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Subject:Re: Windows 3.1 to Windows 95 From:Mike Starr <mikestarr-techwr-l -at- writestarr -dot- com> To:"techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Mon, 03 Nov 2008 20:26:57 -0600
It seems to me that Microsoft devoted their efforts with Office 2007 to the casual user, failing to take into consideration the skilled users who rely on advanced functions. One of the things they did with the new Word 2007 interface was make the custom toolbars many of us have created for ourselves and others next to impossible to use. Thus the third-party tools that have been developed to restore the prior interface.
One of the mantras of technical communication is audience analysis which should also apply to software development. I'm of the opinion that Microsoft devoted their efforts to those who're not skilled with the tool and forgot about those of us who use it for a living.
Mike
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quills -at- airmail -dot- net wrote:
> There wasn't that much of an outcry against Win95 since it was
> addition to and enhancements that were seen as improvements.
>
> The current brouhaha over Office 2007 is that the menu system was
> dropped entirely for icons. This has a bit of a problem as the icons
> aren't necessarily intuitive, nor are they necessarily grouped in
> similar ways that the menu system was. The navigation of the icon
> bars, and there are more than one, isn't very clear. There isn't
> documentation that accompanies the software that explains the change.
> And if you are in a company where the IT department distributes and
> installs software, you don't get any documentation other than the
> Help system. So it's not a good way to suddenly have a new software
> package.
>
> Imagine having it foisted upon you, on a production machine, and
> being expected to meet your deadlines while having to learn the
> package. Microsoft ignored reality, and expected miracles. They also
> assumed that everybody would know what they had done. To my way of
> thinking, the assumption worked exactly as most assumptions do,
> poorly, and "everybody" really only included the developers and
> testers at Microsoft.
>
> Scott
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