At 10:05 AM Thursday 4/24/2008, Nick Arnett wrote: >So... I "upgraded" to Microsoft Office 2007 recently. Can't do half of what >I used to do because I can't find anything. They seem to have succeeded in >making it harder to use. >The most bizarre thing is that I cannot find the Help menu anywhere. My >wife, who was forced into this particular torture a few months ago, has had >the same problem. > >The whole point of using drop-down menus in a GUI is to be table to slide >the cursor across them and immediately see what's available. Somebody in >Redmond apparently thought they were improving on that. > >Vi is easier than this.
;) >Sheesh. > >This brings to mind an elderly friend who yesterday was talking about her >extreme frustration in trying to buy a new head for her electric toothbrush. > There are so many models from the same manufacturer that she can't figure >out which one is for hers... and bought the wrong one. This is a woman on a >very low fixed income who isn't very comfortable driving and really doesn't >want to have to go back to the store repeatedly. But I'm sure the >toothbrush company comes up with a new model at least every year in order to >urge people to upgrade... for no good reason. The fifth new version is >really no more effective than the first one. Sometimes marketing, which I >sort of work in, drives me nuts. At least my job is more or less about >making marketing responsive to people, instead of manipulating people to be >responsive to marketing. I think. I hope. I fear that particular ship sailed decades ago . . . >What else is like this... endless "upgrades" to convince people that their >perfectly good old product is obsolete? Lots of things, I guess. There's >nothing new and improved about "new and improved." I suppose one of the >worst offenders is the pharmaceutical industry, where the newer allergy and >heartburn drugs are no better than the old ones, just tested less... and far >more expensive. Not to mention restricting the purchase of the older, more effective OTC products to only so much per 30 days (<< a 30-day supply) with ID or making them Rx-only in the name of "doing something" wrt "the war on drugs." >Nick > >P.S. Oh, look, a tiny question mark in the upper right corner of the window >brings up a help page. ? > First item: "What's new." I'll bet that will try to >rationalize all the changes. Second item, "Getting help." Maybe it's a link to a list of anger-management clinics. > Too late. Or a suicide-prevention hotline . . . . . . ronn! :) _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
