| Home |
| Search |
| Today's Posts |
|
#1
Posted to microsoft.public.word.newusers
|
|||
|
|||
Another great example of how Word 2007 "brings commands closer to the surface"
In Word 97-2003, to open the AutoCorrect dialog box, you (1) click open the
Tools menu and (2) click AutoCorrect. Two simple steps. To do the same in Word 2007, you (1) open the Office button, then (2) click on Word Options, then (3) use the down arrow to get down to Proofing, then (4) click on a button that says AutoCorrect options. That's four or more steps, compared to two simple steps in the earlier versions of Word. In Word 97-2003, the AutoCorrect dialog box is instantly seen, one step from the surface of Word. In Word 2007, it's several layers away from the surface. Now please someone explain to me: WHY? How does this new design make Word's basic commands "easier" to get to? If Word were an automobile, it would be as if they put the gear shift inside the glove compartment, and called that a more "user-friendly" car! |
|
#2
Posted to microsoft.public.word.newusers
|
|||
|
|||
|
Another great example of how Word 2007 "brings commands closer to the surface"
More than likely, the data MS used to determine which commands were used
most often (Customer Experience Program) determined most users didn't access the AutoCorrect dialog box through the Tools menu. Perhaps they used the AutoCorrect Options button or added words to AutoCorrect using spell check. The commands that were brought "closer to the surface" are those that the majority users actually use on a regular basis. I suspect you'll find more of these situations since you're not exactly an "average user". IIRC, you created your own version of Word using macros and such. ;-) If you think about it, how often do you actually use the AutoCorrect dialog box? The majority of the words I mess up are already there and once I set the options for my AutoFormat options and SmartTags I don't need to go back to them. If you find you need to access a dialog box frequently then just add it to your Quick Access Toolbar. When I need it I just use the old accelerator keys, Alt+T+A since my usage isn't frequent enough to add it to the QAT. Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for assistance by email can not be acknowledged. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Beth Melton Microsoft Office MVP Co-author of Word 2007 Inside Out: http://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/boo...x#AboutTheBook Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/ MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/ "Larry" wrote in message ... In Word 97-2003, to open the AutoCorrect dialog box, you (1) click open the Tools menu and (2) click AutoCorrect. Two simple steps. To do the same in Word 2007, you (1) open the Office button, then (2) click on Word Options, then (3) use the down arrow to get down to Proofing, then (4) click on a button that says AutoCorrect options. That's four or more steps, compared to two simple steps in the earlier versions of Word. In Word 97-2003, the AutoCorrect dialog box is instantly seen, one step from the surface of Word. In Word 2007, it's several layers away from the surface. Now please someone explain to me: WHY? How does this new design make Word's basic commands "easier" to get to? If Word were an automobile, it would be as if they put the gear shift inside the glove compartment, and called that a more "user-friendly" car! |
|
#3
Posted to microsoft.public.word.newusers
|
|||
|
|||
|
Another great example of how Word 2007 "brings commands closer to the surface"
Put the autocorrect button on the QAT, then it is just one click instead of
the two in Word 97-2003 -- Hope this helps. Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my services on a paid consulting basis. Doug Robbins - Word MVP "Larry" wrote in message ... In Word 97-2003, to open the AutoCorrect dialog box, you (1) click open the Tools menu and (2) click AutoCorrect. Two simple steps. To do the same in Word 2007, you (1) open the Office button, then (2) click on Word Options, then (3) use the down arrow to get down to Proofing, then (4) click on a button that says AutoCorrect options. That's four or more steps, compared to two simple steps in the earlier versions of Word. In Word 97-2003, the AutoCorrect dialog box is instantly seen, one step from the surface of Word. In Word 2007, it's several layers away from the surface. Now please someone explain to me: WHY? How does this new design make Word's basic commands "easier" to get to? If Word were an automobile, it would be as if they put the gear shift inside the glove compartment, and called that a more "user-friendly" car! |
|
#4
Posted to microsoft.public.word.newusers
|
|||
|
|||
|
Another great example of how Word 2007 "brings commands closer to
OR you can right click on any spell check flagged word and choose autocorrect
options from the shortcut menu. OR click the AutoCorrect Options button for anything Word has already correct for you and choose Control AutoCorrect Options. Both of which are Two simple steps. How many different ways to get there in two simple steps does a user need? This is part of the reason the old menu system was getting cluttered and unwieldy - I for one am happy to see a little more organization in this new version... "Larry" wrote: In Word 97-2003, to open the AutoCorrect dialog box, you (1) click open the Tools menu and (2) click AutoCorrect. Two simple steps. To do the same in Word 2007, you (1) open the Office button, then (2) click on Word Options, then (3) use the down arrow to get down to Proofing, then (4) click on a button that says AutoCorrect options. That's four or more steps, compared to two simple steps in the earlier versions of Word. In Word 97-2003, the AutoCorrect dialog box is instantly seen, one step from the surface of Word. In Word 2007, it's several layers away from the surface. Now please someone explain to me: WHY? How does this new design make Word's basic commands "easier" to get to? If Word were an automobile, it would be as if they put the gear shift inside the glove compartment, and called that a more "user-friendly" car! |
|
#5
Posted to microsoft.public.word.newusers
|
|||
|
|||
|
Another great example of how Word 2007 "brings commands closer to the surface"
Beth, You've opened my eyes. Now I understand the logic behind Microsoft's destruction of Word. By the same logic by which the menus were eliminated, since the "majority" of users don't create custom toolbars and custom menus, MS just did away with them as well. Or at least made it much harder to create and install them--I haven't figured this all out yet. In any case, the former beautiful feature by which you opened the Customize dialog box and could effortllessly create a new toolbar and give it a name put on it what you wanted seems to be gone. Hey, folks, the "majority" of users also never create a macro, never edit a macro, and never assign a custom keystroke to a macro or to a built-in command. So, by MS's logic of only keeping features that "most" users use, how come MS didn't eliminate VBA, eliminate macro recording, eliminate macros, eliminate the Macro dialog box, eliminate the VBA editing interface, and eliminate the Customize Keyboard dialog box??? The great thing about Word was that it had thousands of capabilities, and each user, depending on his interests, might only deal with a small part of them. So each person could in effect have his own "Word." But now we've moved away from such diversity toward a single uniformity. A single "majority rule" determines what will be in Word. Only what the 90 percent of users who are mediocre users will determine what is in Word. Everything that a more skilled and creative or just idiosyncratic user of Word might want to access is to be eliminated. That appears to be the logic. The only thing that saves the situation from total disaster is that MS has not yet been completely consistent in its program of destruction, so it has still left some "non-popular" features in place. Larry "Beth Melton" wrote in message ... More than likely, the data MS used to determine which commands were used most often (Customer Experience Program) determined most users didn't acce ss the AutoCorrect dialog box through the Tools menu. Perhaps they used the AutoCorrect Options button or added words to AutoCorrect using spell check. The commands that were brought "closer to the surface" are those that the majority users actually use on a regular basis. I suspect you'll find more of these situations since you're not exactly an "average user". IIRC, you created your own version of Word using macros and such. ;-) If you think about it, how often do you actually use the AutoCorrect dialog box? The majority of the words I mess up are already there and once I set the options for my AutoFormat options and SmartTags I don't need to go back to them. If you find you need to access a dialog box frequently then just add it to your Quick Access Toolbar. When I need it I just use the old accelerator keys, Alt+T+A since my usage isn't frequent enough to add it to the QAT. Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for assistance by email can not be acknowledged. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Beth Melton Microsoft Office MVP Co-author of Word 2007 Inside Out: http://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/boo...x#AboutTheBook Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/ MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/ "Larry" wrote in message ... In Word 97-2003, to open the AutoCorrect dialog box, you (1) click open the Tools menu and (2) click AutoCorrect. Two simple steps. To do the same in Word 2007, you (1) open the Office button, then (2) click on Word Options, then (3) use the down arrow to get down to Proofing, then (4) click on a button that says AutoCorrect options. That's four or more steps, compared to two simple steps in the earlier versions of Word. In Word 97-2003, the AutoCorrect dialog box is instantly seen, one step from the surface of Word. In Word 2007, it's several layers away from the surface. Now please someone explain to me: WHY? How does this new design make Word's basic commands "easier" to get to? If Word were an automobile, it would be as if they put the gear shift inside the glove compartment, and called that a more "user-friendly" car! |
|
#6
Posted to microsoft.public.word.newusers
|
|||
|
|||
|
Another great example of how Word 2007 "brings commands closer to the surface"
Fri, 6 Apr 2007 13:29:26 -0500 from Beth Melton :
If you find you need to access a dialog box frequently then just add it to your Quick Access Toolbar. Can ha actually be done? I've experimented much more with Excel 2007 than Office 2007, but in Excel the only customization I could figure out was to add preselected commands, of which there were only about half a dozen. -- Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Tompkins County, New York, USA http://OakRoadSystems.com/ |
|
#7
Posted to microsoft.public.word.newusers
|
|||
|
|||
|
Another great example of how Word 2007 "brings commands closer to the surface"
Instead of using the "Customize Quick Access Toolbar" pulldown (which does
only have a limited number of options), Right Click on the QAT (or in fact anywhere on the Ribbon) and select "Customize Quick Access Toolbar" If you then select "All Commands" form the "Choose commands from:" pulldown, you will find hundreds of items that you can add to the QAT. Also note that you can control whether the customization applies to all workbooks, or you can set it up for just the active workbook. -- Hope this helps. Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my services on a paid consulting basis. Doug Robbins - Word MVP "Stan Brown" wrote in message t... Fri, 6 Apr 2007 13:29:26 -0500 from Beth Melton : If you find you need to access a dialog box frequently then just add it to your Quick Access Toolbar. Can ha actually be done? I've experimented much more with Excel 2007 than Office 2007, but in Excel the only customization I could figure out was to add preselected commands, of which there were only about half a dozen. -- Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Tompkins County, New York, USA http://OakRoadSystems.com/ |
|
#8
Posted to microsoft.public.word.newusers
|
|||
|
|||
|
Another great example of how Word 2007 "brings commands closer to the surface"
Larry
I share your feelings. It seems far too much user customisation has been sacrificed for little reason. I like the Ribbons and the groups of small command icons - but not the groups, command icons or order that they have provided. I know that some of this can be customized but it should be possible for ANY user to change it using simple tools out of the box. As it stands, I probably use 15% of the tools in each Ribbon - so the rest is a waste of space. I should be able to simply mix and match just like I could in 2003. -- Terry Farrell - MS Word MVP "Larry" wrote in message ... Beth, You've opened my eyes. Now I understand the logic behind Microsoft's destruction of Word. By the same logic by which the menus were eliminated, since the "majority" of users don't create custom toolbars and custom menus, MS just did away with them as well. Or at least made it much harder to create and install them--I haven't figured this all out yet. In any case, the former beautiful feature by which you opened the Customize dialog box and could effortllessly create a new toolbar and give it a name put on it what you wanted seems to be gone. Hey, folks, the "majority" of users also never create a macro, never edit a macro, and never assign a custom keystroke to a macro or to a built-in command. So, by MS's logic of only keeping features that "most" users use, how come MS didn't eliminate VBA, eliminate macro recording, eliminate macros, eliminate the Macro dialog box, eliminate the VBA editing interface, and eliminate the Customize Keyboard dialog box??? The great thing about Word was that it had thousands of capabilities, and each user, depending on his interests, might only deal with a small part of them. So each person could in effect have his own "Word." But now we've moved away from such diversity toward a single uniformity. A single "majority rule" determines what will be in Word. Only what the 90 percent of users who are mediocre users will determine what is in Word. Everything that a more skilled and creative or just idiosyncratic user of Word might want to access is to be eliminated. That appears to be the logic. The only thing that saves the situation from total disaster is that MS has not yet been completely consistent in its program of destruction, so it has still left some "non-popular" features in place. Larry "Beth Melton" wrote in message ... More than likely, the data MS used to determine which commands were used most often (Customer Experience Program) determined most users didn't acce ss the AutoCorrect dialog box through the Tools menu. Perhaps they used the AutoCorrect Options button or added words to AutoCorrect using spell check. The commands that were brought "closer to the surface" are those that the majority users actually use on a regular basis. I suspect you'll find more of these situations since you're not exactly an "average user". IIRC, you created your own version of Word using macros and such. ;-) If you think about it, how often do you actually use the AutoCorrect dialog box? The majority of the words I mess up are already there and once I set the options for my AutoFormat options and SmartTags I don't need to go back to them. If you find you need to access a dialog box frequently then just add it to your Quick Access Toolbar. When I need it I just use the old accelerator keys, Alt+T+A since my usage isn't frequent enough to add it to the QAT. Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for assistance by email can not be acknowledged. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Beth Melton Microsoft Office MVP Co-author of Word 2007 Inside Out: http://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/boo...x#AboutTheBook Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/ MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/ "Larry" wrote in message ... In Word 97-2003, to open the AutoCorrect dialog box, you (1) click open the Tools menu and (2) click AutoCorrect. Two simple steps. To do the same in Word 2007, you (1) open the Office button, then (2) click on Word Options, then (3) use the down arrow to get down to Proofing, then (4) click on a button that says AutoCorrect options. That's four or more steps, compared to two simple steps in the earlier versions of Word. In Word 97-2003, the AutoCorrect dialog box is instantly seen, one step from the surface of Word. In Word 2007, it's several layers away from the surface. Now please someone explain to me: WHY? How does this new design make Word's basic commands "easier" to get to? If Word were an automobile, it would be as if they put the gear shift inside the glove compartment, and called that a more "user-friendly" car! |
|
#9
Posted to microsoft.public.word.newusers
|
|||
|
|||
|
Another great example of how Word 2007 "brings commands closer to the surface"
Along with what Doug told you, you can also add any command from the Ribbon,
including entire groups, to the QAT. Just right-click the command and click Add to Quick Access Toolbar. If you want to add an entire group, right-click the group name. To remove them from the QAT, right-click the command and click Remove from Quick Access Toolbar. Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for assistance by email can not be acknowledged. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Beth Melton Microsoft Office MVP Co-author of Word 2007 Inside Out: http://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/boo...x#AboutTheBook Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/ MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/ "Stan Brown" wrote in message t... Fri, 6 Apr 2007 13:29:26 -0500 from Beth Melton : If you find you need to access a dialog box frequently then just add it to your Quick Access Toolbar. Can ha actually be done? I've experimented much more with Excel 2007 than Office 2007, but in Excel the only customization I could figure out was to add preselected commands, of which there were only about half a dozen. -- Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Tompkins County, New York, USA http://OakRoadSystems.com/ |
|
#10
Posted to microsoft.public.word.newusers
|
|||
|
|||
|
Another great example of how Word 2007 "brings commands closer to the surface"
Again at the moment I don't have 2007 in front of me, but once you add the
command or the group to the TAC, I'll bet they're only accessible via the mouse, right? Because how could the TAC have accellerator keys accessible by Alt+Key combinations, given that the Ribbon has monopolized them all? Larry "Beth Melton" wrote in message ... Along with what Doug told you, you can also add any command from the Ribbon, including entire groups, to the QAT. Just right-click the command and click Add to Quick Access Toolbar. If you want to add an entire group, right-click the group name. To remove them from the QAT, right-click the command and click Remove from Quick Access Toolbar. Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for assistance by email can not be acknowledged. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Beth Melton Microsoft Office MVP Co-author of Word 2007 Inside Out: http://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/boo...x#AboutTheBook Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/ MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/ "Stan Brown" wrote in message t... Fri, 6 Apr 2007 13:29:26 -0500 from Beth Melton : If you find you need to access a dialog box frequently then just add it to your Quick Access Toolbar. Can ha actually be done? I've experimented much more with Excel 2007 than Office 2007, but in Excel the only customization I could figure out was to add preselected commands, of which there were only about half a dozen. -- Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Tompkins County, New York, USA http://OakRoadSystems.com/ |
|
#11
Posted to microsoft.public.word.newusers
|
|||
|
|||
|
Another great example of how Word 2007 "brings commands closer to the surface"
Commands on the QAT have automatic accelerators. Alt+1 accesses the first
command, Alt+2 accesses the next, and so on. To view them, press the Alt key and the accelerators will display in the KeyTips (small screen tips that display above the commands.) Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for assistance by email can not be acknowledged. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Beth Melton Microsoft Office MVP Co-author of Word 2007 Inside Out: http://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/boo...x#AboutTheBook Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/ MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/ "Larry" wrote in message ... Again at the moment I don't have 2007 in front of me, but once you add the command or the group to the TAC, I'll bet they're only accessible via the mouse, right? Because how could the TAC have accellerator keys accessible by Alt+Key combinations, given that the Ribbon has monopolized them all? Larry "Beth Melton" wrote in message ... Along with what Doug told you, you can also add any command from the Ribbon, including entire groups, to the QAT. Just right-click the command and click Add to Quick Access Toolbar. If you want to add an entire group, right-click the group name. To remove them from the QAT, right-click the command and click Remove from Quick Access Toolbar. Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for assistance by email can not be acknowledged. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Beth Melton Microsoft Office MVP Co-author of Word 2007 Inside Out: http://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/boo...x#AboutTheBook Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/ MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/ "Stan Brown" wrote in message t... Fri, 6 Apr 2007 13:29:26 -0500 from Beth Melton : If you find you need to access a dialog box frequently then just add it to your Quick Access Toolbar. Can ha actually be done? I've experimented much more with Excel 2007 than Office 2007, but in Excel the only customization I could figure out was to add preselected commands, of which there were only about half a dozen. -- Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Tompkins County, New York, USA http://OakRoadSystems.com/ |
|
#12
Posted to microsoft.public.word.newusers
|
|||
|
|||
|
Another great example of how Word 2007 "brings commands closerto the surface"
Hi Larry,
Yep, that's pretty much the logic. Satisfy the 90% "average users"--because, that's where the money is. "Majority rule" and "market for the middle" by the way, is not peculiar to MS. I'm not screaming about MS because I see this as just one outgrowth of larger cultural forces that bring people to insist computers do everything for them--and because I haven't tried Word 2007 yet and don't know how many of these changes are going to be in my forthcoming MacWord 2008, so I'm not feeling any pain at present.  However, on the grand scale of things, it is not total disaster. Someone already has a program you can use to customize the Ribbon. http://pschmid.net/office2007/ribbon...izer/index.php MS still believes in customizability, and it's still there, it's just been shifted from the regular user to the expert. As a side effect, this makes it much more difficult to start out as an average user and become a "skilled and creative or just idiosyncratic user of Word"--or, rather MS is trying to make "skilled Word user" mean something else. I do think that in 5 years or so, we might be in a better situation overall than we are now--many more regular people in offices who are good at making Word behave for their everyday tasks, with plenty of third-party programs or add-ins for those who want to go beyond. And this should be more efficient overall, if people can download a program to customize Word rather than having each individual have to learn the skills. Daiya Mac/Word MVP PS. They do want to get rid of VBA--it's gone in MacOffice, and they tried to remove it in Windows Office, but delayed eliminating it because of a huge uproar, as many large companies have invested thousands in VBA-based custom solutions, with thousands of people who use macros daily even though they don't create/record macros themselves. But it will be gone eventually--I think they promised 10 years in 2005 or somesuch. However, as I understand it, this is more for security reasons, though it follows the same pattern of shifting customization from the average user to the expert. Larry wrote: Beth, You've opened my eyes. Now I understand the logic behind Microsoft's destruction of Word. By the same logic by which the menus were eliminated, since the "majority" of users don't create custom toolbars and custom menus, MS just did away with them as well. Or at least made it much harder to create and install them--I haven't figured this all out yet. In any case, the former beautiful feature by which you opened the Customize dialog box and could effortllessly create a new toolbar and give it a name put on it what you wanted seems to be gone. Hey, folks, the "majority" of users also never create a macro, never edit a macro, and never assign a custom keystroke to a macro or to a built-in command. So, by MS's logic of only keeping features that "most" users use, how come MS didn't eliminate VBA, eliminate macro recording, eliminate macros, eliminate the Macro dialog box, eliminate the VBA editing interface, and eliminate the Customize Keyboard dialog box??? The great thing about Word was that it had thousands of capabilities, and each user, depending on his interests, might only deal with a small part of them. So each person could in effect have his own "Word." But now we've moved away from such diversity toward a single uniformity. A single "majority rule" determines what will be in Word. Only what the 90 percent of users who are mediocre users will determine what is in Word. Everything that a more skilled and creative or just idiosyncratic user of Word might want to access is to be eliminated. That appears to be the logic. The only thing that saves the situation from total disaster is that MS has not yet been completely consistent in its program of destruction, so it has still left some "non-popular" features in place. Larry |
|
#13
Posted to microsoft.public.word.newusers
|
|||
|
|||
|
Another great example of how Word 2007 "brings commands closer to the surface"
I've been using Office 2007 for over 18 months and at first, like the
majority I hated it. I thought MS made a bad move, it was going to fail, and so on. I don't feel that way anymore. (Heh, you should have seen some of my "persuasive feedback" - the comments you've made are mild in comparison - especially when it came to removing the ease in toolbar/menu customization. g). But you know, even though I know how to customize the Ribbon it's really not necessary for me to customize it for my every day work. I have come up with alternate methods that fit my needs. For example I have several templates that have a customized QAT with commands for specific tasks and I load/unload them as global templates according the task at hand. (I still have a complaint about the inability to float toolbars....) After using the new interface I can now honestly see how it actually does improve work flow and I can perform tasks in Word that used to take a half hour or more in a few simple clicks. And it places capabilities that were once used exclusively by power users into the hands of everyone. Plus those who were familiar with some of the advanced features will likely find them easier to use. One quick example is AutoText. Previously you had to create a style and associate the entries with the style in order to create an organized AutoText menu. Now it's a matter of creating what is now called a Building Blocks and assigning it to a gallery and a specific category using a dialog box. And there was difficulty remembering what you called them, now they are more visually oriented for insertion (and yes you can still assign keyboard shortcuts if you want). Form development is another example. The ability to easily create bound forms in Word has been a long standing request and that functionality is now available using Content Controls AND they automatically update without the need to add extra steps or use a macro. Content Controls also resolve another long standing request, to protect portions of a document for data entry without losing spell check and other functionality. Oh, and Styles have been lifted up and are easier for beginners to use. Even the basic beginner books are including how to use and modify styles. And I've noticed many of the beginning Word books are encouraging users to use formatted space between paragraphs instead of empty paragraphs due to the new defaults. (Thank goodness!!) BUT in order to fully see and understand these capabilities one can't be resistant to change. That was my stumbling block for several months. I wanted Word (and the other Office apps) to function as I was accustomed to them functioning for over the last 15 years. To use the new versions effectively it does require a bit of change, such as change how you may have previously accomplished a task but in the end it is faster and more efficient. The key is if you want to embrace the change or fight the change. If you fight it then you'll hate it and find it lacking. If you embrace it you may just find what I have found, that change can indeed be a "good thing". Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for assistance by email can not be acknowledged. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Beth Melton Microsoft Office MVP Co-author of Word 2007 Inside Out: http://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/boo...x#AboutTheBook Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/ MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/ "Larry" wrote in message ... Beth, You've opened my eyes. Now I understand the logic behind Microsoft's destruction of Word. By the same logic by which the menus were eliminated, since the "majority" of users don't create custom toolbars and custom menus, MS just did away with them as well. Or at least made it much harder to create and install them--I haven't figured this all out yet. In any case, the former beautiful feature by which you opened the Customize dialog box and could effortllessly create a new toolbar and give it a name put on it what you wanted seems to be gone. Hey, folks, the "majority" of users also never create a macro, never edit a macro, and never assign a custom keystroke to a macro or to a built-in command. So, by MS's logic of only keeping features that "most" users use, how come MS didn't eliminate VBA, eliminate macro recording, eliminate macros, eliminate the Macro dialog box, eliminate the VBA editing interface, and eliminate the Customize Keyboard dialog box??? The great thing about Word was that it had thousands of capabilities, and each user, depending on his interests, might only deal with a small part of them. So each person could in effect have his own "Word." But now we've moved away from such diversity toward a single uniformity. A single "majority rule" determines what will be in Word. Only what the 90 percent of users who are mediocre users will determine what is in Word. Everything that a more skilled and creative or just idiosyncratic user of Word might want to access is to be eliminated. That appears to be the logic. The only thing that saves the situation from total disaster is that MS has not yet been completely consistent in its program of destruction, so it has still left some "non-popular" features in place. Larry |
|
#14
Posted to microsoft.public.word.newusers
|
|||
|
|||
|
Another great example of how Word 2007 "brings commands closer to the surface"
Well, that's good news, except that the user would have to remember, which
is the third command on the TAC, which is the fourth, etc. That's not as easy to use as the regular menu (which MS has taken away) where it's effortless to remember that Alt+V opens the View menu, Alt+I opens the Insert menu, and so on. An additional problem, but just for me, is that I already have Alt+1, Alt+2, etc. assigned to important macros that I use constantly to assign styles. MS says 2007 is more "intuitive." This is the biggest of Big Lies. The sheer complexity of the Ribbon, its constantly changing, bewildering appearance, creates an informational overload on the user. The hiding away of various dialog boxes—which used to be two instant steps from the Word surface—in completely illogical, arbitrary locations is the very opposite of intuitive or logical or even minimally considerate to the user. For example, folks, try to find the User Template default path. You can find it (though you will probably need Help in order to do so), but once you've found it, see how much harder it is to get to than it used to be, and how senseless and arbitrary its location is. Finally, when you do get there, notice that it will not actually tell you what the current template default path is. In Word 97, you get a "compressed" view of the path, but if you click on the Modify button the complete path is displayed. Nice and simple. One might even call it intuitive. Not so with Word 2007, the "easier," "more intuitive" version of Word! In Word 2007, when you click on Modify, the Template path is NOT displayed and there's no way to get it. Instead, a folder opens with some kind of complicated Explorer type view which does not actually display the default Template path but something else (I couldn't figure it out at all). So I had to keep searching and it took me about 10 minutes last night just to find the Templates folder for Word 2007 in Windows Vista. What is called a more "intuitive" version of Word is actually a bloated bureaucratic monstrosity. "Beth Melton" wrote in message ... Commands on the QAT have automatic accelerators. Alt+1 accesses the first command, Alt+2 accesses the next, and so on. To view them, press the Alt key and the accelerators will display in the KeyTips (small screen tips that display above the commands.) Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for assistance by email can not be acknowledged. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Beth Melton Microsoft Office MVP Co-author of Word 2007 Inside Out: http://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/boo...x#AboutTheBook Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/ MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/ "Larry" wrote in message ... Again at the moment I don't have 2007 in front of me, but once you add the command or the group to the TAC, I'll bet they're only accessible via the mouse, right? Because how could the TAC have accellerator keys accessible by Alt+Key combinations, given that the Ribbon has monopolized them all? Larry "Beth Melton" wrote in message ... Along with what Doug told you, you can also add any command from the Ribbon, including entire groups, to the QAT. Just right-click the command and click Add to Quick Access Toolbar. If you want to add an entire group, right-click the group name. To remove them from the QAT, right-click the command and click Remove from Quick Access Toolbar. Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for assistance by email can not be acknowledged. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Beth Melton Microsoft Office MVP Co-author of Word 2007 Inside Out: http://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/boo...x#AboutTheBook Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/ MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/ "Stan Brown" wrote in message t... Fri, 6 Apr 2007 13:29:26 -0500 from Beth Melton : If you find you need to access a dialog box frequently then just add it to your Quick Access Toolbar. Can ha actually be done? I've experimented much more with Excel 2007 than Office 2007, but in Excel the only customization I could figure out was to add preselected commands, of which there were only about half a dozen. -- Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Tompkins County, New York, USA http://OakRoadSystems.com/ |
|
#15
Posted to microsoft.public.word.newusers
|
|||
|
|||
|
Another great example of how Word 2007 "brings commands closer to the surface"
One, this program allows the user to customize the Ribbon, not to get rid of
it and restore the toolbars and menu bar, like, for example, that program that someone created for Word 2000 years ago that allowed the user to restore the multi-document interface which Word 2000 had gotten rid of. Two, it will be a much more complicated job to customize the various Ribbon tabs and groups than simply to add a command button to a menu or remove one, as was possible with previous Word versions. Finally, this program costs $30. "Daiya Mitchell" wrote in message ... Hi Larry, Yep, that's pretty much the logic. Satisfy the 90% "average users"--because, that's where the money is. "Majority rule" and "market for the middle" by the way, is not peculiar to MS. I'm not screaming about MS because I see this as just one outgrowth of larger cultural forces that bring people to insist computers do everything for them--and because I haven't tried Word 2007 yet and don't know how many of these changes are going to be in my forthcoming MacWord 2008, so I'm not feeling any pain at present. However, on the grand scale of things, it is not total disaster. Someone already has a program you can use to customize the Ribbon. http://pschmid.net/office2007/ribbon...izer/index.php MS still believes in customizability, and it's still there, it's just been shifted from the regular user to the expert. As a side effect, this makes it much more difficult to start out as an average user and become a "skilled and creative or just idiosyncratic user of Word"--or, rather MS is trying to make "skilled Word user" mean something else. I do think that in 5 years or so, we might be in a better situation overall than we are now--many more regular people in offices who are good at making Word behave for their everyday tasks, with plenty of third-party programs or add-ins for those who want to go beyond. And this should be more efficient overall, if people can download a program to customize Word rather than having each individual have to learn the skills. Daiya Mac/Word MVP PS. They do want to get rid of VBA--it's gone in MacOffice, and they tried to remove it in Windows Office, but delayed eliminating it because of a huge uproar, as many large companies have invested thousands in VBA-based custom solutions, with thousands of people who use macros daily even though they don't create/record macros themselves. But it will be gone eventually--I think they promised 10 years in 2005 or somesuch. However, as I understand it, this is more for security reasons, though it follows the same pattern of shifting customization from the average user to the expert. Larry wrote: Beth, You've opened my eyes. Now I understand the logic behind Microsoft's destruction of Word. By the same logic by which the menus were eliminated, since the "majority" of users don't create custom toolbars and custom menus, MS just did away with them as well. Or at least made it much harder to create and install them--I haven't figured this all out yet. In any case, the former beautiful feature by which you opened the Customize dialog box and could effortllessly create a new toolbar and give it a name put on it what you wanted seems to be gone. Hey, folks, the "majority" of users also never create a macro, never edit a macro, and never assign a custom keystroke to a macro or to a built-in command. So, by MS's logic of only keeping features that "most" users use, how come MS didn't eliminate VBA, eliminate macro recording, eliminate macros, eliminate the Macro dialog box, eliminate the VBA editing interface, and eliminate the Customize Keyboard dialog box??? The great thing about Word was that it had thousands of capabilities, and each user, depending on his interests, might only deal with a small part of them. So each person could in effect have his own "Word." But now we've moved away from such diversity toward a single uniformity. A single "majority rule" determines what will be in Word. Only what the 90 percent of users who are mediocre users will determine what is in Word. Everything that a more skilled and creative or just idiosyncratic user of Word might want to access is to be eliminated. That appears to be the logic. The only thing that saves the situation from total disaster is that MS has not yet been completely consistent in its program of destruction, so it has still left some "non-popular" features in place. Larry |
|
#16
Posted to microsoft.public.word.newusers
|
|||
|
|||
|
Another great example of how Word 2007 "brings commands closer to the surface"
Also, it's incredible that while in previous versions of Word, a user could
easily remove, say, a button from a menu that he didn't need, or remove a whole menu from the menu bar that he didn't need, or add new buttons to existing menus, or add his own menus, with Word 2007 (which is supposedly more user friendly!), the most highly specialized tasks, for example scholarly writing, which very few users would use, are placed in their own tab in the Ribbon and cannot be removed, unless the user pays $30 for this third-party add-in that Daiya mentions. The amazing thing about Word since I first got it in 1998 was that Word, as it came out of the box, was a mess, but that Word had the most fantastic customization capabilities which enabled the user to turn Word into an environment he could work with. Now MS has changed that basic philososophy and forces an unwanted uniformity on the user. For example, it enables you to "minimize" the Ribbon and just access the Ribbon commands with keyboard combinations. But the catch is that when you use these keyboard combinations with the Ribbon minimized, the entire Ribbon with all its paraphenalia flashes into view for a second then disappears again. This is just weird. Instead of, as with previous versions, displaying a simple unobtrusive drop down menu for a second when accessing a command on that menu, you have to display the entire Ribbon. The total effect is an incredibly "over-busy" user interface that you're trapped in. |
|
#17
Posted to microsoft.public.word.newusers
|
|||
|
|||
|
Another great example of how Word 2007 "brings commands closer to the surface"
Beth, What you're saying is that you had to spend months of your life completely re-learning and re-customizing Word to your needs, with the previous 15 years you had spent learning Word being lost, all for the benefit of some marginal improvements in the efficiency of some tasks. Second, the improvements you mention did NOT require the total redesign of the interface. For example, you write: Plus those who were familiar with some of the advanced features will likely find them easier to use. One quick example is AutoText. Previously you had to create a style and associate the entries with the style in order to create an organized AutoText menu. Now it's a matter of creating what is now called a Building Blocks and assigning it to a gallery and a specific category using a dialog box. Well, AutoText could have been changed without, e.g., getting rid of Toolbars and menus! Similarly, greater ease of use in learning Styles did not require a radically revamped Word. It just required that the Styles feature itself be changed. I have nothing against MS adding new features to Word. But to destroy the basic user interface of Word and basic features and capabilities that millions of people have invested many years of work in, and replace it with another, is just wrong. "Beth Melton" wrote in message ... I've been using Office 2007 for over 18 months and at first, like the majority I hated it. I thought MS made a bad move, it was going to fail, and so on. I don't feel that way anymore. (Heh, you should have seen some of my "persuasive feedback" - the comments you've made are mild in comparison - especially when it came to removing the ease in toolbar/menu customization. g). But you know, even though I know how to customize the Ribbon it's really not necessary for me to customize it for my every day work. I have come up with alternate methods that fit my needs. For example I have several templates that have a customized QAT with commands for specific tasks and I load/unload them as global templates according the task at hand. (I still have a complaint about the inability to float toolbars....) After using the new interface I can now honestly see how it actually does improve work flow and I can perform tasks in Word that used to take a half hour or more in a few simple clicks. And it places capabilities that were once used exclusively by power users into the hands of everyone. Plus those who were familiar with some of the advanced features will likely find them easier to use. One quick example is AutoText. Previously you had to create a style and associate the entries with the style in order to create an organized AutoText menu. Now it's a matter of creating what is now called a Building Blocks and assigning it to a gallery and a specific category using a dialog box. And there was difficulty remembering what you called them, now they are more visually oriented for insertion (and yes you can still assign keyboard shortcuts if you want). Form development is another example. The ability to easily create bound forms in Word has been a long standing request and that functionality is now available using Content Controls AND they automatically update without the need to add extra steps or use a macro. Content Controls also resolve another long standing request, to protect portions of a document for data entry without losing spell check and other functionality. Oh, and Styles have been lifted up and are easier for beginners to use. Even the basic beginner books are including how to use and modify styles. And I've noticed many of the beginning Word books are encouraging users to use formatted space between paragraphs instead of empty paragraphs due to the new defaults. (Thank goodness!!) BUT in order to fully see and understand these capabilities one can't be resistant to change. That was my stumbling block for several months. I wanted Word (and the other Office apps) to function as I was accustomed to them functioning for over the last 15 years. To use the new versions effectively it does require a bit of change, such as change how you may have previously accomplished a task but in the end it is faster and more efficient. The key is if you want to embrace the change or fight the change. If you fight it then you'll hate it and find it lacking. If you embrace it you may just find what I have found, that change can indeed be a "good thing". Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for assistance by email can not be acknowledged. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Beth Melton Microsoft Office MVP Co-author of Word 2007 Inside Out: http://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/boo...x#AboutTheBook Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/ MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/ "Larry" wrote in message ... Beth, You've opened my eyes. Now I understand the logic behind Microsoft's destruction of Word. By the same logic by which the menus were eliminated, since the "majority" of users don't create custom toolbars and custom menus, MS just did away with them as well. Or at least made it much harder to create and install them--I haven't figured this all out yet. In any case, the former beautiful feature by which you opened the Customize dialog box and could effortllessly create a new toolbar and give it a name put on it what you wanted seems to be gone. Hey, folks, the "majority" of users also never create a macro, never edit a macro, and never assign a custom keystroke to a macro or to a built-in command. So, by MS's logic of only keeping features that "most" users use, how come MS didn't eliminate VBA, eliminate macro recording, eliminate macros, eliminate the Macro dialog box, eliminate the VBA editing interface, and eliminate the Customize Keyboard dialog box??? The great thing about Word was that it had thousands of capabilities, and each user, depending on his interests, might only deal with a small part of them. So each person could in effect have his own "Word." But now we've moved away from such diversity toward a single uniformity. A single "majority rule" determines what will be in Word. Only what the 90 percent of users who are mediocre users will determine what is in Word. Everything that a more skilled and creative or just idiosyncratic user of Word might want to access is to be eliminated. That appears to be the logic. The only thing that saves the situation from total disaster is that MS has not yet been completely consistent in its program of destruction, so it has still left some "non-popular" features in place. Larry |
|
#18
Posted to microsoft.public.word.newusers
|
|||
|
|||
|
Another great example of how Word 2007 "brings commands closer to the surface"
All of this makes me darned glad I stuck with Office 2000!
"Terry Farrell" wrote in message ... Larry I share your feelings. It seems far too much user customisation has been sacrificed for little reason. I like the Ribbons and the groups of small command icons - but not the groups, command icons or order that they have provided. I know that some of this can be customized but it should be possible for ANY user to change it using simple tools out of the box. As it stands, I probably use 15% of the tools in each Ribbon - so the rest is a waste of space. I should be able to simply mix and match just like I could in 2003. -- Terry Farrell - MS Word MVP "Larry" wrote in message ... Beth, You've opened my eyes. Now I understand the logic behind Microsoft's destruction of Word. By the same logic by which the menus were eliminated, since the "majority" of users don't create custom toolbars and custom menus, MS just did away with them as well. Or at least made it much harder to create and install them--I haven't figured this all out yet. In any case, the former beautiful feature by which you opened the Customize dialog box and could effortllessly create a new toolbar and give it a name put on it what you wanted seems to be gone. Hey, folks, the "majority" of users also never create a macro, never edit a macro, and never assign a custom keystroke to a macro or to a built-in command. So, by MS's logic of only keeping features that "most" users use, how come MS didn't eliminate VBA, eliminate macro recording, eliminate macros, eliminate the Macro dialog box, eliminate the VBA editing interface, and eliminate the Customize Keyboard dialog box??? The great thing about Word was that it had thousands of capabilities, and each user, depending on his interests, might only deal with a small part of them. So each person could in effect have his own "Word." But now we've moved away from such diversity toward a single uniformity. A single "majority rule" determines what will be in Word. Only what the 90 percent of users who are mediocre users will determine what is in Word. Everything that a more skilled and creative or just idiosyncratic user of Word might want to access is to be eliminated. That appears to be the logic. The only thing that saves the situation from total disaster is that MS has not yet been completely consistent in its program of destruction, so it has still left some "non-popular" features in place. Larry "Beth Melton" wrote in message ... More than likely, the data MS used to determine which commands were used most often (Customer Experience Program) determined most users didn't acce ss the AutoCorrect dialog box through the Tools menu. Perhaps they used the AutoCorrect Options button or added words to AutoCorrect using spell check. The commands that were brought "closer to the surface" are those that the majority users actually use on a regular basis. I suspect you'll find more of these situations since you're not exactly an "average user". IIRC, you created your own version of Word using macros and such. ;-) If you think about it, how often do you actually use the AutoCorrect dialog box? The majority of the words I mess up are already there and once I set the options for my AutoFormat options and SmartTags I don't need to go back to them. If you find you need to access a dialog box frequently then just add it to your Quick Access Toolbar. When I need it I just use the old accelerator keys, Alt+T+A since my usage isn't frequent enough to add it to the QAT. Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for assistance by email can not be acknowledged. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Beth Melton Microsoft Office MVP Co-author of Word 2007 Inside Out: http://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/boo...x#AboutTheBook Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/ MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/ "Larry" wrote in message ... In Word 97-2003, to open the AutoCorrect dialog box, you (1) click open the Tools menu and (2) click AutoCorrect. Two simple steps. To do the same in Word 2007, you (1) open the Office button, then (2) click on Word Options, then (3) use the down arrow to get down to Proofing, then (4) click on a button that says AutoCorrect options. That's four or more steps, compared to two simple steps in the earlier versions of Word. In Word 97-2003, the AutoCorrect dialog box is instantly seen, one step from the surface of Word. In Word 2007, it's several layers away from the surface. Now please someone explain to me: WHY? How does this new design make Word's basic commands "easier" to get to? If Word were an automobile, it would be as if they put the gear shift inside the glove compartment, and called that a more "user-friendly" car! |
|
#19
Posted to microsoft.public.word.newusers
|
|||
|
|||
|
Another great example of how Word 2007 "brings commands closer to the surface"
...and that's what they've done with Visual Basic too...
"Larry" wrote in message ... Beth, What you're saying is that you had to spend months of your life completely re-learning and re-customizing Word to your needs, with the previous 15 years you had spent learning Word being lost, all for the benefit of some marginal improvements in the efficiency of some tasks. Second, the improvements you mention did NOT require the total redesign of the interface. For example, you write: Plus those who were familiar with some of the advanced features will likely find them easier to use. One quick example is AutoText. Previously you had to create a style and associate the entries with the style in order to create an organized AutoText menu. Now it's a matter of creating what is now called a Building Blocks and assigning it to a gallery and a specific category using a dialog box. Well, AutoText could have been changed without, e.g., getting rid of Toolbars and menus! Similarly, greater ease of use in learning Styles did not require a radically revamped Word. It just required that the Styles feature itself be changed. I have nothing against MS adding new features to Word. But to destroy the basic user interface of Word and basic features and capabilities that millions of people have invested many years of work in, and replace it with another, is just wrong. "Beth Melton" wrote in message ... I've been using Office 2007 for over 18 months and at first, like the majority I hated it. I thought MS made a bad move, it was going to fail, and so on. I don't feel that way anymore. (Heh, you should have seen some of my "persuasive feedback" - the comments you've made are mild in comparison - especially when it came to removing the ease in toolbar/menu customization. g). But you know, even though I know how to customize the Ribbon it's really not necessary for me to customize it for my every day work. I have come up with alternate methods that fit my needs. For example I have several templates that have a customized QAT with commands for specific tasks and I load/unload them as global templates according the task at hand. (I still have a complaint about the inability to float toolbars....) After using the new interface I can now honestly see how it actually does improve work flow and I can perform tasks in Word that used to take a half hour or more in a few simple clicks. And it places capabilities that were once used exclusively by power users into the hands of everyone. Plus those who were familiar with some of the advanced features will likely find them easier to use. One quick example is AutoText. Previously you had to create a style and associate the entries with the style in order to create an organized AutoText menu. Now it's a matter of creating what is now called a Building Blocks and assigning it to a gallery and a specific category using a dialog box. And there was difficulty remembering what you called them, now they are more visually oriented for insertion (and yes you can still assign keyboard shortcuts if you want). Form development is another example. The ability to easily create bound forms in Word has been a long standing request and that functionality is now available using Content Controls AND they automatically update without the need to add extra steps or use a macro. Content Controls also resolve another long standing request, to protect portions of a document for data entry without losing spell check and other functionality. Oh, and Styles have been lifted up and are easier for beginners to use. Even the basic beginner books are including how to use and modify styles. And I've noticed many of the beginning Word books are encouraging users to use formatted space between paragraphs instead of empty paragraphs due to the new defaults. (Thank goodness!!) BUT in order to fully see and understand these capabilities one can't be resistant to change. That was my stumbling block for several months. I wanted Word (and the other Office apps) to function as I was accustomed to them functioning for over the last 15 years. To use the new versions effectively it does require a bit of change, such as change how you may have previously accomplished a task but in the end it is faster and more efficient. The key is if you want to embrace the change or fight the change. If you fight it then you'll hate it and find it lacking. If you embrace it you may just find what I have found, that change can indeed be a "good thing". Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for assistance by email can not be acknowledged. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Beth Melton Microsoft Office MVP Co-author of Word 2007 Inside Out: http://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/boo...x#AboutTheBook Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/ MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/ "Larry" wrote in message ... Beth, You've opened my eyes. Now I understand the logic behind Microsoft's destruction of Word. By the same logic by which the menus were eliminated, since the "majority" of users don't create custom toolbars and custom menus, MS just did away with them as well. Or at least made it much harder to create and install them--I haven't figured this all out yet. In any case, the former beautiful feature by which you opened the Customize dialog box and could effortllessly create a new toolbar and give it a name put on it what you wanted seems to be gone. Hey, folks, the "majority" of users also never create a macro, never edit a macro, and never assign a custom keystroke to a macro or to a built-in command. So, by MS's logic of only keeping features that "most" users use, how come MS didn't eliminate VBA, eliminate macro recording, eliminate macros, eliminate the Macro dialog box, eliminate the VBA editing interface, and eliminate the Customize Keyboard dialog box??? The great thing about Word was that it had thousands of capabilities, and each user, depending on his interests, might only deal with a small part of them. So each person could in effect have his own "Word." But now we've moved away from such diversity toward a single uniformity. A single "majority rule" determines what will be in Word. Only what the 90 percent of users who are mediocre users will determine what is in Word. Everything that a more skilled and creative or just idiosyncratic user of Word might want to access is to be eliminated. That appears to be the logic. The only thing that saves the situation from total disaster is that MS has not yet been completely consistent in its program of destruction, so it has still left some "non-popular" features in place. Larry |
|
#20
Posted to microsoft.public.word.newusers
|
|||
|
|||
|
Another great example of how Word 2007 "brings commands closer to the surface"
Sat, 7 Apr 2007 11:14:19 +0200 from Doug Robbins - Word MVP
: Instead of using the "Customize Quick Access Toolbar" pulldown (which does only have a limited number of options), Right Click on the QAT (or in fact anywhere on the Ribbon) and select "Customize Quick Access Toolbar" Thanks, Doug! -- Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Tompkins County, New York, USA http://OakRoadSystems.com/ |
|
#21
Posted to microsoft.public.word.newusers
|
|||
|
|||
|
Another great example of how Word 2007 "brings commands closer to the surface"
Sat, 7 Apr 2007 11:48:03 -0500 from Beth Melton :
Commands on the QAT have automatic accelerators. Alt+1 accesses the first command, Alt+2 accesses the next, and so on. I gotta ask, how do you access the tenth and eleventh? :-) -- Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Tompkins County, New York, USA http://OakRoadSystems.com/ |
|
#22
Posted to microsoft.public.word.newusers
|
|||
|
|||
|
Another great example of how Word 2007 "brings commands closer to the surface"
Beth, since you were involved in feedback during the development process,
can you tell us why they also eliminated the Blue background option? Many people liked that. I don't use it all the time, but I do like to use it occasonally. What do they gain by eliminating it? Why not just leave it there for the minority of people who like it and prefer it, who in many cases need it because it's easier on the eyes? "Beth Melton" wrote in message ... I've been using Office 2007 for over 18 months and at first, like the majority I hated it. I thought MS made a bad move, it was going to fail, and so on. I don't feel that way anymore. (Heh, you should have seen some of my "persuasive feedback" - the comments you've made are mild in comparison - especially when it came to removing the ease in toolbar/menu customization. g). But you know, even though I know how to customize the Ribbon it's really not necessary for me to customize it for my every day work. I have come up with alternate methods that fit my needs. For example I have several templates that have a customized QAT with commands for specific tasks and I load/unload them as global templates according the task at hand. (I still have a complaint about the inability to float toolbars....) After using the new interface I can now honestly see how it actually does improve work flow and I can perform tasks in Word that used to take a half hour or more in a few simple clicks. And it places capabilities that were once used exclusively by power users into the hands of everyone. Plus those who were familiar with some of the advanced features will likely find them easier to use. One quick example is AutoText. Previously you had to create a style and associate the entries with the style in order to create an organized AutoText menu. Now it's a matter of creating what is now called a Building Blocks and assigning it to a gallery and a specific category using a dialog box. And there was difficulty remembering what you called them, now they are more visually oriented for insertion (and yes you can still assign keyboard shortcuts if you want). Form development is another example. The ability to easily create bound forms in Word has been a long standing request and that functionality is now available using Content Controls AND they automatically update without the need to add extra steps or use a macro. Content Controls also resolve another long standing request, to protect portions of a document for data entry without losing spell check and other functionality. Oh, and Styles have been lifted up and are easier for beginners to use. Even the basic beginner books are including how to use and modify styles. And I've noticed many of the beginning Word books are encouraging users to use formatted space between paragraphs instead of empty paragraphs due to the new defaults. (Thank goodness!!) BUT in order to fully see and understand these capabilities one can't be resistant to change. That was my stumbling block for several months. I wanted Word (and the other Office apps) to function as I was accustomed to them functioning for over the last 15 years. To use the new versions effectively it does require a bit of change, such as change how you may have previously accomplished a task but in the end it is faster and more efficient. The key is if you want to embrace the change or fight the change. If you fight it then you'll hate it and find it lacking. If you embrace it you may just find what I have found, that change can indeed be a "good thing". Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for assistance by email can not be acknowledged. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Beth Melton Microsoft Office MVP Co-author of Word 2007 Inside Out: http://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/boo...x#AboutTheBook Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/ MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/ "Larry" wrote in message ... Beth, You've opened my eyes. Now I understand the logic behind Microsoft's destruction of Word. By the same logic by which the menus were eliminated, since the "majority" of users don't create custom toolbars and custom menus, MS just did away with them as well. Or at least made it much harder to create and install them--I haven't figured this all out yet. In any case, the former beautiful feature by which you opened the Customize dialog box and could effortllessly create a new toolbar and give it a name put on it what you wanted seems to be gone. Hey, folks, the "majority" of users also never create a macro, never edit a macro, and never assign a custom keystroke to a macro or to a built-in command. So, by MS's logic of only keeping features that "most" users use, how come MS didn't eliminate VBA, eliminate macro recording, eliminate macros, eliminate the Macro dialog box, eliminate the VBA editing interface, and eliminate the Customize Keyboard dialog box??? The great thing about Word was that it had thousands of capabilities, and each user, depending on his interests, might only deal with a small part of them. So each person could in effect have his own "Word." But now we've moved away from such diversity toward a single uniformity. A single "majority rule" determines what will be in Word. Only what the 90 percent of users who are mediocre users will determine what is in Word. Everything that a more skilled and creative or just idiosyncratic user of Word might want to access is to be eliminated. That appears to be the logic. The only thing that saves the situation from total disaster is that MS has not yet been completely consistent in its program of destruction, so it has still left some "non-popular" features in place. Larry |
|
#23
Posted to microsoft.public.word.newusers
|
|||
|
|||
|
Another great example of how Word 2007 "brings commands closer to the surface"
I know the answer to that one: far too few users used it and it was actually
removed as a result of major coding issues. In other words, another feature enhancement was in jeopardy because of the white text on blue background legacy. So after extensive consultation, the decision was made to kill it off. Of course, you can sort of work around it with W2007 by creating a custom Style Set based on your usual Style Set but with a blue background and fonts set to white. Terry "Larry" wrote in message ... Beth, since you were involved in feedback during the development process, can you tell us why they also eliminated the Blue background option? Many people liked that. I don't use it all the time, but I do like to use it occasonally. What do they gain by eliminating it? Why not just leave it there for the minority of people who like it and prefer it, who in many cases need it because it's easier on the eyes? "Beth Melton" wrote in message ... I've been using Office 2007 for over 18 months and at first, like the majority I hated it. I thought MS made a bad move, it was going to fail, and so on. I don't feel that way anymore. (Heh, you should have seen some of my "persuasive feedback" - the comments you've made are mild in comparison - especially when it came to removing the ease in toolbar/menu customization. g). But you know, even though I know how to customize the Ribbon it's really not necessary for me to customize it for my every day work. I have come up with alternate methods that fit my needs. For example I have several templates that have a customized QAT with commands for specific tasks and I load/unload them as global templates according the task at hand. (I still have a complaint about the inability to float toolbars....) After using the new interface I can now honestly see how it actually does improve work flow and I can perform tasks in Word that used to take a half hour or more in a few simple clicks. And it places capabilities that were once used exclusively by power users into the hands of everyone. Plus those who were familiar with some of the advanced features will likely find them easier to use. One quick example is AutoText. Previously you had to create a style and associate the entries with the style in order to create an organized AutoText menu. Now it's a matter of creating what is now called a Building Blocks and assigning it to a gallery and a specific category using a dialog box. And there was difficulty remembering what you called them, now they are more visually oriented for insertion (and yes you can still assign keyboard shortcuts if you want). Form development is another example. The ability to easily create bound forms in Word has been a long standing request and that functionality is now available using Content Controls AND they automatically update without the need to add extra steps or use a macro. Content Controls also resolve another long standing request, to protect portions of a document for data entry without losing spell check and other functionality. Oh, and Styles have been lifted up and are easier for beginners to use. Even the basic beginner books are including how to use and modify styles. And I've noticed many of the beginning Word books are encouraging users to use formatted space between paragraphs instead of empty paragraphs due to the new defaults. (Thank goodness!!) BUT in order to fully see and understand these capabilities one can't be resistant to change. That was my stumbling block for several months. I wanted Word (and the other Office apps) to function as I was accustomed to them functioning for over the last 15 years. To use the new versions effectively it does require a bit of change, such as change how you may have previously accomplished a task but in the end it is faster and more efficient. The key is if you want to embrace the change or fight the change. If you fight it then you'll hate it and find it lacking. If you embrace it you may just find what I have found, that change can indeed be a "good thing". Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for assistance by email can not be acknowledged. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Beth Melton Microsoft Office MVP Co-author of Word 2007 Inside Out: http://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/boo...x#AboutTheBook Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/ MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/ "Larry" wrote in message ... Beth, You've opened my eyes. Now I understand the logic behind Microsoft's destruction of Word. By the same logic by which the menus were eliminated, since the "majority" of users don't create custom toolbars and custom menus, MS just did away with them as well. Or at least made it much harder to create and install them--I haven't figured this all out yet. In any case, the former beautiful feature by which you opened the Customize dialog box and could effortllessly create a new toolbar and give it a name put on it what you wanted seems to be gone. Hey, folks, the "majority" of users also never create a macro, never edit a macro, and never assign a custom keystroke to a macro or to a built-in command. So, by MS's logic of only keeping features that "most" users use, how come MS didn't eliminate VBA, eliminate macro recording, eliminate macros, eliminate the Macro dialog box, eliminate the VBA editing interface, and eliminate the Customize Keyboard dialog box??? The great thing about Word was that it had thousands of capabilities, and each user, depending on his interests, might only deal with a small part of them. So each person could in effect have his own "Word." But now we've moved away from such diversity toward a single uniformity. A single "majority rule" determines what will be in Word. Only what the 90 percent of users who are mediocre users will determine what is in Word. Everything that a more skilled and creative or just idiosyncratic user of Word might want to access is to be eliminated. That appears to be the logic. The only thing that saves the situation from total disaster is that MS has not yet been completely consistent in its program of destruction, so it has still left some "non-popular" features in place. Larry |
|
#24
Posted to microsoft.public.word.newusers
|
|||
|
|||
|
Another great example of how Word 2007 "brings commands closer to the surface"
Stan
When the number of commands has reached 9, the next number is 09, 08... until 01 where the next number becomes 0A, 0B... and so on. -- Terry Farrell - MS Word MVP "Stan Brown" wrote in message t... Sat, 7 Apr 2007 11:48:03 -0500 from Beth Melton : Commands on the QAT have automatic accelerators. Alt+1 accesses the first command, Alt+2 accesses the next, and so on. I gotta ask, how do you access the tenth and eleventh? :-) -- Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Tompkins County, New York, USA http://OakRoadSystems.com/ |
|
#25
Posted to microsoft.public.word.newusers
|
|||
|
|||
|
Another great example of how Word 2007 "brings commands closer to the surface"
You don't necessarily need to go that far, you can use the Page Color and
the font will automatically change to a white text, provided you are using theme colors, that is. Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for assistance by email can not be acknowledged. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Beth Melton Microsoft Office MVP Co-author of Word 2007 Inside Out: http://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/boo...x#AboutTheBook Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/ MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/ "Terry Farrell" wrote in message ... Of course, you can sort of work around it with W2007 by creating a custom Style Set based on your usual Style Set but with a blue background and fonts set to white. Terry |
|
#26
Posted to microsoft.public.word.newusers
|
|||
|
|||
|
Another great example of how Word 2007 "brings commands closerto the surface"
Larry wrote:
Beth, You've opened my eyes. Now I understand the logic behind Microsoft's destruction of Word. By the same logic by which the menus were eliminated, since the "majority" of users don't create custom toolbars and custom menus, MS just did away with them as well. Or at least made it much harder to create and install them--I haven't figured this all out yet. In any case, the former beautiful feature by which you opened the Customize dialog box and could effortllessly create a new toolbar and give it a name put on it what you wanted seems to be gone. Hey, folks, the "majority" of users also never create a macro, never edit a macro, and never assign a custom keystroke to a macro or to a built-in command. So, by MS's logic of only keeping features that "most" users use, how come MS didn't eliminate VBA, eliminate macro recording, eliminate macros, eliminate the Macro dialog box, eliminate the VBA editing interface, and eliminate the Customize Keyboard dialog box??? The great thing about Word was that it had thousands of capabilities, and each user, depending on his interests, might only deal with a small part of them. So each person could in effect have his own "Word." But now we've moved away from such diversity toward a single uniformity. A single "majority rule" determines what will be in Word. Only what the 90 percent of users who are mediocre users will determine what is in Word. Everything that a more skilled and creative or just idiosyncratic user of Word might want to access is to be eliminated. That appears to be the logic. The only thing that saves the situation from total disaster is that MS has not yet been completely consistent in its program of destruction, so it has still left some "non-popular" features in place. Now that Microsoft has abandoned you, WordPerfect welcomes you with open arms. You can customize WordPerfect to the point that not even Corel itself would recognize it! |
|
#27
Posted to microsoft.public.word.newusers
|
|||
|
|||
|
Another great example of how Word 2007 "brings commands closerto the surface"
Larry wrote:
Beth, since you were involved in feedback during the development process, can you tell us why they also eliminated the Blue background option? Many people liked that. I don't use it all the time, but I do like to use it occasonally. What do they gain by eliminating it? Why not just leave it there for the minority of people who like it and prefer it, who in many cases need it because it's easier on the eyes? WordPerfect versions 12 and X3 offer a nice blue background by selecting "Classic Mode." |
|
#28
Posted to microsoft.public.word.newusers
|
|||
|
|||
|
Another great example of how Word 2007 "brings commands closer to the surface"
I didn't say it took months, I was saying that I've spent over 18 months
using Office 2007 and feel as though I have an "educated" opinion of things. I was very opinionated about a few things, just as most who have only scratched the surface, but then I realized I was viewing things as I viewed my switch from WP 5.0 to Word, or WordBasic to Visual Basic. It was then I decided to hold off forming an opinion on various matters until I gained more insight. There are still things I don't like but there were things I didn't like in the older versions as well. To be perfectly honest, I think I could type until my fingers are blue, as opposed to talking until I'm blue in the face (g), and it won't make a bit of difference. Those who want to view the change with an open mind will, those who don't, won't. It's like trying to tell convince a hard-core WP user of the benefits of Word. ;-) Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for assistance by email can not be acknowledged. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Beth Melton Microsoft Office MVP Co-author of Word 2007 Inside Out: http://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/boo...x#AboutTheBook Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/ MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/ "Larry" wrote in message ... Beth, What you're saying is that you had to spend months of your life completely re-learning and re-customizing Word to your needs, with the previous 15 years you had spent learning Word being lost, all for the benefit of some marginal improvements in the efficiency of some tasks. Second, the improvements you mention did NOT require the total redesign of the interface. For example, you write: Plus those who were familiar with some of the advanced features will likely find them easier to use. One quick example is AutoText. Previously you had to create a style and associate the entries with the style in order to create an organized AutoText menu. Now it's a matter of creating what is now called a Building Blocks and assigning it to a gallery and a specific category using a dialog box. Well, AutoText could have been changed without, e.g., getting rid of Toolbars and menus! Similarly, greater ease of use in learning Styles did not require a radically revamped Word. It just required that the Styles feature itself be changed. I have nothing against MS adding new features to Word. But to destroy the basic user interface of Word and basic features and capabilities that millions of people have invested many years of work in, and replace it with another, is just wrong. "Beth Melton" wrote in message ... I've been using Office 2007 for over 18 months and at first, like the majority I hated it. I thought MS made a bad move, it was going to fail, and so on. I don't feel that way anymore. (Heh, you should have seen some of my "persuasive feedback" - the comments you've made are mild in comparison - especially when it came to removing the ease in toolbar/menu customization. g). But you know, even though I know how to customize the Ribbon it's really not necessary for me to customize it for my every day work. I have come up with alternate methods that fit my needs. For example I have several templates that have a customized QAT with commands for specific tasks and I load/unload them as global templates according the task at hand. (I still have a complaint about the inability to float toolbars....) After using the new interface I can now honestly see how it actually does improve work flow and I can perform tasks in Word that used to take a half hour or more in a few simple clicks. And it places capabilities that were once used exclusively by power users into the hands of everyone. Plus those who were familiar with some of the advanced features will likely find them easier to use. One quick example is AutoText. Previously you had to create a style and associate the entries with the style in order to create an organized AutoText menu. Now it's a matter of creating what is now called a Building Blocks and assigning it to a gallery and a specific category using a dialog box. And there was difficulty remembering what you called them, now they are more visually oriented for insertion (and yes you can still assign keyboard shortcuts if you want). Form development is another example. The ability to easily create bound forms in Word has been a long standing request and that functionality is now available using Content Controls AND they automatically update without the need to add extra steps or use a macro. Content Controls also resolve another long standing request, to protect portions of a document for data entry without losing spell check and other functionality. Oh, and Styles have been lifted up and are easier for beginners to use. Even the basic beginner books are including how to use and modify styles. And I've noticed many of the beginning Word books are encouraging users to use formatted space between paragraphs instead of empty paragraphs due to the new defaults. (Thank goodness!!) BUT in order to fully see and understand these capabilities one can't be resistant to change. That was my stumbling block for several months. I wanted Word (and the other Office apps) to function as I was accustomed to them functioning for over the last 15 years. To use the new versions effectively it does require a bit of change, such as change how you may have previously accomplished a task but in the end it is faster and more efficient. The key is if you want to embrace the change or fight the change. If you fight it then you'll hate it and find it lacking. If you embrace it you may just find what I have found, that change can indeed be a "good thing". Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for assistance by email can not be acknowledged. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Beth Melton Microsoft Office MVP Co-author of Word 2007 Inside Out: http://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/boo...x#AboutTheBook Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/ MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/ "Larry" wrote in message ... Beth, You've opened my eyes. Now I understand the logic behind Microsoft's destruction of Word. By the same logic by which the menus were eliminated, since the "majority" of users don't create custom toolbars and custom menus, MS just did away with them as well. Or at least made it much harder to create and install them--I haven't figured this all out yet. In any case, the former beautiful feature by which you opened the Customize dialog box and could effortllessly create a new toolbar and give it a name put on it what you wanted seems to be gone. Hey, folks, the "majority" of users also never create a macro, never edit a macro, and never assign a custom keystroke to a macro or to a built-in command. So, by MS's logic of only keeping features that "most" users use, how come MS didn't eliminate VBA, eliminate macro recording, eliminate macros, eliminate the Macro dialog box, eliminate the VBA editing interface, and eliminate the Customize Keyboard dialog box??? The great thing about Word was that it had thousands of capabilities, and each user, depending on his interests, might only deal with a small part of them. So each person could in effect have his own "Word." But now we've moved away from such diversity toward a single uniformity. A single "majority rule" determines what will be in Word. Only what the 90 percent of users who are mediocre users will determine what is in Word. Everything that a more skilled and creative or just idiosyncratic user of Word might want to access is to be eliminated. That appears to be the logic. The only thing that saves the situation from total disaster is that MS has not yet been completely consistent in its program of destruction, so it has still left some "non-popular" features in place. Larry |
|
#29
Posted to microsoft.public.word.newusers
|
|||
|
|||
|
Another great example of how Word 2007 "brings commands closer to the surface"
If you remember the old UI navigation those commands are still available if
you want to use them. For example Alt+T+O opens Word Options. Oh, and the change to the User Templates location, the removal of the view of the path, was back in Word 2002 - that's not new. Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for assistance by email can not be acknowledged. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Beth Melton Microsoft Office MVP Co-author of Word 2007 Inside Out: http://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/boo...x#AboutTheBook Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/ MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/ "Larry" wrote in message ... Well, that's good news, except that the user would have to remember, which is the third command on the TAC, which is the fourth, etc. That's not as easy to use as the regular menu (which MS has taken away) where it's effortless to remember that Alt+V opens the View menu, Alt+I opens the Insert menu, and so on. An additional problem, but just for me, is that I already have Alt+1, Alt+2, etc. assigned to important macros that I use constantly to assign styles. MS says 2007 is more "intuitive." This is the biggest of Big Lies. The sheer complexity of the Ribbon, its constantly changing, bewildering appearance, creates an informational overload on the user. The hiding away of various dialog boxes—which used to be two instant steps from the Word surface—in completely illogical, arbitrary locations is the very opposite of intuitive or logical or even minimally considerate to the user. For example, folks, try to find the User Template default path. You can find it (though you will probably need Help in order to do so), but once you've found it, see how much harder it is to get to than it used to be, and how senseless and arbitrary its location is. Finally, when you do get there, notice that it will not actually tell you what the current template default path is. In Word 97, you get a "compressed" view of the path, but if you click on the Modify button the complete path is displayed. Nice and simple. One might even call it intuitive. Not so with Word 2007, the "easier," "more intuitive" version of Word! In Word 2007, when you click on Modify, the Template path is NOT displayed and there's no way to get it. Instead, a folder opens with some kind of complicated Explorer type view which does not actually display the default Template path but something else (I couldn't figure it out at all). So I had to keep searching and it took me about 10 minutes last night just to find the Templates folder for Word 2007 in Windows Vista. What is called a more "intuitive" version of Word is actually a bloated bureaucratic monstrosity. |
|
#30
Posted to microsoft.public.word.newusers
|
|||
|
|||
|
Another great example of how Word 2007 "brings commands closer to the surface"
Also, you'll see the accelerators if you press the Alt key in the KeyTips.
Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for assistance by email can not be acknowledged. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Beth Melton Microsoft Office MVP Co-author of Word 2007 Inside Out: http://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/boo...x#AboutTheBook Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/ MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/ "Terry Farrell" wrote in message ... Stan When the number of commands has reached 9, the next number is 09, 08... until 01 where the next number becomes 0A, 0B... and so on. -- Terry Farrell - MS Word MVP "Stan Brown" wrote in message t... Sat, 7 Apr 2007 11:48:03 -0500 from Beth Melton : Commands on the QAT have automatic accelerators. Alt+1 accesses the first command, Alt+2 accesses the next, and so on. I gotta ask, how do you access the tenth and eleventh? :-) -- Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Tompkins County, New York, USA http://OakRoadSystems.com/ |
|
#31
Posted to microsoft.public.word.newusers
|
|||
|
|||
|
Another great example of how Word 2007 "brings commands closer to the surface"
Of course, Automatic Font Colour: I'd forgotten that! It makes it much
simpler. I'll remember that (not that I use that combination). Terry "Beth Melton" wrote in message ... You don't necessarily need to go that far, you can use the Page Color and the font will automatically change to a white text, provided you are using theme colors, that is. Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for assistance by email can not be acknowledged. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Beth Melton Microsoft Office MVP Co-author of Word 2007 Inside Out: http://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/boo...x#AboutTheBook Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/ MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/ "Terry Farrell" wrote in message ... Of course, you can sort of work around it with W2007 by creating a custom Style Set based on your usual Style Set but with a blue background and fonts set to white. Terry |
|
#32
Posted to microsoft.public.word.newusers
|
|||
|
|||
|
Another great example of how Word 2007 "brings commands closer to the surface"
You could even create a Theme for editing/creating your documents and then
switch it to a more vanilla/generic Theme and remove the Page Color prior to distributing a document for other users. (And of course to make it simple you could use a macro to do the switching and Page Color change.) It's actually a little more flexible than before color-wise. Some thought the blue was to dark and the white too bright since those can be just as harsh for some folks. For example some would prefer a lighter blue and yellow font. Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for assistance by email can not be acknowledged. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Beth Melton Microsoft Office MVP Co-author of Word 2007 Inside Out: http://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/boo...x#AboutTheBook Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/ MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/ "Terry Farrell" wrote in message ... Of course, Automatic Font Colour: I'd forgotten that! It makes it much simpler. I'll remember that (not that I use that combination). Terry "Beth Melton" wrote in message ... You don't necessarily need to go that far, you can use the Page Color and the font will automatically change to a white text, provided you are using theme colors, that is. Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for assistance by email can not be acknowledged. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Beth Melton Microsoft Office MVP Co-author of Word 2007 Inside Out: http://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/boo...x#AboutTheBook Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/ MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/ "Terry Farrell" wrote in message ... Of course, you can sort of work around it with W2007 by creating a custom Style Set based on your usual Style Set but with a blue background and fonts set to white. Terry |
|
#33
Posted to microsoft.public.word.newusers
|
|||
|
|||
|
Another great example of how Word 2007 "brings commands closer to the surface"
There are two separate issues here. You say that 2007 has improved
features. I don't question that. My question is, was it necessary to remake the entire Word user interface to produce these new features? Let's say that Styles works better in 2007. Fine. Was it necessary to eliminate the toolbars and replace the file menu by the Microsoft Office button in order to improve the Styles feature? If you can't answer yes to that question and similar questions, then you have not justified the total remake of Word in 2007. This is not a matter of whether I and others are "closed-minded" to Word 2007's good features. It's a matter of whether the destruction of the total user interface of Word was needed to arrive at those good features. "Beth Melton" wrote in message ... I didn't say it took months, I was saying that I've spent over 18 months using Office 2007 and feel as though I have an "educated" opinion of things. I was very opinionated about a few things, just as most who have only scratched the surface, but then I realized I was viewing things as I viewed my switch from WP 5.0 to Word, or WordBasic to Visual Basic. It was then I decided to hold off forming an opinion on various matters until I gained more insight. There are still things I don't like but there were things I didn't like in the older versions as well. To be perfectly honest, I think I could type until my fingers are blue, as opposed to talking until I'm blue in the face (g), and it won't make a bit of difference. Those who want to view the change with an open mind will, those who don't, won't. It's like trying to tell convince a hard-core WP user of the benefits of Word. ;-) Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for assistance by email can not be acknowledged. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Beth Melton Microsoft Office MVP Co-author of Word 2007 Inside Out: http://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/boo...x#AboutTheBook Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/ MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/ "Larry" wrote in message ... Beth, What you're saying is that you had to spend months of your life completely re-learning and re-customizing Word to your needs, with the previous 15 years you had spent learning Word being lost, all for the benefit of some marginal improvements in the efficiency of some tasks. Second, the improvements you mention did NOT require the total redesign of the interface. For example, you write: Plus those who were familiar with some of the advanced features will likely find them easier to use. One quick example is AutoText. Previously you had to create a style and associate the entries with the style in order to create an organized AutoText menu. Now it's a matter of creating what is now called a Building Blocks and assigning it to a gallery and a specific category using a dialog box. Well, AutoText could have been changed without, e.g., getting rid of Toolbars and menus! Similarly, greater ease of use in learning Styles did not require a radically revamped Word. It just required that the Styles feature itself be changed. I have nothing against MS adding new features to Word. But to destroy the basic user interface of Word and basic features and capabilities that millions of people have invested many years of work in, and replace it with another, is just wrong. "Beth Melton" wrote in message ... I've been using Office 2007 for over 18 months and at first, like the majority I hated it. I thought MS made a bad move, it was going to fail, and so on. I don't feel that way anymore. (Heh, you should have seen some of my "persuasive feedback" - the comments you've made are mild in comparison - especially when it came to removing the ease in toolbar/menu customization. g). But you know, even though I know how to customize the Ribbon it's really not necessary for me to customize it for my every day work. I have come up with alternate methods that fit my needs. For example I have several templates that have a customized QAT with commands for specific tasks and I load/unload them as global templates according the task at hand. (I still have a complaint about the inability to float toolbars....) After using the new interface I can now honestly see how it actually does improve work flow and I can perform tasks in Word that used to take a half hour or more in a few simple clicks. And it places capabilities that were once used exclusively by power users into the hands of everyone. Plus those who were familiar with some of the advanced features will likely find them easier to use. One quick example is AutoText. Previously you had to create a style and associate the entries with the style in order to create an organized AutoText menu. Now it's a matter of creating what is now called a Building Blocks and assigning it to a gallery and a specific category using a dialog box. And there was difficulty remembering what you called them, now they are more visually oriented for insertion (and yes you can still assign keyboard shortcuts if you want). Form development is another example. The ability to easily create bound forms in Word has been a long standing request and that functionality is now available using Content Controls AND they automatically update without the need to add extra steps or use a macro. Content Controls also resolve another long standing request, to protect portions of a document for data entry without losing spell check and other functionality. Oh, and Styles have been lifted up and are easier for beginners to use. Even the basic beginner books are including how to use and modify styles. And I've noticed many of the beginning Word books are encouraging users to use formatted space between paragraphs instead of empty paragraphs due to the new defaults. (Thank goodness!!) BUT in order to fully see and understand these capabilities one can't be resistant to change. That was my stumbling block for several months. I wanted Word (and the other Office apps) to function as I was accustomed to them functioning for over the last 15 years. To use the new versions effectively it does require a bit of change, such as change how you may have previously accomplished a task but in the end it is faster and more efficient. The key is if you want to embrace the change or fight the change. If you fight it then you'll hate it and find it lacking. If you embrace it you may just find what I have found, that change can indeed be a "good thing". Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for assistance by email can not be acknowledged. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Beth Melton Microsoft Office MVP Co-author of Word 2007 Inside Out: http://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/boo...x#AboutTheBook Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/ MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/ "Larry" wrote in message ... Beth, You've opened my eyes. Now I understand the logic behind Microsoft's destruction of Word. By the same logic by which the menus were eliminated, since the "majority" of users don't create custom toolbars and custom menus, MS just did away with them as well. Or at least made it much harder to create and install them--I haven't figured this all out yet. In any case, the former beautiful feature by which you opened the Customize dialog box and could effortllessly create a new toolbar and give it a name put on it what you wanted seems to be gone. Hey, folks, the "majority" of users also never create a macro, never edit a macro, and never assign a custom keystroke to a macro or to a built-in command. So, by MS's logic of only keeping features that "most" users use, how come MS didn't eliminate VBA, eliminate macro recording, eliminate macros, eliminate the Macro dialog box, eliminate the VBA editing interface, and eliminate the Customize Keyboard dialog box??? The great thing about Word was that it had thousands of capabilities, and each user, depending on his interests, might only deal with a small part of them. So each person could in effect have his own "Word." But now we've moved away from such diversity toward a single uniformity. A single "majority rule" determines what will be in Word. Only what the 90 percent of users who are mediocre users will determine what is in Word. Everything that a more skilled and creative or just idiosyncratic user of Word might want to access is to be eliminated. That appears to be the logic. The only thing that saves the situation from total disaster is that MS has not yet been completely consistent in its program of destruction, so it has still left some "non-popular" features in place. Larry |
|
#34
Posted to microsoft.public.word.newusers
|
|||
|
|||
|
Another great example of how Word 2007 "brings commands closer to the surface"
Styles were merely an example that came to mind at the time.
You know, Larry, just based on previous discussions I've had with you on topics of an even more simiplic nature I know there nothing I can say to you that will change your mind... Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for assistance by email can not be acknowledged. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Beth Melton "Larry" wrote in message ... There are two separate issues here. You say that 2007 has improved features. I don't question that. My question is, was it necessary to remake the entire Word user interface to produce these new features? Let's say that Styles works better in 2007. Fine. Was it necessary to eliminate the toolbars and replace the file menu by the Microsoft Office button in order to improve the Styles feature? If you can't answer yes to that question and similar questions, then you have not justified the total remake of Word in 2007. This is not a matter of whether I and others are "closed-minded" to Word 2007's good features. It's a matter of whether the destruction of the total user interface of Word was needed to arrive at those good features. "Beth Melton" wrote in message ... I didn't say it took months, I was saying that I've spent over 18 months using Office 2007 and feel as though I have an "educated" opinion of things. I was very opinionated about a few things, just as most who have only scratched the surface, but then I realized I was viewing things as I viewed my switch from WP 5.0 to Word, or WordBasic to Visual Basic. It was then I decided to hold off forming an opinion on various matters until I gained more insight. There are still things I don't like but there were things I didn't like in the older versions as well. To be perfectly honest, I think I could type until my fingers are blue, as opposed to talking until I'm blue in the face (g), and it won't make a bit of difference. Those who want to view the change with an open mind will, those who don't, won't. It's like trying to tell convince a hard-core WP user of the benefits of Word. ;-) Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for assistance by email can not be acknowledged. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Beth Melton Microsoft Office MVP Co-author of Word 2007 Inside Out: http://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/boo...x#AboutTheBook Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/ MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/ "Larry" wrote in message ... Beth, What you're saying is that you had to spend months of your life completely re-learning and re-customizing Word to your needs, with the previous 15 years you had spent learning Word being lost, all for the benefit of some marginal improvements in the efficiency of some tasks. Second, the improvements you mention did NOT require the total redesign of the interface. For example, you write: Plus those who were familiar with some of the advanced features will likely find them easier to use. One quick example is AutoText. Previously you had to create a style and associate the entries with the style in order to create an organized AutoText menu. Now it's a matter of creating what is now called a Building Blocks and assigning it to a gallery and a specific category using a dialog box. Well, AutoText could have been changed without, e.g., getting rid of Toolbars and menus! Similarly, greater ease of use in learning Styles did not require a radically revamped Word. It just required that the Styles feature itself be changed. I have nothing against MS adding new features to Word. But to destroy the basic user interface of Word and basic features and capabilities that millions of people have invested many years of work in, and replace it with another, is just wrong. "Beth Melton" wrote in message ... I've been using Office 2007 for over 18 months and at first, like the majority I hated it. I thought MS made a bad move, it was going to fail, and so on. I don't feel that way anymore. (Heh, you should have seen some of my "persuasive feedback" - the comments you've made are mild in comparison - especially when it came to removing the ease in toolbar/menu customization. g). But you know, even though I know how to customize the Ribbon it's really not necessary for me to customize it for my every day work. I have come up with alternate methods that fit my needs. For example I have several templates that have a customized QAT with commands for specific tasks and I load/unload them as global templates according the task at hand. (I still have a complaint about the inability to float toolbars....) After using the new interface I can now honestly see how it actually does improve work flow and I can perform tasks in Word that used to take a half hour or more in a few simple clicks. And it places capabilities that were once used exclusively by power users into the hands of everyone. Plus those who were familiar with some of the advanced features will likely find them easier to use. One quick example is AutoText. Previously you had to create a style and associate the entries with the style in order to create an organized AutoText menu. Now it's a matter of creating what is now called a Building Blocks and assigning it to a gallery and a specific category using a dialog box. And there was difficulty remembering what you called them, now they are more visually oriented for insertion (and yes you can still assign keyboard shortcuts if you want). Form development is another example. The ability to easily create bound forms in Word has been a long standing request and that functionality is now available using Content Controls AND they automatically update without the need to add extra steps or use a macro. Content Controls also resolve another long standing request, to protect portions of a document for data entry without losing spell check and other functionality. Oh, and Styles have been lifted up and are easier for beginners to use. Even the basic beginner books are including how to use and modify styles. And I've noticed many of the beginning Word books are encouraging users to use formatted space between paragraphs instead of empty paragraphs due to the new defaults. (Thank goodness!!) BUT in order to fully see and understand these capabilities one can't be resistant to change. That was my stumbling block for several months. I wanted Word (and the other Office apps) to function as I was accustomed to them functioning for over the last 15 years. To use the new versions effectively it does require a bit of change, such as change how you may have previously accomplished a task but in the end it is faster and more efficient. The key is if you want to embrace the change or fight the change. If you fight it then you'll hate it and find it lacking. If you embrace it you may just find what I have found, that change can indeed be a "good thing". Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for assistance by email can not be acknowledged. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Beth Melton Microsoft Office MVP Co-author of Word 2007 Inside Out: http://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/boo...x#AboutTheBook Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/ MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/ "Larry" wrote in message ... Beth, You've opened my eyes. Now I understand the logic behind Microsoft's destruction of Word. By the same logic by which the menus were eliminated, since the "majority" of users don't create custom toolbars and custom menus, MS just did away with them as well. Or at least made it much harder to create and install them--I haven't figured this all out yet. In any case, the former beautiful feature by which you opened the Customize dialog box and could effortllessly create a new toolbar and give it a name put on it what you wanted seems to be gone. Hey, folks, the "majority" of users also never create a macro, never edit a macro, and never assign a custom keystroke to a macro or to a built-in command. So, by MS's logic of only keeping features that "most" users use, how come MS didn't eliminate VBA, eliminate macro recording, eliminate macros, eliminate the Macro dialog box, eliminate the VBA editing interface, and eliminate the Customize Keyboard dialog box??? The great thing about Word was that it had thousands of capabilities, and each user, depending on his interests, might only deal with a small part of them. So each person could in effect have his own "Word." But now we've moved away from such diversity toward a single uniformity. A single "majority rule" determines what will be in Word. Only what the 90 percent of users who are mediocre users will determine what is in Word. Everything that a more skilled and creative or just idiosyncratic user of Word might want to access is to be eliminated. That appears to be the logic. The only thing that saves the situation from total disaster is that MS has not yet been completely consistent in its program of destruction, so it has still left some "non-popular" features in place. Larry |
|
#35
Posted to microsoft.public.word.newusers
|
|||
|
|||
|
Another great example of how Word 2007 "brings commands closer to the surface"
Ok, Beth, I understand that you feel it's impossible to persuade me that
trashing and replacing Word's total interface and method of operation was for the Greater Good. "Beth Melton" wrote in message ... Styles were merely an example that came to mind at the time. You know, Larry, just based on previous discussions I've had with you on topics of an even more simiplic nature I know there nothing I can say to you that will change your mind... Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for assistance by email can not be acknowledged. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Beth Melton "Larry" wrote in message ... There are two separate issues here. You say that 2007 has improved features. I don't question that. My question is, was it necessary to remake the entire Word user interface to produce these new features? Let's say that Styles works better in 2007. Fine. Was it necessary to eliminate the toolbars and replace the file menu by the Microsoft Office button in order to improve the Styles feature? If you can't answer yes to that question and similar questions, then you have not justified the total remake of Word in 2007. This is not a matter of whether I and others are "closed-minded" to Word 2007's good features. It's a matter of whether the destruction of the total user interface of Word was needed to arrive at those good features. "Beth Melton" wrote in message ... I didn't say it took months, I was saying that I've spent over 18 months using Office 2007 and feel as though I have an "educated" opinion of things. I was very opinionated about a few things, just as most who have only scratched the surface, but then I realized I was viewing things as I viewed my switch from WP 5.0 to Word, or WordBasic to Visual Basic. It was then I decided to hold off forming an opinion on various matters until I gained more insight. There are still things I don't like but there were things I didn't like in the older versions as well. To be perfectly honest, I think I could type until my fingers are blue, as opposed to talking until I'm blue in the face (g), and it won't make a bit of difference. Those who want to view the change with an open mind will, those who don't, won't. It's like trying to tell convince a hard-core WP user of the benefits of Word. ;-) Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for assistance by email can not be acknowledged. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Beth Melton Microsoft Office MVP Co-author of Word 2007 Inside Out: http://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/boo...x#AboutTheBook Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/ MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/ "Larry" wrote in message ... Beth, What you're saying is that you had to spend months of your life completely re-learning and re-customizing Word to your needs, with the previous 15 years you had spent learning Word being lost, all for the benefit of some marginal improvements in the efficiency of some tasks. Second, the improvements you mention did NOT require the total redesign of the interface. For example, you write: Plus those who were familiar with some of the advanced features will likely find them easier to use. One quick example is AutoText. Previously you had to create a style and associate the entries with the style in order to create an organized AutoText menu. Now it's a matter of creating what is now called a Building Blocks and assigning it to a gallery and a specific category using a dialog box. Well, AutoText could have been changed without, e.g., getting rid of Toolbars and menus! Similarly, greater ease of use in learning Styles did not require a radically revamped Word. It just required that the Styles feature itself be changed. I have nothing against MS adding new features to Word. But to destroy the basic user interface of Word and basic features and capabilities that millions of people have invested many years of work in, and replace it with another, is just wrong. "Beth Melton" wrote in message ... I've been using Office 2007 for over 18 months and at first, like the majority I hated it. I thought MS made a bad move, it was going to fail, and so on. I don't feel that way anymore. (Heh, you should have seen some of my "persuasive feedback" - the comments you've made are mild in comparison - especially when it came to removing the ease in toolbar/menu customization. g). But you know, even though I know how to customize the Ribbon it's really not necessary for me to customize it for my every day work. I have come up with alternate methods that fit my needs. For example I have several templates that have a customized QAT with commands for specific tasks and I load/unload them as global templates according the task at hand. (I still have a complaint about the inability to float toolbars....) After using the new interface I can now honestly see how it actually does improve work flow and I can perform tasks in Word that used to take a half hour or more in a few simple clicks. And it places capabilities that were once used exclusively by power users into the hands of everyone. Plus those who were familiar with some of the advanced features will likely find them easier to use. One quick example is AutoText. Previously you had to create a style and associate the entries with the style in order to create an organized AutoText menu. Now it's a matter of creating what is now called a Building Blocks and assigning it to a gallery and a specific category using a dialog box. And there was difficulty remembering what you called them, now they are more visually oriented for insertion (and yes you can still assign keyboard shortcuts if you want). Form development is another example. The ability to easily create bound forms in Word has been a long standing request and that functionality is now available using Content Controls AND they automatically update without the need to add extra steps or use a macro. Content Controls also resolve another long standing request, to protect portions of a document for data entry without losing spell check and other functionality. Oh, and Styles have been lifted up and are easier for beginners to use. Even the basic beginner books are including how to use and modify styles. And I've noticed many of the beginning Word books are encouraging users to use formatted space between paragraphs instead of empty paragraphs due to the new defaults. (Thank goodness!!) BUT in order to fully see and understand these capabilities one can't be resistant to change. That was my stumbling block for several months. I wanted Word (and the other Office apps) to function as I was accustomed to them functioning for over the last 15 years. To use the new versions effectively it does require a bit of change, such as change how you may have previously accomplished a task but in the end it is faster and more efficient. The key is if you want to embrace the change or fight the change. If you fight it then you'll hate it and find it lacking. If you embrace it you may just find what I have found, that change can indeed be a "good thing". Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for assistance by email can not be acknowledged. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Beth Melton Microsoft Office MVP Co-author of Word 2007 Inside Out: http://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/boo...x#AboutTheBook Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/ MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/ "Larry" wrote in message ... Beth, You've opened my eyes. Now I understand the logic behind Microsoft's destruction of Word. By the same logic by which the menus were eliminated, since the "majority" of users don't create custom toolbars and custom menus, MS just did away with them as well. Or at least made it much harder to create and install them--I haven't figured this all out yet. In any case, the former beautiful feature by which you opened the Customize dialog box and could effortllessly create a new toolbar and give it a name put on it what you wanted seems to be gone. Hey, folks, the "majority" of users also never create a macro, never edit a macro, and never assign a custom keystroke to a macro or to a built-in command. So, by MS's logic of only keeping features that "most" users use, how come MS didn't eliminate VBA, eliminate macro recording, eliminate macros, eliminate the Macro dialog box, eliminate the VBA editing interface, and eliminate the Customize Keyboard dialog box??? The great thing about Word was that it had thousands of capabilities, and each user, depending on his interests, might only deal with a small part of them. So each person could in effect have his own "Word." But now we've moved away from such diversity toward a single uniformity. A single "majority rule" determines what will be in Word. Only what the 90 percent of users who are mediocre users will determine what is in Word. Everything that a more skilled and creative or just idiosyncratic user of Word might want to access is to be eliminated. That appears to be the logic. The only thing that saves the situation from total disaster is that MS has not yet been completely consistent in its program of destruction, so it has still left some "non-popular" features in place. Larry |
|
#36
Posted to microsoft.public.word.newusers
|
|||
|
|||
|
Another great example of how Word 2007 "brings commands closer to the surface"
You don't necessarily need to go that far, you can use the Page Color and the font will automatically change to a white text, provided you are using theme colors, that is. When you say theme colors do you mean Windows theme or are there Word themes as well? |
|
#37
Posted to microsoft.public.word.newusers
|
|||
|
|||
|
Another great example of how Word 2007 "brings commands closer to the surface"
I think it's impossible to persuade you in general, Larry. ;-)
If you want the truth, when I saw the new UI you were one of the first people that came to mind. I thought, oh my, when Larry sees this he'll have a heart attack. I'm thankful to see you've taken a look at it and are still around. grin Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for assistance by email can not be acknowledged. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Beth Melton "Larry" wrote in message ... Ok, Beth, I understand that you feel it's impossible to persuade me that trashing and replacing Word's total interface and method of operation was for the Greater Good. "Beth Melton" wrote in message ... Styles were merely an example that came to mind at the time. You know, Larry, just based on previous discussions I've had with you on topics of an even more simiplic nature I know there nothing I can say to you that will change your mind... |
|
#38
Posted to microsoft.public.word.newusers
|
|||
|
|||
|
Another great example of how Word 2007 "brings commands closer to the surface"
LOL.
I'm laughing, but I'm miserable. :-) .... And still in a state of amazement and fury at what MS has done. "Beth Melton" wrote in message ... I think it's impossible to persuade you in general, Larry. ;-) If you want the truth, when I saw the new UI you were one of the first people that came to mind. I thought, oh my, when Larry sees this he'll have a heart attack. I'm thankful to see you've taken a look at it and are still around. grin Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for assistance by email can not be acknowledged. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Beth Melton "Larry" wrote in message ... Ok, Beth, I understand that you feel it's impossible to persuade me that trashing and replacing Word's total interface and method of operation was for the Greater Good. "Beth Melton" wrote in message ... Styles were merely an example that came to mind at the time. You know, Larry, just based on previous discussions I've had with you on topics of an even more simiplic nature I know there nothing I can say to you that will change your mind... |
|
#39
Posted to microsoft.public.word.newusers
|
|||
|
|||
|
Another great example of how Word 2007 "brings commands closer to the surface"
Also, if memory serves correctly, years ago Beth helped me with macros to prevent the vertical and horizonal scroll bars from ever appearing unless I wanted them (and helped me with a lot of other things as well). It was a bit of a trick. Word just wanted those ugly scroll bars to keep popping up. Only serious customization could get around that. But once we had it, it was never an issue again. I have simple keystrokes to toggle the scrollbars when I want them, not when Microsoft wants them. My aim in that case and generally has been to keep all unnecessary clutter out of the Word window. So I got rid of all toolbar buttons that I don't use, and replaced the Standard and Formatting toolbars with one simplified toolbar. I never display the Ruler except when I need it. Also, the blue background screen is "cooler," easier on the eyes. So the whole look is simple and pleasing to the eye. To me, the way Word looks when it opens in its default state is an incredible eyesore. The other thing for me is to have an integrated environment, where I do things with the minimum of keystrokes or mouseclicks. For example, I developed a single key command (Num1) to toggle the Blue background off and on. I have a single key command (Num2) which not only toggles the capitalization of a word, but if there's a selection going up to the start of a word, it cuts the selection and toggles the capitalization of the first letter of the word immediately following the selection. I have three custom menus with many macros I use constantly, every one of those macros takes just two keystrokes, Alt+Letter, Letter. I'm still not sure if it's posible to replicate something like that in 2007. Things that take two steps in the older versions (even without my customizations), take three or more steps in 2007, things that take one step in the older versions (like opening the Window menu via keystroke) take two steps in 2007. This is totally unacceptable. The whole point is that things that you do often be done with the minimum of keystrokes. So my approach is to make Word's look as simple as possible, and Word's operation as simple as possible. Word 2007 is not only the opposite of that, it basically makes it impossible to customize around it. It imposes so much more on you (that incredibly complicated, hyperactive Ribbon) and makes it impossible to escape it. "Beth Melton" wrote in message ... I think it's impossible to persuade you in general, Larry. ;-) If you want the truth, when I saw the new UI you were one of the first people that came to mind. I thought, oh my, when Larry sees this he'll have a heart attack. I'm thankful to see you've taken a look at it and are still around. grin Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for assistance by email can not be acknowledged. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Beth Melton "Larry" wrote in message ... Ok, Beth, I understand that you feel it's impossible to persuade me that trashing and replacing Word's total interface and method of operation was for the Greater Good. "Beth Melton" wrote in message ... Styles were merely an example that came to mind at the time. You know, Larry, just based on previous discussions I've had with you on topics of an even more simiplic nature I know there nothing I can say to you that will change your mind... |
|
#40
Posted to microsoft.public.word.newusers
|
|||
|
|||
|
Another great example of how Word 2007 "brings commands closer to the surface"
But can you accept that the majority of users do NOT use Word the way you
do? The vast majority of them would never think of going to the trouble to customize Word this way even if they were told how, and most have no desire to use Word this way. I find that most users are not interested in keyboard shortcuts at all. -- Suzanne S. Barnhill Microsoft MVP (Word) Words into Type Fairhope, Alabama USA Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so all may benefit. "Larry" wrote in message ... Also, if memory serves correctly, years ago Beth helped me with macros to prevent the vertical and horizonal scroll bars from ever appearing unless I wanted them (and helped me with a lot of other things as well). It was a bit of a trick. Word just wanted those ugly scroll bars to keep popping up. Only serious customization could get around that. But once we had it, it was never an issue again. I have simple keystrokes to toggle the scrollbars when I want them, not when Microsoft wants them. My aim in that case and generally has been to keep all unnecessary clutter out of the Word window. So I got rid of all toolbar buttons that I don't use, and replaced the Standard and Formatting toolbars with one simplified toolbar. I never display the Ruler except when I need it. Also, the blue background screen is "cooler," easier on the eyes. So the whole look is simple and pleasing to the eye. To me, the way Word looks when it opens in its default state is an incredible eyesore. The other thing for me is to have an integrated environment, where I do things with the minimum of keystrokes or mouseclicks. For example, I developed a single key command (Num1) to toggle the Blue background off and on. I have a single key command (Num2) which not only toggles the capitalization of a word, but if there's a selection going up to the start of a word, it cuts the selection and toggles the capitalization of the first letter of the word immediately following the selection. I have three custom menus with many macros I use constantly, every one of those macros takes just two keystrokes, Alt+Letter, Letter. I'm still not sure if it's posible to replicate something like that in 2007. Things that take two steps in the older versions (even without my customizations), take three or more steps in 2007, things that take one step in the older versions (like opening the Window menu via keystroke) take two steps in 2007. This is totally unacceptable. The whole point is that things that you do often be done with the minimum of keystrokes. So my approach is to make Word's look as simple as possible, and Word's operation as simple as possible. Word 2007 is not only the opposite of that, it basically makes it impossible to customize around it. It imposes so much more on you (that incredibly complicated, hyperactive Ribbon) and makes it impossible to escape it. "Beth Melton" wrote in message ... I think it's impossible to persuade you in general, Larry. ;-) If you want the truth, when I saw the new UI you were one of the first people that came to mind. I thought, oh my, when Larry sees this he'll have a heart attack. I'm thankful to see you've taken a look at it and are still around. grin Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for assistance by email can not be acknowledged. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Beth Melton "Larry" wrote in message ... Ok, Beth, I understand that you feel it's impossible to persuade me that trashing and replacing Word's total interface and method of operation was for the Greater Good. "Beth Melton" wrote in message ... Styles were merely an example that came to mind at the time. You know, Larry, just based on previous discussions I've had with you on topics of an even more simiplic nature I know there nothing I can say to you that will change your mind... |
| Reply |
| Thread Tools | |
| Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads
|
||||
| Thread | Forum | |||
| "Ctrl+Page Dn" won't work-brings up Spellchk vs. paging down full | Microsoft Word Help | |||
| Word 2007 view defaults to "Thumbnails" rather than "Document Map" | Microsoft Word Help | |||
| Word 2007 Send as " Email, PDF/XPS attachment" commands are disabl | Microsoft Word Help | |||
| How do I convert all "NAME" to "Name" in MS Word 2007 document? | Microsoft Word Help | |||
| How 2 "display all commands of toolbar menu", ALWAYS?, (no conden. | Microsoft Word Help | |||
Linear Mode
