Hi, I'm Clay Satterfield and I'm a Senior Program Manager on the Office User Experience team. Within the first few hours or so of using the Office 2010 Technical Preview, it’s pretty likely that you’ll eventually need to “Save As” or “Print” or do something else with your file. When you finally do click on the Office Button, you’ll see something that you probably didn’t expect. Instead of a menu, or even a Ribbon tab, you’ll see the new Microsoft Office Backstage View.Before getting into the details of the Backstage View, I’d like to talk about the thinking that led us to the design. And to do that, I have to start way back in the fall of 2003, before we started designing the Ribbon.The Office User Experience Team is responsible for providing the UI platform for the rest of Office, so it was our assignment to tackle the following two problems. First, we knew from user feedback that people had a lot of difficulty finding, using, and understanding the vast feature set in Office. Second, we were struggling internally with the fact the menus, toolbars, and task panes were collapsing under their own weight.
Those UI concepts were designed for much simpler programs, and could no longer handle the volume of commands in the mature Office applications.So, we spent a lot of time looking at entire the Office feature set. We thought hard about how new features should be built and we made some predictions about the types of features we’d need to build over the next several versions.One of the first things we identified was that there were two distinct types of features within the applications. We called the two types IN and OUT features.The IN features are the ones most people are more familiar with. These are the features that act on the content of the document and show up on the page. Examples include commands like bold, margins, spelling, and styles.
These are the features that make up the heart of the application. When using these features, you need to be able to view the document content and often need to have a selection or blinking cursor somewhere in the document.The “Out” features help people do something with the content they create. Examples include Saving, Printing, Permissions, Versioning, Collaboration, Document Inspector, Workflows, etc. The Out feature set includes a wide ranging and surprisingly long list, but they all have a lot of similarities. The primary characteristic is that they don’t act on a specific point in the document, and their effects don’t appear on the page.
In fact, you could easily imagine using one of these features without even opening the document to look at it (for example, setting permissions on the file or sending it as an attachment).Unfortunately, the other thing the OUT features have in common is that they almost all suffer from low discoverability and poor usability.When we looked closely at the requirements on the UI platform, we realized that IN and OUT features have very different needs. Some of the most striking differences become obvious when you start thinking about Office’s user interface.The user looks at the document, sees something they want to change, and then they find and use a tool that lets them make the change they desire. They repeat this loop until they decide the document is finished.In fact, when we created the Fluent UI for Office 2007, we specifically focused on improving a few parts of this model. For example, the Ribbon helps users “Find the Tool”. Galleries combine complex steps into a visual result so that “Using the Tool” is easier.
Live Preview takes advantage of the power of “Seeing the Results on the Page.”The Ribbon needs to stay out of the way because most of this model depends on seeing as much as possible of your document. Nearly all of the communication between you and the application happens on the document surface. We don’t need to pop up a dialog box to tell you when you successfully changed the font size – you just see it happen. Same goes for changing margins, inserting a picture, or any other IN command.Here’s the problem though – The OUT features don’t show up on the page, so the model falls apart for those features.
You can’t scan the page for something you want to change. The status of OUT features doesn’t appear there.
For example, there’s nothing on the page to indicate who has permissions to read the document, so you have to form the goal to set permissions some other way. When people form an editing goal because of something they don’t like on the page, they assume an appropriate tool exists in the application somewhere. People rarely make that assumption for OUT features. For example, many very smart people have no idea that you can e-mail a document to someone from within the application. They just never even imagine that something like that could live in a word processor.
Even if you do find and use an OUT feature, the communication with the application is difficult and inconsistent. We use a combination of the status bar, message boxes, dialogs, task panes, pop-up notifications, and even web sites to tell you what’s actually going on with your document. For example, if you notice that you can’t edit a document you’ve opened, you have to check three or four possible permissions dialogs, a task pane, the status bar, and the application title bar to find out which feature is making the document read-only.Sadly, the only way the average person can be successful using our OUT features is with assistance from outside of our user interface. Most commonly, people use these features because a coworker has found and explained them, or because a boss required that they be used (and provided training).
A few people might get lucky and read about a new feature on a Tips and Tricks blog.What we were sorely lacking was the equivalent for the OUT features.What made this particularly scary for us internally is that for the foreseeable future, the OUT features are the ones that are growing rapidly. Documents are now rarely simple files authored by one person who keeps it on his hard drive until he prints. Collaboration and sharing are critical. Documents are key parts of complicated business processes. There’s a ton of context surrounding documents, and increasingly, that context needs to surface within the authoring application.So, based on the planned feature set for Office 2007, we knew we had to tackle the IN problems first. Features like SmartArt, Conditional Formatting, Themes, and all the Office Art effects required investments in Galleries, Live Preview, and contextual tabs. But we knew that the OUT features wouldn’t go away, and as planning for Office 2010 began, we could see that the Office Menu just wasn’t going to cut it.The Backstage view is the solution that tries to achieve these goals.
In future blog posts, we’ll discuss how it works and get into the details of the different features inside the Backstage view. For now, we hope you enjoy exploring it! Useful explanation.I think it works for document-editing programs (Word, Excel, Publisher,), where the document normally takes up the main window and then with the current interface this window is for viewing and editing the document. Then you switch to another window for 'everything else'. (Although can 'everything else' be understood more directly?)It seems less applicable to Outlook.
Here backstage seems to be 'Options' (confusingly split into outlookoptions and print), save (which doesn’t need to be there at all because you are interacting with items in the main screen and can save from there), open, and account settings (should that be there or in the main screen: you are interacting with accounts there too?). The interface is confusing, and there is some confusion over what should be where, I think because the document/backstage division doesn’t fit Outlook. NathanD: Shh.
Yes, one can eventually grow accustomed to the Ribbon but there's no REAL reason to have to. The Ribbon doesn't connect to anything that the 2003 menu couldn't and it was a terrible decision on Microsoft's part to cripple something that worked just 'because they could'. My company will stick with Office 2003 for as long as possible solely because M$ got rid of the familiar menu style. You're calling people lazy for resisting a change that was put in place by a marketing person's whims. ' the Ribbon helps users “Find the Tool'well, i never liked the ribbon. I can’t find anything, and i’m not alone.' Ribbon needs to stay out of the way'it’s also too big, takes up too much room.
I can see 63 rows of data in excel 2003, 46 in 2007 and 2010.the qat is too small. It needs to be as large as the toolbar buttons were in 2003.yes, i can hide it, but i’m not hiding anything in excel 2003 when i’m stating the number of rows that are visible.hate the ribbon and backstage 'may not' be far behind.
continued from previous commentAlso, unrelated to the above interface issues, the sub-tabs on the left are poorly organized and colored in my oppinion. The least-discoverable menu was the “Word” menu Word is actually clickable seperate from “Options” and “Exit” and that’s where About Word, several Help/Support features, and many other useful things are. These should be more obviously clickable (the Info menu has the same behavior, but is the initially visible menu so its less often clicked).Finally, there’s plenty of room for more Help buttons.
When people need help they need an easily discoverable Help section that will show them all the support options available. They shouldn’t need any Help finding the Help menu, wait, there isn’t a help menu! The little blue question mark in the upper right isn’t prominent enough, and most people don’t know to type “F1”. Also I still look to the nonexistent Help Menu for Updates and About, which are now (albeit more appropriately) under the Word (or whatever application) sub-menu within the Backstage menu.Just some feedback for the community I’ve alrady submitted these with the Send-a-Smile feature in the Tech Preview.
I think MS in these last years has designed its new products with the only purpose of confusing the users changing continuosly the gui. I think this is very stupid like a car manufacturer that decided to invert throttle and clutch pedals.
The gui must be intuictive and changing it completely for any new release is not a good idea.I’ve tried Vista and it was a disaster, terrible performance with many functions moved somewhere else and even all the symbols changed from Win XP. Seven is better since it is a Vista that works (could have been called Vista SP3, but I understand they had to change the name to get money from a new product).The question is: do we (or at least those of us that are power users) really need to change or to “improve” the Office software and OS?
I’m not sure. Gkeramidas,I think you have some valid points, but if we’re being honest there are some things you’re over-looking as well.For example, a one-time customization of the Quick Access would allow you to put the Switch Window button permanantly above the Ribbon.Also, if you hold down ALT and press W two times (this is rediculously quick and easy) you pull up the Switch Window list and can then just presss the number of the window you want to switch to.The best part of all this is that Microsoft is putting vocabulary against user interface features. Think of it this way: Word’s been around for almost 30 years, but it’s only in the last five or so years that they’ve been able to talk about the features in a context-oriented vocabulary.This is a big boat, it takes a long time to turn. The vernacular they are establishing now, along with user feedback, will be the rudder that rights the boat.Looking forward to Backstage and the Ribbon enhancements in my daily mix.Cheers,-jc. Any non-Office-geek user I’ve shown the Backstage menu too has reacted horribly to it.
The hardest thing is how to get out of it! The “Back” tab-like button is not nearly as discoverable as it should be, and to confuse matters there is an X in the upper right that one might think will close the menu, but in fact closes the Application.
The Info Tab also shows a miniscule picture o fthe document above the document properties. Clicking this actually returns you to the document, but this is I think the least discoverable method of returning to the document.
I agree that “Backspace” should be added to “ESC” as a way to get out of the menu.Also, the backstage menu is aI think the first time that a menu had the capability of covering up the document, all other menu controls, and the status bar. Behavior like this makes it seem like a new window so I’m tempting to go to the Taskbar to get reactivate my document or try ALT-Tabbing. On my somewhat widescreened laptop, the right-most third of the screen was empty in the Backstage menu covered in that useless dark gradient that sits behind the menu. Why not let me see my document behind the menu so that I can reurn to the document and let the menu fade away? The Office 2007 button and all previous dropdown menus behaved this way. If you click a menu then decide you don’t need it, you could easily click another menu or return to the document. The Backstage menu is the first exception to that behavior.
There is simply no good reason to obscure all the other Tabs of the Ribbon interface while in the Backstage view! Jc:you have valid points, too, but why even change the ui if it can all be done with kybd shortcuts?why are the icons on the ribbon so big and the ones on the qat so small? Doesn’t make sense to me. The ribbon takes up way too much room, in my opinion. If i set up the qat, i would think those icons would be more visible because i set them up.The delete button is so large, and the right click menus are so washed out. Looks like they’re all grayed out.
It’s like they don’t know if they want to make some parts useable for people with sight issues and then turn around and make it nearly impossible for people with sight issues to see parts of the ui. Some study somewhere about how many pixels are need for readable text, like it costs more to produce a more readable character on the screen.i see send / receive has it’s own tab, but it should be on the home tab. More clicks to do a send/receive than previous versions. I know i can set up the qat, that’s not my point.
My point is that the ui is screwed up in a lot of places. If the ui is so revolutionary and good, nothing should be harder to do through the ui than it was in 2003.Setting email preferences was a nightmare in 2003/2007. This version makes those look like childs play, now.
I might find a setting, but who can remember the obscure places i found it the next time i want it.then, in outlook, they put the respond menu item 2nd instead of first, because most people mark the email they working on as junk rather than replying to it? I doubt it.In excel, click the developer tab. The farthest mouse click away are the vb commands, all the way to the left. Don’t know about you, but I don’t click document panel or source xml more than I click the vb commands. Yes, I realize the menus can be moved, but this again, does not make sense.Not criticizing you, just doesn’t make sense to me. The response to the ribbon seems to be 'bi-modal': you love it or you hate it. I imagine the same will prove true with Backstage. Signals and systems by uday kumar full.
Personally, I hate the ribbon. (But I also greatly value some of the functional changes in 2007).What I have never understood is why Microsoft doesn't give the user a choice on which interface to use. It seems to me there could be a simple check box in each application's options section to use one or the other. Adoption of the ribbon by users who ultimately will prefer it would probably be slower. But this would seem an acceptable consequence for allowing millions of dedicated Office users to continue to make the Office applications dance. Hi,The human brain likes to learn and do better with static images. Do you like to drive your car with dynamic ribbons or with all buttons in clear view and memorized?Think with heart (subconstient) not with your mind.Why the picture of a plain cockpit with all the gauges and buttons is blamed?Let ask the pilots to cover the cockpit with big panels (ribbons) and ask if it is better to search for a switch under the panels and explain: “forget the old one, this is better for you because, look, it is more organized”.Do to many years of “OfficeTerraFormation” now the office product does not target to new users but instead mainly to older office pilots.
Microsoft should focus on adding more advanced features (for both IN and OUT) in its new Office releases instead of doing many cosmetic changes in UI.2007 – Ribbon, 2010 – Backstage. All these are debatable, yet non-technical-challenge features. I just noticed that in Office 2010, for example, one of the most advanced (IN) features – MODI (to covert scanned documents in Word is dropped due to the inability for Microsoft to build its own OCR.
It’s very sad, seeing Microsoft to count on making UI changes to generate upgrade revenue. I really like the ribbons. I think part of the reason I adapted so easily to it was because I took a course in it for my degree in Spring 2008. I found that once I knew where things were in one program, it was easy to find them in another.I have 2003 at work and I loathe it. I hate that I can’t do the things I would like to do with it.
I find myself using my laptop to do a lot of things in Office.I recently downloaded 2010 beta and I really like it. Although I did find the fact that I couldn’t print or save on the home page a little disturbing. Maybe they could put a button on there to to do a quick Save or Default Print?. What is the deal with folks talking about the size of the ribbon.
For crying outloud – just right click it and minimize it! It hovers harmlessly out when you need it and disappears when you’ve executed what you went ther for – LIKE A MENU!
If you want it back to view your option a Alt+ the first letter of the tab brings it into view.Really, it’s only hard if you intentionally make it so.Also, with the ribbon being customizable in 2010 you can make your own tab with “just what you use” or even customize the quicklaunch toolbar in the same fashion.I don’t get the fuss. You have the tools to use – use them and quit whining. I used Office 2007 for a month when it came out and ran straight back to 2003 because of the ribbon.
Being a power user, I can’t find anything except for the most basic commands.Advanced features are all hidden and feel like they’ve actually been removed. 2007 feels as if it has even less features than 2003, but yes it does feel “smarter” and nicer looking with everything being contextual.Alas, I don’t know what the keyboard shortcuts are as they are not shown on menus anymore. Even if the 2003 shortcuts work, they are not discoverable on 2007.Backstage feels the same – yes it’s a nice pretty interface but is actually very scary for us power users.
We’re thinking “Where is x?!?” And all the default locations of buttons (like the x on the top right) don’t do what we expect anymore ?If you’re going to take inspiration from Apple, please take their Spotlight feature – so in the search box we can type a command (like Print Preview), then the menus animate and highlight where the feature has moved too, WITHOUT delays in searching a help file, online knowledgebase, or having to read a whole collection of help pages to find how to do simple things we’ve been used to for years. I hate, hate, hate, HATE the ribbon interface.Today I wanted to change the default font for a document. Is that under “Page Layout” where any sane person would look? No, I went to Google and found that the default font is changed by clicking on the itsy bitsh unnoticiable arrow an inch and a half away from the word “font” on the home menu.Please, please, please, PLEASE bring back the 2003 version of the toolbars for those of us who have been spent the last fifteen years learning to use that interface. I really like the splitting of 'IN' and 'OUT' features, though the idea that Microsoft is splitting those features isn't very intuitive. Now that I've read this article, I see Outlook 2010 in a different light.But one big problem I see is the 3rd party support. The option has been removed to have floating toolbars in lieu of limited ribbons.
I work for a company that has written an extensive Outlook plugin to embed our software into Outlook. Most of our users that turn to Outlook need our software and want a dash of Outlook. Now they are forced to need Outlook with a dash of our software.
Though have updated to the new ribbon style, it isn't as accessible to our users as the floating toolbar was. Everything they do requires one more click now.Now if Microsoft were to allow a floatable ribbon Maybe the quickaccess toolbar could be made to show a floating ribbon below it? That would solve the UI issues.
NoteThe following methods may not save all the latest changes, formatting, and feature sets of the workbook that are specific to the version of Excel that you are using. The following methods are intended to let you obtain a usable, saved version of the file.
These methods require you to save the file to your local hard disk by using a unique file name. Method 1: Save the workbook by using a new file name. On the File menu, select Save As. Save the Excel workbook by using a unique file name.Method 2: Move the original worksheets to a new workbook.Add a filler worksheet to your workbook. To do this, press Shift + F11. NoteThese steps should move the active (grouped) worksheets to a new workbook.If your workbook contains VBA macros, copy the modules from the old workbook to the new workbook. Method 3: Save the file as a different Excel file type.
On the File menu, select Save As. In the Save as Type list, select a file format other than the current file format. If you are using Microsoft Excel 2007 or a later version, save the file as.xlsx or.xlsm instead of as.xls.TroubleshootingTo troubleshoot this problem, follow these steps in the given order. Step 1: Try to save the workbook to another locationTry saving your notebook to another location, such as a local hard drive, a network drive, or removable drive. NoteIf you do not have these permissions, the Excel save process cannot be completed. Insufficient drive spaceWhen you save to any medium, such as a floppy disk drive, a local hard disk, or a network drive, you must make sure that the drive has sufficient free space to enable the file to save. If the destination drive does not have sufficient space, Excel cannot complete the save operation, and you receive the following error message:Disk is Full.For more information about this error message, select the following article numbers to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:You receive the 'Disk is Full' error message when you save a workbook in ExcelYou receive an error message when you try to save a file in Excel Antivirus software conflictWhen antivirus software is installed or is running, you may receive an error message when you try to save an existing workbook.
You do not receive an error message if you try to save a new file. You may receive an error message because some antivirus programs quickly scan any new files that appear on a computer. This scan can sometimes disrupt the Excel save process. This interruption may stop Excel from saving the file correctly.
File sharing conflictIf you and a second user work concurrently on a shared workbook, you may receive an error message if you and the second user try to save the file at the same time. NoteOther processes that occur on your computer may disrupt the Excel save process. These issues may occur if the Excel temporary file is accessed before the Excel save process is completed.
For example, the local antivirus software locks the temporary file for scanning before the file can be renamed. Therefore, you must keep track of any new software installations or updates that are performed before you have problems when you try to save workbooks. This information will be helpful if this article does not fix your issue and you have to contact Microsoft Support. For more information, go to the following Microsoft website: Feedback.
I need help please!I have implemented the rule and the macro as explained. I have even added a msgbox line to make sure that all was ok and it is as the mail subject is properly displayed but the attachement is not savedPublic Sub SaveAttachmentsToDisk(MItem As Outlook.MailItem)Dim oAttachment As Outlook.AttachmentDim sSaveFolder As StringMsgBox 'Mail Subject: ' & MItem.SubjectsSaveFolder = 'C:UsersregisDocumentsAttach'For Each oAttachment In MItem.AttachmentsoAttachment.SaveAsFile sSaveFolder & oAttachment.DisplayNameNextEnd SubWhat am I doing wrong? Using the Outlook 2010 method which works brilliantly, I now need to be able to only save certain attachment types, such as PDF and JPG.
I have no VBA knowledge can someone tell me what to add to do this, I have tried a few changes to the code with no luckPublic Sub SaveAttachmentsToDisk(MItem As Outlook.MailItem)Dim oAttachment As Outlook.AttachmentDim sSaveFolder As StringsSaveFolder = 'U:Attachments'For Each oAttachment In MItem.AttachmentsoAttachment.SaveAsFile sSaveFolder & oAttachment.DisplayNameNextEnd Sub. Hi,Below VBA script will save all PDF attachments from mail folders. For saving from a certain folder, you can specify the folder when manually running the rule.Public Sub SaveAttachmentsToDisk(EmailItem As Outlook.MailItem)Dim xAttachment As Outlook.AttachmentDim xDotPos As IntegerDim xSavePath As String, xFileType As StringxSavePath = 'C:UsersDT168Documentsoutlook-attachments'For Each xAttachment In EmailItem.AttachmentsxDotPos = InStrRev(xAttachment.DisplayName, '.' )xFileType = Mid(xAttachment.DisplayName, xDotPos, Len(xAttachment.DisplayName) - xDotPos + 1)If xFileType = '.pdf' ThenxAttachment.SaveAsFile xSavePath & xAttachment.DisplayNameEnd IfNextEnd Sub. I am interested in the Auto Save Attachment feature, but 2 questions:1.
Can I activate this ONLY for a subfolder? I don't want this to run on every single email. Only emails that are redirected to a subfolder via an Outlook Rule.2. When you say 'detach', to me that implies the attachment is removed from the message permanently. I don't want to remove the attachment.
I just want to download a copy of it to a folder. So which is it? Does your software remove the attachment or does it just save a copy?
Hi EC,Thank you for your interesting in our software.1. At present, the Auto Detach feature will save every attachment arriving in the Inbox folder by default, and the Detach feature will remove attachments and leave hyperlinks linking to the saved attachments.2. Our development team is improving and enhancing both feature now. In the near future, users are entitled to auto detaching attachments by special criteria (such as color, flag), folders, etc.; and the detach feature will be enhanced to several sub-features, such as save attachments, delete attachments and leave hyperlinks, delete attachments, etc.
Complemento Office 2007 Para Grabar Pdf Online
Please be patient for the new version. I have done all scripting to download the attachments from outlook mail and my script is working fine when i run it manually. I would like to automate the process using the Rule option. But i couldn't see my macro in the Rules Wizard window. I have enabled the below option in the registry tooHKEYCURRENTUSERSoftwareMicrosoftOffice16.0OutlookSecurityDWORD: EnableUnsafeClientMailRulesValue: 1But still i couldn't see my macro in the Rule Wizard list. My rule wizard list is empty but i have created the macro already and its manually working fine. I have to bring the macro in my Rules wizard to automate the process.
Please help me if you have any ideas! Hi Eric,Below VBA script will save all PDF attachments from mail folders. For saving from a certain folder, you can specify the folder when manually running the rule.Public Sub SaveAttachmentsToDisk(EmailItem As Outlook.MailItem)Dim xAttachment As Outlook.AttachmentDim xDotPos As IntegerDim xSavePath As String, xFileType As StringxSavePath = 'C:UsersDT168Documentsoutlook-attachments'For Each xAttachment In EmailItem.AttachmentsxDotPos = InStrRev(xAttachment.DisplayName, '.'
)xFileType = Mid(xAttachment.DisplayName, xDotPos, Len(xAttachment.DisplayName) - xDotPos + 1)If xFileType = '.pdf' ThenxAttachment.SaveAsFile xSavePath & xAttachment.DisplayNameEnd IfNextEnd Sub. This works really well for me Public Sub SaveAttachmentsToDisk(MItem As Outlook.MailItem) Dim oAttachment As Outlook.Attachment Dim sSaveFolder As String sSaveFolder = 'Dck-server-02g00 Uploads' For Each oAttachment In MItem.Attachments oAttachment.SaveAsFile sSaveFolder & oAttachment.DisplayName Next End Sub As you can see i have left the filename that is the attachment as the same for when it copies to the network drive. However, if multiple emails come through with the same filename for the attachment, the script then allows the most recent attachment to overwrite the previous attachment in the network folder. Is there an edit which i can input into the script which will append a '-1' '-2' '-3' etc. To the end of the attachment filename?
Complemento Office 2007 Para Grabar Pdf Gratis
So for example, if the attachment is named 'inspection' and i get multiple that come through can i have them renamed to 'inspection-1' 'inspection-2' 'inspection-3' Any help would be appreciated SO MUCH! quote name='Srinivas'Hello Everyone The Script is not working for me.I there something else that needs to be done. Public Sub SaveAttachmentsToDisk(MItem As Outlook.MailItem) Dim oAttachment As Outlook.Attachment Dim sSaveFolder As String sSaveFolder = 'MHO-ITD-SMUserssmutharajuDesktopRanjithOutlook Attachments' For Each oAttachment In MItem.Attachments oAttachment.SaveAsFile sSaveFolder & oAttachment.DisplayName Next End Sub/quote Same here I tried all option I feel script is running but I still don't see files loading in my computer specified path.can some one help me most appreciated.
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