Microsoft is Redesigning the Office User Interface
- Paul Thurrott
- Jun 13, 2018
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70
For the first time in over a decade, Microsoft will redesign the user interface for its core Office-branded apps across platforms. The most dramatic change? It’s replacing the reviled ribbon with the tabbed toolbar found in today’s Office mobile apps.
Microsoft first hinted at this change back in April, when it revealed that it would stop developing the desktop application version of OneNote—called OneNote 2016 today—in lieu of OneNote for Windows 10, which was originally called OneNote Mobile.
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At the time, this decision seemed strange, as the other applications that make up the various Microsoft Office suites are full-featured desktop solutions, not mobile apps. And they feature the “full” ribbon user interface, not the tabbed toolbar found in OneNote for Windows 10 and the other Office Mobile apps. They aren’t just different kinds of apps, they look and work differently.
Over time, Microsoft will adapt its various Office desktop and web apps to use the tabbed toolbar, or “simplified ribbon,” from the Office Mobile apps by default. Users who prefer the full ribbon, however, will be able to enable it.
Unfortunately, it will do so via a rather tortured and unclear schedule. And it will only do so for the Office apps on Office.com on the web and those that are provided with Office 365. That is, the coming generation of “perpetual” Office products, like Office 2019, will not be adapted to this new user interface.
It starts today with Word Online, the web version of Word, though only “select consumers” will see it at first.
Phase two involves the full Outlook application for Windows, which was a particularly bad fit for the ribbon UI. That application will get the simplified ribbon in July, Microsoft says.
After that, things get complicated. Because the three core Office applications—Word, Excel, and PowerPoint—are so heavily used, Microsoft doesn’t want to upset users or render over a decade of experience moot. So it will get add the simplified ribbon to these applications at a later date, and it will provide an obvious way to switch back to the old ribbon.
And the new Office user interface isn’t just about the ribbon: It involves other on-screen elements as well. Microsoft is implementing new color schemes across the apps, starting again with Word Online. And it is designing truly scalable new icons for each app so that they look good on any display. Search is getting a major overhaul across the apps, too, Microsoft says.
More soon: Premium members, I’ll have a personal history of the Office ribbon post up today.
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Conversation 70 comments
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Stooks
<p>Yeah just keep changing stuff for change sake Microsoft. Nothing pushes users away faster. In 2018 they have choices, lost of them. Example, once I knew that OneNote, the full version, was being retired and future versions were the UWP version, I moved hundreds of notes out of OneNote and over to something else and never looked back.</p><p><br></p><p>The simplified Word ribbon above looks like Word 2003.</p>
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jumpingjackflash5
<blockquote><a href="#283688"><em>In reply to Stooks:</em></a></blockquote><p>After badly shaking Windows 10 desktop experience, they wanna shake well-working Ribbon? Oh no, not that again. They should prefer consistency, compatibility, stability …</p>
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skane2600
<blockquote><a href="#283767"><em>In reply to lvthunder:</em></a></blockquote><p>Except of course, the UI isn't going to be consistent across devices anyway. </p>
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skane2600
<p>Kind of surprising given that wasting space has been what all the cool kids have been doing in recent years. Just look at the big generic picture at the top of the article that conveys no information relevant to the topic.</p><p><br></p><p>Initially I found the ribbon a bit jarring after being accustomed to the old UI, but a decade should be long enough to get used to it. I suspect that changing it again will make more people unhappy than leaving it alone. It's not like every user has been using Office for more than 10 years.</p>
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skane2600
<blockquote><a href="#283861"><em>In reply to hrlngrv:</em></a></blockquote><p>John Doe doesn't need everything in Office and Jane Smith doesn't need everything in Office, but what John needs from Office is different than what Jane needs from Office. And those needs can change over time. Thus a high-value application offers a broad range of features so that a user can find the features they need and can grow into the application as their needs become more sophisticated.</p>
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Bats
<blockquote><a href="#283863"><em>In reply to skane2600:</em></a></blockquote><p>Those needs change in time? So….paying $99/year for things your not going to use is what? Insurance? Dumb idea. $69/$99 can be put to better use, than to just use a glorified word processor. Not even Paul Thurrott uses that much.</p><p><br></p><p>Seriously, the only great thing about Office 365 is the 5 TB of hard drive space that it comes with.</p>
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skane2600
<blockquote><a href="#283958"><em>In reply to Bats:</em></a></blockquote><p>If you have very modest needs just use the free web version of Office or free Google docs or maybe just notepad. It's not as if everyone using Windows bought Microsoft Office in the old days. It was always more for power users and yes, people used more features as they went along. Something that happens with just about any sophisticated program.</p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p><br></p>
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