On Microsoft Office 2010
April 28, 2009
Normally, titles followed by 2010 are awesome. It's a fact. Like: Grilled Ham Sandwich 2010, or Mini Golf 2010. But when the non-2010 part of the title is "Microsoft Office," things are a little different.
Seeing the preview screenshot of said program on Lifehacker just now, I puked a little in my mouth.
I'm beginning to wonder: are there any well-designed Microsoft programs at all, besides Notepad? Hell, are there any well-designed Windows programs at all? I guess it's been so long since I've seriously used Windows that I can't even remember.
Posts
April 28, 2009 at 5:24 PM
Office 2007 was a serious upgrade in usability over previous versions once you get used to the "different"-ness of it. Of course, alot of that usability can be attributed to the fact that they, for lack of a better word, Mac-ed it up.
April 28, 2009 at 8:37 PM
While they might have fixed certain Office aspects with 2007, they totally fucked it up with the "ribbon." That's mostly what made me puke over 2010.
April 29, 2009 at 7:26 AM
What do you use office for, joe? I've never really seen the need to use it. (And that design is horrible.)
How is notepad good? (I mean compared to any other quick-loading text editor.)
There is one well designed Windows program. Pinball. Wait, no, two: Solitaire.
April 29, 2009 at 10:23 AM
Well, you got me there. I don't use Office. And I mentioned Notepad half as a joke. But half seriously, too... I think it accomplishes its goal: be a quick, easy to use, always available text-editor. And it doesn't layer any other crap onto it. I guess it's minimal software.
That said, for the last 4 or 5 years of my Windows-using life, I'd replace Notepad, first with Scite, then with Notepad++.
I can't speak to Pinball as I never really played that, but Solitaire is indeed well designed (at least the XP version). I have yet to find a good free equivalent for OSX, and it makes me sad.