3rd
I am not a technologist. But, I have a solid understanding of product usability.
Microsoft Office 2007 is the worst piece of software ever developed.
I have been an Office power user ever since I lived inside the software suite two years ago as a junior investment banker. I can build complex models, beautiful presentations and perfectly formatted resumes. Keystrokes have long been second nature.
But Office 2007 is virtually unusable. The entire menuing system has been revamped and hideously complicated; very few helpful new features (its too difficult to discover them anyway), just a grossly unintuitive new layout.
I constantly consider reinstalling the old Office suite (though the challenge of finding a legal copy is mildly daunting). Ive become so frustrated that Ive silently wished I could stop using any type of spreadsheet, word processing, presentation and email program professionally.
It feels as though I am stranded in a never ending labyrinth. I wonder if I am now too old to learn new software. My brain hurts when trying to create even the most basic document. Change can be good, but this is bad.
Oh yeah. I just realized that Microsoft changed the file system as well. So, saving and sending the documents to non 2007 users requires customization (file setting revision).
Fuck you too, Microsoft.
Love this post. I was never a power user but have enough knowledge of office to find the new office suite unusable. There is nothing more frustrating than clicking save, emailing a file and then getting a response along lines of “i cant open a .docx file.” I would guess that 95% of office users are running office 2003. If office 2003 cant open office 2007 files then why is the default option to save as a 2007 file? makes no sense