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Microsoft To Give Office 365, Office.com Apps a Makeover (zdnet.com)

Posted by msmash on from the facelift dept.

On the heels of recent redesigns by Google and Apple, Microsoft is giving its Office apps a facelift over the coming months. From a report: Over the coming months, Microsoft will begin rolling out changes to the interface of Outlook, Word, Excel and PowerPoint for Office 365 and Office Online (Office.com) users. Key to the Office app redesign are an updated Ribbon, icon refreshes and new ways to more easily see changes coming to the Office suite. There's a simplified version of the Office Ribbon, which allows users to collapse it so it takes up less space and hides many options, or keep it expanded into the current three-line view. Microsoft is starting to roll out this new Ribbon in the web version of Word to "select consumer users today in Office.com." In July, Microsoft will also make this new Ribbon design available in Outlook for Windows. "We've found that the same ten commands are used 95% of the time by everybody," said Jon Friedman, General Manager of Design Management and Operations. In Outlook such as "Reply," "Reply All" and "Forward" are basically universal. But that other five percent is different for every person, so Microsoft is adding an option to remove commands from the Ribbon, such as Archive, for example, and pin others to it, such as "Reply by IM."

88 comments

  1. I've never quite gotten used to... by b0s0z0ku · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I've never quite gotten used to the "ribbon" interface in MS Office apps since 2007. Which is why I prefer LibreOffice, a menu system (accessible with keyboard shortcuts) seems much more logical to me than a mess of icons up top.

    I'd love to see a right/middle button context menu that can be popped up.

    1. Re:I've never quite gotten used to... by avandesande · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The thing that irks me the most is not that they created a ribbon interface but that you couldn't turn it off and revert to a menu system. It would be trivial to maintain both interfaces.

      --
      love is just extroverted narcissism
    2. Re:I've never quite gotten used to... by b0s0z0ku · · Score: 1

      There used to be unofficial extensions that restored a usable interface not designed for numpties -- not sure if they work on 365/2016/2019 though

    3. Re:I've never quite gotten used to... by Anonymous+Brave+Guy · · Score: 2

      I'm still waiting to see what radical improvements have been made in the last 15 years, and why Office 2003 era applications with a handful of modest updates couldn't still do much the same job for most people...

      --
      If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
    4. Re:I've never quite gotten used to... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The best version of Office was 2003 when they had a menu system. Users who are truly proficient in Office had their productivity hindered by the ribbon, and the slow but progressive removal of keyboard shortcuts that no longer work (both in Office and Windows). I can name several shortcuts that simply no longer work, and for no good reason besides forcing the user to a dumbed down graphical/mouse interface.

      And FFS, fix the search functionality in powerpoint so that it works like the rest of office and doesn't "helpfully" remember previous searches. I got pushed the latest upgrade of powerpoint a few months ago and this is seriously broken. Does anyone even test these releases for usability? Apparently not...

    5. Re:I've never quite gotten used to... by PPH · · Score: 2

      the slow but progressive removal of keyboard shortcuts that no longer work

      More this than anything else. Back when I developed some moderate proficiency with Autocad, I transitioned from using the menu system to command line (keyboard) operations. As do almost all of the power users. And that's true of many applications that have a well thought out and stable keyboard command option.

      Menus and ribbons are what sell the app to the PHB.

      --
      Have gnu, will travel.
    6. Re:I've never quite gotten used to... by iampiti · · Score: 3, Informative

      Yeah, and it would also been trivial to keep the classic start menu on Windows 8 but in both cases the change obviously didn't happen for technical reasons but for commercial ones: Microsoft just thought it better to force people to use the new way.
      Also, Libreoffice has done just that: Added a new ribbon-like menu system but also kept the classic menu system. And the thing is pretty configurable. Just as it should be

    7. Re:I've never quite gotten used to... by nosfucious · · Score: 1

      It doesn't need to be updated, much. Just the ability to dock it on the left or right of the screen would be nice. Or bottom, if that's your thing.

      So many menu bars, start bars, tool bars all at the top of the screen. And so much wasted space on the sides of the screen with modern 16:9 monitors.

      --
      Q:I was listening to a CD in Grip and it sounded horrible! What's up? A:Perhaps you are listening to country music
    8. Re:I've never quite gotten used to... by jwhyche · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The problem with the ribbon system is it actually is better. People just need to get used to it and figure it out for themselves.

      --
      I read at +2. If your post doesn't reach that level I will not see or respond to it.
    9. Re:I've never quite gotten used to... by avandesande · · Score: 1

      Did you ever consider that it might be 'better' for a certain set of people? I am a professional of 25+ years and use dozens of applications. Word isn't one the ones I use that often but I do use it enough that trying to remember where the icon is and what it looks like is #$%^ing hassle.

      --
      love is just extroverted narcissism
    10. Re:I've never quite gotten used to... by hackertourist · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The ribbon system was somewhat better than Word's unholy mess of unlogical menus and dialogs stacked 3 levels deep. Compared to a well-designed menu system it still stinks though.
      When you're working in a table for instance, you keep having to switch between 4-5 tabs that each contain 3 functions you need, and a dozen useless ones.

      The Ribbon is also optimized for people who remember things visually (so they can find the icon even if it's in a sea of similar-looking icons) to the detriment of people who remember things by name (for whom the menu system with actual descriptions instead of just a cartoon was perfect).

      And now that Microsoft has expanded its use to e.g. Windows Explorer in W10, that has gone down the drain as well.

    11. Re:I've never quite gotten used to... by LostMonk · · Score: 1

      There are keyboard shortcuts for lots of the functions in MS Office, and a right-click context menu. When was the last time you opened a an MS Office application?

    12. Re:I've never quite gotten used to... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It would be trivial to maintain both interfaces.

      Now think about double the support cost.

    13. Re:I've never quite gotten used to... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There are keyboard shortcuts for lots of the functions in MS Office, and a right-click context menu. When was the last time you opened a an MS Office application?

      More like when was the first time you did. There used to be a time when you could keep both hands on the keyboard and just type and format away even in MS Office. Now it's all pointy-clicky. And get off my lawn anyway.

    14. Re:I've never quite gotten used to... by jwhyche · · Score: 3

      Word isn't one the ones I use that often but I do use it enough that trying to remember where the icon is and what it looks like is #$%^ing hassle

      An this would be the whole point of my statement, and the cruft of your problem. You don't use it every day. I do use it ever day and so to so many other people. Sure, it took a little getting used to at first. But after that I, and so many other people, realize that it is a better system.

      Where it really shines is on my surface pro, or any other touch screen laptop/tablet. In a few swipes with my finger and what I'm looking for is done. Menu systems on small screens suck.

      --
      I read at +2. If your post doesn't reach that level I will not see or respond to it.
    15. Re:I've never quite gotten used to... by jwhyche · · Score: 2

      The ribbon system was somewhat better than Word's unholy mess of unlogical menus and dialogs stacked 3 levels deep. Compared to a well-designed menu system it still stinks though.

      I don't believe you can blame this on ether a ribbon system or menus layout. I would put the blame squarely on microsoft for trying to cram everything and its dog in to word/exel/whatever.

      --
      I read at +2. If your post doesn't reach that level I will not see or respond to it.
    16. Re:I've never quite gotten used to... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I would put the blame squarely on microsoft for trying to cram everything and its dog in to word/exel/whatever.

      Because for once they were just doing what their users wanted them to do? After all, the customer is always right, and if some user requested a feature be added, then good developers are required to put it in somewhere. Refusing not to would amount to dumbing down the interface, which is arrogant and condescending.

    17. Re:I've never quite gotten used to... by scdeimos · · Score: 1

      And FFS, fix the search functionality in powerpoint so that it works like the rest of office and doesn't "helpfully" remember previous searches.

      I thought it was a huge improvement when MS integrated Lookout search into Outlook 2010. However the actual search input control in recent versions of Outlook is in desparate need of some fixing, too. I had to paste a search query into it the other day because it kept rewriting what I had typed into a previous search term. Fucking useless.

    18. Re:I've never quite gotten used to... by tlhIngan · · Score: 1

      I've never quite gotten used to the "ribbon" interface in MS Office apps since 2007. Which is why I prefer LibreOffice, a menu system (accessible with keyboard shortcuts) seems much more logical to me than a mess of icons up top.

      If you hit Alt, you know, the key you use to trigger any menu or other thing in Windows, you'll find the Ribbon helpfully pops up all the shortcuts. It first pops up the categories, then it'll list the items inside the ribbon category you select. And the quick menu is listed as Alt-1 through Alt-9 (also through the little popups).

      The only annoying thing is that if you want to access what's on the current ribbon panel, you have to still select it, so if you'r elooking at the "home" ribbon on Word, you still have to press alt-h and then the letter of the option. It's treated internally as a menu system.

      This may not hold true for other Ribbons, as Microsoft had 3 different ribbon implementations available. One was in Office, the second was used by other Microsoft products (notably, Visual Studio), the third was provided by Microsoft (or a third party?) to get a ribbon into third party applications.

      And yes, this is handy to avoid having to mouse all the way over at times.

    19. Re:I've never quite gotten used to... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ah ---
      I see the pussy whiner is here complaining about a interface change that happened over 10 years ago.

      Way to grow the hell up dude.

    20. Re:I've never quite gotten used to... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Jesus fucking Christ, just add the "three functions" to your own custom menu item and get on with it.

      Or take a class, or remember that the keyboard shortcuts still work.

    21. Re:I've never quite gotten used to... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So you can name several shortcuts that do not work?

      Name one, just one.

      Ahh- pulling more feces out your ear eh?

    22. Re: I've never quite gotten used to... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They were wrong then and they are wrong now: the Ribbon sucks.

    23. Re:I've never quite gotten used to... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I had to paste a search query into it the other day because it kept rewriting what I had typed into a previous search term.

      Used to be that what you didn't know couldn't hurt you. Now, it's like we need the opposite of user interface GUI discoverability that was nice in days past --we lack any way to *bury* auto-correct options that come out of nowhere and punish muscle memory. Almost always, they're rolled out without any way to turn off the macro, kinda like how we got the Office Ribbon, or the disappearing File menus in non-office MS programs ("Windows" Explorer and Internet Explorer)

      In the past 10 years we've seen input box editing turn absolutely hostile in the name of web 3.0. I'm looking at you, @-mention completions! you're typing code-sy text in a programmer's company chat and accidentally trigger the username autocomplete because you're telling someone how to avoid an issue with all users in general for say, "@example.com" but now some dropdown captures your cursor and steals keyboard focus *forcing* you to scroll down a list of @eclinton, @ejones, @esmith without some obvious way to pick the nonexistent user "@example" or fill out your own. After the first few times you become aware each instance requires that you click elsewhere to leave an incomplete word, then move your keyboard focus to retype the code and and carefully avoid pressing the spacebar trigger (you have to use the forward arrow keys to gain safe harbor but it takes some training to mentally add a few dummy words to allow the escape into non-triggerable area of your still-incomplete sentence).

      If you have to paste a list of email addresses into the Slack chat and have to edit any one of the emails to fix a typo, prepare for more pain. Autocomplete hostility is old. Everyone here has seen offline-intended documents where an email address or tld domain inadvertently left alone in a sorry state of blue-underline hyperlinks that nobody will ever click on, because Word says "URL must be click-able!" and the secretary (and many very technical people since then) just couldn't figure out how to fix, and eventually acquiesced airgapped domain underlining into a defacto standard.

      Everywhere you look, you type code that is translated and abstracted away and must be retyped so you can regain control --Atlassian's Confluence Wiki used to allow a low-level brace-macro wiki code system (a major point in being a wiki is having wiki tags --edit anything on wikipedia and you'll see a traditional way of doing it). With version 4 or so all our old docs became impossible to low-level edit --you type something mixing code and formatting and prepare for the pain of fighting the editor to specify that an asterisk here is a bullet, versus a bold-text-delimiter-sentinel, versus just plain old asterisk. Pasting code often ends up with unwanted formatting metadata muddying your page where you only meant to have plain text...

      A similar thing is when you type a Google search and must fight with it until double-quotes, plus signs or parens force the parser to look for what you mean as a complete phrase, instead of their "did you mean" replacements so slowly forced down our throats since 2010 till the queries became random guesswork.

    24. Re:I've never quite gotten used to... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      "So many menu bars, start bars, tool bars all at the top of the screen."

      I hate the Post-2002 ribbons (remember when "ribbons" where called toolbars?) but his was fine back in the days of the AOL / MSOffice / IE / Netscape toolbar. We had TALL 4:3 portrait screens everywhere... When Office 2003 rolled out, landscape setup screens were a home luxury and portrait was a long way from fading as the defacto standard in, um, Offices.
      Toolbars (and by association, the icky ribbon) were not bad since there was plenty of vertical room in your MDI text areas. The toolbars had become with IE3 configurable toolbar mentality. The existing uses of the pre-2003 versions allowed for power users to play around and feel at home. The Ribbon people applied a very Apple-reminiscent move by railroading options --apparently this was extreme compensation for the brand new Office 2002 dynamic menus that were an annoying detour into a menu that would hide entries you touched less in favor of options that you'd recently clicked. So instead of restoring the status quo, someone decided to give us menus that would not change, and remove some options permanently in some good faith that user-testing groups were producing these buttons in usable toolbar layouts without leaving sane options behind.

      Sadly, we lost our vertical real-estate some years later, but never regained our menus... well, except in an extreme where you can do the "show menu/hide menu" altogether. Pressing ALT to get view the menus and shortcut underlines is another usability tragedy.

    25. Re:I've never quite gotten used to... by mcswell · · Score: 1

      So I guess what you're saying is that for people who use MsWord every day, the hieroglyphics are good enough. But for the rest of the world, not.

      BTW, it looks like your sig line is not true; you responded to a score=1. (Unless somehow it's been mod'd down.)

    26. Re:I've never quite gotten used to... by mcswell · · Score: 1

      Agreed. For the record, another annoyance with newer versions of Word is that when I open a file that happens to be read-only (which includes anything that gets emailed to me), the search tool is entirely different from the search tool for a doc that I have open in write mode. And IIRC, it can't be called up by the same keystroke. I can understand why it opens docs in email as read-only, I just want to have the same UI insofar as possible.

    27. Re:I've never quite gotten used to... by jwhyche · · Score: 2

      BTW, it looks like your sig line is not true; you responded to a score=1. (Unless somehow it's been mod'd down.)

      It's not a firm fast rule, more like a guide line. Besides, I find my self with a lot of mod points and I do meta moderate from time to time. I actually do try to follow the guide lines and be fair when moderating.

      --
      I read at +2. If your post doesn't reach that level I will not see or respond to it.
    28. Re:I've never quite gotten used to... by avandesande · · Score: 1

      FFS I was arguing that they should keep the ribbon and add an option to switch to the menu. So what was your point in the first place?

      --
      love is just extroverted narcissism
    29. Re:I've never quite gotten used to... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Agree. I hate the ribbon. Its much easier to look in an organized menu than guess what icons mean. if im going to memorize anything, it is the keyboard shortcuts for commands I use often.

    30. Re:I've never quite gotten used to... by mcswell · · Score: 1

      I appreciate the comment. I do some moderation (I've never meta-moderated, although I did get an invite, it just came at a bad time). But I do find it hard to be fair when moderating--it's so very tempting to favor posts that I agree with. I hope I successfully avoid that temptation.

    31. Re:I've never quite gotten used to... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But then the great leaders of design who introduced ribbon could get humiliated if telemetry revealed that people did use ribbon. When ribbon was force pushed to my work machines, my usage of Word&Excel features started dropping as I could not find the rarely used features anymore.

      Perhaps on next iteration MS will completely remove 95% of the features as their users can not find or use them. Of course fixing the UI to be intuitive and discoverable is not an option.

    32. Re:I've never quite gotten used to... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is the same thing with Windows 8...all of a sudden "ZOMG! It's **UNUSABLE**" from hoards of slashdot contributors who are clearly technically illiterate since the slightest change to their workflow and they can't cope. EVERY other way to launch a program still existed but without the start menu they were completely dumbfounded...at least that explains why desktop linux has never caught on, the problem is the incompetent users.

      Obviously change for the sake of change is not good but when the objections are just massive hyperbole from excitable drama queens you can see why these companies aren't really going to listen.

    33. Re:I've never quite gotten used to... by TuringTest · · Score: 1

      I have several MS Office apps open right now, and you can still pretty much control the whole thing by keyboard alone. I count being able to use point&click as a plus, given that it is an option, not mandatory.

      Oh, and the first MS Word version I used was 6.0, so it's not a generational thing.

      --
      Singularity: a belief in the "God" idea with the "demiurge" relation inverted.
    34. Re:I've never quite gotten used to... by hackertourist · · Score: 1

      Sure, I've done that for a few functions, but I don't want to rebuild half the UI just to make the program usable. That should be Microsoft's job, not mine.
      And I don't use Word often enough to remember Word-specific shortcuts.

    35. Re:I've never quite gotten used to... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, he's actually saying that the ribbon is better if you're not actually typing, but fat-fingering a touch device.

  2. How about no ribbon? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I really wish there was a way to simply do away with the ribbon. Before, I could simply click on a menu item and move between different columns *without* having to click on a different subject and try to find what I wanted. I waste more time clicking and finding the item I want with a ribbon style menu setup. Please leave it to a common menu list like I have in any other application.

    1. Re:How about no ribbon? by b0s0z0ku · · Score: 1

      But ... how will tablet users use the app without a keyboard? Braaaawk! Awwwwwwk! Touch-enabled! Modern app! Braaaaaaawk!

    2. Re:How about no ribbon? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Braaaawk! Awwwwwwk! Pointer device! GUI! Braaaaaaawk!

      Long forgotten malcontents had the same hangups about the things xerox/apple came up with.

    3. Re:How about no ribbon? by b0s0z0ku · · Score: 1

      And they were frankly often right -- a GUI is often a distraction from typing and writing, not an aid.

    4. Re:How about no ribbon? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well you and they go ahead and hold your breath for distraction free VT100s to make a big comeback. I'm sure that will happen any minute now. Good luck!

    5. Re:How about no ribbon? by b0s0z0ku · · Score: 2

      I'm not saying they should, but doing actual work on a "tablet" interface is a fucking disaster.

    6. Re:How about no ribbon? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Old people often feel this way. The young greatly prefer touch+voice interfaces on portable devices and perform well with them. Old fashioned keyboard+pointer systems are obsolete as far as they're concerned and won't survive their expectations.

    7. Re:How about no ribbon? by b0s0z0ku · · Score: 1

      Millennial idiots feel that way until there's some actual work to be done... Better to be old than being stupid, son.

    8. Re:How about no ribbon? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not millennials, grandpa. Young people.

      Let me guess; you're an aging hipster knocking around some techbro hub in CA with 0.0 kids, right? That's why this is lost on you. Parents with kids in school today get it. To those kids you and your collection of clapped out laptops look like Jed Clampett crank starting his olds roadster. They giggle quietly when you're not looking.

    9. Re:How about no ribbon? by b0s0z0ku · · Score: 1

      Higher ed seems to be a 30:30:30:10 mix... 30% Apple laptops, 30% Windows laptops, 30% Chromebooks, 10% "other", where "other" equals tablets, Linux devices, and whatever other odd stuff people bring to the classroom. Tablets are terrible for doing real work -- try writing an equation-heavy paper on one. Can be done, but why bother?

      Oh, and I'm not in the Bay Area or CA, no interest in living there.

  3. Why so much Microsoft news? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Did u guys finally take their money?

    1. Re:Why so much Microsoft news? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The poster, "Microsoft Mash," gives every appearance of being a Microsoft shill.

      Prediction: Now that Github has been neutralized, expect Slashdot.org to be purchased by Microsoft.

      Any day now.

  4. Did microsoft buy slashdot by goombah99 · · Score: 2

    was it included as part of the git deal?

    --
    Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
    1. Re:Did microsoft buy slashdot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      was it included as part of the git deal?

      It's github, honey.

  5. Just give me back... by InfiniteBlaze · · Score: 2

    the menu options that I loved in 2003. I hate the ribbon. It's nowhere near as intuitive as the very simple menus. I don't need or want icons on my menu bar.

    1. Re:Just give me back... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Simple solution:

      $ sudo apt-get install libreoffice

    2. Re:Just give me back... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Here's what gives back the old 2003 menus to new Office programs:

      http://www.ubit.ch/software/ubitmenu-languages/

      No connection other than knowing people like having the option.

    3. Re:Just give me back... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Now none of my documents open properly!

    4. Re: Just give me back... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So no change then?

    5. Re:Just give me back... by AvgUser · · Score: 1

      Brilliant!

    6. Re:Just give me back... by TuringTest · · Score: 1

      Bad luck, then. Office 2003 had icons in the menu items.

      --
      Singularity: a belief in the "God" idea with the "demiurge" relation inverted.
    7. Re:Just give me back... by InfiniteBlaze · · Score: 1

      There's a difference between a toolbar and a menu bar.

  6. So what?! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    On the heels of recent redesigns by Google and Apple,......

    Just because they're doing it doesn't mean you have to! And I HATE having to learn a new UI.

    It slows me down and lowers productivity. I have better things to do than to read a goddamn manual or search help just because the dipshit marketing and design people have nothing better to do.

  7. Queue retraining employees in... by ebrandsberg · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Seriously, the ribbon was supposed to allow a more generic interface, where an action is associated with the icon. If the icons change, then you have effectively forced retraining of people that use this. The menu style interface uses a bit more space, but has the advantage of providing "discoverable" functions for users. IMHO, this makes it a much better interface, in particular for people that only infrequently use a tool. It is much easier to click through the menus looking for a function than to figure out what all the icons mean.

  8. The wheels of progress never stop by Waffle+Iron · · Score: 2

    There's a simplified version of the Office Ribbon, which allows users to collapse it so it takes up less space and hides many options ....

    But that other five percent is different for every person, so Microsoft is adding an option to remove commands from the Ribbon, such as Archive, for example, and pin others to it, such as "Reply by IM.

    Now this is Innovation!.

    I think Microsoft should come up with memorable names for these new features, possibly something like "pulldown menu" and "customizable toolbar".

    I think the USPTO is going to be busy poring over a bevy of new GUI filings in the upcoming months.

  9. You're hiding the real news: by slashdice · · Score: 1

    Microsoft is rewriting Office in Javascript. Hopefully it never sees the light of day. Or maybe they just love open source so much, they want to increase LibreOffice's marketshare!

    --
    Copyright (c) 1990 - 2014 Dice. All rights reserved. Use of this comment is subject to certain Terms and Conditions.
    1. Re:You're hiding the real news: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Just an FYI you already have OnlyOffice, which is pretty much that.

  10. Gotta meet that Microsoft daily quota of articles by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I miss Slashdot.

  11. Unless by DarkRookie · · Score: 1

    Unless they are making it at least 500% faster, who cares.
    The online apps are sooooo slow compared to the desktop version.

    --
    The millennial that doesn't like most of the stuff designed for millennials.
  12. uhoh... by SuperDre · · Score: 1

    Will it work even crappier than it currently does? It seems that with every new update to the webbased versions of office like outlook it gets worse and worse.. What the hell are those designers doing..

  13. No more spying would be great! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    PLEASE no Spying?

  14. It will have an interface learning tool. by az-saguaro · · Score: 1

    Back when, customizable toolbars and drop down menus made it all convenient and discoverable. Then, they went and changed it all up, apparently just because . . . another MS screw-the-user "engineering" arts and crafts project. But, sooner or later, people can adapt or adjust to anything, undoubtedly to the great consternation of the wizards of Redmond. So, just when people have started to learn or memorize the ribbon layout and new icons, time to switch it up again. But fear not my dear alarmed user friends. MS plans to make it easy for you this time. Their software will include a new AI / VR enabled virtual concierge to quide you. He goes by the name of Clippy 2. And since the new icons will be in that thin monoline style, Clippy 2 will keep warm by wearing a t-shirt that says "MS Bob". Of course, input methods need to be as streamilined as the interface, so only 10 keys on your keyboard will work. Clippy 2 will help you discover which ones.

    1. Re:It will have an interface learning tool. by mcswell · · Score: 1

      It looks like you're trying to post on slashdot. Would you like help?
      --Clippy Jr

  15. Of course by Revek · · Score: 2

    Everyone wants to relearn their interface every few years.

  16. Re:Gotta meet that Microsoft daily quota of articl by Revek · · Score: 1

    Does slashdot miss AC?

  17. Thinkin 123 had them smarticons 20 yrs ago... by AvgUser · · Score: 1

    Welcome back to 1998, Lotus 123.

  18. Re:Queue retraining employees in... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Exactly. The number of people in my workplace that got confused over the new "focused" inbox was staggering. They complained and complained. I discovered workarounds to this and eventually a group policy could be done.

    I feel this SaaS model is working as intended. Provide the "illusion" of things getting better, when in actual fact it's still just an office product that does about everything it ever could since the 90's - 28 freaking years later.

  19. Oh no not again! by aslvstr · · Score: 1

    I just got used to the "newest" interface and now I have to get used to the changes again.

  20. arghhh by bigdavex · · Score: 1

    I am so tired of relearning this shit.

    --
    -Dave
  21. Death to the Ribbon by MoarSauce123 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I hope they finally remove the ribbon and replace it with a space saving and much easier to use menu system.

    1. Re:Death to the Ribbon by mcswell · · Score: 1

      Well, they could keep the Ribbon if they did a few things to it.

      Like instead of having an entirely separate 'File' menu, they could include that in the rest of the Ribbon as a 'File' tab.

      Then they could get rid of the 'Home' tab (I've never quite understood what it has to do with my home, or even with home base), and they could distribute its contents among other tabs, like maybe tabs named 'Edit', 'View', 'Insert', 'Format', 'Tools', and 'Table'. That would allow them to keep Alt-H for 'Help', where the 'Help' tab could contain things like 'Word Help' and 'About Word' (where the latter would display version information etc.).

      Finally, they could allow the user to hide the hieroglyphs and just keep the names of functions, I'll call these "tab elements." Some of these tab elements would correspond to simple commands, like there could be a 'Copy' command in the 'Edit' tab. Other tab elements would have to lead to sub-tabs or dialog boxes. For instance, the 'Format' tab might contain words like 'Font...', 'Paragraph...', 'Bullets and numbering...', 'Borders and shading...' etc., each of which would bring up a sub-tab or a dialog box. I guess these tab elements could be stacked on top of each other.

      I thought of getting a patent on this, but it turns out someone already came up with my idea. There's a picture of one of these tabs here: https://www.ischool.utexas.edu...

  22. Wait a minute... by ZenShadow · · Score: 3, Funny

    ...did they just re-invent the toolbar?

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    -- sigs cause cancer.
  23. 0h look, another M$ story! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You should just rename this 1 M$ Way!

  24. Libre office by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I am happy about the ribbon. It's what made me switch to Libre Office. I'd still be using MS Office it wasn't for the ribbon.

  25. Re:Queue retraining employees in... by bradley13 · · Score: 1

    "an action is associated with the icon"

    Ah, the continuing regression into hieroglyphics. One might have thought that we had language for a reason. And now, changing the icons that people have learned?

    I haven't used Office much since they invented the ribbon. That was the last push I needed to move to OpenOffice and now LibreOffice.

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    Enjoy life! This is not a dress rehearsal.
  26. Lipstick on a pig by Camarillo+Brillo · · Score: 1

    It's all just makeup. The bigger issues that need fixing are under the skin. Its still confusing for example, when Word decides to move your graphics to some random location in your document. Have you been screwed by the Office365 vs their free Office (microsoft live?) confusion? MS is so large that thete are two different development stream, with separate support groups. Try getting help from MS? Yea right! MS had only produced two good programs and 1 OS in their whole life (Visual Studio, Excel, and DOS). They really have much more important problems to solve than their bloated UI.

  27. Re:Queue retraining employees in... by Tora · · Score: 1

    Contextual interfaces like the ribbons remind me if VI and its editor/non-editor mode. Although I'm a fan of VI, I know many people really struggle with moded context on UX, and I think this also shows in how difficult it can be to train and use on the ribbon interface. It's just a more complex moded system.

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    tora