You almost have to laugh when Microsoft unveils screen shots of its next update in the creaky Office franchise. Just wait, just wait one more year, and we’ll make Word really great. Really, really great. We promise. Based on the screen shots, it look more likely to cause head aches than upgrades. Somehow this mishmash of tabs and buttons and tool bars is supposed to be an improvement? What happened to simple and intuitive design? What happened to hiding complexity from the user? This just looks like a confusing mess. At least I don’t see Clippy, the annoying talking paper clip from a couple of versions back. Oh, and there’s no “classic” mode if you prefer the current incarnation, at least so they say now. Maybe a few of these “features” will be dropped before the final product is ready. I’m willing to learn from those who actually attended this unveiling to some degree, but wow – yuck.
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