Word 2007 is "More intuitive??"

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Glad you are pleased. The Condense 0.1 pt. was one of the buttons I was most
panicked about losing in Word 2007; thank heavens for Graham's instructions
on how to import custom toolbars! Now if MS would just give us a way to add
those custom buttons directly to the QAT...

One custom button I didn't include was one to run the TableCellHelper macro
(I figured including the macro would complicate matters). For it I had used
the question mark icon that's included in the limited set you get when you
choose Change Button Image. In Word 2007, rather confusingly, this is
rendered as the white question mark in a blue circle that is also used for
the Help button.

 

[Martin C]

Being a relative power user of Word myself, I am like a lot of others that
find 2007 quite difficult to use as I have trouble finding anything in it.
Only last night, I was asked by a neighbour to help her out with some issues
she was having doing relatively simple things with Word 2007. Although I
managed to help her out, it was a struggle.

Admittedly, I have hardly used 2007 at all, so this could be why I had
trouble finding things. The point here is that my neighbour has not really
used any of the other versions of Word much and found 2007 very difficult to
use. To call it intuitive is therefore wrong.

Although by the end of the session, I was starting to get to grips with it a
bit better, I was not impressed at all. I shall be sticking with 2003 for as
long as possible.

For instance, to spend such a long time to find the print preview and giving
up is not a good sign.

Martin

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

I don't think "intuitive" was exactly what MS was shooting for. The term the
developers kept using was "discoverable." The problem with the old menu
structure (especially adaptive menus) was that there were so many commands
and features that users never discovered (if you read these NGs regularly,
you'll be amazed at the number of questions about the very existence of a
way to produce, say, footnotes). The idea here was to make everything
in-your-face. The other premise of the design (which I think we later
demonstrated was based on incorrectly interpreted CEIP data*) was that some
hugely high percentage of users never customize anything in the UI. MS
concluded that consistency was a desirable goal: that everything should
always be in the same place--for all users. This theoretically makes support
easier because you can confidently assume that every user has the same
buttons in the same groups on the same tabs all the time.

I agree that making Print Preview so hard to get to was a step backward.
That was one of the first buttons I added to my QAT. I also am still
primarily using Word 2003, dipping into 2007 only to attempt to answer
users' questions and to try to update my WordFAQs articles. So I also do a
lot of wandering around looking for things. I'm sure the placement of
features was carefully thought out (and even agonized over), and it is
certainly more logical than the "junk drawer" that the Tools menu had
become, but it is definitely a huge paradigm shift.

*CEIP in Word 2003 reported users' use of commands. I'm not sure it
distinguished between clicking buttons and using keyboard shortcuts, hence
the continued prominence of the Cut, Copy, and Paste buttons. But the main
problem was that a customization was reported, if at all, only once (when
the user added a button or menu item). If a user started using Word 2003
with customized toolbars and menus inherited from an earlier version, no
customization was reported at all. AIUI, there was no way to reflect that,
every time a user used a certain command, it was via an added toolbar button
rather than by going through a dialog or choosing from a menu, or that the
user had created a custom menu or toolbar or whatever. While I am quite
willing to believe that most users *don't* customize, and it is also perhaps
true that the users who customize most may well have declined to participate
in CEIP, I also believe that customization (including that done by means of
custom templates) was vastly underreported.

 

[CyberTaz]

Hi Martin - I understand where you're coming from, but it does get better
with exposure - like building up calluses If you haven't discovered them
already these are a few things that have helped for me:

1- Get familiar with the Word Options> Customize capabilities & take
advantage of the Quick Access Toolbar,

2- Look for the Dialog Launchers (little square buttons at the right end of
the title bar of some of the Groups on each tab of the Ribbon). In most
cases they take you into familiar "Classic" dialogs or provide Task Panes,

3- Get in the habit of using Contextual (Right-Click) menus if you don't
already do so. They seem to do a much better job of consolidating related
features which would otherwise have to be found on various Ribbon tabs.

4- And, of course, climb into the Wayback Machine to revisit the use of
keyboard shortcuts for as much as your memory will support

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[Terry Farrell]

Martin

Two things to help your neighbour...

There is the Quick Access Toolbar (the QAT). This lets you add tools that
are displayed on the Ribbons. The Print Preview button is one of those that
is a must to add.

This brings up the second point. That Pizza button in the top left corner of
the Word screen is actually the Office button and performs many of the
functions of the old File menu and opens using Alt+F. Quite a few upgraders
take a while to realise that it isn't just a decoration (embarrassingly,
that included me). Clicking on the Print button in the Office menu reveals
the Print Preview command.

But this brings us back to what is intuitive about Word 2007's ribbons? In
my opinion, not much. Intuitive would suggest that the Print Preview command
should be part of the Document Views group on the View ribbon - equally if
not more logically that under the Office button, Print command.

My QAT is quite large which suggest to me that the intuitive part of the
ribbons is missing.

Terry Farrell

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

I agree about views. It makes no sense not to have Print Preview on the View
tab.

 

[Bob Buckland ?:-\)]

Hi Suzanne,

===========
[snip]
I agree that making Print Preview so hard to get to was a step backward.[snip] >>
========

Ahhh, how quickly we forget.

Word 2003 out of the box (hold ctrl key to access 'wayback' machine <g>)

File=>expand[menus]=>Print Preview

Word 2007 out of the box
Office Button=>Print=>Print Preview

(i.e. the default was 3 clicks, or 2 clicks and one hover in each <g>)

Steps to add Print Preview to toolbar in Word 2003
Tools=>Customize=> then with that dialog open
File=>expand=>drag print preview, close Customize dialog

Steps to add Print Preview to Quick Access Toolbar in Word 2007
Office Button=>Print
then right click Print Preview, choose 'Add to Quick Access Toolbar'

[Imagine how much 'fun' it is to have that 'Expand' menu as the 'locked down' default every day on every Office 2003 app at work
<g>]


--

Bob Buckland ?
MS Office System Products MVP

*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Are you telling me that Print Preview was not on the Standard menu in Word
2003 by default? I guess my installation must have inherited the setting
from either a previous version or an earlier customization. It was certainly
on the Word 97 toolbar in an old screen shot I have, and I don't think I
added it there.

I don't know that it's any faster (fewer clicks), but perhaps it's more
"discoverable," that you can add Print Preview in Word 2003 by clicking the
arrow at the end of the Standard toolbar (if you can find it with Standard
and Formatting sharing a row), choosing Add or Remove Buttons and then
Standard (which has always seemed to me an unnecessary extra step) and then
clicking on Print Preview.

 

[CyberTaz]

Yeah, you got him there, Suzanne

In every version of Word I can recall [going back to Word 1.0 on the Mac]
there has been a Print Preview button on the Standard toolbar as an
out-of-the-box feature - right next to the Print button. It never had to be
added to a toolbar as an optional customization prior to Word 2007 - unless
you wanted it elsewhere as well or instead of the default location.

If developments on the Mac are any indication of coming trends in Windows -
not that such a thing would ever happen or has ever happened in the past
- print services are being overtly assumed by the OS & printer software. MS
may be weaning their apps away from Print Preview altogether - in Office:Mac
2008 it's already been removed completely from Excel & PowerPoint.

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

I haven't had a chance to test yet, but Bob is probably right about Word
2003 (he almost always is). OHOH, I have a book on Office XP that clearly
shows the Print Preview button on the toolbar in that version, so I imagine
anyone who upgraded from Word 2002 to 2003 (as I did) would have had it.

I can't remember what I've done wrt moving my Normal.dot when I got a new
computer. I know I moved it from Word 2003 on my previous machine to Word
2003 on this one. In cases where I was starting with a new version (as in
the case of Word 2002 on the old machine) I may have started from
scratch--just can't recall. I know I did run into some interesting problems
with macros in moving from Word 6.0 to Word 95, but that's a story for
another time.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Yeah, you got him there, Suzanne

In every version of Word I can recall [going back to Word 1.0 on the Mac]
there has been a Print Preview button on the Standard toolbar as an
out-of-the-box feature - right next to the Print button. It never had to
be
added to a toolbar as an optional customization prior to Word 2007 -
unless
you wanted it elsewhere as well or instead of the default location.

If developments on the Mac are any indication of coming trends in
Windows -
not that such a thing would ever happen or has ever happened in the
past
- print services are being overtly assumed by the OS & printer software.
MS
may be weaning their apps away from Print Preview altogether - in
Office:Mac
2008 it's already been removed completely from Excel & PowerPoint.

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

Are you telling me that Print Preview was not on the Standard menu in
Word
2003 by default? I guess my installation must have inherited the setting
from either a previous version or an earlier customization. It was
certainly
on the Word 97 toolbar in an old screen shot I have, and I don't think I
added it there.

I don't know that it's any faster (fewer clicks), but perhaps it's more
"discoverable," that you can add Print Preview in Word 2003 by clicking
the
arrow at the end of the Standard toolbar (if you can find it with
Standard
and Formatting sharing a row), choosing Add or Remove Buttons and then
Standard (which has always seemed to me an unnecessary extra step) and
then
clicking on Print Preview.

 

[PA]

This is a fascinating discussion.
To expand the the topic a bit, I now find that I am a bit confused by the
macro security settings. Could someone enlighten me, please.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Okay, I had to use Safe Mode for something else, so I did this. Even with
the toolbars on a single row, I still have the Print Preview button.

 

[Marsh]

A very thourough explanation is found at

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc179050(TechNet.10).aspx

 

[Marsoupeal]

I don't think "intuitive" was exactly what MS was shooting for. The
term the developers kept using was "discoverable." The problem with
the old menu structure (especially adaptive menus) was that there were
so many commands and features that users never discovered (if you read
these NGs regularly, you'll be amazed at the number of questions about
the very existence of a way to produce, say, footnotes).

But some features, like word's built in calulator, are harder to
"discover" now. In some ways, the trouble is MS stayed with the toolbars
too long, till they became set in stone in many users' and especially
business users' minds.

Incidentally the ribbon system is not totally new to software. I
remember seeing it as long ago as 2000 in the web editor 1stpage 2000,
(nothing to do with Microsoft or Frontpage 2000 as far as I know.) But I
think Microsoft's business users are more conservative than the average
computer user.

 

[Bob Buckland ?:-\)]

Hi Taz,

Actually I got myself on that one

What I had forgotten was the effect of not having used

Tools=>Customize=>Options=>[Reset Menu and Toolbar Usage Data]

In a locked down Office deployment (i.e. where things reset after every session for the next login), if the 'everyone the same'
cloning occured (as it did in the common profile at work) with usage data from testing still stored, not reset, then the 'default'
positions of the buttons (including Print Preview) are different for that 'startup' experience than the original 'out of the box'
ones.

As this one covers a whole lot of users <g> the help desk position has been that to change it would cause more confusion and
since the CIO received compensation in the 7-figure range last year, it's a bit tough to get things changed that are set in.

=============
Yeah, you got him there, Suzanne

In every version of Word I can recall [going back to Word 1.0 on the Mac]
there has been a Print Preview button on the Standard toolbar as an
out-of-the-box feature - right next to the Print button. It never had to be
added to a toolbar as an optional customization prior to Word 2007 - unless
you wanted it elsewhere as well or instead of the default location.

If developments on the Mac are any indication of coming trends in Windows -
not that such a thing would ever happen or has ever happened in the past
- print services are being overtly assumed by the OS & printer software. MS
may be weaning their apps away from Print Preview altogether - in Office:Mac
2008 it's already been removed completely from Excel & PowerPoint.

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac <<

 

[Bob Buckland ?:-\)]

Hi Marsoupeal,

It's interesting to see some of the comments on the Ribbon change. I recall when Windows came out, similar discussions and
complaints about how almost everything worked, including the layout of the menu bar and what items were listed under those. It
wasn't an overnight success for folks finding that interface 'intuitive' either.

Even when the switch came from things like CP/M to MS-DOS there were complaints that Microsoft 'dared' to change some of the command
line tools so that instead of CP/M's convention for changing a name of a file using
REN NewName = Oldname

to Microsoft using

REN OldName Newname

or Microsoft changing the CP/M PIP [multifunction] command name to COPY. Folks (far fewer 'end users' <g> in those days ) said they
were sure it would cause no end of confusion and trouble and would of course, fail in the end <g>. Today, any change can impact so
many users and their daily routines that it's a bit more daring to make a switch than it was in ye olden dayes, although some folks
don't notice that throughout their day that they are switching through differing keyboard and screen layouts with a variety of
devices all day long with little thought to the switch in the keyboard and displays (computer, cell phone, MP3 player, TV/DVR
remote, office copier, digital dashboards in cars)

There was another 'debate' with 'strong positions' over the number of buttons on a mouse for Apple vs Microsoft, and who was right,
and so on .

Of course now we've all learned from folks doing txting on cell phones that you can actually master an interface while being 'all
thumbs'.

==========
But some features, like word's built in calulator, are harder to
"discover" now. In some ways, the trouble is MS stayed with the toolbars
too long, till they became set in stone in many users' and especially
business users' minds.

Incidentally the ribbon system is not totally new to software. I
remember seeing it as long ago as 2000 in the web editor 1stpage 2000,
(nothing to do with Microsoft or Frontpage 2000 as far as I know.) But I
think Microsoft's business users are more conservative than the average
computer user. >>
--

Bob Buckland ?
MS Office System Products MVP

*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*

 

[starcat]

The experience seems to be that the new UI is more intuitive for brand-new
users and not too difficult for casual users to get used to. Longtime
power users, the ones who knew where every command was on every menu and
where every button was in every dialog or on every toolbar (and had their
toolbars and menus extensively customized), are the ones who are really
suffering.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

We're not just suffering - we're giving up. I have tried, I really have, to
adjust to the new interface, but I've come to loathe it so much I've gone
back to Word 2003. If Microsoft doesn't improve this in their next version,
then when 2003 is not working for me any longer, I will have to seriously
look elsewhere for my word processing needs. I never thought I would ever
give up on any version of Word, but I'm giving up now. (I've been a power
user since Word 3.0, so it's a painful epiphany that Word isn't the right
program for me any more.)

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

I installed Word 2007 side-by-side with Word 2003, knowing that I would
probably use 2007 only for reference in answering users' simpler questions.
I still use Word 2003 for production work and probably will continue to do
so for some time. I've done a few things in 2007 (my blog, letters to my
kids using Word 2003 templates), but I would have to have a lot more time to
play around with it to get comfortable enough to want to use it full time. I
despair of ever knowing how numbering works, though I must get that figured
out in order to update some of my Web articles. So far I haven't gotten a
round enough tuit for that. <g>

 

[Graham Mayor]

Much the same here. About the only things I use Word 2007 for are writing
letters (because I converted one of my templates to 2007 early on) and for
vba programming, because the vba help is better. I still use Word 2003 for
anything complicated, because it is second nature to do so.

I said early on that Microsoft had not considered the huge training
implications of such a radical change. I still think that the good parts of
this application are far outweighed by the inconvenience of the changes to
the interface.

I have however updated my web articles

--
<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>
Graham Mayor - Word MVP


<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>

 

[Terry Farrell]

I am about to purchase a new Notebook: guess what I'll be installing...