rolling my eyes so much I think I got optical whiplash. I should sue. - Foamy The Squirrel
    2. Re:Copyright filter? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Or, a checkbox that let's you choose between images you can use for any purpose, and those you can use only for personal usage. You know, like someone that doesn't wear tinfoil would think of.

    3. Re:Copyright filter? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I imagine the bigger licensing problem is one of attribution... clip art would be like US-style public domain, so you can use for whatever, right? But doesn't Creative Commons require attribution which I am sure that 98% of people will not bother with?

    4. Re:Copyright filter? by quetwo · · Score: 1

      Creative Commons allows the author to specify if attribution is required. It is requested (optional) in the default CC license.

    5. Re:Copyright filter? by ArcadeMan · · Score: 1

      What if Microsoft's programs simply watermark the images with the required attribution? That would require yet more metadata, but IMHO all of this should already exists.

    6. Re:Copyright filter? by LordNimon · · Score: 1

      Based on this page, I would say that it doesn't work at all:

      When you find an image that you want, go to the originating website for the image and determine the actual license for the image.

      --
      And the men who hold high places must be the ones who start
      To mold a new reality... closer to the heart
    7. Re:Copyright filter? by ArcadeMan · · Score: 1

      That's not a filter at all!

      Microsoft could try partnerships with at least a dozen photo hosting services to set a meta-data standard for all the licensing information required to be embedded into the JPEG and PNG files themselves. It would also be a good time to ask Apple and Google to join in the effort to establish such a standard.

  7. Where will we get the "Lightbulb Moment" clip? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The infamous clip of the guy with a stupid grin with a lightbulb cloud over his head, that used to show up in most PowerPoint decks (talking about 15-20 years ago).

  8. Look, it was crap art anyway by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Fine for 1985. Or a Mac. Not for anything useful. Photoshop's art looks like a museum in comparison. Nevermind if I can't spell museum.

    1. Re:Look, it was crap art anyway by Richy_T · · Score: 1

      What if you can spell museum but can't spell "never mind"? ;)

    2. Re:Look, it was crap art anyway by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    3. Re:Look, it was crap art anyway by tepples · · Score: 1

      Still a misspelling. The cover of the album Nevermind isn't likely to be free for use as clip art.

  9. bing and wmf by thevikas2 · · Score: 1

    How the hell will bing fibd vector graphics which clipart was and did windows also kill WMF format alobg or not?

    1. Re:bing and wmf by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Are you typing with a hammer?

  10. Copyright Infringement by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Will Microsoft now indemnify users against copyright infringement for any incorrectly licensed works that Bing finds in it's clipart search? If not, then it is worse than useless.

    Also, some CC licenses contain GPL like viral conditions. Any company with a legal department will ban using this "feature".

    1. Re:Copyright Infringement by bickerdyke · · Score: 1

      And any company with a brain in theirl legal department will add an additional filter to filter out those. At least the advantage of the CC licences is that they are machine readable. (ok. "readable" is a bit misleading. Can be represented by a combination of machine readable flags)

      But still, with the old clipart, you knew that the images belonged to the Offce package and you were fine to include them into documents generated with that office package. (same for Corel Draw. No one bought that for the actual software but rather the clipart library!)

      You now have at least to think about licences. (Like checking for the "sharealike" flag that sums up the "viral" part of the CC)

      No, for most people out there it's more like they WOULD HAVE to think about licences, but rather are enforced in their believe that what comes up in Bing (or Google) image search is public domain. Or else it wouldn't be on the interweb!

      --
      bickerdyke
  11. Remove != Improve by s.petry · · Score: 1, Interesting

    You could already insert images into documents, so your statement is a fabrication. This removes an internal set of images which allowed you to insert images without an internet connection. This is not an improvement as you claim, because this simply removes a feature and does not add anything.

    The library has been hidden from users for a while, so it's not a shock that people don't use it as often today. Having the product depend on their search engine seems like another anti-trust case waiting to happen.

    --

    -The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.

    1. Re:Remove != Improve by quetwo · · Score: 4, Interesting

      MS Clipart wasn't internal, or stored on your local PC since Microsoft Office 2003. It's gone online to download the clipart. In 2003 -> 2010 it cached them locally so that if you downloaded it once, it was cached on your computer so you could re-use it without having to download it again.

      What was nice about the Clipart was they were all vector-based images. Meaning they scaled nicely. All the images that come up using the Bing search are 300x400 or close -- which looks like crap if you try to use it. Sure, most of the images in the clipart library were pretty bad and way overused, but at least they were pixelated crap.

    2. Re: Remove != Improve by DarkKnightRadick · · Score: 0

      You can still insert images without an Internet connection so your statement is patently false.

      Source: Am an Office 365 user.

      --
      "There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death." Proverbs 16:25 (NKJV)
    3. Re:Remove != Improve by binarybum · · Score: 3, Insightful

      exactly. I don't know why the responses here are so positive. Getting rid of a primarily vector based library that takes up little space and is available locally is not a great move at all. If you don't like it, fine don't use it. But your points are well taken - this move to online everything is tedious, slow, and frustrating. I need my documents in a cloud, but I sure don't need my bloody word processor in the cloud.
      Think Global, install Local.

      --
      ôó
    4. Re:Remove != Improve by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's all about the scaling. I for one value graphics formats that scale cleanly and without limits. Bitmaps suck sloughwater at that!

      Yeesh, this is the very problem with the MS desktop. The icons are bitmaps when they should be vectors. Thus when dealing with an unusually large or high resolution monitor, the icons shrink to the point of unusability.

    5. Re:Remove != Improve by RockDoctor · · Score: 1

      MS Clipart wasn't internal, or stored on your local PC since Microsoft Office 2003.

      That could quite likely be the last time I was tempted to use clipart in a document.

      Probably around then, I snaffled a copy of an open clipart library. But I don't think I've needed to use it since. Try https://openclipart.org/downlo... for a DVD or two.

      --
      Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
  12. Who??? by AndyKron · · Score: 1

    It's usage has been declining? That would imply someone actually used it to begin with!

    1. Re:Who??? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The main reason to use Office clip art to me was that I knew the license of the pictures, and I could just take some (crappy) vector drawing and insert to any company presentation. Now that MS removes this feature, the people will lose valuable work time as they browse through network searches that will produce low-res images and which license needs to be checked from few sources to be safe. I bet this whole change will now introduce a new trade, image copyright trolls, who start extorting the public company presentations due to copyright infringement.

    2. Re:Who??? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I wish the usage of extra apostrophes was declining.

      It's means it is.

    3. Re:Who??? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I still liberally use those "screen bean" characters. Without them, I don't know that my TPS reports would have any value to my managers.

  13. STUPID by sootman · · Score: 2

    For all the reasons outline here, unless MS is going to embed their own metadata into every image I use that promises the image is safe, and that if it isn't, MS will foot the bill. Even so, that won't help me if I print something and lose the original digital version with the metadata. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

    --
    Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
  14. Clippy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Clippy will take them.

    All of them.

    The reckoning is nigh.

  15. The Ribbon is a better cut by idontusenumbers · · Score: 0

    Wouldn't it make more sense to remove 'features' that users complain about, like the ribbon, before removing features that are used by only a few users?

    1. Re:The Ribbon is a better cut by jones_supa · · Score: 2

      You can still get the classic Office experience back.

      Click the up arrow in the right hand side of Ribbon, and it is hidden. Now go to the Quick Access toolbar at the left hand side of the titlebar and from its dropdown menu, choose "Show Below the Ribbon". Now you can add any commands that you want into this toolbar and it essentially gives you the same functionality that you had in previous versions of Word.

      Have a nice day.

    2. Re:The Ribbon is a better cut by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I thought 99% of the features in Office were for just a few users... I better not start relying on something obscure but useful in case they remove it.

    3. Re:The Ribbon is a better cut by idontusenumbers · · Score: 0, Troll

      What you suggest is not the classic office experience. It's an experience that is inferior to WinWord 1 from 1991 out of the box. You're suggesting users spend *hours* reconfiguring the UI to a state worse than a version that shipped 23 years ago. They would have to do this on every computer they use. Assuming a computer at work, a computer at home,a child's computer, a laptop, and a friends computer they are helping them with, that's a week configuring toolbars.

    4. Re:The Ribbon is a better cut by jones_supa · · Score: 1

      Well, can't have everything.

    5. Re:The Ribbon is a better cut by jbengt · · Score: 2

      only you are complaining about ribbon.

      No, I'm complaining about the ribbon, too, even though I've gotten used to it.

    6. Re:The Ribbon is a better cut by idontusenumbers · · Score: 1

      I (and almost everyone else) just want what *already existed*

    7. Re:The Ribbon is a better cut by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Of course, but since Microsoft introduced the ribbon, the use of Office has been declining at least on the office I work at. Why spend writing the documents on a tool nobody can use anymore effectively? Easier to replace them with wiki pages in intranet, which even have some kind of search.

    8. Re: The Ribbon is a better cut by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Then you can install a copy of Office 2003.

  16. This is great news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    for repair technicians. Most of the virus cleanings I do come from people searching for images!

  17. EU by Richy_T · · Score: 1

    How long until the EU breaks up this blatant attempt at bundling?

  18. Comic Neue by tepples · · Score: 1

    Even worse IMO is that comic sans font my boss always puts on her PowerPoints

    Would any of these be better?

    1. Re:Comic Neue by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, he must have forgotten about the Font Wars when all but those five fonts were lost to us forever.

  19. Split down the middle by tepples · · Score: 1

    You could always try unmaximizing the window. In Windows 7 or later, press Win+Right for one window and Win+Left for the other.

  20. Laptops are still islands by tepples · · Score: 1

    PCs aren't islands anymore

    They are when they're laptops on a bus, train, or airplane, and your employer is unwilling to foot the bill for mobile Internet.

    1. Re: Laptops are still islands by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Or on an air gapped network with no internet access

  21. ext:svg by tepples · · Score: 1

    How the hell will bing fibd vector graphics which clipart was

    ext:svg, I presume.

  22. Copyright nightmare by mysidia · · Score: 1

    Bing's copyright filter based on the Creative Commons licensing system will let users get royalty-free images which they can use, share, or modify for either personal or commercial use.

    Sorry... you can't safely vet for copyright using an automated tool.

    What happens when someone mistakenly (or maliciously?) mislabels a copyright-protected work managed by a rights troll as CC0 or CCBY ?

  23. Typical Microsoft by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Shoving your shitty ecosystem (Bing) down everyone's throats even when none wants it.