> Picking them up & being productive with an app are 2 entirely > different things. I've O2k7 & wish I never installed it. I wish I had > installed O2k3 instead. Sure I can run the 2k7 version but I'm still > not as productive with it as I was with 2k3 & that's after more than > a year of using it. IMHO that ribbon thing is a POS. MSFT has > changed the GUI in many cases just to make the end luser feel like > they've gotten a lot extra for their $$$$ which is utter crap. There > is no other reason that they had to change the GUI & just because > your user are better than average doesn't mean much in this > discussion as they'll just hunt longer to find what they wanted. OBTW > using that logo for the 1st pull down menu wasn't exactly necessary > either. Change just for the sake of change is not in the end lusers > best interest just MSFT back pocket. > >
Ribbon takes a lot to get used to. I personally don't like it. I feel slower with it. But I strongly disagree that it is change for the sake of change. I've actually noticed something quite interesting...for users that previously had zero or limited experience with Office, it appears to be a massive win. They're able to pick up and use advanced functionality much faster and with little to no assistance compared to previous versions. Traditional hierarchical menus are NOT user friendly. It's just a classical situation in which grasping a new interface concept is difficult when you have previous experience. Further, Outlook 2007 is vastly superior to Outlook 2003--and that alone makes the whole suite worthwhile to me. Excel 2007 handles vastly larger data sets, and is considerably faster--another big win. Word 2007 has been less temperamental than previous version as well. But yes, I dislike the ribbon interface personally. Greg
