Microsoft revamps Office with 'cloud' links

Technology Jul. 17, 2012 - 05:45AM JST ( 9 )

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9 Comments

2

bogvaJul. 17, 2012 - 01:55PM JST

I don't get it! First of all again my impression is for very dry presentation and lack of "charisma". Second - with Windows Live it is free to use web based Office and have very good video chat with Messenger.

So what is going on I guess is they are trying to make subscription based everything and cow on money every year, not just buying the product once.
-2

JeffLeeJul. 18, 2012 - 07:38AM JST

Working on a spreadsheet on a smartphone via the cloud on a slow connection. Yeah, that sounds like fun.

When are MS and the others going to realize that most REAL WORK is still done on PCs, on big tactile keyboards and mouse-clicking from installed software. If they sacrifice that arrangement in order to cater to small mobile devices, they're idiots, and will lose more of their core customers in the process.
0

wanderlustJul. 18, 2012 - 11:09AM JST

A dodgy internet connection is going to make Office a really nice experience...NOT. Google apps and docs are bad enough to work with. Maybe be OK for those countries with high-speed, reliable internet backbones, but for the rest of the world, installed, stand-alone versions on your computer will be the way to go...
2

AlanJul. 18, 2012 - 11:57AM JST

most REAL WORK is still done on PCs, on big tactile keyboards and mouse-clicking from installed software

Absolutely right. The last good Office incarnation was 2003. I bought the next version, 2007 or something, and found everything clogged up with ribbons and other useless "features." All the familiar functions that I use everyday now took two or three clicks if you could find them, and some important features had simply vanished. The result was a steep learning curve and a loss of efficiency and usability with no tangible benefits. So I went back to 2003 and stayed with it. My next upgrade will probably be to Open Office.

I don't know why I'm even bothering to write this because Microsoft NEVER listens to its customers.
0

soldaveJul. 18, 2012 - 12:39PM JST

Open Office? I'd really go for Libre Office these days. Businesses too would (or probably should) consider Libre Office if they are moving away from Microsoft Software. The Enterprise edition of Open Office can cost a lot to businesses compared to Libre, and is also falling behind in features these days.

Saying that, there are still compatibility problems with MS Powerpoint & Excel (in particular) and Open Office/Libre Office. With the vast majority still using Microsoft software, I doubt many large companies are going to be jumping ship any time in the near future.
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HollisBrownJul. 18, 2012 - 12:42PM JST

MSOffice is quite unique in that everytime they've released new versions, it's actually got worse.
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AlanJul. 18, 2012 - 01:37PM JST

compatibility problems with MS Powerpoint & Excel

There are even major compatibility problems even among MS Word and PPT and Excel. It really is second-rate stuff.
-1

soldaveJul. 19, 2012 - 08:43AM JST

You mean using ppt and pptx documents? That's why you get the option of saving in the ppt format in 2007/08 (Mac) and 2010 variants of MS Office. It removes some of the thing they added in the later versions to make it compatible. But if you load a MS Word 2003 or 2007 file in MS Word 2003 or 2007 it will load as was intended.

Or are you talking about importing tables & Excel information into Powerpoint documents?

Powerpoint presentations seem to be one of the things that suffer a lot when people make the move from MS to Open/Libre Office.
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AlanJul. 19, 2012 - 09:41AM JST

I'm talking about importing Word tables into Excel, Excel data into Word tables, and PPT text into anything. The process is time-consuming and the results are unpredictable. For example, if a cell in a Word table contains line feeds, it will be split into multiple Excel cells. As far as I know, there is no way to extract all the text from a PPT except to use a PDF printer driver to turn the presentation into a PDF, from which it is then possible to select and copy. However, with some Japanese fonts, this can result in gibberish.

Another problem with Excel is that spreadsheets containing large amounts of text may appear o.k. on the editing screen and in print preview but will be distorted when actually printed. Microsoft's excuse is that Excel is not intended as a Word Processor. Unfortunately Japanese writers, especially engineers and economists, love to cram large amounts of text into spreadsheets, so Microsoft should listen to its users and fix this defect. But they don't and they won't. They just continue to churn out glitzy new versions of this supposedly mature package with the same old bugs.