However, I think probably 90% or more of their users are quite used to the old interface, so their is quite a learning ‘hump’. For most, it’s probably more effective. I use both, and for some of the more complex tasks 2007 is much easier (e.g. doing columns). However, some simple things that I used to know catch me out (e.g. inserting captions).

From a screen reader point of view, I can’t argue with Léonie’s points, there could certainly be more done to aid people over the learning ‘hump’. On the other hand, I think once the dust settles, Office 2007 will be considered a better interface overall, so I hope that support can be put in place to help screen reader users.

I’m avoiding Vista and all the new breed of Microsoft interfaces. I find Windows XP a really productive environment and am happy to keep it.

I only got rid of office 97 (yes, really) because Win XP started not to allow it to work properly. As Bill Gates once said, “Our stuff works better with our stuff”. Of course, I trust every word.

Casting MS Office aside was an opportunity to look at some alternatives, but they were all pretty hopeless for me, I regret to say. Having failed to get a squeak out of OpenOffice and having come unstuck with the various online suites (Zoho and the likes), I gave in and paid up for Office 2007 about 8 or 9 months ago.

Since then I’ve mounted a sort of pincer movement approach to learning the thing, partly learning the odd new keystroke when I’ve got the time, and mostly banging on with all those old keystrokes I was using before, and most of those work.

If I press Alt and get the Office button thing, and arrow right, I get pretty much a running commentary from the screen reader about what each thing does. I don’t listen to much of it before pressing on, but it’s all there and available in a free screen reader such as NVDA. So I’m reasonably happy.

Don’t ask me about the logic of the new menu structure, because like Leonie it leaves me cold. The colour schemes don’t help at all, me being one of those blindies with a bit of sight, and the blue on blue default is not exactly one of the brightest design ideas I’ve come across. but then, small white mouse pointers on a white background, are also part of the Windows design tradition.

Anyone who’s desperate enough can find an add-in that puts Office 2003 menus up there as well, one such being Classic Menus.

http://www.freedownloadmanager.org/downloads/Classic_Menu_for_Office_2007_47054_p/free.htm

(by the way, this may be a free download, but it’s not a free program. I’m sure you’ve been there before!)

As for IE7, well, I quite like it, and can’t help noticing that they seem to have pinched some nice features from Firefox. The Favorites menu is a bit of a mess, and I’m still not convinced about being able to use feeds effectively, but other wise it’s OK. There are plenty of ways of using feeds elsewhere anyway.

Got to admit all this redesign is extremely silly, but if MS want to amuse themselves putting ribbons on their software, I’ll try not to let it change my life. Wait till they have Bezier curved menus with Christmas lights on, all programmed in Java. Things could be worse!

Vince.

Browse multiple pages with desaturated blue boxes…apparently these are meant to be tabs. So why not make them look like tabs?

I get the feeling Microsoft’s usability people, the people who make Windows 95 and Windows XP the most usable of their era, are being ignored or have been replaced.