Office 2013 Interface - Really? This is The Best They Can Do?

[Scorbing]

Just when you thought things couldn't get any worse on the Microsoft Windows 8 world...

Take a look at the new Office 2013. This is a screenshot of Microsoft Word 2013 and Outlook 2013, the final version. My question on my mind is: What kind of drugs were those designers doing when they did this? I got a headache from looking at this for over 5 minutes. This is ridiculously white. Too bright for the eyes and no way to change it to anything acceptable, except for a light gray or dark gray, which are not darker at all and don't make things any better.

[xpablo]

This whole Metro theme is boring and ugly, I agree that office 2013 is too bland and bright, thinking of uninstalling 2013 going back to 2010.

[MorganX]

Thanks for understanding.

This is also one of my issues with the lack of transparency in Windows 8. I think it's great how Windows 7's windows are transparent. Absolutely not because it looks fancy, but because it pulls focus away from it. The frame isn't important, it blends into the background. It's about what's inside the frame.

I miss Aero Glass as well, and while I don't think there's any chance of it coming back, providing a few more themes to Office should be a relatively simple thing to do. Hopefully MS will hear the complaints and just make this issue go away by providing more themes.

[Scorbing]

Hopefully MS will hear the complaints and just make this issue go away by providing more themes.

LOL...LOL...LOL...Don't get your hopes up too high. I don't think they really care what we think. We are stuck with this crap UI and eventually, they will force us all to upgrade to it by discontinuing support for Office 2010.

I don't know who makes the decisions at Microsoft concerning this UI changes but they need to seriously get fired. This is insulting to the user. They should do a user preview test and let us regular people decide if we like this new Ui or not, not just throw it at our faces and say:

"Here you go, this is what WE like and you are going to use it like that whether you like it or not."

[Guest]

If it's too bright, I think you'll find there are brightness controls on your display...

[Scorbing]

If it's too bright, I think you'll find there are brightness controls on your display...

That's not the point. Why should the user have to dim his/her display just to use Office 2013? Not acceptable. I had never dimmed my display when using version 2010.

[Guest]

That's not the point. Why should the user have to dim his/her display just to use Office 2013? Not acceptable. I had never dimmed my display when using version 2010.

My point is, if your screen is too bright when white is displayed, you've probably got it set it too bright to begin with. Setting your screen to its brightest possible point isn't the best thing to do mostly. That's unless your environment is particuarly bright.

[Buio]

What's up with the CAPS in the tab headers? Possible to turn off?

[Joswin]

It seems like in the quest for simplicity Microsoft forgot that people actually have to use it, and look at it for hours on end.... :huh:

Using 2013 was the first time I have ever used a MS Office product and felt like installing the previous version instead.

[+Majesticmerc MVC]

The white on white looks pretty abysmal, but looking at the screenshots on Google, the grey themes look a lot better.

I really, really don't understand why the menus are in CAPITALS though. Looks really bad, even in Visual Studio.

Personally Visual Studio 2012 got the "desktop Metro feel" done a lot nicer. Again, drastically scaled down.. you get the general idea. The main focus is white, the rest is a bit darker and everything has easy to see boundaries. Has the Metro "flavor" (minus the menus that YELL at you, turned those off), but it's easier on the eyes.

VS2012 actually looks okay. My only complaint (aside from the SHOUTING MENUS being on by default) is that the iconography is really, really boring. The whole UI is just shades of grey.

What's up with the CAPS in the tab headers? Possible to turn off?

There was a registry setting to turn off the capitalized menus in Visual Studio 2012, hopefully there's one for Office too.

[Max Norris]

There was a registry setting to turn off the capitalized menus in Visual Studio 2012, hopefully there's one for Office too.

Supposedly, there isn't, at least that I've read anywhere anyway. However you can rename the various tabs and that'll get around the caps. I personally just tossed a space on the end of each tab and that'll get them all in mixed case. Except the file menu. Go figure.

[Ambroos]

My point is, if your screen is too bright when white is displayed, you've probably got it set it too bright to begin with. Setting your screen to its brightest possible point isn't the best thing to do mostly. That's unless your environment is particuarly bright.

My point is, it's not about everything being too white. It's about there not being enough contrast between the different parts of the UI. There is almost no visual separation between the UI and your content. That is BAD.

[Scorbing]

must be your monitor,because its looks beautiful here.

and whats with all the bitching? you can change the theme to light and dark grey to look like 2010. seriously people.

Are you color blind or what? This is Outlook 2010

This is Outlook 2013. Can you see the difference? I don't know about you, but to me Outlook 2010 looks way better.

Office 2013 seems unfinished.

[LUTZIFER]

Well I see what took so long, MS had to remove all the color, lol.

[grayscale]

Are you color blind or what? This is Outlook 2010

This is Outlook 2013. Can you see the difference? I don't know about you, but to me Outlook 2010 looks way better.

Office 2013 seems unfinished.

Use Dark Gray on that screenshot of Outlook, makes it easier on the eyes.

[Colin McGregor]

here we go again more crying over stuff your not being forced to use

[Scorbing]

here we go again more crying over stuff your not being forced to use

If you depend on this software to work, I have news for you, once support ends for v2010, you will be forced to use it and adapt.

[~Johnny]

If you depend on this software to work, I have news for you, once support ends for v2010, you will be forced to use it and adapt.

And Visual Studio has lovely plugin's that give you full control over the UI's colouring and let you change the menu bars.

[Scorbing]

And Visual Studio has lovely plugin's that give you full control over the UI's colouring and let you change the menu bars.

Show us

[Anibal P]

LOL...LOL...LOL...Don't get your hopes up too high. I don't think they really care what we think. We are stuck with this crap UI and eventually, they will force us all to upgrade to it by discontinuing support for Office 2010.

I don't know who makes the decisions at Microsoft concerning this UI changes but they need to seriously get fired. This is insulting to the user. They should do a user preview test and let us regular people decide if we like this new Ui or not, not just throw it at our faces and say:

"Here you go, this is what WE like and you are going to use it like that whether you like it or not."

Of course they don't care what you think, you are part of the usual vocal MINORITY that are always harping about something

Also if the grey is still "too bright" you might want to calibrate your monitor and get used to colors looking right

[~Johnny]

Show us

My Pleasure.

Go look in Extensions and Updates. Visual Studio is an extremely flexible and extensible IDE that lets developers more or less do what they wish with it.

Oh, and whilst I'm here, I doubt this is going to burn your eyes out.

Oh look, I even managed to make the ribbon titles lowercase. Well I'll be :p

[briangw]

Looks fine to me.

Same here. Why all the hate?

[Noir Angel]

I really don't like the fact that 90s style single colour gradients and flat UIs are coming back into Microsoft products. Some of these things make Luna look nice by comparison.

[HawkMan]

If the white is to bright for you, maybe you should consider properly setting up your monitors and not run it at 100 brightness and 100 contrast with overdrive on and boost in the nvidia control panel ?

Seriously, if the white is so bright it hurts, your monitors is incorrectly set up and you're running brightness way to high.

My point is, it's not about everything being too white. It's about there not being enough contrast between the different parts of the UI. There is almost no visual separation between the UI and your content. That is BAD.

Again, decrease the brightness setting, and strangely the contrast setting on your screen, and you'll find that there's plenty contrast to be had.

[threetonesun]

I really don't like the fact that 90s style single colour gradients and flat UIs are coming back into Microsoft products. Some of these things make Luna look nice by comparison.

Luna never looked nice.

I'll admit, the white in most of the Windows 8 stuff is overkill, but all of the other themes look better than 2010. I don't see the problem with all caps menus, tbh, I think that's very common in web interfaces these days to show different buttons levels.

[zhangm Supervisor]

Oh, and whilst I'm here, I doubt this is going to burn your eyes out.

I find the white to be a bit cleaner and not as dismal, though the greys don't look too bad.