Office 12 Exposed

damieng writes "The Programmers Developer Conference (PDC) has unveiled the user interface for Microsoft Office 12. Bearing more than a passing resemblance to Aqua and brushed metal looks from Mac OS X the menus now appear to operate more like a tab popping-out the right toolbar instead of a sub-menu."

RTFA?

[thermopile]

Not a single comment and the site is alread slahsdotted. sigh.

But this is an interesting trend: Apple has monopolized the headlines recently. ArsTechnica is all about Apple, Slashdot can't seem to get enough of them, and now Microsoft is emulating its Apple product?

What's next, Intel Processors branded with "Apple Outside" stickers on them?

Re:Office Vista?

[Gaima]

A more interesting question is, are they going to have 7 versions of Office too?

Another page out of Apple's book...

[Anonymous Coward]

Coming soon: Office Nano - productivity tools for managing post-it notes.

PDC?

[dhclab49]

Doesn't it stand for "Professional Developer's Conference" ?

I for one...

[gmikej]

welcome Gates ripping off OSX.

It is similiar to an old friend. It gives me a comfortable feeling... knowing that everything is going to be all right, and the world is NOT coming to an end.

Grandpa: "See kids? The ocean levels are not raising, the ozone layer seems to flux from time to time (but it will still be around for many years), and Microsoft is still ripping off ideas from everyone else without even attempting to innovate."

Toast

[JonLatane]

It looks like they used Microsoft Access 12 for their server's database.

Oh Snap! Ol'brushed metal is back

[Willeh]

Looks like this guy: http://daringfireball.net/2005/09/anthropomorphize d [daringfireball.net] , our lovely brushed metal friend has found a new home in Redmond, with no thanks from his two-timing agent. Evil always find evil, i guess.

Disclaimer: I don't know how to put that link in as some text atm, but whatever.

just what I always wanted from a word proccessor!

[Lord Bitman]

Even Less of the screen actually showing my document! Hooray progress!

Why Why Why?

[Kent Simon]

does MS insist on "revolutionizing" UI's? With all of the importance developers place on standardizations of code, why do they feel that does not also apply to UI design? Even my grandmother is capable of using a menu bar, and every OS has some variant of that.

Re:Crowded

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, and apparently there's not even enough room for Clippy!

the flattery

[FidelCatsro]

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery .
This looks more like a parody of aqua though

Re:RTFA?

[thatguywhoiam]

Behold! The wonders of Coral Cache

Thats amazing. The Coral Cache reproduced the slashdotted site's error message perfectly. Will wonders never cease.

Re:Microsoft continues the tradition...

[Mornelithe]

Indeed, this is just another example of the oft repeated truism about Linux on the desktop. With its two major toolkits (Qt, GTK), Linux will never succeed. It needs to be more consistent, like Windows with its... (IE, Office, Media Player, Visual Studio, ...) 5+ different toolkits that Microsoft uses, and many other toolkits that other applications use (Trillian, iTunes, Winamp, ...).

When will the Linux community learn that it has to be consistent to be accepted at large? They must be consistent and use a different toolkit for every application, not just two.

Re:even worse are misleading options

[Psykechan]

Check out this picture [nyud.net] and despair.

Will be saved in: MS Word Document
File Type: C:\Users\Pat\Documents

If they can't figure out what goes where while they are rearranging the save dialog, what hope do the end users have of finding things.

Don't forget the

[Karma_fucker_sucker]

version that cures sleep disorders for whole groups at a time. Otherwise known as Power Point.

Re:Office 12 and Windows Stability

[Zemplar]

You must be new here. It's always Windows fault.

Ugly as usual

[McDutchie]

Bearing more than a passing resemblance to Aqua and brushed metal looks from Mac OS X the menus now appear to operate more like a tab popping-out the right toolbar instead of a sub-menu.

And as usual, they manage to not only steal the Apple look but do everything to cheapen it and make it look as ugly as possible. Is there really nobody within the Microsoft moloch who has some feeling for style?

Relax

[TheSkepticalOptimist]

I find that when MS first shows new products, they usually have garish UI as to guage peoples reaction to it, but ultimately, MS usually cleans things up and implements the UI nicely.

After seeing early beta and previews of Visual Studio 2005, I was appalled at how garish and unsavoury the UI was in that application. The menus had this aweful gradient fill on them and looked out of place, and the rest of the interface was ugly and simply crap. Even the new dock window overlays were poorly implemented. A year later, and the current Beta 1 of VS2005 looks very clean and more unified.

Same goes with Longhorn where an eraly beta was just garish.

I think MS actually listens to your bitching and simply offers these previews in order to test the waters and see how people feel about them. If you don't like them, bitch loudly and it will change.

Re:Office Vista?

[cashman73]

7 versions of office might actually work, or perhaps better yet, 7 versions of Clippy, representing different demographic subtypes:

• Southern Clippy: "I see y'all are tryin' to write a lett-uh! Do ya need some help?"
• Ghetto Clippy: "Looks like you be tryin' to write a letter! Maybe we can help ya out, bitch!"
• British Clippy: "I see you are trying to write a letter. Let's work on that together, but right after our afternoon tea."
• Chinese Clippy: "I see you're trying to write a letter. Sorry, that option is not available to users of Windows Vista Starter Edition. Not to mention that the Communist party has banned communication anyways."
• Australian Clippy: "Ya tryin' to write a letter, mate! Alright, let's get started!"
• Iraqi Clippy: "Are you trying to write a letter bomb? Let me help you. First, what national leader do you want to target today?"

Re:Office Vista?

[Anonymous Writer]

... Clippy?

Re:Office Vista?

[Anonymous Coward]

French Clippy: "May I help you with that surrender letter?"

Re:Office Vista?

[Anonymous Coward]

1. Office Expensive
2. Office Very Expensive
3. Office Very Very Expensive
4. Office Just $99.95/month lease Edition
5. Office Faust Edition - Contract With Ballmer
6. Office Warezed Bittorrent Edition
7. Open Office - Free Edition

New Stunning Features Like: WormInviteEmailReader (TM), Personality Clippy: 4yoKid "Why are you writing a letter?", Troll "Fuck that letter, check this site [goatse.cx], 1337 "100k5 1*k3 Y0uR3 7rY1nG..." and no less than 1000 new slide transitions for powerpoint that will impress every PHB to increase your salary.

Re:Office Vista?

[athakur999]

Ricer Clippy: "Yo, I see you're writing a paper. It'd look mad tight if you changed the font of the title to Wing Dings and made it bright red."

Re:Office Vista? or Clippy revisited

[WillAffleckUW]

7 versions of office might actually work, or perhaps better yet, 7 versions of Clippy, representing different demographic subtypes:

don't forget:

Canadian Clippy: "That's a letter, eh? Why aren't you writing colour correctly? You should center the word centre too, eh?"

French Clippy: "You write with no passion! Why do I bother helping you, you know nothing of how to write! Come back when you learn how to write if you want my help, monsieur!"

Re:Office Vista?

[mr_gerbik]

You needed Clippy for that last post...

"I see you are trying to write a joke. I'm sorry, you do not appear to have the humor component installed."

Re:Hole With No Bottom

[pilgrim23]

WYSIWYG? Hardly. it is more:
WYSIWYP -What you see is why you're Pissed!

Don't forget soviet clippy

[Anonymous Coward]

In soviet russia, letter writes you!

Re:Office Vista?

[mforbes]

All of you forgot the dreaded Jewish Mother Clippy: "Oh, so you finally decide to write! What took you so long? It's not like your father and I have years left with you, you know! And when am are you gonna get married and give us some grandkids?!"

Re:Office Vista?

[Rs_Conqueror]

AIM clippy: OMFG!! Yuo r riting a letter?!? lololol!!! want me 2 help yuo? im good at riting stuff!!1 LOL!!

Re:Hole With No Bottom

[Anonymous Coward]

I'll probably be market redundant for saying this so many times, but WORD IS NOT A PAGE LAYOUT PROGRAM.

Then tell Microsoft, fluffnuggets, because then they can eliminate all those features that word processors don't need, like tables, clipart, wordart, image wrapping, HTML export, headers and footers, columns, page numbering...