Microsoft Rolls Out Visually Updated Office Preview, Plus Native 64-bit Office for Arm (zdnet.com) 38
Microsoft has released a visually "refreshed" version of its Office desktop apps for both Windows 10 and 11. Microsoft officials said this new Office refresh will "shine" on Windows 11 but still work on Windows 10. Microsoft also is releasing its first publicly available test build of 64-bit Office for Windows on Arm today. From a report: The updated Office uses Fluent design across Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Access, Project, Publisher, and Visio. The updated apps are meant to look similar to the Windows 11 OS, design-wise. Via the updated Office interface, Office is set to match users' Windows themes, including black (Dark Mode), white, colorful, or dark gray. The Quick Access toolbar is hidden by default in the name of simplifying the interface. The refreshed Office is available to Office Insider testers running Beta Channel builds. Those who don't want it can turn off the "Coming Soon" feature at the top right hand corner of the menu. Testers can toggle between the new and existing interface to move between the current and newly updated Office apps.
Shiny (Score:2)
Apps that will shine on (hardware fast enough to run) Windows 11.
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Apps that will shine on (hardware fast enough to run) Windows 11.
It's the rounded window corners, they make all the difference ...
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Finally (Score:3)
Dark mode for Office, been waiting for that for a long time. Sometime in the 90s we regressed to everything being WYSIWYG.
Good old DisplayWrite for DOS, with it's blue background and grey text that made your vision go all pink...
Re:Finally (Score:5, Interesting)
I find it interesting that Dark Mode features is taking so long to deploy out to our software. A lot of Microsoft Tools Office, and SQL server management studio especially is really lagging on good Dark mode support. As well Facebook seemed to drag a long time too to get it in their app.
There must be something deceptively complex in Darkmode that I think we are missing.
But bringing up the 1990's WYSIEYG methodology that might shine a bit of light on why such seemingly simple add in is taking these vendors so long. I know from past experience that the Windows Print Preview functionality is tied to the installed Printer Drivers (I found this out with a program I coded 20 years ago, that crashed the computer hard when I went to print preview, the fix was to install a new print driver) because it seems to want to use the driver to as accurately match the WYSIWYG output.
I don't think the 1990's moving to WYSIWYG was a regression in technology, but just a sign of the times. 1990's the average person was starting to get computers for themselves, and many of the abstractions that we needed to use the computer was scary to the adults who used the computer for the first time. We had Icons galore because people needed a reference on what a feature did, buttons were heavily beveled, so you knew they were buttons not just boxes, Every element was super exaggerated than today. This was partly from lower resolution displays, with systems with a low color depth (sometimes just the 16 EGA colors) But also because it needed to shove it in the average persons face what to do in the program. So if something was meant to be printed it needed to match the paper color,
Re: Finally (Score:1)
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There must be something deceptively complex in Darkmode that I think we are missing.
Technically, no. It is just changing some RGB values. Prolly needs to go thru a million designers, managers, focus groups, and the like before it changes.
Therein lies the issue I think. Microsoft is no longer a tech company. They a design/lifestyle company. They have no interest in solving technical issues or allowing technical settings to be changed. Which is a problem since one of their main product is an OS, a major piece of software.
Look at Windows 11. It is a redesign of 10. What new tech are they re
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I find it interesting that Dark Mode features is taking so long to deploy out to our software.
They aren't. People just aren't paying attention. Office introduced this 3 years ago, the only thing new I gather is that Office will follow the system settings and theme.
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Dark mode for Office, been waiting for that for a long time.
Huh? Dude Dark mode was introduced in Office in 2018. You just had to turn it on since there was no unified system setting. File -> Account -> And set Office theme to black. Or File -> Settings -> General if you don't have Office365.
Microsoft continues to hide things from the user (Score:4, Insightful)
Because who doesn't want to go out of their way to find needed options rather than have them be visible?
Considering Microsoft did away with edges on individual windows (who wants to click and drag something out of the way in this day and age?), it won't be long before nothing will be available unless you go hunt for it or have to request Microsoft to turn it on so you can see it.
Someone explain why companies insist on hiding useful information from the end user? Have you tried to find serial numbers on equipment? They're either in four point font on the same colored background, or hidden in a location no normal person would ever think to look (I'm looking at you Kyocera). What part number do I need to replace on this? Who knows, the manual doesn't tell you and the company web site is no help either. What number can I call to get assistance? Sorry, we don't do that. What does this product do? Don't know. The company has an entire page worth of word salad about how awesome this product is, but not what it does.
Stop hiding things from people.
I'm guessing a rename is in the cards (Score:5, Funny)
The Quick Access toolbar is hidden by default in the name of simplifying the interface.
Microsoft intends to rebrand it the "Not-So-Quick Access toolbar".
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They want you to either buy a new product, or pay an extortionate amount to get some wet behind the ears tech that isn't going to fix the issue either.
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Almost nothing is available. The amount of clutter on the most recent Office is cluttered and I can't find anywhere to click to drag it. I am pining for the Linux desktop feature of holding a key and dragging anywhere on the window to move it.
Also interacting with background windows on the Linux desktop is so much more consistent and reliable.
Sometimes I try shortcuts but they aren't even working because for some reason when I alt+tab to a window some special cursor location has been selected somehow and sh
I just want it to work, (Score:4, Insightful)
I don't care if the new version shines or not, I just want it to work. Microsoft's development of Office products has been abysmal. There is a completely different UI with differing degrees of features and functionality on the various platforms. For example, the Mac version of Outlook does not support Contact Groups which is a pretty fundamental feature for an email client. They also have questionable priorities. For example, users of Teams can now use emojis, but the members of a team are still listed in an apparently random order and cannot be sorted. If Office 365 were a fairly new product to the market it would crash and burn.
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I don't care if the new version shines or not, I just want it to work.
100% reliable functionality doesn't impress the suits that decide what software company XYZ uses. When the majority of suits change their focus then so will Microsoft. You may think "that'll never happen" and you would be correct.
Read this as Virtually Updated Office (Score:2)
Libreoffice is Free as In Beer (Score:3)
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My Enterprise Blue Office 2007 wasn't free, but it's still fine for my purposes. It would be difficult to say I paid too much for it after 15 years of regular use. At some point, I suppose I'll have to update to LibreOffice. Neither the newish Office nor Windows 11 are on my "must have" list.
My time as a Microsoft customer is just about over. I'll heave a hearty sigh of relief when that time comes.
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I've written 375,00 words in Libreoffice, and the nearly defunct Openoffice
https://www.libreoffice.org/ [libreoffice.org]
Nothing wrong with using things like Libre office (and I do too) but sometimes you need real compatibility in order to ensure complex formatting stays as you want it
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LaTeX
Re: Libreoffice is Free as In Beer (Score:2, Informative)
Re: Libreoffice is Free as In Beer (Score:2)
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And far more importantly, Libreoffice is not installed on my Work computer and doesn't integrate with Sharepoint.
Fucking cunts (Score:2)
The only thing I really care about (Score:1)
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Menu? I *wish* it had menus, instead of a ribbon complete with Egyptian hieroglyphics.
Some things to like about this (Score:2)
It appears they've finally realised that a clear delineation is actually necessary between the content being worked on and the toolbars. The rounded corners are fugly but the UI itself seems to be a visual improvement for usability.
So another round of ... (Score:2)
To think Microsoft actually promoted no need to retrain your workforce for new UI ...
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> To think Microsoft actually "promoted no need to retrain your workforce for new UI" ...
That was just the bait. The switchblade came later.
Classic Menu (Score:2)
As logn as Classic Menu for Office [addintools.com] works, I'll be fine.
Office for mac is sadly trash (Score:2)
The macOS apps are electron wrapper web apps and the web apps work better than the stand alone apps.
You can't scroll the Sheets in excel on the bottom in the app, but you can do that on the web.
So many things have super tiny modal dialogs that can't be resized.
This is all such trash.
If you are mainly on Google Sheets and then forced into Excel you can only ask what kind of madman did that. You can't even have negative time interval. Unless you switch to mac date type. But then all dates jump back by for yea