[IxDA Discuss] Anyone else having trouble getting used to Office 2007 menus?

[Livia Labate]

>>> I am, expert-level Word user for years, struggling. Is it just me
>> finding
>>> out my brain is now full and I should park on the porch in my rocking
>> chair?
>>> Or are others also challenged by this obviously attractive, improved,
>>> better, tested, etc interface?

I have used the new Powerpoint and Word for the past 60 days to see if 
it would work for me. I think it's outstanding. It's one of the best, 
most efficient set of tools I've ever used.

The learning curve was a lot less challenging than I expected. Within a 
few uses I understood where the differences and commonalities between 
the new product and the existing Office.

I think the biggest challenges people are coming against, is from 
expecting this to be a new version of Office, when in fact, it's a 
different offer - it just happens to come from MS, have the same name, 
and have all the features offered by good old Office. That's what's common.

What's different, is that it is a suite structured to support your 
logical behaviors and needs, which is why I love it. It doesn't seem 
logical to some though, because of the time invested in learning the 
existing Office suite and how much ingrained in your work process it is.

While you think its illogical, it's because the existing Office suite 
has been forcing and reinforcing all kinds of non-natural behaviors that 
don't necessarily support the more effective/efficient way to get work 
done. That and the new one actually introduces innovation in terms of 
interaction that really works.

It's not "the ideal" product - if there is such a thing - since it still 
shares a lot of the existing Office issues, but MS would not want to 
alienate existing Office users by enforcing a huge paradigm shift - I 
think they struck just the right balance, which I find quite amazing and 
speaks volumes about the quality of the MS Office team (whoever they 
are, I have no idea).