"JBGM" wrote in message
...
Yves, by the time ribbons become standard, you will hear a lot more
complaints, and both OO and MSO will have to provide alternatives. The
ribbon
interface is simply inefficient for experienced users, although I concede
it
is better for beginners. Why, WHY, do I have to scroll on nearly every
option
so I can see a visual representation of the result? After a couple of
times,
I know whet I want, and I do not need to see it again... but I am forced
to
keep going through the icon universe.
Experienced users use keyboard shortcuts. They don't care if there is a
menu, a ribbon, or nothing at all at the top of their document. As soon as
you move your hands away from the keyboard, the efficiency of the process is
gone. Discussing the efficiency of menus versus the ribbon is like
discussing who gets silver and bronze at the olympics. True, it's
interesting, but in the end, it's only gold that matters. (Sorry if I'm
offending any athletes)
Visual representation of the result? Are you talking about the live preview
functionality? If so, turn it off if you don't like it (Office menu = 'Word
Options' = 'Popular' tab = 'Enable Live Preview'). But this has nothing to
do with the ribbon. You can provide the exact same functionality in a
menu-driven UI given that the menu is not in front of text you want the
preview of.
FYI, I have participated in every "Customer Experience Improvement
Program",
e.g. Office, Visual Studio, SQL Server. The success of the ribbon is due
to a
cultural change rooted in the decrease of functional literacy. People are
The success of icon based UIs is that they are certainly language, and
mostly also cultural, independent.
I'm assuming you are a native English speaker. Have you ever worked with a
Taiwanese/Chinese version of Word 2003? Trust me, the difference in
character set is more than enough to not find anything back in the user
interface. Even when I knew the location of most things on top of my head,
it was extremely difficult to find options. With an icon-based UI I don't
have these problems. Russian alignment icons look exactly the same as
English or Chinese ones for example. And when I come across a style name in
a foreign language of which I have no idea what it means, the live preview
is a real life saver.
Where you see icons, ribbons, and visual representations as a decrease of
functional literacy, I see them as the only real language that is understood
by everyone worldwide.
getting more used to images, and that has permeated the Office design
team.
Is liking a candy to kids. Do they like it? Sure! Is it good for them? Not
in
excess... and that is exactly what has happened with MS Office: an excess
of
visual candy that result in loss of productivity.
That's it. I have said my piece. I waited for two years, hoping that it
was
just a matter of learning the new interface. But it is not. This a matter
of
structural cognitive processes. Therefore, the recommendation stands: give
users the option of having text menus.
"Yves Dhondt" wrote:
When I read posts like yours, I always wonder about something. One of the
first times you ran an Office 2003 product, you got a question to
participate in the "Customer Experience Improvement Program". Basically,
what the program did was anonymously collect data about your usage of
Office
2003. Did you allow that to happen? If not, then you are partially to
blame
for the fact the ribbon is here today.
Anyway. Have you seen the prototypes for project Renaissance? They
introduced ribbons all over the place in Open Office. Of course those are
only prototypes which will most likely never make it to production. But
still... And lately, there have been prototypes with mixed interfaces.
They
have the ordinary menu structure, but ribbon alike contextual tabs
showing
up in several places. If you have Java 6.0 installed, you can check them
out
for Impress (the Powerpoint alternative) using the following like:
http://tools.services.openoffice.org...prototype.jnlp
All in all, Open Office might not have a ribbon today, but in the long
term,
give it another 2 or 3 years it probably will.
Yves
"JBGM" wrote in message
...
Please allow users to bring the old menus back. The "genius" who
spearheaded
the change in the menus in Office 2007, i.e. the ribbon interface,
should
be
fired. It is EXTREMELY frustrating having to go through all these
clicks
and
visual menus to find simple options that were more intuitively placed
in
previous versions of Office. Do you think that younger people are
unable
to
read so you have to put pictures for the newer generations? It is so
frustrating that I have decided to leave this message, and let you know
that
as of today, after using Office for... how many years? 15? 20?... I
quit.
No
more crappy Office 2007 menus. As of today I change to Open Office. Do
you
think I am the only one frustrated? Practically every person I know is
lamenting the change. The new menu organization is ridiculous.
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