Comments on: Goodbye File menu, hello throbbing Orb

By: keith

keith — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 01:52:06 +0000

I still have the same problem. It took me several hours if not days to figure that stupid spinning globe. I still hate the damn ting. I do not like any distractions to my work. I can see no use for it, no practical or other use! I just found out the quick access and have been making full use of it. Why the hell would you place the ribbon to take half screen as if the menu and other bars don’t do enough. The default options in Office application is really annoying and self defeating, if you ask me. If some could find a way to change that globe to the file/menu item I would be eternally grateful.

By: saeed

saeed — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 17:34:21 +0000

Darren,

Thanks for the clarification. I did research some blogs on the MS site after I wrote the post and got a similar message.

While the separation of content editing and content management is a good distinction to make, the items under the Office Button are fundamentally the same (with a couple of exceptions) as were under the File menu. Sure, the File Menu did occasionally get overloaded with other things that weren’t explicitly file specific, but whose fault was that? Why not simply have a “File” or “Manage” or other equivalent heading in the Ribbon?

Also, it is clear that the Ribbon really has a number of shortcomings that weren’t present in the previous UI incarnation.

For example, while the Ribbon does expose functionality that may have been buried in menus or dialogs in previous versions of Office, it also forces a new and rather rigid layout of that functionality, and it is almost impossible for me to do certain tasks without constantly clicking on different titles in the Ribbon.

For example in Excel, I find I often switch back and forth between the View and Page Layout headings as I’m trying to format sheets for printing. PageLayout->Print Area and Breaks, but View->Page Break Preview, There is no way, as far as I can tell, to associate those two pieces of functionality together in the Ribbon. And of course the Home title with all of its formatting has to always be selected to return to use those items. BTW, I find the in context pop-up formatting really irritating as it shows up many times I really don’t want it.

In Office 2003, the Toolbars, particularly things like formatting, were omnipresent regardless of the other activities I was undertaking, and didn’t get in my when when I didn’t need them.

The Quick Access Toolbar is interesting. It’s the little toolbar that by default is just to the right of the Office button. To me, this is an admission that the Ribbon doesn’t provide the necessary flexibility people need so, a bit of the old toolbar centric GUI had to remain. Odd. And boy, have I started overloading that Toolbar with all my most common tasks, as it is the fastest way for me to work without having to switch contexts in the Ribbon.

I always state that Change is a process, not an event, so I’ll try to take that approach to the Ribbon and the “Throbbing Orb. Hopefully the next iteration — Office 2010? — will show more improvements.

Saeed

By: Darren Strange

Darren Strange — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 18:50:52 +0000

the idea is that the capabilities to do with altering the content of the document should be presented by the ribbon but that capabilities to do with affecting the document as a whole are under the office button. So you see things like file operations, sure, but also meta data tools like those on the prepare menu, options for sending the doc into various collaborative channels like workflows, printing, converting, checking in and out and so on. so it isn’t just the file menu, rather a clearer seperation of content editing and content management.
hope this helps

By: saeed

saeed — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 01:48:15 +0000

Russell,

Thanks. A colleague indicated that there was method to Microsoft’s madness, but I haven’t had the time to extract the info from him. If I find out the logic, I’ll post it here.

Saeed

By: Russell

Russell — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 16:54:50 +0000

I don’t have any insight but I had originally thought that Microsoft may be trying to set a “standard” for what should be on the “File” menu in every single Windows application. It appears at first that all of the menu items on the throbbing orb menu are exactly the same in every Office application… until you see the ‘Convert’ item in Word. So this scuppers this theory. The menus on the ribbon are more based on the application you’re in.

So maybe the original idea was to have a standard set of functionality available from the throbbing orb menu in every Windows application but then someone asked “So where are we going to put the ‘Convert’ item in Word?” and that put an end to the plan.

I had the same problem myself, by the way. I spent five minutes looking for the Print menu item. Had to look in the Help in the end.