I don't think "intuitive" was exactly what MS was shooting for. The term the
developers kept using was "discoverable." The problem with the old menu
structure (especially adaptive menus) was that there were so many commands
and features that users never discovered (if you read these NGs regularly,
you'll be amazed at the number of questions about the very existence of a
way to produce, say, footnotes). The idea here was to make everything
in-your-face. The other premise of the design (which I think we later
demonstrated was based on incorrectly interpreted CEIP data*) was that some
hugely high percentage of users never customize anything in the UI. MS
concluded that consistency was a desirable goal: that everything should
always be in the same place--for all users. This theoretically makes support
easier because you can confidently assume that every user has the same
buttons in the same groups on the same tabs all the time.
I agree that making Print Preview so hard to get to was a step backward.
That was one of the first buttons I added to my QAT. I also am still
primarily using Word 2003, dipping into 2007 only to attempt to answer
users' questions and to try to update my WordFAQs articles. So I also do a
lot of wandering around looking for things. I'm sure the placement of
features was carefully thought out (and even agonized over), and it is
certainly more logical than the "junk drawer" that the Tools menu had
become, but it is definitely a huge paradigm shift.
*CEIP in Word 2003 reported users' use of commands. I'm not sure it
distinguished between clicking buttons and using keyboard shortcuts, hence
the continued prominence of the Cut, Copy, and Paste buttons. But the main
problem was that a customization was reported, if at all, only once (when
the user added a button or menu item). If a user started using Word 2003
with customized toolbars and menus inherited from an earlier version, no
customization was reported at all. AIUI, there was no way to reflect that,
every time a user used a certain command, it was via an added toolbar button
rather than by going through a dialog or choosing from a menu, or that the
user had created a custom menu or toolbar or whatever. While I am quite
willing to believe that most users *don't* customize, and it is also perhaps
true that the users who customize most may well have declined to participate
in CEIP, I also believe that customization (including that done by means of
custom templates) was vastly underreported.
--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
"Martin C" wrote in message
...
Being a relative power user of Word myself, I am like a lot of others that
find 2007 quite difficult to use as I have trouble finding anything in it.
Only last night, I was asked by a neighbour to help her out with some
issues she was having doing relatively simple things with Word 2007.
Although I managed to help her out, it was a struggle.
Admittedly, I have hardly used 2007 at all, so this could be why I had
trouble finding things. The point here is that my neighbour has not really
used any of the other versions of Word much and found 2007 very difficult
to use. To call it intuitive is therefore wrong.
Although by the end of the session, I was starting to get to grips with it
a bit better, I was not impressed at all. I shall be sticking with 2003
for as long as possible.
For instance, to spend such a long time to find the print preview and
giving up is not a good sign.
Martin
"Bob Buckland ?:-)" 75214.226(At Beautiful Downtown)compuserve.com wrote
in message ...
Hi Terry,
To an extent I agree, for support folks and corporate types who locked
down everything anyway, for many users the Ribbon is 'more
predictable' and they probably don't see that anything has been lost. In
too many companies the 'show menus after a short delay')
is what folks live with after each log in when they're in prior versions.
That was pretty much taken away.
As to customizing the ribbon, it's true that there there isn't the drag
and drop UI built in, but customizing the ribbon via the
RibbonX tools and 'language' to rearrange everything is probably not any
higher degree of difficulty than it would be to write a
macro in VBA (in fact it's easier for me to follow the outline structure
of the RibbonX g), but surprisingly very few folks seem
to have jumped into that. There is even at least one MS tool, although
it's not a WYSIWYG one 
What is 'fun' is to start Word in Safe Mode (hold ctrl key when starting
for those reading who may not be familiar with it) and
seeing the 'regular' ribbon if you have customized positions g. Then
you can really get confused.
Over time, I've noted that there is a definite pause now when I start a
prior version and go looking for things as the 'muscle
memory' now 'fights' to want to go to the Word 2007 places as first
choice when using the mouse g.
============
"Terry Farrell" wrote in message
...
I don't think anyone will argue that the transition is far more difficult
than previous versions. It does get better the more familiar you become
but
I am convinced that it is NOT easier or more intuitive to use than
previous
versions. However, this may be because I have been a Word user since Word
2
which is making me prejudiced against this major interface change.
The way I see this is that the old interface was like the steering wheel
of
a car: it is intuitive and works well for everyone whether you are an old
granny out shopping or an F1 ace winning the Monaco Grand Prix. A joy
stick
or a drive-by-wire touch pad would be a disaster for the majority of
normal
drivers. I think of the ribbon as the latter.
Given a 'once and for all' choice between Office 2003 and Office 2007, I
have no doubts that I would choose the former because I am concerned that
the developers will not resolve the gaping holes they have made of the
latter's interface implementation.
Yes, I like the look and idea of the Ribbon, but I don't like the choice
of
tools that have been added in each group. As far as I am concerned, until
a
user is able to change the layout and tools on the ribbons and create a
custom ribbon straight out of the box without need for third party tools,
it
is a failure. To me the QAT is just a last minute panic measure to
overcome
the inflexibilities of the Ribbons.
--
Bob Buckland ?:-)
MS Office System Products MVP
*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*