May 10
18
According to a post on the blog of the developers of Office 2010:
“When designing Outlook 2010, we worked hard to ensure that the colors, shapes, and text used within the product provide a pleasant experience and make it easy for you to get work done. We have done this by redesigning parts of the user interface to give Outlook a clean, crisp, high-quality look that is free from distracting visual elements. By simplifying many parts of the user interface, we’ve allowed your e-mail messages and meetings to shine in the foreground better than ever before! Let’s take a look at some examples of how the new visuals improve Outlook.”
I have tried all three themes and it is still ugly. The blue actually looks more like gray-blue and the silver is just blah. It looks like a patchwork of disparate parts that makes Office 2007 a world apart in terms of being together. I do not even know where to start. They removed the orb that was just starting to grow on us ( a lot of people hated it when it first arrived, as with all new things). They threw menus all over the place…I am at a loss for words to describe my disappointment with this iteration of Microsoft Office.
Take a look at the images below and tell me which one “shines”:
| Outlook 2007
|
Outlook 2010
|
Take the black color scheme in Outlook for example: It totally looks out of place. You have these gray (not black) panels on three sides with a white box slapped in the middle. We have square icons which look clunky, to say the least. I never really noticed it before but the ugly color is across the entire suite! So I get to stare at depressing silver-gray whether I’m using Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint or Access. To rub the ugliness in, they have some weird pink highlights on the menu in Access to go with the gray theme (shudder).
Don’t get me wrong. We are not discussing functionality here. In that area, I like what they’ve done and you can read about the nifty stuff you can do with the new version here. Upgrade from Enterprise edition to Professional Plus went smoothly and the backstage thing is cool. But man, the interface in Outlook takes you back to the NT days and makes that of Office 97 kind of cool.
My take is that this will get everyone bemoaning the curse of a monopoly all over again. Microsoft, please hire some Linux developers or borrow some from Apple to help out with UI designs – imagination runs wild in those places. Appearance does matter.
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Thanks for stopping by Larry.
Here’s a part of the original post:
“Don’t get me wrong. We are not discussing functionality here. In that area, I like what they’ve done and you can read about the nifty stuff you can do with the new version…”. I think the new version is awesome in terms of functionality. The interface just threw me for a loop and I strongly believe that in 2010, we do not have to choose between a good interface and a highly functional product. Not with all the advances that has been made in programming in the last five years. We can have both. It may be a silly pet peeve but if you work with Office products as much as I do, an aesthetic interface does wonders to one’s psyche. But as with Office 2007, I am sure the drab colors will grow on us.
Well, this is at least a little silly. I do admit that 2010 is not as pretty (OK, it IS ugly). But 2010 is a major improvement over 2007 in other ways. Everything seems to run more crisply and more reliably, and using less memory in the bargain. I routinely used to crash Word 2007 and I’ve yet to to crash Word 2010.
We can’t have everything. All that fancy renderning had its cost. I’d much rather have a reliable, snappy Office suite than one that looks pretty any day!
I found this thread whilst trying to find a way to change the appearance of Office 2010. I’m already beginning to fear that there is none and that, for the first time in my life, I am going to revert to a previous version of Office (2007). In work, we are were just about to upgrade to Office 2007. With the advent of Office 2010, we have been asking ourselves if we should bypass 2007 and go straight to 2010. I can tell you that that just isn’t going to happen. 2007 it is – because it looks cheerful, whereas Office 2010 looks depressing! Microsoft, it seems, have hired some weavers of gold who have made them some splendid invisible garments that only those Microsoft executives who are worthy of their posts can see. Hmmm.
True, CTRL+(x) where x ranges from D, R +Shift etc. does a lot. But the take away from Jean-Claude’s grouse is that they changed the combination from ALT to CTRL and like I said, when habits are formed, it takes a while to learn new stuff. When Office 2007 was released, some of the employees in the network I managed would not touch it. They bitched so much that I had to roll back to Office 2003. And it was because they’d memorized the shortcuts, knew where the buttons were and just convincing them that the new product was better was difficult. They cursed the ribbon! and truth be told, I did too, until I learnt how to use it and came to like it just before they removed it from the new version.
Jean-Claude:
I’m not sure where you’re looking (or not looking), but whenever you hover over an entry in any of the ribbons, a ‘tool-tip’ opens with a short explanation of the button, and the CTRL or CTRL-ALT shortcut that initiates that action. Go look again.
Hi all,
Furthermore all shortcuts from Outlook 2007, such as “Alt-v” to send message, “Alt-n” for new message have disappeared… .
Thanks to Microsoft to work hard to make our daily life harder.
Hi,
I am totally with you. I’ve just updated my computer with office 2010 and I HATE what it looks like.
All three colours are ugly and the look of that grim interface just makes me not want to use it. I really regret the look of office 2007. It actually looks more recent than office 2010. I’m seriously disappointed in it. And you’re damn write. It does look like windows 97 or 95. It’s really horrible.
Overall it works very well for what I’ve used it for up to now. But it visually bothers me to work with something that doesn’t look good. When I first open a window in outlook or word or whatever it makes me sigh first thing.
I hope they can do something about it in a future update!