Running With the Popular Crowd
I've written in the past about the approach we took to organizing options in Office 2007, including a misguided detour in creating an "expert mode."
Today I want to start a discussion of some of the options available in Word 2007 by sharing those settings you'll see on the first page as soon as you open Word Options.
The Options dialog boxes of each program have been reorganized and redesigned; they have a list of sections along the left side and the whole dialog box is resizable (as really most UI should be here in the 21st century.)
The first section of Options is called "Popular" and it contains the list of settings we think people are most likely to want to tweak. We know that although most people don't change options, to the extent that they do, user interface tweaks are the most popular kind of option to change. So we've organized the user interface options together into one section right at the top.
Word 2007 Options (click to enlarge)
Here are the Word options and what they do:
Show Mini Toolbar on selection: I've blogged about the Mini Toolbar (codename: floatie) many times. Basically, whenever you select text, a little ghosted toolbar appears and provides the most commonly used formatting features directly next to your cursor. If you don't like the appear-on-selection behavior, you can turn it off here. The Mini Toolbar will continue to show up as part of the context menu.
Enable Live Preview: As you hover over choices in a gallery or menu , Office shows exactly how the document would look if you applied the formatting or option. If you don't like this feature, you can turn it off here.
Show Developer tab in the Ribbon: Most people aren't developers and don't use the advanced functionality in the product aimed at developers. Turning these features off by default simplifies and shrinks the command space. If you do want to access these features, check this box and a "Developer" tab will appear in the Ribbon.
Open e-mail attachments in Full Screen Reading view: By default, when you open a Word attachment from e-mail, it opens in Word's full screen Reading View to help you get the maximum screen real-estate possible for the document along with the reviewing and annotation tools for marking it up. If you would rather have Word open up documents in the normal editing mode, you can uncheck this option.
Color Scheme: You can choose between Blue, Silver, and Black.
ScreenTip style: By default in Office 2007, we show little descriptions of what every feature is used for in the feature's tooltip along with little illustrative pictures and links directly to help for the feature. (Yes, tooltips are called ScreenTips in Office for some reason. Don't ask.) If you don't want these enhanced tooltips and want just normal "command name only" tooltips, you can switch back using this option. You can also turn off tooltips altogether. (Don't forget, even options have enhanced tooltips.)
Always Use ClearType: If you are running on Office on Windows XP or Windows Server 2003, Office text is rendered with ClearType regardless of the system setting. This is because all of the Office fonts have been optimized to run in ClearType but most people don't know about the setting in the OS. If you don't wish to use ClearType, you can turn it off here and Office will follow the system setting. If you are running Windows Vista, Office will always follow the system setting. (This option isn't listed in the picture above because I took it in Vista.)
User Name/Initials: These are used primarily for when you are reviewing a document. Your changes are annotated with your name and initials.
Language Settings: Office can be configured to write in many languages and, in some versions, can switch UI languages on the fly. All of this can be configured from the Language Settings dialog box.
Except for the Reading View option (which is Word-specific), each of these settings are available in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and the Outlook editor.
Comments
Anonymous
August 04, 2006
What's the justification for Office respecting the ClearType system setting in Windows Vista but not in Windows XP?Anonymous
August 04, 2006
The comment has been removedAnonymous
August 04, 2006
The comment has been removedAnonymous
August 04, 2006
Hi. When we will access for new update for color scheme (Silver) in Word 2007?Anonymous
August 04, 2006
The comment has been removedAnonymous
August 04, 2006
Who's Brian?!Anonymous
August 04, 2006
Regarding the ClearType setting, why not have three choices:
( ) On
( ) Off
( ) Use Windows setting
...and make the third option the default?Anonymous
August 04, 2006
The comment has been removedAnonymous
August 04, 2006
Re: The Developer tab being on the first tab:
Everyone who uses the Developer tools will turn this option on. Even if that's only one-half of one percent of the user base, that still is enough to make it one of the most popular options in Word by far.
People simply don't change options very much.Anonymous
August 04, 2006
The comment has been removedAnonymous
August 04, 2006
Why would the Word team choose default fonts that only look good if you have ClearType on?Anonymous
August 04, 2006
"The Mini Toolbar will continue to show up as part of the context menu."
I don't dislike the Mini Toolbar, but I do dislike how it pops up when I right click. Unfortunatly, turning the Mini Toolbar off doesn't turn it off when it is useless.Anonymous
August 04, 2006
Is having few but overfilled dialog panes (e.g. Proofing and especially Advanced) a genuine improvement over having many but lean tabs?
The new Options dialog shifts the complexity from the outline to the body. This means the user will have to do a lot of weeding through irrelevant options to find what he wants.
The Options dialogs should be intelligent enough to only show options relevant to the user.
If the language of my Windows and Office installations are not Korean, my regional settings are not Korean, the Korean IME/layout is not installed, my address is not in Korea, Korean proofing tools are not installed, and I do not open Korean documents, do not display three options for Korean under "Proofing" (as well as numerous Asian text options under "Advanced"->Layout Options.)
The same goes for every other language there. "German: Use post-reform rules" and "French/Arabic/Hebrew modes" are only relevant if German/French/Arabic/Hebrew proofing tools are installed. Otherwise, the option does nothing!
Graying out text is not enough--it does not simplify the dialogs. Hide the text. If need be, you can always provide a master toggle, "Show options for other/non-installed languages" under Personalize.Anonymous
August 04, 2006
"...user interface tweaks are the most popular kind of option to change.
If this is true, why is "Show all windows in the Taskbar," for instance, secreted away on the second page of the "Advanced" options?
Also, why is there both Display and Save panes and Display and Save sections under Advanced? Why is there a Print section under both the Display and Advanced pane? Why is my address not stored alongside my name and initials (but buried under "Advanced?")
Though it looks clean, in the details it is a more convoluted design than the old tabbed dialogs.Anonymous
August 04, 2006
The comment has been removedAnonymous
August 04, 2006
The comment has been removedAnonymous
August 04, 2006
Here's how to get ClearType in XP:
1. Right-click in your desktop and click "Properties"
2. Click on the "Appearance" tab
3. Click the Effects button
4. Change the selection on the 2nd drop-down menu to ClearTypeAnonymous
August 04, 2006
Jensen > I don't hate Cleartype. I just want Windows applications to respect my system-wide setting, whatever that may be, by default.
If I change my display from an LCD to a CRT (e.g. when the LCD goes in for repair), where Cleartype does not work as there are no addressable sub-pixels to manipulate, I want to be able to turn it off in one place. One. Not three. One.
When my LCD comes back and I can take advantage of it again, I want to be able to turn it back on in one place. Again, not three. Not two. One.
Fortunately, there is one place I can do that. It's called the system-wide setting. Why is it called that? Because it's supposed to be system-wide! As in - applies to all applications on the system.
What part of that do some of you guys (Office + IE) not understand? How can you not understand it - it's a Microsoft OS and you're writing Microsoft applications, for Microsoft. Surely it's not hard to get hold of the documentation that tells you what system-wide means. Do you just choose not to understand it? What? I don't get it.Anonymous
August 04, 2006
"Always Use Cleartype" Yes/No
is extremely vague wording. If I select No, does that mean it sometimes uses Cleartype? I don't mean to be merely pedantic... what does it mean to "not always use ClearType"?
It really needs to be "Use ClearType" with options "Always in Office", "Never in Office", and "Default to System Setting (currently on/off)"Anonymous
August 04, 2006
Adam, the problem is that Office has no way of knowing whether ClearType is off because you really want it off or whether it is off because that is the default in Win XP.
The argument Office is making is that the overwhelming majority of users have not made a conscious decision about ClearType -AND- most of these users prefer the smoother fonts that ClearType produces in Office applications.
When Win XP was released, ClearType was not as advanced and most displays were CRTs. Thus the off by default setting made sense. As Office 2007 is being released now, things are much different.
It seems like a pretty good solution to provide great-looking fonts by default and the ability for sophisticated users to switch to a different setting.Anonymous
August 04, 2006
Why not run an assistent at the first start-up of an Office application visualizing the difference? E.g. "That's what your Office fonts would look like with ClearType turned off or on". If the assistent is skipped, just enable ClearType.
This would make sence for other options as well, such as "show Mini-Toolbar", "color scheme" and maybe an animation to show how "live preview" works.
As far as I remember Office is prompting the user for user name and initials, wouldn't this be the perfect time to get those "set once" options done?
Btw: why are these options on the "popular" tab anyway? All these are options usually set once and then left alone.
PS: search function for options? No, thanks. But how about one for the command well?
Thanks and please keep posting (it's the second site I check every day right after Dilbert).Anonymous
August 04, 2006
The comment has been removedAnonymous
August 05, 2006
The comment has been removedAnonymous
August 05, 2006
The comment has been removedAnonymous
August 05, 2006
I know many on this blog gave up on Office 2007 providing real customization months ago, but I'm hoping entries like this make it crystal clear how intrinsic customization is to an application with a broad user base like Office. Usability studies may provide a better default, but that's it; customization must be available to adjust the UI beyond that because we are not all the same users.
Where I work, several hundred users (not sure if it's the majority, but it's probably close) still have CRT's and that's not going to change for at least another 2 years (until the equipment lease runs out). Also, of the 100 or so recently upgraded users (who got LCD's) many are over 50 and find ClearType harder to read. Again proving the need for customization and not making assumptions based on statistics and studies.Anonymous
August 05, 2006
There's no reason why Office can't have a screen in the setup program (or on first-run) that says "ClearType is [description blah blah blah]. Currently, ClearType is off. Here's a preview of how some things would look if you had it on. Would you like to enable ClearType?" Then, make it so there's no default option, so they click on which one really looks better to them. Problem solved.Anonymous
August 05, 2006
Great looking dialog, However, two of the labels are not intutitive:
* How am I supposed to know what the Mini Toolbar is if I am not a blog reader? The label should be more deescriptive: "Show the tiny toolbar when I select something"
* Renaming tooltips screentips is the only really rediculous thing I have heard on this blog. You tell us not to ask, but this is clearly an instance of sacrificing user experience for internal politics. It's called tooltips in 99% of all other applications, why not yours?Anonymous
August 06, 2006
The comment has been removedAnonymous
August 06, 2006
Calling ToolTips "ScreenTips" is just silly. Please tell me in what way this is customer-focused? This is obviously some sort of struggle between the Office team and the Windows team. Well guess what, your not in the business of slapping the other team on their fingers, you're in the business of serving your customers.
Honestly, if your customers could pick a name, which one do you think they would prefer?Anonymous
August 06, 2006
I'm not sure I agree with the name "Popular" in the settings tab, which could infact even slow down most people.
Consider.
I want to change some certain option, say changing the default language.
1) I'm not sure if it's a "popular" feature or not
2) If i check in the popular tab and scroll through all the options, I might miss it, in which case I will have wasted some time. So i might not look at the tab at all
3) I will therefore check anywhere else rather than "popular" because I suspect "popular" is a synonym for "commonly used options"
4) I will fail to find it
5) In my angst I will finally look in popular optionsAnonymous
August 06, 2006
The comment has been removedAnonymous
August 07, 2006
Jensen - the full screen mode for word documents openned from emails. Can I ask what sort of response you've had to that?
Personally I turn it off straight away in Office 2003 if I was reinstalling, and I don't know anyone that actually likes it. There's a few that were running with it on as they weren't aware they could turn it off though.Anonymous
August 07, 2006
Wow, from the sound of the comments, it seems the redesigned Options dialog has hit a lot of nerves. I'm not sure I like the "Popular" moniker either, mostly because it seems more friendly and natural than the names I'm used to seeing in software today (not that it's a bad thing). I'm sure that I will get used to it fairly quickly though, moreso than when RTM comes around and the ribbon gets renamed to something catchier. I swear I'll probably still call it the ribbon a year from now. =)Anonymous
August 07, 2006
"Yes, tooltips are called ScreenTips in Office for some reason. Don't ask."
Well, we are Microsoft's customers. We have the right to ask.
Jensen, if even you refer to the reasoning behind it as simply "for some reason", then I'd wager that there is no good reason. Other than historical sentiment.
And if historical sentiment isn't enough to keep a menu bar around, it shouldn't be enough to keep the term ScreenTip around. If in your blog entry, you use the word tooltip repeatedly when describing the "ScreenTip style" setting, then maybe that's a clue that it should be called Tooltip style?
Now's the time to make the change.Anonymous
August 08, 2006
Earlier this week I ran into a colleague who has been using Beta 2 for quite some time now. "I'm really...Anonymous
August 08, 2006
Notice that the screentips option doesn't have the little "more info" i-in-a-circle thing either. So you can't answer "what the heck is a screentip?"Anonymous
August 08, 2006
So much in Office 2007 is just so bait-and-switch "rearranging" of things (like 2003's Outlook Preview Pane on the right-side? How much code did it take to do that???)... with no real productivity enhancements.
Give us tabbed documents or a true single document interface in ALL Office apps... like Word does it...
Make wading through a long Word document easier where you can actually SEE "sections" visually (Lotus WordPro did this years ago).
Make hidden characters like paragraph marks, margin and table marks, grey and faded so my users stop asking me "will that print on the printer???"
Overhaul all the dialog boxes so that they're actually intuitive (Hint NOBODY uses Styles because the Styles Dlg is UNWEILDY).
The Ribbon is nice... good idea... but its just an exploded menu.
In other words... stop with the eye-candy, renaming stuff (screentips??? eye-roll) and actually do something revolutionary.
I used to like this blog. But after Beta 2 I just find all the recent entries downright humorous. You guys (Office Team) are so lost.Anonymous
August 08, 2006
Okay, here are some scenarios:
Scenario 1 - I am a joe average user. I don't know about Clear Type, thus it's not turned on. But it looks good in Office.
Scenario 2 - I am a joe average user. I use Office and it tells me to turn Clear Type on. I do so taking a few clicks, whilst confusing and scaring me a bit.
Scenario 3 - I am a power user. I like Clear Type. Office uses it. Great.
Scenario 4 - I am a power user. I don't like Clear Type. I take a few clicks to turn it off.
People seem to think a majority on this blog constitutes a majority of users. It doesn't. It constitutes a majority of power users. You know what you're doing and you can waste a few clicks to turn it off. I would far rather that than scare lots of users and waste their clicks for something they don't care about.
If usability studies show that a well worded wizard doesn't confuse users, then I guess, yah, that's a possibility. I agree as much as possible we should respect system wide settings (cough skin. But that's another issue with it's own discussion and reasons) this is definately a valid exception.Anonymous
August 09, 2006
ICR > Why would it take "a few" clicks and scare someone?
"Office Installer has detected that you don't have Cleartype on, but that it could make the fonts smoother in all your applications. Do you want to turn Cleartype on?
[[Yes]] [No] [Tell me more...]"
One click. How is it scary?Anonymous
August 09, 2006
Naming ToolTips "ScreenTips" only tells me one thing: Microsoft still doesn't care what their customers think.
It's like if Ford would refuse to put in cupholders because they think that a banana-holder would be better. Running a business this way simply is not sensible.
You have amazed me in the past with your stories about all the work you do with usability testing. This destroys all the good-will you have built up doing that. Going against the wishes of your customers just because you think you know better is the most classic mistake a company can make.Anonymous
August 14, 2006
The comment has been removedAnonymous
August 17, 2006
The fonts in Office 2007 UI (starting with C) have probably been tested with standard font smoothing as well. Is there an easy way to enable (w/o ClearType) it as well or simply use the font settings that have been set in Windows Desktop Appearance?
(Font smoothing on pixel sizes below 12 should be optional)
BTW... The screenshots in Outlook guide
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&ct=res&cd=1&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdownload.microsoft.com%2Fdownload%2FD%2FE%2FE%2FDEEFA970-BC94-48BA-80E2-60769203201A%2FOutlookGuide.doc&ei=jn_kRI3rEpeCiALmpJ1_&sig2=C8ok57yZT5gc4SdM2dmO6w
are using Tahoma 11px and that's how I'd like to use my Office as well. ;)Anonymous
August 22, 2006
"* At the same time, we know there's a small but vocal set of people who hate ClearType and want to turn it off, so we provide the option. "
Perhaps the one of the reason the anti-Cleartype people are so "vocal" is because the way to turn it off is so counterintuitive. Why would a user prefer Cleartype in Word but not Outlook?
If Cleartype really bothers someone, they will find out how to turn it off at the OS level- it makes so much more sense than expecting each application to have separate settings. And then being told that they are a small minority doesn't win any friends either.
Haphazard application settings just make the whole user experience setting more frustrating in the long run.
Thanks for the original post though- it helped me figure out how to turn it off. (Now I just have to do it with each of the other Office apps).Anonymous
August 24, 2006
The comment has been removedAnonymous
August 28, 2006
It was with a bit of surprise that I read a flurry of stories on Friday with breathless headlines like...Anonymous
September 06, 2006
"Open e-mail attachments in Full Screen Reading view"
I hope this is not the 2 pane reading layout that everyone disables right away. I wonder how this feature has ever passed usability tests in Office 2003. If it is pleease set it off by default.
It might have looked like a bright idea but because it completly messes with the page layout, it really renders document contents in a very useless way.
Great blog, great postings, keep up the good work.Anonymous
October 27, 2008
PingBack from http://mstechnews.info/2008/10/the-office-2007-ui-bible/Anonymous
June 02, 2009
PingBack from http://portablegreenhousesite.info/story.php?id=32776Anonymous
June 07, 2009
PingBack from http://besteyecreamsite.info/story.php?id=1297Anonymous
June 13, 2009
PingBack from http://barstoolsite.info/story.php?id=1123Anonymous
June 19, 2009
PingBack from http://edebtsettlementprogram.info/story.php?id=22461