office 2013 Office 2013: Annoying things

[Ambroos]

Hello!

I was just trying out Office 2013, been playing with it for a while. Aside the fact that it seems to be (much) slower than Office 2010 everything seems about okay. One thing that annoys me slightly is the cursor animation, it makes me feel like I'm a slow typist even though I'm absolutely not.

One huge thing I absolutely hate right now is the inability to choose another color for the user interface. The white is WAY too bright, especially when it fills your entire display. It's extremely uncomfortable to work with and it makes your page drown in the user interface - especially on bigger displays. I don't have it installed anymore, but the black theme in 2010 was really comfortable to work in, putting the focus completely on your content. But now everything is white, and there is no way to change it.

[scumdogmillionaire]

Hotmail accounts in Outlook don't show subscribed calendars (Birthday Calendar, US Holidays, my wife's shared calendar with me, etc...)

The Hotmail Connector in 2010 worked great, but the Exchange ActiveSync implementation doesn't seem to be doing it :(

That makes it a non-starter for me. Hopefully they fix for RTM.

[DrCheese]

The typing then, the cursor doesn't instantly move to it's new position after the letter you just typed, instead it gradually moves there over a short period of time. This sort of gives me the impression I'm typing too slow. And it is quite distracting, even though I'd have to give it more time to form a proper judgement on that.

oh god this... it's really strange. It feels like you're typing through mud... I don't see this feature lasting until the RTM in it's present form, unless MS wants users to think that the product is slow (even when it's not)

Publisher doesn't have this, but publisher has always been a generation behind on office improvements (2007 had no ribbon)

As for the UI.. Oh god outlook. Why Microsoft, WHY?!

[majortom1981]

About the speed issue: opening things is much slower for me. And sometimes things don't react instantly, as if they're waiting to see if you're going to make some other gesture. Scrolling, moving things around, ... All feels less smooth. And in PowerPoint from time to time it takes over 10 seconds for a slide to load when clicked on it in the slide strip on the left, even almost empty slides. And a lot of text in PowerPoint types very slow since it seems to want to render them with all the shading right away. Feels like you're typing in Photoshop. But I'll give it to them that this is a beta/preview and I hope those things will get ironed out. (like the bug where when you open documents the window gets pushed completely to the background)

The typing then, the cursor doesn't instantly move to it's new position after the letter you just typed, instead it gradually moves there over a short period of time. This sort of gives me the impression I'm typing too slow. And it is quite distracting, even though I'd have to give it more time to form a proper judgement on that.

You probably downloaded the office 365 preview. That one is streaming so the apps a streaming from the web. So if you have a slow connection you will have a slower app. You have to download the 700 meg full version of office 2013

[Noir Angel]

It's much the same in Outlook. The level of whiteness just doesn't look right.

[Calum Veteran]

[. . .]

I agree the grey (and it is grey, although a very light grey) behind the document could be darkened a bit to better differentiate between the "paper" and the app background.

[. . .]

I think they may have implemented the design in this way because the Metro design philosophy doesn't allow for such skeuomorphs, and I really like that factor of the philosophy. I'm aware that it's harder to achieve in Office, considering what is produced will often be printed onto paper, but do you see my point?

[+Ryster Subscriber²]

The typing then, the cursor doesn't instantly move to it's new position after the letter you just typed, instead it gradually moves there over a short period of time. This sort of gives me the impression I'm typing too slow. And it is quite distracting, even though I'd have to give it more time to form a proper judgement on that.

The way the cursor glides along as you type was one of the positives for me. I really like it. And it's nowhere near as slow to slide along as you describe.

[majortom1981]

About the speed issue: opening things is much slower for me. And sometimes things don't react instantly, as if they're waiting to see if you're going to make some other gesture. Scrolling, moving things around, ... All feels less smooth. And in PowerPoint from time to time it takes over 10 seconds for a slide to load when clicked on it in the slide strip on the left, even almost empty slides. And a lot of text in PowerPoint types very slow since it seems to want to render them with all the shading right away. Feels like you're typing in Photoshop. But I'll give it to them that this is a beta/preview and I hope those things will get ironed out. (like the bug where when you open documents the window gets pushed completely to the background)

The typing then, the cursor doesn't instantly move to it's new position after the letter you just typed, instead it gradually moves there over a short period of time. This sort of gives me the impression I'm typing too slow. And it is quite distracting, even though I'd have to give it more time to form a proper judgement on that.

And about the theme, I know I shouldn't maximize one-page documents, and usually I roll with two documents side by side or two pages side by side. But the issue remains that because everything is just white with very faint borders, you lose overview. You can no longer glance at your screen to have an approximate idea of where something is located in your user interface because everything looks the same. In other Metro apps this problem is much less apparent because they have different font sizes everywhere. In Office and Visual Studio they seem to not want to increase font size but decided to go with the ALL CAPS APPROACH, which makes me feel like my computer is shouting at me. Even though nothing in the ribbon changed place in Word it still had me looking for features longer than it took me in 2010 or 2007.

If you have technet you can get the full version install

[+Ryster Subscriber²]

I think they may have implemented the design in this way because the Metro design philosophy doesn't allow for such skeuomorphs, and I really like that factor of the philosophy. I'm aware that it's harder to achieve in Office, considering what is produced will often be printed onto paper, but do you see my point?

But there is already a grey gradiant behind the document, it's not like I'm saying they should add one. It's already there. The only difference between my two pictures is a slight gamma adjustment on the background.

If you have technet you can get the full version install

Who says you need Technet? I got it from the public website.

[Buio]

If you have an Office app open full screen like that, then why wouldn't you also have the document full screen. I've fixed Ambroos' image a bit to illustrate my point. It's nowhere near as "white" if your set your window size to something more appropriate to the document you are viewing.

It's still as white, just in a smaller window. And to be honest it looks horrible. That's my opinion.

[majortom1981]

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/hh973391.aspx?wt.mc_id=TEC_114_1_33

Go there for the actuall FULL version 700 meg install .Go to the bottom of the page and download the msi install . The fancy shamncy one for download on the public page is for the office 365 preview.

[Nazmus Shakib Khandaker]

I love the new office UI; however, I do think there is a bit too much white. The part that is outside the document should be grey to have contrast and he less strainous on the eye.

[Ambroos]

I'm running the full install by the way, the whole 700MB setup file. I'm not even going to bother with a rant on ClickToRun. I've seen it on friends' computers, taking 20 seconds to open Word is ridiculous.

Another thing I don't like is the text rendering. It seems to be much less crisp than it used to be in 2007/2010. I really need to compare it properly (and I might tomorrow), but it looks like they ditched subpixel rendering and went with something else, probably DirectWrite (hence the Windows 7 requirement). While it makes big (huge) font sizes look better, fonts at a normal text size (the vast majority of what you'll be doing in Word) look quite bad.

[srprimeaux]

The way the cursor glides along as you type was one of the positives for me. I really like it. And it's nowhere near as slow to slide along as you describe.

I agree 100%! I actually laughed to myself when I first tested it out. Really neat! I hope they keep it in.

[+Ryster Subscriber²]

It's still as white, just in a smaller window. And to be honest it looks horrible. That's my opinion.

It's not "as white" at all, there's at least 50% less white. But hey, you're welcome to opinion, just as I am. Unless of course you're suggesting they change the colour of the paper? Correct me if I'm wrong, but paper is white.

[Noir Angel]

Any chance of getting a direct link to the installer? I'm not interested in signing up for an Office 365 account I just want to get my hands on the installer.

[+Ryster Subscriber²]

Any chance of getting a direct link to the installer? I'm not interested in signing up for an Office 365 account I just want to get my hands on the installer.

See majortom1981's post above. The .msi download link is at the bottom of that page.

Or try this:

https://profile.micr...253f2&lcid=2057

You still have to put your MS Account details in, but it's not for a 365 account... it's just a registration form.

[ViperAFK]

It's much the same in Outlook. The level of whiteness just doesn't look right.

Welcome to the future of windows UI design, metro. Ridiculous amounts of whitespace and totally misguided attempts at "minimalism"

[Noir Angel]

See majortom1981's post above. The .msi download link is at the bottom of that page.

Or try this:

https://profile.micr...253f2&lcid=2057

You still have to put your MS Account details in, but it's not for a 365 account... it's just a registration form.

Thanks!

[rfirth]

The way the cursor glides along as you type was one of the positives for me. I really like it. And it's nowhere near as slow to slide along as you describe.

Yes, I like this feature. It's nice. It makes Office 2010 and before feel clunky in comparison.

I'm running the full install by the way, the whole 700MB setup file. I'm not even going to bother with a rant on ClickToRun. I've seen it on friends' computers, taking 20 seconds to open Word is ridiculous.

I'm pretty certain I'm using the ClickToRun version... the file I downloaded was only 480kb. It takes about 1 second to open Word, on 2008 laptop hardware.

I'm really not certain what the deal it. I'll try the standalone version now, though.

[+Ryster Subscriber²]

Welcome to the future of windows UI design, metro. Ridiculous amounts of whitespace and totally misguided attempts at "minimalism"

Nothing is "minimalist" about Outlook. All the UI elements are there, almost exactly the same as with 2010 with just a little jiggling. They've just changed the colour of the backgrounds to make it lighter, almost white. What you call whitespace now, was just greyspace before. I don't really see the difference.

I think a "Metro-dark" theme would be nice though... to basically invert all the colours (apart from the coloured bar at the bottom that signifies which app you are in).

[Noir Angel]

I'm pretty certain I'm using the ClickToRun version... the file I downloaded was only 480kb. It takes about 1 second to open Word, on 2008 laptop hardware.

I'm really not certain what the deal it. I'll try the standalone version now, though.

It only streams the applications in the background until the files have completed downloading, then it reverts to running off your local drives.

[majortom1981]

I'm running the full install by the way, the whole 700MB setup file. I'm not even going to bother with a rant on ClickToRun. I've seen it on friends' computers, taking 20 seconds to open Word is ridiculous.

Another thing I don't like is the text rendering. It seems to be much less crisp than it used to be in 2007/2010. I really need to compare it properly (and I might tomorrow), but it looks like they ditched subpixel rendering and went with something else, probably DirectWrite (hence the Windows 7 requirement). While it makes big (huge) font sizes look better, fonts at a normal text size (the vast majority of what you'll be doing in Word) look quite bad.

I am not having text input slowness on my machine with the full version. Maybe its something to do with your configuration?

[+Ryster Subscriber²]

I am not having text input slowness on my machine with the full version. Maybe its something to do with your configuration?

He's probably running a Pentium 4 with 256mb of RAM or something :)

[rfirth]

It only streams the applications in the background until the files have completed downloading, then it reverts to running off your local drives.

That's what I thought, but I wasn't certain. It was definitely slow to launch the first time. Every time after, even after a restart, was very very quick and quicker than Office 2010.

Good to know.

[Noir Angel]

No problems with text input here. I like the way, in word that the cursor slides smoothly across the screen as you type, seems a bit more fluid than in previous versions.