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.

[Stoffel]

You are all arguing over taste.

I really like the way the new Office looks, but I can understand other people don't

You can't argue over taste or colors!

[Noir Angel]

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.

Precisely my point. Luna was horrible and I find these UI designs to be even more so. They look like they'd be more at home in Windows 3.1

[Buio]

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

Goodie.

[Max Norris]

My Pleasure.

Heh guess I'm the odd one out. Personally preferred VS2012's look over 2010. Even went as far as using the 2010 version of that addon to color it to match 2012 before I upgraded later. Well more or less, some elements obviously just aren't there or couldn't be changed.. fairly close though. Just couldn't get into the blue, felt out of place on my desktop. You got a pretty decent recreation of the 2010 look though for sure, a couple gradients are off and such but pretty close.

[LUTZIFER]

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

Does look nice though. Does the image design at the top change depending on what Windows 8 Start Screen wallpaper is being displayed, as in what determines what shows there?

[~Johnny]

Does look nice though. Does the image design at the top change depending on what Windows 8 Start Screen wallpaper is being displayed, as in what determines what shows there?

You choose from a list manually, and it will follow you around whenever you sign in with office. I'll admit I'm particularly taken with these cartoon sea beings at the moment :p

Although, my absolute favourite feature (outside the gorgeous lashings of animation), happens to be the full window writing experience. It's quite blissful, and without going entirely fullscreen and taking over your task bar too.

The popup toolbar that shows up next to your mouse is pretty much good enough for most basic formatting tasks, and if you need it - which probably won't be most of the time - the ribbon is only a click away

[vcfan]

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.

like it said, it must be because of crappy monitors and the contrast and colors doesn't make it look good for you or others. mine looks amazing.

and if you still insist on the white not looking good,look at a couple of posts up, someone posted the grey darork grey color scheme,and when you compare those to office 2010, you cant say 2010 looks better,you just cant.

[2III7]

i guess the white interface is eye burning if you have a sun or a nuclear blast for your screen backlight. otherwise seems fine :)

[MorganX]

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

That won't work for those complaining for the reasons illustrated in the screenshot. Those generally complaining about brightness yes, but for those wanting the pasteboard contrast, MS should just provide the appropriate themes.

[Defcon]

Is there some kind of mandate at MS to remove all color, make everything blinding white, and remove all customization options related to UI and color?

Can't change Windows or Office colors, they removed the ability to customize many parts of the UI, its just terrible.

[linsook]

Precisely my point. Luna was horrible and I find these UI designs to be even more so. They look like they'd be more at home in Windows 3.1

true...

[Growled Member]

You can't argue over taste or colors!

You don't know Neowin. :)

[Mando]

"Windows 8 is trying to be all things to all people, and thus failing to be good at anything in particular, we hope to release software that will make Windows 8 more usable for desktop users, but I?d prefer if Microsoft had a more coherent strategy in the first place."

Brad Wardell, the CEO of Stardock

Jack of all trades, master of none. sums it up in an old saying :)

[cropcircles]

Even worse then 2010. That's why I went back to Office 2007

[rfirth]

I'm not sure why people are complaining about the UI being too white when using the white theme... how about... don't use the whitest theme? Stop posting pictures of the white theme and complaining it's too white. Post pictures of the darkest theme, then complain about the contrast.

Anyway, I use the whitest theme. If you're actually being productive - not just farting around staring at Office not doing any work - it's fine. And the awesome improve integration of Skydrive and multiple editing a document simultaneously is awesome. I just finished a group project using PowerPoint and everyone editing the same document at once... it's great.

[LUTZIFER]

i guess the white interface is eye burning if you have a sun or a nuclear blast for your screen backlight. otherwise seems fine :)

It would have to be the complete opposite to be eye burning.

If you had a really bright desktop wallpaper, then the all white Office interface wouldn't be hard on the eyes.

If you had a really dark wallpaper, then yeah it'd be awfully bright on the eyes, but most applications generally are almost all white.

This site is almost all white, a blank browser window, blank Notepad window, etc. etc.

The trick is to have a neutral wallpaper, or not sit in the pitch black with dark wallpaper, then open up something bright.

[Dot Matrix]

Can anyone post a screenshot of the grey theme?

[~Johnny]

Can anyone post a screenshot of the grey theme?

I have, it's on the previous page, and the one before.

[rhianntp]

Windows 8 and anything having to do with that platform is pretty much a disaster.... too bad they didn't fire Sinofsky 2 years earlier.. :/

[Dot Matrix]

I have, it's on the previous page, and the one before.

Missed that.

So... What's wrong with the grey theme?

[Auroka]

If you think dark grey is still too bright then try high contrast mode. It's really ugly though...

[LUTZIFER]

If you think dark grey is still too bright then try high contrast mode. It's really ugly though...

Wow!! Almost as bad as Paint Shop Pro X5 now that you don't get the option to just use standard Windows theme.

[pack34]

If you think dark grey is still too bright then try high contrast mode. It's really ugly though...

[snip]

It may look terrible in a properly lit room but the high contrast mode is AMAZING when your trying to use your computer outside in direct sunlight. The start screen has the same option. Even in the worst lighting conditions, the screen is perfectly readable.

[+Raze Subscriber²]

To each their own with the interface/colors. I'm looking forward to the release.

To view the different colors - http://www.groovypost.com/howto/change-office-2013-color-theme-outlook-word/

Wow!! Almost as bad as Paint Shop Pro X5 now that you don't get the option to just use standard Windows theme.

FYI

PSP X5 has 4 workspace colors - dark gray, medium gray, light gray and blue. :)

[PyX]

Oh the new interface in Office 2013 is simply put, horrible.

I still can't believe they have kept this interface until the release date.

Now's the time for Apple to come up with a version of iWork that will crush Office on the Mac and people will switch because the Office suite is better and represents the most used apps in business. I don't know what they're doing, 4 years without a major version change.... ughhhhh.