Another great example of how Word 2007 "brings commands closer to the surface"

[Larry]

In Word 97-2003, to open the AutoCorrect dialog box, you (1) click open the
Tools menu and (2) click AutoCorrect. Two simple steps.

To do the same in Word 2007, you (1) open the Office button, then (2) click
on Word Options, then (3) use the down arrow to get down to Proofing, then
(4) click on a button that says AutoCorrect options. That's four or more
steps, compared to two simple steps in the earlier versions of Word. In
Word 97-2003, the AutoCorrect dialog box is instantly seen, one step from
the surface of Word. In Word 2007, it's several layers away from the
surface.

Now please someone explain to me: WHY?

How does this new design make Word's basic commands "easier" to get to?

If Word were an automobile, it would be as if they put the gear shift inside
the glove compartment, and called that a more "user-friendly" car!

 

[Beth Melton]

More than likely, the data MS used to determine which commands were used
most often (Customer Experience Program) determined most users didn't access
the AutoCorrect dialog box through the Tools menu. Perhaps they used the
AutoCorrect Options button or added words to AutoCorrect using spell check.

The commands that were brought "closer to the surface" are those that the
majority users actually use on a regular basis. I suspect you'll find more
of these situations since you're not exactly an "average user". IIRC, you
created your own version of Word using macros and such. ;-)

If you think about it, how often do you actually use the AutoCorrect dialog
box? The majority of the words I mess up are already there and once I set
the options for my AutoFormat options and SmartTags I don't need to go back
to them.

If you find you need to access a dialog box frequently then just add it to
your Quick Access Toolbar. When I need it I just use the old accelerator
keys, Alt+T+A since my usage isn't frequent enough to add it to the QAT.

Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email can not be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Co-author of Word 2007 Inside Out:
http://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/books/9801.aspx#AboutTheBook

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/

 

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

Put the autocorrect button on the QAT, then it is just one click instead of
the two in Word 97-2003

--
Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP

 

[Guest]

OR you can right click on any spell check flagged word and choose autocorrect
options from the shortcut menu. OR click the AutoCorrect Options button for
anything Word has already correct for you and choose Control AutoCorrect
Options. Both of which are Two simple steps. How many different ways to get
there in two simple steps does a user need? This is part of the reason the
old menu system was getting cluttered and unwieldy - I for one am happy to
see a little more organization in this new version...

 

[Larry]

Beth,

You've opened my eyes. Now I understand the logic behind Microsoft's
destruction of Word. By the same logic by which the menus were eliminated,
since the "majority" of users don't create custom toolbars and custom menus,
MS just did away with them as well. Or at least made it much harder to
create and install them--I haven't figured this all out yet. In any case,
the former beautiful feature by which you opened the Customize dialog box
and could effortllessly create a new toolbar and give it a name put on it
what you wanted seems to be gone.

Hey, folks, the "majority" of users also never create a macro, never edit a
macro, and never assign a custom keystroke to a macro or to a built-in
command. So, by MS's logic of only keeping features that "most" users use,
how come MS didn't eliminate VBA, eliminate macro recording, eliminate
macros, eliminate the Macro dialog box, eliminate the VBA editing interface,
and eliminate the Customize Keyboard dialog box???

The great thing about Word was that it had thousands of capabilities, and
each user, depending on his interests, might only deal with a small part of
them. So each person could in effect have his own "Word." But now we've
moved away from such diversity toward a single uniformity. A single
"majority rule" determines what will be in Word. Only what the 90 percent
of users who are mediocre users will determine what is in Word. Everything
that a more skilled and creative or just idiosyncratic user of Word might
want to access is to be eliminated. That appears to be the logic.

The only thing that saves the situation from total disaster is that MS has
not yet been completely consistent in its program of destruction, so it has
still left some "non-popular" features in place.

Larry

 

[Stan Brown]

If you find you need to access a dialog box frequently then just add it to
your Quick Access Toolbar.

Can ha actually be done? I've experimented much more with Excel 2007
than Office 2007, but in Excel the only customization I could figure
out was to add preselected commands, of which there were only about
half a dozen.

 

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

Instead of using the "Customize Quick Access Toolbar" pulldown (which does
only have a limited number of options), Right Click on the QAT (or in fact
anywhere on the Ribbon) and select "Customize Quick Access Toolbar" If you
then select "All Commands" form the "Choose commands from:" pulldown, you
will find hundreds of items that you can add to the QAT. Also note that you
can control whether the customization applies to all workbooks, or you can
set it up for just the active workbook.

--
Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP

 

[Terry Farrell]

Larry

I share your feelings. It seems far too much user customisation has been
sacrificed for little reason.

I like the Ribbons and the groups of small command icons - but not the
groups, command icons or order that they have provided. I know that some of
this can be customized but it should be possible for ANY user to change it
using simple tools out of the box.

As it stands, I probably use 15% of the tools in each Ribbon - so the rest
is a waste of space. I should be able to simply mix and match just like I
could in 2003.

 

[Beth Melton]

Along with what Doug told you, you can also add any command from the Ribbon,
including entire groups, to the QAT. Just right-click the command and click
Add to Quick Access Toolbar. If you want to add an entire group, right-click
the group name. To remove them from the QAT, right-click the command and
click Remove from Quick Access Toolbar.

Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email can not be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Co-author of Word 2007 Inside Out:
http://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/books/9801.aspx#AboutTheBook

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/

 

[Larry]

Again at the moment I don't have 2007 in front of me, but once you add the
command or the group to the TAC, I'll bet they're only accessible via the
mouse, right? Because how could the TAC have accellerator keys accessible
by Alt+Key combinations, given that the Ribbon has monopolized them all?

Larry

Along with what Doug told you, you can also add any command from the Ribbon,
including entire groups, to the QAT. Just right-click the command and click
Add to Quick Access Toolbar. If you want to add an entire group, right-click
the group name. To remove them from the QAT, right-click the command and
click Remove from Quick Access Toolbar.

Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email can not be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Co-author of Word 2007 Inside Out:
http://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/books/9801.aspx#AboutTheBook

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/

 

[Beth Melton]

Commands on the QAT have automatic accelerators. Alt+1 accesses the first
command, Alt+2 accesses the next, and so on.

To view them, press the Alt key and the accelerators will display in the
KeyTips (small screen tips that display above the commands.)

Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email can not be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Co-author of Word 2007 Inside Out:
http://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/books/9801.aspx#AboutTheBook

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/

Again at the moment I don't have 2007 in front of me, but once you add the
command or the group to the TAC, I'll bet they're only accessible via the
mouse, right? Because how could the TAC have accellerator keys accessible
by Alt+Key combinations, given that the Ribbon has monopolized them all?

Larry

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Hi Larry,

Yep, that's pretty much the logic. Satisfy the 90% "average
users"--because, that's where the money is. "Majority rule" and "market
for the middle" by the way, is not peculiar to MS. I'm not screaming
about MS because I see this as just one outgrowth of larger cultural
forces that bring people to insist computers do everything for them--and
because I haven't tried Word 2007 yet and don't know how many of these
changes are going to be in my forthcoming MacWord 2008, so I'm not
feeling any pain at present.

However, on the grand scale of things, it is not total disaster. Someone
already has a program you can use to customize the Ribbon.
http://pschmid.net/office2007/ribboncustomizer/index.php
MS still believes in customizability, and it's still there, it's just
been shifted from the regular user to the expert.

As a side effect, this makes it much more difficult to start out as an
average user and become a "skilled and creative or just idiosyncratic
user of Word"--or, rather MS is trying to make "skilled Word user" mean
something else. I do think that in 5 years or so, we might be in a
better situation overall than we are now--many more regular people in
offices who are good at making Word behave for their everyday tasks,
with plenty of third-party programs or add-ins for those who want to go
beyond. And this should be more efficient overall, if people can
download a program to customize Word rather than having each individual
have to learn the skills.

Daiya
Mac/Word MVP

PS. They do want to get rid of VBA--it's gone in MacOffice, and they
tried to remove it in Windows Office, but delayed eliminating it because
of a huge uproar, as many large companies have invested thousands in
VBA-based custom solutions, with thousands of people who use macros
daily even though they don't create/record macros themselves. But it
will be gone eventually--I think they promised 10 years in 2005 or
somesuch. However, as I understand it, this is more for security
reasons, though it follows the same pattern of shifting customization
from the average user to the expert.

 

[Beth Melton]

I've been using Office 2007 for over 18 months and at first, like the
majority I hated it. I thought MS made a bad move, it was going to fail, and
so on. I don't feel that way anymore. (Heh, you should have seen some of my
"persuasive feedback" - the comments you've made are mild in comparison -
especially when it came to removing the ease in toolbar/menu customization.
<g>).

But you know, even though I know how to customize the Ribbon it's really not
necessary for me to customize it for my every day work. I have come up with
alternate methods that fit my needs. For example I have several templates
that have a customized QAT with commands for specific tasks and I
load/unload them as global templates according the task at hand. (I still
have a complaint about the inability to float toolbars....)

After using the new interface I can now honestly see how it actually does
improve work flow and I can perform tasks in Word that used to take a half
hour or more in a few simple clicks. And it places capabilities that were
once used exclusively by power users into the hands of everyone. Plus those
who were familiar with some of the advanced features will likely find them
easier to use. One quick example is AutoText. Previously you had to create a
style and associate the entries with the style in order to create an
organized AutoText menu. Now it's a matter of creating what is now called a
Building Blocks and assigning it to a gallery and a specific category using
a dialog box. And there was difficulty remembering what you called them, now
they are more visually oriented for insertion (and yes you can still assign
keyboard shortcuts if you want).

Form development is another example. The ability to easily create bound
forms in Word has been a long standing request and that functionality is now
available using Content Controls AND they automatically update without the
need to add extra steps or use a macro. Content Controls also resolve
another long standing request, to protect portions of a document for data
entry without losing spell check and other functionality.

Oh, and Styles have been lifted up and are easier for beginners to use. Even
the basic beginner books are including how to use and modify styles. And
I've noticed many of the beginning Word books are encouraging users to use
formatted space between paragraphs instead of empty paragraphs due to the
new defaults. (Thank goodness!!)

BUT in order to fully see and understand these capabilities one can't be
resistant to change. That was my stumbling block for several months. I
wanted Word (and the other Office apps) to function as I was accustomed to
them functioning for over the last 15 years. To use the new versions
effectively it does require a bit of change, such as change how you may have
previously accomplished a task but in the end it is faster and more
efficient. The key is if you want to embrace the change or fight the change.
If you fight it then you'll hate it and find it lacking. If you embrace it
you may just find what I have found, that change can indeed be a "good
thing".

Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email can not be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Co-author of Word 2007 Inside Out:
http://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/books/9801.aspx#AboutTheBook

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/

 

[Larry]

Well, that's good news, except that the user would have to remember, which
is the third command on the TAC, which is the fourth, etc. That's not as
easy to use as the regular menu (which MS has taken away) where it's
effortless to remember that Alt+V opens the View menu, Alt+I opens the
Insert menu, and so on.

An additional problem, but just for me, is that I already have Alt+1, Alt+2,
etc. assigned to important macros that I use constantly to assign styles.

MS says 2007 is more "intuitive." This is the biggest of Big Lies. The
sheer complexity of the Ribbon, its constantly changing, bewildering
appearance, creates an informational overload on the user. The hiding away
of various dialog boxes—which used to be two instant steps from the Word
surface—in completely illogical, arbitrary locations is the very opposite of
intuitive or logical or even minimally considerate to the user. For
example, folks, try to find the User Template default path. You can find it
(though you will probably need Help in order to do so), but once you've
found it, see how much harder it is to get to than it used to be, and how
senseless and arbitrary its location is.

Finally, when you do get there, notice that it will not actually tell you
what the current template default path is. In Word 97, you get a
"compressed" view of the path, but if you click on the Modify button the
complete path is displayed. Nice and simple. One might even call it
intuitive. Not so with Word 2007, the "easier," "more intuitive" version of
Word! In Word 2007, when you click on Modify, the Template path is NOT
displayed and there's no way to get it. Instead, a folder opens with some
kind of complicated Explorer type view which does not actually display the
default Template path but something else (I couldn't figure it out at all).
So I had to keep searching and it took me about 10 minutes last night just
to find the Templates folder for Word 2007 in Windows Vista.

What is called a more "intuitive" version of Word is actually a bloated
bureaucratic monstrosity.

 

[Larry]

One, this program allows the user to customize the Ribbon, not to get rid of
it and restore the toolbars and menu bar, like, for example, that program
that someone created for Word 2000 years ago that allowed the user to
restore the multi-document interface which Word 2000 had gotten rid of.

Two, it will be a much more complicated job to customize the various Ribbon
tabs and groups than simply to add a command button to a menu or remove one,
as was possible with previous Word versions.

Finally, this program costs $30.

 

[Larry]

Also, it's incredible that while in previous versions of Word, a user could
easily remove, say, a button from a menu that he didn't need, or remove a
whole menu from the menu bar that he didn't need, or add new buttons to
existing menus, or add his own menus, with Word 2007 (which is supposedly
more user friendly!), the most highly specialized tasks, for example
scholarly writing, which very few users would use, are placed in their own
tab in the Ribbon and cannot be removed, unless the user pays $30 for this
third-party add-in that Daiya mentions.

The amazing thing about Word since I first got it in 1998 was that Word, as
it came out of the box, was a mess, but that Word had the most fantastic
customization capabilities which enabled the user to turn Word into an
environment he could work with. Now MS has changed that basic philososophy
and forces an unwanted uniformity on the user.

For example, it enables you to "minimize" the Ribbon and just access the
Ribbon commands with keyboard combinations. But the catch is that when you
use these keyboard combinations with the Ribbon minimized, the entire Ribbon
with all its paraphenalia flashes into view for a second then disappears
again. This is just weird. Instead of, as with previous versions,
displaying a simple unobtrusive drop down menu for a second when accessing a
command on that menu, you have to display the entire Ribbon. The total
effect is an incredibly "over-busy" user interface that you're trapped in.

 

[Larry]

Beth,

What you're saying is that you had to spend months of your life completely
re-learning and re-customizing Word to your needs, with the previous 15
years you had spent learning Word being lost, all for the benefit of some
marginal improvements in the efficiency of some tasks.

Second, the improvements you mention did NOT require the total redesign of
the interface. For example, you write:

Plus those who were familiar with some of the advanced features will

likely find them
easier to use. One quick example is AutoText. Previously you had to create a
style and associate the entries with the style in order to create an
organized AutoText menu. Now it's a matter of creating what is now called a
Building Blocks and assigning it to a gallery and a specific category using
a dialog box.

Well, AutoText could have been changed without, e.g., getting rid of
Toolbars and menus!

Similarly, greater ease of use in learning Styles did not require a
radically revamped Word. It just required that the Styles feature itself be
changed.

I have nothing against MS adding new features to Word. But to destroy the
basic user interface of Word and basic features and capabilities that
millions of people have invested many years of work in, and replace it with
another, is just wrong.

 

[Aalaan]

All of this makes me darned glad I stuck with Office 2000!

 

[Aalaan]

...and that's what they've done with Visual Basic too...

 

[Stan Brown]

Sat, 7 Apr 2007 11:14:19 +0200 from Doug Robbins - Word MVP

Instead of using the "Customize Quick Access Toolbar" pulldown (which does
only have a limited number of options), Right Click on the QAT (or in fact
anywhere on the Ribbon) and select "Customize Quick Access Toolbar"

Thanks, Doug!