Question: why do I need to upgrade to Office 2007?

Stan Beer
Sunday, 14 January 2007 20:17

Opinion and Analysis

Much has been said and written about Microsoft’s “bold”, “gutsy”, and “innovative” initiative of releasing Office 2007, an office productivity suite with a totally new user interface. However, the question that is bound to be on the lips of every user will be: “why do I need to upgrade?” Microsoft doesn’t really have a good answer.

Microsoft may want us to believe that we’re working in the dark by using its horribly bloated Office 2003 with the archaic menu system. We could become vastly more productive if we learned to use the new Ribbon interface of Office 2007. However, most of us users in the real world don’t see it that way. All we see is a learning curve.

The fact is that most of us ordinary users only need to use a small fraction of Office in our day to day work and what we use is easy enough to find. If there is something new that we need to use, we can generally find it using the help menu. Sure the menu system is old but that’s its greatest strength. We’ve all grown up with it and it feels like riding a bike.

Microsoft, however, claims to have come up with something better and more intuitive – the Ribbon. Such a claim begs the question: “If the new user interface of Office 2007 is so intuitive, why does it have a learning curve?” And it does have a learning curve – a very steep learning curve.

In case you don’t believe me, listen to what Wall Street Journal reviewer Walter S. Mossberg had to say in a recent article:

“After months of working with the Ribbon and other new features of Office, I believe they are an improvement. They replace years of confusing accretions with a logical layout of commands and functions…..

“But there is a big downside to this gutsy redesign: It requires a steep learning curve that many people might rather avoid. In my own tests, I was cursing the program for weeks because I couldn't find familiar functions and commands, even though Microsoft provides lots of help and guidance.”

While I have the utmost respect for Mr Mossberg, I can’t help but feel that the words in the second paragraph contradict and negate the words of the first. To my mind, a logical layout of commands and functions would obviate the need to learn how to find those commands and functions.

A question that must be asked then is whether some of the time taken to master Office 2007 would be better used to gain a more advanced knowledge of Office 2003, with the rest of the time being used to do some productive work? After trialling Office 2007 for some weeks, while away from home base, I believe the answer is a resounding yes.

If we are to replace the menu interface of Office, then we should replace it with something more intuitive. What Microsoft has given us with Office 2007 is something less intuitive – and it wants us to pay for it!

No doubt, if kids grow up using a Ribbon instead of menus, the Ribbon will become second nature. However, in the meantime we adults (or at least many of us) would prefer to keep using what we’re familiar with until something better comes along. Unfortunately, that hasn’t happened yet.