Comments on: Redarded Office UI

By: Kim

Kim — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 02:03:31 +0000

And there is what some alternative?

By: Andy

Andy — Wed, 07 Dec 2005 23:19:58 +0000

Nia: It’s the combination thing that’s the problem. Two taskbar buttons suggests two separate windows - i.e. you should be able to close one window using the X on the window bar, without it closing the other.

What browser are you using Nia? I’ve pushed the new blog layout without much testing, since I really wanted to upgrade Wordpress when I had the chance…

By: Nia

Nia — Wed, 07 Dec 2005 19:47:11 +0000

What’s wrong with using the ‘nearly in the top right hand corner’ x? That only closes one excel document? Or is it the combination of 2 taskbar buttons with the ‘not quite top right hand’ corner button? Excel is the only MS product I use regularly so I guess I find it ‘normal’ for that reason.

Oh yeah, and I’m having similar textbox issues to MA, only my window is on full screen already so I am typing blind for half of it. I make no apoligies for typos!

By: Mustafa Arif

Mustafa Arif — Sun, 04 Dec 2005 23:45:21 +0000

I don’t understand Office 2003. Try Office 2004 on a Mac. The interface is reasonably good - and consistently MDI.

By: Andy

Andy — Sat, 03 Dec 2005 11:38:59 +0000

Thanks for the background Mustafa. I skipped from Office 97 to Office 2003 - I gave up on Microsoft years ago, but now that I’m working in a Microsoft-dominated environment I have to put up with it again.

As for the CSS, I hadn’t noticed that before (and it’s not Safari-specific). I’ll try to sort that out. Mental note: I really do need to upgrade my Wordpress install…

By: Sam Richards

Sam Richards — Sat, 03 Dec 2005 06:02:59 +0000

Thanks for making that clear, I thought I was the one accidentally closing both Excel workbooks at once when I have done it. I would never have believed that would be Excel’s behaviour with SDI!

By: Mustafa Arif

Mustafa Arif — Fri, 02 Dec 2005 16:43:40 +0000

MS Office used to be consistent, MDI, (i.e. the way Visio works) until Office 2000. At that point they decided to make Word SDI because too many novice users were unable to understand MDI (or rather the Windows interface makes MDI un-intuitive. This would have been ‘okay’ (given that the Windows interface guidelines suggest applications can be SDI or MDI) except for the fact that the messed around with Excel.

A better solution would have been for Microsoft to revise the Windows interface guidelines so that all apps should be MDI - and adjust the interface accordingly to make it intuitive. I’ve not seen Vista but hopefully it will improve on this.

But whilst we’re talking about bad interface design, I don’t like this text box (or how it appears in Safari). The CSS menu to the right overlaps this text box and there is no horiz scroll so I had to widen my window to type this in…