Office 2010 Screenshots Preview What’s To Come

@shibathedog: Yep, that ribbon sucks the big one! There has never been a better time to OpenOffice.

You know the ribbon interface works great for simpler apps, like Paint.

Open->Scanner->Select->Crop->Save->YAY!

Mudassir Chapra

@xxdesmus: Other than a handful of small graphics changes, it looks exactly like what a fully-loaded Outlook 2007 + back-end (read: Exchange or another integrated system) setup looks like. Most people don't see half of the info in that message on a daily basis, though, because most people aren't using loaded communications servers/services, just e-mail.

Doesn't really look like anything "new" is there yet, given that the voicemail stuff is already available in 2007, depending on your comm server.

Sean Masters

this is the ugliest piece of programming i've ever seen...and I remember the commodore 64 days.

@xxdesmus: I agree wholeheartedly. This makes my UI Designer brain scream and ping against the walls of my skull. And I really LIKE Office 2007.

EvilBit

GOOD GOD! I think they DID go bankrupt and the government is now designing the interface.

I just love how Microsoft went from a compact, easy-to-understand top-of-the-window text menu system to expanding out every menu item, complete with icon, into a tab bar at the top of every window.

Be nice to leave just a LITTLE room for, you know, the actual content....

lhmlco

I wonder whether the "Translate" function is going to be any better than the usual "Push point in here for making wang hit household" standard.

Counterglow

Good grief. Could that possibly be any uglier, any more bloated, any more complicated? I mean, it beggars belief. There is so much going on that locating the actual message is almost secondary. Then there are the icons..... They're barely in this decade.

Proof positive, if ever it were needed, that this mob still, after all these years, just don't get it. The biggest they may be, but they're just so far behind what everything else is doing when it comes to usability and UI that it's beyond funny. With all those people working there, all that money, such opportunity to employ the very best, there's no excuse for them to be unable to do better than this abomination. Freeware, shareware developers manage it, Apple manages it, Linux developers manage it - Why can't they? I guess it's a case of too many cooks....

I honestly pity someone in an office who is going to be forced to use this rubbish every day. What a miserable experience.

Matthew Smith

@daxomni: THANK YOU. The ribbon interface is NOT easier/more efficient AT ALL. This new ribbon looks like even more of a mess than the last one.

shibathedog

Stupid Contoso... When are THEY going bankrupt?

Sweet jebus noooo!

Why does Office have to look like you're piloting the friggin' space shuttle?

@JoeKuze: just exchange 14. and probably office communicator/messenger to get the online status of your contacts.

but yeh, its mostly designed for an MS business network

natenovs

Office 2003 was the best so far, I don't see any reason to keep moving up just to get more bloatware. MS can shove their ribbon interface where the Sun don't shine.

daxomni

*has horrible flashbacks to office xp*

That's what I thought it was at first glance...

acatzr800

WAY too much going on in my opinion. I feel overwhelmed just looking at all that stuff on the screen. KISS.

@Henry: Ahh good point. It could be something funny going on with window transparency. In any case, I still think the interface as a whole looks cluttered. Why's the alert for the message ("You received a voicemail from...") below the message itself? And it looks like they just ripped the media player bar straight out of Windows Media Player (it looks kinda awkward where it's placed, too, don't you think?).

But as @Sean Masters said: Beta.

beala

@beala: Don't you think that's from the Windows lying under the Voicemail one?

@AndiC:

referred to Microsoft Office Communicator 2007

AndiC

"very interesting voice mail integration you see in the screenshot above"

Looks like the Microsoft Communication Server Outlook Plugin to me, so you can play back voice mail from Communication Server which integrates with your PBX

AndiC

I think the top looks bad because Aero is on and the background is showing through.

bloknayrb

@beala: Beta. Also, low-quality image. Also... beta.

Sean Masters

This screenshot looks cool, but you probably need to have everything from their Unified Communication framework (Exchange, MSN Live Messenger, integrated voip, etc) to see these results.

JoeKuze

@beala: Yeah, that looks pretty tacky. I hope they change it.

easy2panic

@beala: Wow, you're right.

The top of that window looks like it was drawn in MS paint with the little spray paint tool.

beala

Gave me a headache with one glance.

What are they smoking?

Reminded me of this clip (which is actually an internal MS piece):
[tinyurl.com]

I'll see if I can embed it:

VayaConQueso

It's beta software people! this isnt necessarily how its going to look!

@xxdesmus: I think it's because of the color scheme. Everything is white. At least with Office '07 the Ribbon was a different color. I cannot believe there is someone over at Redmond that thinks this looks "good".

Sounds like a bunch of frustrated UI designers here thinking they can do a better job. If you're making your apps look beautiful before actually completing functionality, no wonder you're an armchair critic.

TheOtherHalf

...and if you look real close you can see the actual message.

fiji.siv

Oh good god.

Microsoft does not "get" glossy interfaces.

TomeOne

@daxomni: I LOVE the ribbon. I hated it at first, but honestly, I cannot use Office 2003 anymore.

The ribbon is horrendous. It was the equivalent of breaking up and scrambling a 5000 piece puzzle right after someone had put it together.

quagmire0

@lhmlco: Yes, it somehow has:

1. tons of uneven and useless whitespace.
2. Not that many real options onscreen.
3. And STILL looks very crowded and chaotic and with less room for actual content!

They've taken the design from the Windows Live suite they're spreading around - not a good idea. It just looks like a cheap web app.
Unlike other people I really like the Office 2007 UI - they don't need to spoil it with this.

Maybe it's because I didn't mess with any previous versions of the suite too much but I like the ribbon interface in 2007. I like having everything within easy reach so it works for me. I can see how it could be difficult to switch from a previous menu system but that's progress for you...someone is always going to be mad.

Just wait until Office 2012. They'll switch to "mega meuns" and decide that EVERY menu option needs to be permanently displayed on the screen.

Of course, in Word you'll be entering text into a little 2" x "4 box at the bottom of the screen, but hey, that's the price you'll need to pay for ease of use.

Well, that and $395 for the Super Premium Edition.

lhmlco

@kawaiijutsu: You'd better not be disrespecting the C64 :P

mr_peeks

Well, the 70's were back in the 90's, the 80's are back now, and I suppose it comes back full circle with the 90's being back in the 10's.

That hazy cloudy look just screams Windows 98.

@Zefir: I agree. I hated it at first, but now I use Office apps with much for efficiency and speed than did with Office 2003. I love the ribbon. To each his/her own I guess.

jonny6pak

@kawaiijutsu: it probably hasnt gotten much love from the UI designers at this point. really, its at alpha-stage

natenovs

@kazemizuhi: it is a tech preview. office tends to rev a bunch of different UI overhauls before it finally settles on one.

natenovs

@fosphen: the ribbon is nice and all, it just looked classier in 2007...this one just looks bad.

@mr_peeks: of course not. i keep up with the commodore and the commodore keeps up with me :P

@beala: I cringed in terror when I saw the screen shot

So much white...

Reminds me of Windows 3.1

Ortzinator

The changes in Office 2010 pretty much destroys the ribbon. It's sad how each version the engineers and designers want their own footprint and mess everything up.

My full critique here: [blog.arkidect.com]

When will people know that UI comes last in when designing a software ??!! People don't remember that the first screenshot of Windows 7 that came out in late 2007 (or early 2008) looked exactly like windows vista!!!

SalvatoreUsopp

nope, it doesn't have visual mods (skin)...i have seen MS devs working on these apps without the usual skin, so that apps have minimum dependencies and run faster when compiling the code!

geek4lyf

I was once at Redmond for interview with MS Office group, this is how the apps luk while development, stripped down to run bare functionalities!

geek4lyf

Way too cluttered interface... how typical of Microsoft.

LeonardHorse

Yep, that UI is truly hideous.

Public note to the OpenOffice developers: PLEASE do whatever it takes achieve near-perfect compatibility with Office. You're almost "close enough", but not yet. I would ditch Office in a heartbeat for OO if I thought I could deal with my very frequent exchanges of files with Office users without hassle.

LouGrinzo

@beala:
Why's the alert for the message below the message itself?

Well -- i think Adam actually might have missed a super-cool feature in his write-up. Notice what it says at the top of the message -- "Voicemail preview".

I think the exchange server has used voice recognition to give you a printed display of the voicemail! Very cool inded. Imagine -- you're in a meeting and someone leaves you a voicemail. Well, you're in a meeting, so you can't very well play back the message even if it's included with the email notification as an audio clip. Well -- now you have the text version as well -- and that means you can "read" your voicemail and now you know if it's urgent enough for you to leave your meeting, or it's a total non-event.

And if that's not how it works, I might have to file a patent on this idea quickly :P

TheAxMan

@geek4lyf: luk?

@gStein:
Look.

@jonny6pak: This is basically the ribbon interface with the orb removed and replaced by another tab.

reluttr

The TOS includes a clause that MS is not "responsible for inducing seizures."

imajoebob

seriously
gonna barf

looks like a satire of a microsoft product
so damn clunky…

Bastian Alexander Fromherz

@fosphen: "Change does not always equal progress."

Should be Microsoft's motto.

lhmlco

Got to say I prefer the interface in Office 97 which was the last version of MS office I used. M$ seem to have lost track with where they are going and stopped listening to what consumers and business customers want.

@geek4lyf: I'm sorry to break your theory, but that is not true. The glass stuff is handled by DWM and not the program. It simply extends the glass in the titlebar further down. Besides, why would they use a screenshot of the program builded without all the eyecandy? That wouldn't be a very good preview.

izym

Did anybody else think it was odd that Office 2007 came with a ribbon interface for every app except Outlook? It's like they ran out of time to get Outlook converted to the new UI, so somebody said, "meh, we'll get around to it in 2010."

Whether you love or hate the ribbon, it's easier to accept if it's consistent throughout.

bobbo33

@badger500: I think MS is missing the boat by ignoring the shift to widescreen monitors. Put the toolbars on the side, and let the content be displayed full height!

For Office 2007, I've resorted to auto-hiding the ribbon (ctrl+F1). Even in Firefox, I find that I use the full-screen (F11) mode much more often with my widescreen laptop.

bobbo33

@TheOtherHalf:

Too true. Surprised so many comments are going nuts over this ;)

sigmaforce

By Wasting space I mean. You are on my property. Space where I should be viewing contents / working on a file have been taken over by your ugly software's interface. Just compare IE's and firefox's (minimized) TOP menu bars and you can see how much space microsoft's software waste on your desktop, so thereby creating the need for scrolling..... fixing, adjusting windows.. if you are too blind to see, send me a message to send you some screen captures, so you can compare them yourself? heh?

mohkahn

@izym: Hmm, may be you are right. But that is what i was told by MS Dev who was interviewing me. About preview part, i guess its a sneak peak so may be they really didn't wanted to give everything out!

geek4lyf

ugliness aside.. seems we will still not be able to customize the ribbon? but can customize the quick access bar. Ribbon is not too bad once I got used to it. But why can't I customize it? Am I not the user? Why can't I make the icons on the ribbon smaller or make them appear / disappear as per my wish.

Why can't I reduce the size of the ribbon, so it does not steal MY display space and property. what is wrong with you Microsoft people? why would you make edges, buttons, corners, with such horrible interfaces that the always WASTE MY SCREEN SPACE?

Will you ever get it? hmmm... guess I am talking to stones.. well, won't be worth the upgrade, can save myself some precious dollars.

mohkahn

@lhmlco: To each their own I guess

@lhmlco: Yay, I like this game! Let's see....

"We take all your money." -Apple

"We make everything harder cuz we are l33t!" -Linux

Nothing is going to make everyone happy. That's a fact of life.

I think this is too pretty to be real....Always Microsoft gonna be Microsoft, this it's no only one licency....more $$$

v.pineda

@beala: The focus of this screenshot is to show the various ways communication is handled using the MS Office suite. The box floating in the middle also has a phone icon and a generic volume symbol leading us to wonder if Office will have integrated VOIP services that allow you to call one another and leave messages, which are obviously automatically transcribed to be accessed however you like.

I see Microsoft's design people still haven't made it out of elementary school.

BertonKollina

@bloknayrb: It's readily apparent that aero-like effects are being used here...if you pay attention only the topmost window has focus whereas everything else is blurred. The titlebar looks bad because it too has been distorted, due to its transparency which allows you to see behind it.

The ribbon is very nice if you give yourself the chance to learn it - I get my stuff done quicker with the ribbon.

MisterBoomBoom

And I thought 2007 was busy, sheesh

LilybellHizane

I still use notepad everyday why do we all need to fall for the okey doke...ms office 2010 but it will be released in 2012 with 3 service packs by 2014... and they gonna call the best version MS office 2010 winner edition.

Daniel E Gomez

@TheAxMan: er, Google Voice does voice recognition already, doesn't it?

ssj4Gogeta

@SalvatoreUsopp: When will people realize that designing the UI last results in unusable software?

Brandan Lennox

That's the problem, the UI is part of the functionality! If you have not figured that out yet, you're wasting too much of your time with MS products and not enough time outside with family.

SaramaCarnabon

So why is it necessary to display the word "Translate" and another word "Translate" one above the other? Same with "Zooms" and "Zoom". This UI is not simpler or easier, it is worse than a tech manual for repairing an Abrams tank. I cannot believe what possesses MS to go to such absurd lengths to confuse and overwhelm users with such litter. The mind boggles: Title bar icons, then tabs, then big icons, little icons, icons with more icons behind them (as signified by the "drop-down" triangles). All that's missing is little BOB running here and their offering sage non-context-sensitive advice, and a cartoon image of Steve Ballmer jumping around yelling "Developers..." You better have your sound turned off when you first fire up this puppy.

EliasHypnos

Thank goodness they created separate categories for every button in the taskbar. It was always so much trouble to find the Zoom button; now I will be able to navigate to it so much faster, thanks to the new category called "Zoom"

AdineNemo

Damn, I never thought I'd see the day when writing in a word processor would be an after thought.

YuriDawgument

horrible! h o r r i b l e !

ProsperCrius

What's super funny is that both of those phone numbers actually work. LOL.

QadirEurystheus

You are so right! But even older traditional monitors were always wider than they were tall. I've always considered that such basic lack of understanding of how to design interfaces. Also just like the dock-icons mean nothing to people they look great but a button with a name on it would make more sense.

BernardBeetle

I can't make head or tails of this. Where would I start? It looks like a photocopier threw up. There is so little practical information here. Why not design this first before building it? This entire interface is for messaging? I can do all this stuff much easier on my iPhone in 480x320 pixels, wherever I am in the world, AND THE iPHONE IS CHEAPER THAN AN MS-OFFICE LICENSE. It's amazing that they still require the user to Save their work (can it really be that hard to write the 50 characters per minute tops that the user is feeding you to disk?) and even more they are still using the icon of a Mac floppy circa 1984-1996. WTF does that even mean to someone who was born in 1985 (and is now almost 30 years old)? Has there even been a computer made in the 21st century that has a floppy disk in it? If so, did anybody actually use the drive? I had a 10 MB limit on my email in 2000 and it's 20 MB now, that is 6-12 floppy disks. Awful, awful stuff. There are many, many Web apps that have better interfaces than this, in spite of the challenges of making Web app interfaces. Truly awful stuff.

PerlaAssaracus

yeaaah - now you can have half of your screen taken by tool bars and such. leave about 2" of space for actual content.

Protocol X

They used the most functional, but ugliest screenshot in the preview picture up there. Other ones from the article look a lot better.

LoreleiImbicile

@daxomni: Yess I agree 1000% . MS can shove their ribbon interface where the Sun don't shine.

Tony Maglica

@lhmlco: So true. Why is it so f-ing difficult to understand that I want to maximize screen space. The first thing I do when I open a fresh MS Office install is spend an hour configuring the toolbars so that they don't take up half my screen.

Then I spend the rest of my life fighting back the toolbars that spontaneously reappear all over the place.

And now the ribbon, so that I am forced to cede 25% of my screen to buttons that are redundant with menu options.

I can't work with that layout. I don't like the 2007 layout either....

Michael Wyden

The biggest problem with OO is that it does antialias on Windows. It makes readability pretty nasty.

JuanitaRattlesnake

I think this design is a step back from Office 2007. This one hurst my eyes while I really like the one on Office 2007. It may not be perfect, but it sure is way better than the one shown here.

you fail. It's a beta (or is it alpha?), and as someone pointed out, the developers are probably running this without visual fluff to reduce compile times. Right now, imho, they're probably just developing new features and haven't got down to design and organizing of commands. God, is that all you do, trample all over MS saying over and over again: "omg MS doesn't get it because of their lame looking beta".

EdithAlcaeus

It's a nightmare, an headache!! It's the reason 'cause I use notepad in order to paste it to word.

WesleySpezza

@QadirEurystheus: So you were the one who called yesterday! Feel free to leave a voice mail message (with your e-mail address). I'll forward it back to you.

ankbomb

@TheAxMan: I'm glad you think the feature is super-cool!

here's a link for you in case you're interested: [www.microsoft.com]

ankbomb

This looks physically painful to use. Who needs this much crap just to deal with one sentence emails from coworkers telling them there's cake in the break room (again)? No wonder we all need more sleep and vacation days; we have to wrestle garbage like this all day long.

Nick Jones

PowerPoint 14/2010 has embedded video technology. I was part of a PowerPoint usability study that required me to do 31 tasks via Remote Desktop. I noticed the Office 14 splash screen.

There will be basic editing systems in 2010.

"it'll be a while before we all head to Office 2010"

No shit.

penguiniator