It's official. Microsoft likes Mac users more than Windows users

[cbelt3]

Because, in Excel 2011, they allow Mac users to use the 'old menu' instead of forcing them to use the damn 'ribbon' like they do to all Windows users.

Blech. Worst.. Menu... change.. Ever.

And what freaks me out even more ? Microsoft STILL maintains an option in Excel 2010 that allows Lotus 1-2-3 menu commands to work. WTF ?

[Chakravartin]

No. They just like to play head-games with us.

Outlook in Office 2011 forces BOTH the ribbon and a redundant toolbar on users.

[$tevie]

I'm so fed up with with the way they keep messing around with Office. We had to have a 'class' here at work on how to find things when Office 2007 for Windows was released. Not how to do things, how to find things in order to be able to do things. Good grief.

EDIT: I feel like Adobe has gotten just as bad. I'm pretty fed up with these big-time software companies, frankly.

[lazydays]

In some ways apple is going down that road also. In the newest version of iphoto you have to click "share" and then click "email" where before you could just click email. Two clicks instead of one, stupid. To search you have to click the search button and then it gives you a search field, before the search field was just there. They aren't short on room at the bottom of the screen so why they made everything two clicks instead of one is beyond me.

Totally agree about recent MS products though. It's so damned hard to find anything anymore in Win7!

[RAMd®d]

There's a point where software features and utility plateau.

So the vendors create "new and improved" features that are different, but not particularly efficient or effective.

That's not to say that real, valuable improvements can't be made. But UI in particular is a tricky thing, and a lot of manufacturers don't get it.

So we end up not with change for the sake of change, but change for the sake of sales.

[cbelt3]

I actually DO understand why Micro$oft has given us the damn "Ribbon".

In Office 2007 (and Visual Studio, developer tools, etc..) they pushed a complete human interface change that assumes that the software of the future will ONLY be run from inside a...

Web Browser.

Hence 'menus' are an unavailable control feature. So they've dropped 'em.

It's all part of their strategy that has .. failed.

M$ has offered Office as a 'SOS" (Software as a Service). But they wanted to charge for it. And then... Google Docs.

*Boom*. There goes THAT business model ! But they've kept the sucky interface problems.

[tortoise]

Chakravartin wrote:
No. They just like to play head-games with us.

Outlook in Office 2011 forces BOTH the ribbon and a redundant toolbar on users.

RTFM
Ribbon easily turned off under view dropdown, As to the toolbar? not clear what you are referring to, if it is the navigation pane then that like the ribbon is easily turned off under the view dropdown with both of them off the only visible item left is the standard toolbar across the top that is like most other apple toolbars with bare minimum of icons.

There is much to like about the new Outlook, compatibility with Exchange servers eliminates one of the major gripes of many users. Also the new method of handling mail as individual files rather than one large database makes it work a lot better with TimeMachine and many other forms of backups in that only the new messages are backed up as opposed to entire database with each new email. Previous versions of Entourage with the single database were always in danger of corruption of that essential database and the results could be a disastrous loss of email history. While far from perfect it seems a worthy effort with much to like IMHO?

[Chakravartin]

> Ribbon easily turned off under view dropdown

But they stripped the toolbar, so you need the ribbon for basic utility. What they ought to do is move the oversized ribbon stuff into the toolbar.


> the new method of handling mail as individual files
> rather than one large database makes it work a lot
> better...

One step forward, 10 years of progress backwards.

Bleh.

[SDGuy]

Remember, it's part of the "Fluent User Interface", or as I prefer to call it - the "F U Interface" from Microsoft..

[lost in space]

Sounds like the Peter Principle in software.