Status Bar Update

re: Status Bar Update

Szajd — Thu, 05 Jan 2006 18:10:42 GMT

"A cool feature of this is we show the values of the customizable items right in the menu, so you could just use right-click to see how many lines you had without actually adding them to the menu."

Actually, a much more cooler feature in that menu is that it doesn't go away after each clicking in it, so I can really set up my status bar without right-clicking again and again and again.

re: Status Bar Update

Gabe — Thu, 05 Jan 2006 18:13:02 GMT

I would argue that things like "Overtype" and "Recording Macro" are items that may not need a permanent position on the status bar, but should be indicated when they are on.

re: Status Bar Update

anon — Thu, 05 Jan 2006 18:17:23 GMT

"menu is that it doesn't go away after each clicking in it"

Ctrl-click

re: Status Bar Update

Roger Lipscombe — Thu, 05 Jan 2006 18:24:45 GMT

I notice that the Excel spreadsheet still says 'Ready' on the status bar. Surely this is just as bad as 'Press F1 for help'? What other things might it say?

re: Status Bar Update

Michael Zuschlag — Thu, 05 Jan 2006 19:39:25 GMT

That looks pretty useful, especially the view controls. Personally, I've felt for awhile that view controls should be consolidated, but I didn't know if that would make sense for other users. But can the same view manipulations be done through the ribbon? Are you concerned that that violates your principle of one place for each command?

re: Status Bar Update

Michael Zuschlag — Thu, 05 Jan 2006 19:47:23 GMT

"Word count was the first thing that jumped to mind [to go on the status bar]"
Oh, yeah. The old use of a modal dialog to find the word count is on Cooper & Reimann's list of annoying things (see p122 of About Face 2.0). What next? Will we get automatic implicit save (p167)?

re: Status Bar Update

Chris — Thu, 05 Jan 2006 20:14:37 GMT

Word Count? Is that really that useful for anyone except students? I don't use it daily, or even monthly.

re: Status Bar Update

Tyler Reddun — Thu, 05 Jan 2006 20:20:21 GMT

Well Chris, not to be a grouch, but it's useful to people who write reviews... in fact if a product lacks a word count every reviewer will comment on it. See they use it in there day to day work, so they feel it must be there. So they would be all "Wow woo!" when the see the word count right there and give Word 12 extra points for putting a "commonly used feature" so prominently on the main frame of the application.

re: Status Bar Update

Jote — Thu, 05 Jan 2006 21:01:34 GMT

I really like MS Office UI Team take on the UI, it really looks as they care about simplicity and consistency. But the thing that bothers me is that those concepts should be also applied throughout entire Vista UI! For instance, it's a good idea to have zoom slider in the status-bar. However, in Vista Explorer windows similar functionality is implemented in the upper toolbar. This doesn't seem consistent. And I would really love to see Office 12 and Windows Vista share similar window theme (gradients, backgrounds) to provide further consistency. I always loved Office UI Team ideas (except for Office2003... blue is terrible an inconsistent with the rest of UI) - I remember looking at OfficeXP UI (the most elegant to me) and asking myself - why the heck can't WindowsXP look like this instead of this colorful "clowns and balloons" theme? ;)

re: Status Bar Update

Mike — Thu, 05 Jan 2006 21:16:28 GMT

Have you done anything to tackle the problem of accidentally turning on Overwrite mode?

This has the potential to wreck a user's experience if they don't know how to turn it off - I've seen it happen to my mum!

re: Status Bar Update

pcooper — Thu, 05 Jan 2006 21:29:09 GMT

I used to disable the insert key and the caps lock key through some obscure registry key in the keyboard driver (I think), just because I never hit those keys intentionally.

re: Status Bar Update

Abigail — Thu, 05 Jan 2006 21:55:31 GMT

Some of the new MS keyboards don't even have an INS key. If I get a keyboard that does, I literally just pop off the key. :)

re: Status Bar Update

Nas Hahsmi — Thu, 05 Jan 2006 22:49:47 GMT

i have this blog in my rss reader and i got on here just to comment on the ins key. I notice that the last three responses already have that started. Wow!

But to add in my own input, there should be an alert about the ins key everytime someone goes into overtype mode.

I know that very few people know about this even to this day. They come out with real creative ways to go around it.

I feel real sorry for those people though. I remember while in school, i had to type a report and just because of the ins key, everytime i wanted to make a correction i ended up typing the whole report over again and again and again.

No one should have to go thru that misery.

re: Status Bar Update

Dave Solimini — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 01:46:06 GMT

RE: Word count

While word count may not be the most commonly-used feature ever, there are merits to doing it this way... for one, its easy if you do use it and it doesnt bother you if it doesnt. Second, i think its used more than people realize. I work in political communications (yes, that means "Spin Doctor") and i often toss out requests to co-workers like "give me 200 words on that bill we're supporting" to put in a newsletter or something. My point is that while people may not explicitly use it all the time to meet a space requirement or term paper length, it may be used more informally.

just my 3 cents

re: Status Bar Update

Fri, 06 Jan 2006 04:38:02 GMT

Not to mention that this blog has mentioned about the usage statistics that the Office team has collected. They probably have real proof that word count is a commonly used feature instead of random speculation.

re: Status Bar Update

John Waller — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 06:00:21 GMT

>>>Have you done anything to tackle the problem of accidentally turning on Overwrite mode?

Excellent idea.

I've never seen the Ins key intentionally used for overwriting. It's usually hit by a fumble on the keyboard.

People I know just comment on the strange behaviour of Word when OVR is activated. Some are proud that they know how to "fix" it. It's certainly not common knowledge.

What do your stats tell you about this, Jensen?

re: Status Bar Update

Ravages — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 08:07:54 GMT

Hi,
Came here via <a href="http://www.kingsley2.com">Kingsley</a>

A good blog, this is. As to your poin about integrating the word count statistics on the status bar, I am surprised. I use Word 2004 for the Mac and the word count info is on the status bar, as a button. Not very new is it?

window switching

Rob S. — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 15:31:47 GMT

Jensen,

Your blog is great. Thanks so much for taking the time to share what is coming in the next version of Office. I can't wait to use it.

You mentioned above that Window Switching is one of the tasks that is handled by the new status bar. Is this the same as document switching? How is document switching handled in Office 12?

In older versions of Office (I just reproduced this in Office XP) there's a design inconsistency between how Excel and Word behave when they are setup to place each document on the TaskBar (the default behavior). In the case of MS Word, each document behaves as a separate application which means that I can click the X to close one document without impacting the other documents I may be working on at the same time. However, Excel behaves differently. If I have 2 spreadsheets open, both of them have a place on the taskbar. However, if I click the X to close one application window it wants to close all of them. I use Word more than Excel most of the time so I got used to the fact that I could close one window in Word and keep my other documents open. I have lost work on more than one occasion in Excel because it behaves differently than Word. I know I'm prompted to save my workbook, but if I'm in a hurry I'm not thinking about it, and I'm not reading prompts.

Going into Excel and changing it so that it doesn't place each sheet on the Taskbar kept me out of trouble. However, it would be nice if Excel behaved the same way as Word.

If each document is going to take up a spot on the taskbar then the Office apps need to behave like IE does. If I close one IE window, my other IE windows stay open.

RE: Word count ?

Smf — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 17:52:58 GMT

Hi,
To begin, as it is my first comment on your post, I'd like to thank you to share all these interesting thoughts about UI with us.
Then, I’d like to add my input about the “Word count discussion”. For me, no doubt it is a good think to have it in such a place (not too visible, but here, right when you need it, as Dave said).
But actually, as a UI designer, it’s not the word count that I use but the characters count. And around me, lot’s of colleagues (UI and graphic designers, developers, etc) use this option quite often (how many car. can fitt in this area, How many car should we allow to type, etc…). So I’m wondering if you though about adding this command in the right click menu and if so, why you’ve chosen not to do it?
Thx,
Smf

re: Status Bar Update

Stephen McLaren — Thu, 12 Jan 2006 01:03:09 GMT

To add my (late) tuppence worth. The status bar is either one of most useful parts of a piece of software or the most useless!
I write macro's in Excel and I frequently use the status bar to update the user on what's happening and asking them kindly to be patient if it's a long process (on an aside why does it take soooooo long to save an addin (*.xla) file?)
One of the other programs I use has helpful colour boxes on the status bar to show the status(!) of communications between various pieces of hardware. A quick glance tells me what's broken and what's working fine.

The Office 12 status bar seems to be a big step toward making the status bar useful again.

Oh and BTW Jensen I *love* the status bar in Explorer - the file count and size function is something I find really useful. I love it so much the first thing I do is switch it on whenever I open a new Explorer window without one...

Status Bar Information

Richard — Thu, 12 Jan 2006 13:46:55 GMT

What seems to be missing is a useful horizontal position measurement. Column number is only really useful when working with mono-space without tabs or indent (a rare occurrence these days).

Vertical position on the page is given in lines and measurement (inches for me). Why is horizontal position only given in columns? This would save trying to gauge against the ruler at the top of the page when adjusting tab or column positions.

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