Anybody know what Microsoft Silverlight is about?

[Jon Gnash]

If people would just stop whining about change for change's sake and actually try to use it, I think they would come around...

I

[deanmass]

My take on Silverlight is that is another flavor of content enrichment crud....Not a big fan of any of it, as I pretty much hate web sites that start by talking to me or having floating people in front of the content I want ot see to READ.

 

Office 2007, is a train wreck to me, but after reading what Craig had to say about Vista, it does make sense. Where MS dropped the ball was in assuming people would get that there has been a core shift in the philosophies of operation for both the OS and the App. Long Term, Office' new layout makes sense, but it sure will confuse the hell out of you short term. It sure has me befuddled.

[scud133]

I

[scud133]

oh and another good point, it has "instant updating" when you try out different things. so when you highlight text, and then scroll through the font list, it updates in the document as your scroll through, in real-time, so you can see the changes without having to click the mouse, the click back into the font list, then scroll back down to the previous font you were at and start over.

 

but that applies to everything, from font type to the shadow on a photo to the border style for a table, whatever.

 

i like that one a lot

[Jon Gnash]

I pretty much hate web sites that start by talking to me or having floating people in front of the content I want ot see to READ.

Welcome to the future. Isn

[Jon Gnash]

 

if the features of open office are all you need, then go for it. but i just don't want people to write off Office 2007 merely because it's different. Dilbert would say that it has "increased my productivity" --- technology is a good thing and office2k7 is definitely a step forward. but it's also pricey, and if the new features aren't worth the cost, then don't get it. Microsoft marketing hoo-haa about new interface Free 60 day trial of Office 2007 And as far as compatibility goes, you can always "Save As" documents to the older office format, or download updates on older office versions so they can read .docx files

But the issue is, if we have to learn new word processors then which one should we learn?

 

How much better does the latest and greatest version of MS Office have to be (over OpenOffice) to justify the price difference?

 

Unless someone is familiar with both products they are not in a position to know.

 

Right?

 

Fyi, I bought a new notebook and it came with some sort of {censored}ed-up version of MS Office. I uninstalled it. I said to myself,

[Jon Gnash]

i like that one a lot

But OpenOffice is free. So if you don't like that feature enough to justify the total cost then you have made a bad decision.

[scud133]

 

Unless someone is familiar with both products they are not in a position to know. Right?

 

 

Excellent point, hence the link to the 60-day trial of Office 2007. Why not get that, get Open Office, and see which one you like better?

 

I have used both and chose MS Office.

[Jon Gnash]

Excellent point, hence the link to the 60-day trial of Office 2007. Why not get that, get Open Office, and see which one you like better? I have used both and chose MS Office.

I already did that. I had the

[slight-return]

Which office apps do you use?

[Jimbroni]

I already did that. I had the

[philbo]

Wow... I didn't really intend to spark up this pile of gasoline-soaked emotions. Still, all the opinions are fairly interesting to read.... Thanks, everybody!

[Jon Gnash]

 

Office 2000 is better than Open Office in my opinion, if you already own it there is no reason not to use it. The graphics tools and OLE work better. As well as, the ad ons are more extensive. It also depends on what office 2000 you have, do you have publisher, and photo editor. Open Office doesn't have those yet. However, Open Office is really, really, really close, I mean not to far off at all, it pretty much rocks for free. But if you already have the real deal, why bother.

Thanks.

 

I guess I

[blue2blue]

 

 

 

There's the deal breaker for me.

 

There is absolutely nothing intuitive for me about 98% of computer interface icons. I despise them. And the guy who invented them.

 

The only thing I like about them is, when you are really, really used to a toolbar and everything is always in the same place, an icon can take up less space. But I have to know right where it is.

 

I really can't tell you how much I hate most icons. They mean nothing to me most of the time. (And since I always have relatively high rez screens the icons are often so tiny it is just a little blob of pixels.)

 

And THEN there are the icon-driven interfaces designed by utter sadists who use the same icon for different purposes. What idiot ever thought to use a tiny picture of a magnifying glass for BOTH zoom and search in the same interface?!?

 

You sold me. I'm sticking with OO for now.

 

But I sincerely appreciate the time you put into your answer; it was very informative and I don't doubt anything you said or that it does work for you.

 

But the lack of a conventional, well-organized, unchanging hierarchical pull-down menu (the guy who invented the idiotic idea of the ever-changing 'smart menu' is even stupider -- or maybe more sadistic and possibly stupider* -- than the guy who decided to put two magnifying glass icons in so many toolbar interfaces) with that useful if 'old-fashioned' interface staple replaced with only pictures is a complete no-go for me.

 

Absolutely.

 

_____

 

*If one has ever read any books or articles on interface design, one probably already knows how such ever-changing 'smart menus' break all the rules of good design and ease of use. It's another one of those MS ideas developed by someone with no clue how people use computers.

[Jon Gnash]

There is absolutely nothing intuitive for me about 98% of computer interface icons. I despise them . And the guy who invented them.

What about dweebs who use phrases like,

[slight-return]

ugh, the move to GUI has really screwed over the blind community

 

and the pointer/mouse driven stuff...man, so many houses don't follow the keyboard UI design (hotkeys, tab order, etc) worth a damn anymore

 

[shakes cane at those dman kids and their frisbees]

[slight-return]

 

Thanks.   I guess I

[Jimbroni]

 

Thanks.   I guess I