Office 2003 in a Windows 7 world 1

[tf1]

Lies, dam lies and statistics.

The fatal flaw in FR's survey is WHO DID THEY SURVEY?

My guess is that they spied on offices full of untrained users in big companies too mean to train their staff.

Had they done the same tests with experienced, TRAINED users, I'm sure that it would have been the other way around.

If they asked developers, then they definitely would have got the thumbs down.

What has resulted is that two-fingered plonkers (the majority) took priority of experienced users. So marketing won over usability.

Meanwhile, all the training and support organisations kept quiet because all they could see was an unexpected demand for refresher training and more support.



Regards: Terry

 

[lionelhill]

Also depends how the question was asked. To run a quick survey here:

Are you:
(A) Excited by the innovative new concepts of Office2007, including the Ribbon, and eager to put them to use while increasing your productivity and value to your employer?
(B) Uninterested by these new features, and generally content with your current efficiency as limited by the outmoded interfaces of Office2003?
(C) Struggling to cope in the workplace with the Ribbon and other features introduced with Office2007, which you find significantly harder to understand?

 

[anationalacrobat]

Very true, TF. You can buy a survey to justify whatever you want.

 

[fumei]

Like I said, when we went to 2007 (still somewhat limited release) here, those who DO know how to use Word (my specialty so that is wher I have the most interest) dislike it. Those who do NOT know Word well, sort of like it.

But why? I asked.

Because they think it looks "cool". Never mind that even they find it harder to find things, a lot of the (minimum) tasks they do are a bit harder to figure out...it looks "cool".

THEREFORE it is good.

I challende anyone to give real evidence that the change in the GUI has increased any productivity whatsoever.

Mind you, to be fair, this "productivity" illusion goes back a decade. I challenge anyone to give real evidence that ANY Office release from 2000 onwards increased any productivity whatsoever.

Gerry

 

[tf1]

Baseball cap on backwards?



Regards: Terry

 

[fumei]

Huh?

Gerry

 

[tf1]

I was defining 'looking cool' in a derogatory way.



Regards: Terry

 

[fumei]

Ahhhhh. I am too old to have ever considered that as cool.

Gerry

 

[anationalacrobat]

The best part is when you see someone with a backwards ballcap shading their eyes against the sun with their hand!

 

[tf1]

Gerry

Me too. Even my children wouldn't been seen dead with a baseball cap on backwards!

Terry

Regards: Terry

 

[fumei]

Boy, this thread went off into the weeds.

Gerry

 

[lionelhill]

... ok, as a small voice deweeding to a tiny extent: the maths equation editor is now accessible as standard in Word2007 instead of an optional extra in 2003!

 

[TonyJollans]

> Boy, this thread went off into the weeds.

I'm just back off holiday and home for two nights before heading off for the MVP summit so don't have time to catch up properly. Adding comments in the weeds is easy, though, ;-), so a few thoughts:

I have heard baseball caps on backwards described as 'IQ reducers', and it seems a pretty apt description to me.

I am sick to death of hearing new features described as 'cool'. If that is the best description that can be applied to supposedly professional software, it probably isn't worth the time of day.

Along with most serious users, I hate the Ribbon. Whether the quoted figure is true or not, the percentage of users claiming to like the Ribbon is not really a helpful statistic. For every [pick a number significantly greater than one, let's arbitrarily say ..] 100 people who like it, there is probably one who dislikes it and who does more work in Office than all of them combined. To the vendor (Microsoft) each person is seen as one sale; whilst not an accurate view, I wouldn't suggest that the efforts of the average serious user could generate the 100 extra sales, and I have to accept that eye candy = money in the bank.

I *love* portrait monitors. Virtually everything I do is more suited to portrait format than landscape. I have a dual monitor setup, both in portrait format; when I bought the second one (to replace an ailing 5:4 format one) I thought it would be nice to have one in portrait orientation and one in landscape - it took me about half an hour to realise I was wrong and to turn the second monitor round. Wide screens are, I guess, aimed at the same people the Ribbon is aimed at - incidental users who watch movies - trouble is the two don't sit well together.

Enough drivel ...

Enjoy,
Tony

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[cmeagan656]

Wide screens are, I guess, aimed at the same people the Ribbon is aimed at - incidental users who watch movies - trouble is the two don't sit well together.

I have a wide screen, high definition, monitor and while I do watch the occasional movie on it (I don't own a TV) I use the wide screen more for "useful" things. I do a lot of remote computer support so I can use logmein or RDP to access a remote client, reduce the remote session window slightly, and have all my tech notes from my own files on the side. A wide screen comes in handy for other things too - document formatting, brochure production, photo editing, etc.

I minimize the ribbon, use small icons with no text, and the default 1920 x 1080 resolution of my monitor to gain more display space.

Hope this helps.

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[TonyJollans]

The fact that things can be done on a wide screen isn't really the point - of course they can - but it is just as easy to have two windows one above the other on a portrait monitor as it is to have them side by side on a landscape one.

I do accept that there is an element of personal preference in this but the only thing I know that doesn't work well in portrait format is watching movies - something I never do. Documents are generally portrait shaped (and I can view landscape pages at 100% in half my portrait screen), most web pages waste huge amounts of space at the sides of wide screens. I can imagine scenarios where some spreadsheets and/or databases are better in wide screen, but nothing I do with any regularity falls into that category.

The fact that you minimise the Ribbon to gain space simply highlights its failings. The default resolution on my primary monitor is 1200*1920 and I don't need to minimise the Ribbon as a matter of course, because it isn't so obstructive - and I keep thinking it will help me learn it, if it is there, on screen, all the time, although, so far, in more than three years, that hasn't worked :-(

Enjoy,
Tony

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[fumei]

although, so far, in more than three years, that hasn't worked "


Stop! Stop! I am laughing so hard my side hurts!

I hope you enjoy the Summit, Tony....so close, yet so far.

Gerry

 

[TonyJollans]

Thanks, Gerry. Sorry you're not here. I got in yesterday and slept a lot and am hoping I can keep going for the next three or four days. Things are just about to get going but attendance is quite a bit down on recent years - so far I have seen Ken (Puls) but no-one else that I think you know - I think there are only going to be about 4 Word MVPs here.

Enjoy,
Tony

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[fumei]

Say hi to Ken.

Gerry

 

[rji1124]

The only thing I have found disastrously wrong with Excel 2007 is that Microsoft took away the pulldown filter function in Pivot Table charts. This is used extensively here and it has caused us to have to save everything where we need this function as a 2003 doc and review stats on a standalone server that still has Excel 2003 on it.
Oddly enough - this function has reappeared in Excel 2010; unfortunately we probably won't see it for a number of years here.

 

[kjv1611]

[holding up hand in back corner of class, no head, just bald head blinding everyone with the light refection from the florescent lights]

Actually, I like the ribbon. Yes, it does look nicer, but that's not the only reason. Some of the most common things I can get to in a one or two quick clicks, rather than burrowing through menus like a mole. And besides that, many of the same keyboard shortcuts still work. I just had to learn to adjust for those that changed... like being used to hitting the Alt key, then borrowing through menus with my keyboard when necessary.

I think I like it moreso in Excel than Word, so perhaps it depends upon which Office App you're discussing? I don't like the fact that you can't customize it as easily as you could the old toolbars in previous versions. Also, not ribbon-related-directly, I am not crazy on the change in shortcuts in Outlook. It's a small thing, really, but having to hit <Alt-N, A, F> to insert a file seems ridiculous when before you could just hit <Alt, I, F> before... why do they have to add another keystroke for the same thing? Well, again, it's not really a big deal.

Overall, I like 2007 better than 2003 and previous. Just took some time getting used to. I use it at work, home, and church, all in different scenarios with different needs.

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me