Vista and menus
Harry McCracken has writen an interesting article on the move by Microsoft from menus to ribbons. It is an interesting read – as I do think that Microsoft got the disappearing menus wrong in XP. I am not yet convinced that the ribbons will not just get in the way but I will wait for more information before making judgement
‘For years, Microsoft has contended that standard application menus laden with options are confusing. Maybe so–it certainly can be hard to figure out which menu holds the options you’re looking for, even if you know what you’re doing. But when the company tries to fix them–such as with the menus in Microsoft Office that hide some options based on your activity–it usually succeeds only in making things more complicated.
But Microsoft’s not giving up. One of the company’s goals for 2006 seems to be to make standard menus..well, something less than a standard item. The most radical de-menuing will apparently take place not in Vista but in the next version of Office, where the core apps will do away with them in favor of a horizontal “Ribbon” toolbar which changes depending on what you’re doing. Here’s a glimpse at the Ribbon in the next version of PowerPoint: ‘
Read the whole article here