Comments on: Microsoft's Office head talks Google and more

In an interview, Stephen Elop talks about Microsoft's rival, the state of the economy and why people will still buy Office in a cloudy world.

[kelmon]

I haven't seen anything yet in Office 2010 that makes me want to upgrade. This is not to say that Office 2010 looks to be a bad product but rather that Office 2007 is already "good enough" that I cannot see sufficient justification for an expensive upgrade. This surely is a problem that Microsoft understands - the product is already so mature that it is hard to add really significant new features that will encourage people to upgrade and therefore continue to draw milk from this particular cash cow.

However, I may well consider the next version of Office:mac if the Mac Business Unit at Microsoft delivers a good version this time around. The migration from CodeWarrior to Xcode evidentially caused them sufficient problems with Office:mac 2008 such that Visual Basic was dropped and overall performance wasn't great. Next time around we should get a good edition and therefore I'd be much more tempted to upgrade my old version of Office:mac 2004 so that I can run the likes of Word and Excel at native speeds on my laptop rather than under virtualisation. Still, it is nice to see that they are finally sorting out Exchange support in Entourage.

[Poulster]

I just wish they would make it simple, simple, simple... and that it would stop changing what I write, thinking I meant something else.

For me, google docs is looking more and more attractive.

I want basic stuff in a light program ? not software where I use less than 5% of the features.

I haven't seen anything yet in Office 2007 that makes me want to upgrade.
I haven't seen anything yet in Office 2003 that makes me want to upgrade.
I haven't seen anything yet in Office 2000 that makes me want to upgrade.
etc.

I still write a letter with the same tools I used 10, 15 or more years ago. Format, spell check, print. How many others are the same? All MS office products would do for me is offer a non-stop flow of security vulnerabilities if I was to run Windows.

[kelmon]

Office 2007 sold itself to me by getting rid of the silly 65,000 row limit in an Excel workbook. On the downside, I still have not really got used to the Ribbon interface and I'd dearly like the opportunity to be left in a room with the person responsible for Access 2007 interface. What is given with one hand is taken away by another...

[rapier1]

@Poulster,

If you want a simple lightweight easy to use editor then Word is, pretty obviously, not the right choice for you. Likewise, OpenOffice probably is a poor choice along with many of the other full fledged word processing applications. They are the right choice for people who have more complex documents they need to develop.

[ikramerica--2008]

Yep, I'm using the same version of Office .X I've had for many, many years. The processing power of the Macs has improved so even the poorly optimized Word in this version runs fast (Excel was always great), and as long as people don't send files in the new Word format, they open in Word, Pages and TextEdit.

But if MS really wants to kill windows, they will push the Web Office, because it will make Google OS, various Linux versions and Mac OS that much more viable as alternatives.

[a_flores]

What kind of office in 2050 will we have? I mean, there is just a little upgrade related to the features they can add into the office 2007 as long as it for words/docs or spreadsheet, etc. Let us see what MS will offer us in Office 2010 and Office 2015.

[Mr. Dee]

If you tried the Office 2010 Tech Preview leak, you would see how major of an upgrade it is, the Document Management Life cycle features in it alone are worth the upgrade. Its easier to manage the applications, small features like richer paste options - you just have to use it to believe how awesome of an upgrade this will be.

[kelmon]

Please describe. Frankly, all we tend to hear about with Office 2010 is the web applications that aren't very interesting if you already have the client applications installed on your PC.

[Commander_Spock]

Re: "Please describe. Frankly, all we tend to hear about with Office 2010 is the web applications that aren't very interesting if you already have the client applications installed on your PC...."

Did you mean descriptions that will help the American Automotive Manufacturers (GM, Ford, Chrysler....) to achieve the productivity they all need to get them out of what they are all in (the economic mess)!!!

[Commander_Spock]

Re: "Did you mean descriptions that will help the American Automotive Manufacturers (GM, Ford, Chrysler....) to achieve the productivity they all need to get them out of what they are all in (the economic mess)!!!"

So, what will Microsoft be telling these companies about "Office Productivity...." that they do not now know; and/or, could have been told about long before they all got into the economic mess they are now all in!!!

Cool!

[jumpjetta]

"Google's comin' for us! Act calm! Send out the talking heads!"

[Poulster]

:)

[Gorgeclimber1]

If Microsoft wants to improve productivity in Office, get rid of the ribbon and go back to a DECENT upgrade of Office 2003 ... which Office 2007 was not. How can you say you want to improve productivity when you take a product that has had the same format for over 20 years and completely change that format.

[monkeyfun14]

Because Ribbon is more efficient if you take 10 minutes to learn it.

The problem with people is if you change one thing people get so damn pissy and lazy about it even though it may be a good change in the long run.

[jessiethe3rd]

Once you spend time with the Ribbon there's no going back. You have to spend time in it however... you have to be a bit dedicated to the due process. No need to hunt for crap in a drop down. Want quick previews of text? Go to the format, font, highlight over the font - presto - preview without hunting selecting, waiting, changing... wash rinse repeat.

They are little changes that add up... I will say - once you try the ribbon and give it a shot you will not want to go back.

[kelmon]

No, I completely disagree that the Ribbon is more efficient. I've been using it now for the past 2-years and I can honestly say that I am no more productive with the Ribbon than I was with the old interface and can probably argue that productivity has dropped slightly because the Ribbon takes up more screen space. All that can really be said for it is that it looks nicer. Anyone who uses Office 2007 has had no option other than to "learn it" - if they say they don't like the new interface then who are you to say otherwise?

Perhaps the Ribbon is better for new users of Office but for the "old dogs" like myself it does kinda suck.

[stringboy]

The 2003 had the horrid task pane that added a click to everything, but I would drop back to it in a heart beat. I have used the ribbon for 2 years and it is, without a doubt, the single poorest user interface, since Microsoft Bob, for an experienced user.

All I want is the option to use the old interface.

[vroomm]

Personally I like the ribbon. It can be like a new pair of cowboy boots though - tough at first but eventually very comfortable. For those that think the ribbon takes up too much real estate on the page, why don't you just minimize it? Many (not all) of the concerns I read about Office 07 can be addressed through making adjustments to settings Try it.

[jd-sd3]

Totally agree - Office has "jumped the shark". Imagine how up in arms people would be if Photoshop completely ripped apart their UI.

I work in for a small software company - about 50 people. And I haven't heard one good thing about Office 2007 from anyone over the last two years. All I've heard is how people hate it and uninstalled/downgraded back to Office 2003.

I have both (being a dev I have to deal with stupid .docx and .xlsx file types for things) and absolutely hate that crap Ribbon stuff. I have no idea how to do simple things in Excel anymore and have just given up at this point.

It's par for the course for MS though - right in line with the "smart" people who designed the shut down/restart/sleep/hibernate nightmare menu in Vista.

[Commander_Spock]

Re: "You have architected part of Office 2010 to run in the browser-based Office Web apps. If I'm not mistaken Chrome isn't one of the supported browsers, but it might, in fact, work in Chrome. Do you guys see Chrome as an important browser to develop for?
Elop: It depends on how you define important. From a market share perspective Chrome is very low. So I think we're driven by customers on these things. There are other browsers that have greater market share, and that's where we've concentrated our first efforts..."

All of this hub bub, ballahoo.... (whatever) from Google and Microsoft about Office Productivity Software!!!

Remember folks - there can be nothing new under the sun; so, how about a fast forward to the future into the Cloudscape with IBM Lotus Kona. Oops... and the "Winner" will be the Open Standards (no lock in) IBM's Lotus Symphony.

http://symphony.lotus.com/software/lotus/symphony/home.nsf/home

It Is Time To Strike Up The Band And Party With The "Bankers" (Who Have All The Money) Like It Is 1998!

It's Party Time Folks!

[daviddohoney]

It's great for Elop he wasn't outsourced like his fellow employees. What a fraud.

[ExWinUser]

I hate helping people that use MS Office, every freak'n time they upgrade they sit there for hours trying to find out where the buttons use to be. I give MS credit for exploiting their customers.

[daviddohoney]

How about the employees who got outsourced.

[rapier1]

What does that have to do with anything discussed here?

[jeffgtr60]

MS should learn to wait to release an upgrade when they've actually improved the program instead of planning a new release to increase revenue. They have the cart before the horse. Office is a prime example, it was deployed where I work and most people hate the ribbon and wish they could roll back to the previous version. Google Docs on the other hand is simple to use, has all of the functions that 90% of the users need and want. Even though I have the full blown version of Office at work, it's more convenient for a simple document or spreadsheet (which is 90% of the time) to log into Google, plus if I need to tweak it it's anywhere I can find a connection, even from my phone.

If you must have an app residing on your computer most any of the open source free alternatives will serve most folks needs except for maybe Powerpoint and you shouldn't use that anyway, it's the fastest way to put an audience to sleep in a presentation. I don't understand why companies keep shoveling money into office when the features most employees need are like air and water....free. Save Office for the ones that really need it, probably 90% of the employees. They won't suffer and neither will your bottom line.

[smalley417]

Unless, of course, you work for a company that won't allow any corporate data on any system other than ones controlled by the company... and therein lies the problem with cloud computing. Enterprises don't trust the cloud. Period.

[markosph]

@rapier1 most people can get by with WordPad as there word processor. Word is a full featured Word Processor; if you want to type basic documents then it is not for you.

[anonymuos]

There was a reason Microsoft didn't put a spell check in Windows 7 WordPad.

[stringboy]

Ina,

The next time you get him answering questions, ask him what Microsoft is doing to address the negative reaction to the Ribbon UI. There has been a firestorm of criticism from the install base and no one in the media has pinned a Microsoft executive down. It is all over the web, it is one of the most discussed issues in the MS blogs. Where is the coverage?

I think the problem is reviewers, exposed to various OS and UIs, become infatuated with new and ignore the advantage of consistency (in this particular case, a standard consistent since at least the 80s). Yes, if you are new to Word, the Ribbon is probably very helpful, but those few do not represent over 80% of users.

[mbenedict]

Ribbon is here to stay. From a usability perspective it's a much better design than traditional menus. More and more apps will adopt the ribbon.

E.g., when Jakob Nielsen ("the guru of usability") published his "10 Best Application UIs" last year, a surprising number of them used Microsoft's ribbon approach. You can read more about it from:

http://www.useit.com/alertbox/application-design.html

Of course there are people who are "set in their ways" with Excel, Word, etc. While some old dogs can learn new tricks, there will always be others who can't.

[stringboy]

mbenedict

"Of course there are people who are "set in their ways" with Excel, Word, etc. While some old dogs can learn new tricks, there will always be others who can't."

Thanks for being snot about it. Really, your thoughtless consideration of alternatives explains your limited understanding of the fundamental problem. A decade of experience has been made obsolete because MS decided to do it. I have used the ribbon for 2 years, and I would like it gone. I was faster before, and the desire of almost everyone I talk to about this is the same: bring back the classic as an option, and keep the ribbon for you kiddies. That is compromise. That is reason. Obviously neither are required to run Microsoft into the ground or to post on Cnet.