What cheeses me off: Microsoft Office edition

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MICROSOFT 365 By Peter Deegan Having endured and written about Microsoft Office for more than two decades, I offer my list of annoyances and timewaste
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KB6OJS, WSGeo, fisher75, schmootoo, windbg, rbailin, abbodi86, ronaldgup, Chris Greaves, lmacri

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My big gripe is that a few years ago I ran into a break in Excel. MS’s solution was to add the user to the Current Channel (or the name for the same channel when this happens. Why change names?). Semi annual wasn’t going to get the fix, until the next feature update for that channel. This was a break fix not a feature. So now I push for Current Channel when I would much prefer Semi Annual with a small group on Current to test it out.

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Chris Greaves

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To me, it seems that Microsoft programmers are just that, programmers. Probably even good ones. But I doubt whether they have ever worked for an extended period as (professional) document writers and therefore they have no idea of how time-consuming and confusing the digging through myriad (fine-tuning) options actually is.

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WSGeo, Chris Greaves

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PD>>> What cheeses me off: Peter Deegan

Peter Deegan doesn’t cheese me off; I’ll buy him a coffee next time he’s in Bonavista Newfoundland, so …

PD>>> Having endured and written about Microsoft Office for more than two decades, I offer my list of annoyances and timewasters in Microsoft Office, especially Word.

I was developing applications in Word6 before I switched to Office 97/VBA. My latest version is Office 2003, which gives you an idea, because what I say below is basically a mirror of your complaints coming at you today from over two decades ago

PD>>> AutoSave should be available to all documents, not used as a marketing tool for Microsoft to sell OneDrive and SharePoint. The same goes for Rename and Move. See Figure 3, in which Word is pitching an upload to OneDrive, even though the user intends to save locally.

I wrote MostRecentlyUSEd to expand the then-9 limit on the File menu list. MRUse remembers as many entries as YOU choose (based on stale-date) and remembers the latest selection point in your document; the drop-down list can be sorted by drive, path, name, extent, DLM and so on. But see “Picture” from your comments, below.

PD>>> Dialog boxes with clumsy navigation – No search option

That some dialogue boxes can be re-sized and some can’t is a MAJOR design flaw. OK, so one team didn’t think of it and the other team did. Make it standard across all dialogue boxes (preferably with the more flexible option)

PD>>> Fast document-location link File selection for things such as Insert Picture or link templates doesn’t include a “document location” option,

MRUse sets the Pictures and Documents paths as a courtesy to the user. If you are working today in T:\Greaves\Training\Everything\Tutorial\Section04\, then that’s probably where you want to save your New and unsaved document, right?

PD>>> These days, it’s common for all related files to be in one folder …

No excuses. Back in 1983 each project (a.k.a. all related files) was on a separate floppy disk, let alone a separate folder. Who dropped the ball? (That’s FOUR decades ago)

PD>>> Too many changes: … Redmond chooses to ignore the many customers who prefer stability over innovation.

I remember The Ribbon being announced as a space-saver, yet it took/takes up I think four times the vertical height of a toolbar; space I’m not going to get back without extra effort to locate functions. Another argument was that “users had too many toolbars open, wasting space” but (a) that was never a problem seen at any client site I can remember and (b) that problem is solved by better education and training at no cost to Microsoft.

PD>>> Too many Outlooks

We all remember the time when there were two “Explorers” don’t we? There was the one we used to locate files on a chunk of plastic and metal sitting on our desk, and there was the new one that we used to locate files on pieces of plastic and metal sitting on other people’s desks, or with increasing frequency, on server farms just outside the city boundaries. (Why stop there? Why not rename Edit-Find “Explorer” …)

PD>>> Grammar settings in Word

Enter my rules-based spell-checker that recognized that corporations had departments (HR, R&D, Legal, S&M and so on) and that what might be a typo in an HR document would be acceptable Latin in a legal document. The rules included paths, so that each rule could be applied ONLY to documents in that folder tree. And yes, you could use the same idea for grammar, readability, or anything that depends on context.

Why such a long response to your post? Because if an IBM 1620 FORTRAN II programmer from way back can think of and implement these ideas in Word2003/VBA, then Redmond is a failure.
We should always hold dear to our hearts that Microsoft is NOT a software company/developer; Microsoft is a successful marketing and sales force.
Cheers, Chris

Unless you're in a hurry, just wait.

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driftless

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I have two criticisms of Outlook. I am using Office 2019 on one computer and Office 2021 on another computer:

1. Outlook continually puts legitimate emails into Junk, even after I have used the provided Junk file configuration links to say “Never block sender” and “Never block senders domain.”
2.  After deleting  the emails in “Deleted items” they all come back making me delete them a second time.

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Those sound like synchronization issues between the two computers.

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Using Outlook 2016, only on my main desktop- no syncing anywhere,   and I also have “Never Block Sender” emails going to “Junk”.

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Richard Mitnick wrote:

Outlook continually puts legitimate emails into Junk, even after I have used the provided Junk file configuration links to say “Never block sender” and “Never block senders domain.”

Outlook is not doing this. The Spam/Junk mail filters of your mail server Outlook downloads the emails from is placing the email in the Spam/Junk folder before Outlook downloads it so those settings in Outlook don’t come into play. For many mail servers you can go to your mail server web page and mark that email as not junk and thus solve the problem. I don’t know your mail server, but this can be done with Gmail.

Richard Mitnick wrote:

After deleting  the emails in “Deleted items” they all come back making me delete them a second time.

This is not Outlook. If you close Outlook right after you delete the Junk mail or have Outlook empty the Junk mail upon closing, this may not give the Deleted folder on the mail server time to sync and thus leave those items in the mail server’s Deleted folder. When Outlook opens again and the folders sync the Outlook Deleted folder is synced to the mails server and the emails in the mail server folder repopulate the Outlook Deleted folder, thus reappearing.

HTH, Dana:))

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All good stuff and nothing to disagree with, although a couple of additional thoughts…

Something that seems to be conspicuously missing is Word’s insistence of WYSIWYG all the time, an issue that has been around for decades. It’s really frustrating when the content formatting conforms to whatever Word thinks it should be and where there’s no easy to correct. (Cue the WordPerfect fans who love the WP’s ability to “show codes” and actually see and edit what’s going on underneath.)

I definitely concur on the issues of Outlook — I didn’t know that we’re now up to 11 editions (generally undifferentiated). For what it’s worth, we’re seeing the same kinds of issues with OneNote, OneDrive and Teams, especially since they’re distributed in multiple ways outside of Office (or Microsoft 365). Every edition has subtle difference in handling.

As far as Outlook is concerned, it’s merely the most obvious example of Microsoft’s tendency to recycle product names, where a new product may have only minimal relationship with previous products that have carried the name. To me, the most obvious was Outlook Express, a mail client based on Internet Explorer, and beyond the name, and the fact that it was a mail client, otherwise unrelated to the Outlook that was bundled in Office. But that didn’t stop countless users from referring to OE as simply “Outlook”, perhaps to Microsoft’s delight, but annoying and confusing to us that knew that they were different products.

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Hi Richard! Agree, and agree. I myself have a fatal issue with Outlook email, both the web version and new Outlook app on Win 10 and Win 11.
Basically an email address in the hotmail.com domain was deleted and replaced, or address changed, to an outlook domain. Despite all efforts of Geek Squad, and a local tech company, I am unable to receive a fix. This includes, or especially, from Microsoft themselves. (I’m unable to get anyone there on the phone… and the online recover email and like sites of MS dont help.
Do you know of any person or service I can access that may be able to help?
Ronald Gup
Moderator’s Note: Email address removed. Please do not post any personal contact information.

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Your complaints mirror mine. The article is an excellent compilation of problems. I don’t use Outlook so I don’t care about Outlook. The most frustrating problems for me are “Pushy OneDrive” and “Too Many Changes.” (Ever had your carefully-crafted Normal.dotm [with all those custom macros] overwritten by an update? Keep a backup of Normal.dotm somewhere the update gremlins cannot see it.) I won’t use Office 365 because I won’t use SAAS. I’m sticking with Office 2019 for the moment, but the same objections apply. And “the cloud” is just another name for someone else’s computer.

Microsoft seems to either (a) have complete disdain for its customers, or (b) is trying to drive customers away because Office and Windows are not major profit centers and Microsoft would like to shut them down.

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WUBRINY wrote:

Microsoft … or (b) is trying to drive customers away because Office and Windows are not major profit centers and Microsoft would like to shut them down.

One third of Microsoft’s revenue ($70 billion of $212 billion) is from Office and Windows:

Microsoft Revenue Breakdown — March 20, 2024

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@WUBRINY said profit, not revenue.

Windows 10 Home 22H2, Acer Aspire TC-1660 desktop + LibreOffice, non-techie

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rje81849 wrote:

Using Outlook 2016, only on my main desktop- no syncing anywhere,   and I also have “Never Block Sender” emails going to “Junk”.

That is not a sync problem. That is the mail service you download your emails from (@somewhere.com) that is using that mail service’s anti- spam software to tag the mail for the Junk folder before Outlook can handle the email thus by-passing the Inbox and going directly to the Junk Mail folder. Many mail services (Gmail, Hotmail, etc.) on their web page interface allow you to tag that email as not junk which allows Outlook to handle that email in the Inbox and follow your never block setting.

That Never Block Sender setting works, but only on emails that are downloaded to Outlook’s Inbox.

Here’s a little tip in how to tell if it is Outlook sending the email to the Junk folder or if it is the mail service’s anti-spam software.
Watch the Inbox while downloading your emails.
Any email that Outlook sends to the Junk folder is first downloaded to the Inbox and then disappears from the Inbox by being moved to the junk folder.
Any email tagged by the mail service for the Junk folder will not download to the Inbox and downloads directly to the Junk folder.

HTH, Dana:))

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That Never Block Sender setting works, but only on emails that are downloaded to Outlook’s Inbox.

Ideally, Never Block Sender rules should operate on the Junk email folder as well as on the Inbox, but strangely no one at MS has ever thought of that.

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The entire document formatting mechanism is so non-intuitive–made worse with no “Help” available.  Intuitive=declare formatting BEFORE text to which it applies.  Non-intuitive=declare formatting AFTER text to which it applies.  More specifically, MS mucked up setting up tab stops from what used to work in Office 2010.  Now, in Office 2019, a crap shoot.

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As one who grew up using WordPerfect (and Quattro Pro), I have never liked Office. Through v2003 it had a cluttered and illogical menu structure, “fixed” when MS replaced it with the Ribbon, which I’ve always hated. It’s really no more logical than the old menus, and if you need to go one level deeper, you’re dumped into archaic-looking dialogs as though it were still 2003, or earlier.

Fortunately, in my long-term position, I was in IT, not one of the “productive” departments, and I rarely needed to exchange documents with other users. I happily ran LibreOffice and still do. It has its bugs and faults but does everything I need it to do, and I can shuttle documents between Linux and Windows.

Although I no longer use WordPerfect, it had at least one brilliant feature (beyond Reveal Codes) that MS never matched: master documents. It’s been around since the DOS days and was always stable, while in Word, it’s less intuitive and I saw a lot of complaints about master documents getting corrupted and damaging the subdocuments.

As for Lookout, the UI is just awful. When I’m forced to use it, I have to smack it around to make it less obnoxious, such as turning off the preview in the message list because the type is tiny and faint. Don’t they do usability testing, especially for folks with impaired vision? My eyesight is OK but I’d guess that some people really struggle with Lookout.

At least as of a few years ago, PowerPoint had no way to shrink graphics files automatically. Our art directors would give the sales folks hi-res image files, and a presentations of a couple dozen slides could balloon to 900Mb or more. We had to buy third-party software or use a batch process plugin in GiMP before the images were inserted, unwanted extra work for busy users. Libre Impress has had the Presentation Minimizer for years, clunky but effective.

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I don’t have a MS mailbox so most new features don’t appear. I got tired of hearing about new features in “New” Outlook I switched clients. I actually like the new sparse look of this new version, but am put off by the hype. I am finding eMClient a suitable full featured replacement.

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Microsoft Office cheesed me from day 1 so I never, with 50 years in IT, used Microsoft office at work or home.
Currently : LibreOffice.

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Right on. Nowhere am I more with you than on this item. Though they’re all true.

A more secure but less pushy OneDrive

…

Nowhere does Microsoft’s self-interest show more than in its relentless push to make customers put all their files on OneDrive. Apparently, no one in Microsoft management has heard of the word “restraint,” let alone the old-fashioned notion of putting the customer first.

This has caused me re-order my Documents folder structure to keep it “off” OneDrive. Though I think I’ve turned it “off,” it still shows the path as [user name]/One Drive/Documents/ etc.., and I don’t want that!
Can anyone tell me, by moving these folders around, am I creating a worse problem? I’m picturing Microsoft is going to punish me for wanting to organize the folders as I’m used to, on the C drive under my user name. Sheesh.

Thanks for the article, Peter.

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Microsoft Office has been ok/fine from  Office 97 to Microsoft Office 2003.

1. Office 97 =BEST one
2. Office 200=fine
3. Office Xp= fine but to many crashes
4. Office 2003=fine. less crashes but used too much memory
5. Office 2007=crap
6. Office 2010=crap with more crap place on top
7. Office 2013=infinite crap
8. Office 2016=2x infinite crap
9. Office 2019=infinite crap ^2
10. Office 2021=unbearable crap beyond countable number by human.

List of issues:

1. The cloud license often fails and tells that you have no license and disables features. WHY? If I had license 1 hour ago, than why no license now.
2. Onedrive crashes and corrupts files often
3. No able to use macros that have used almost for 30 years.
4. Constant GUI changes that have no reason to change
5. The new docx, xlsx, pptx etc formats easily corrupts and have issues restoring them. Now prefer to save in the original format doc, xls, ppt,etc that never seem to corrupt.
6. No easy way to format documents that have multiple references. (IE document that has document 1, 2,3,4,5,17,19,40,57 etc inserted to create a multiple page report)
7. Issues with database management that never work currently after having over 2GB of data. Most databases now are in Tredecillion GB (10⁴²). In next few years, will increase to Centillion 10³⁰³
8. Outlook email security is crap that can easily be forge/bypass to get viruses onto computers

 

 

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Linux wrote:

8. Outlook email security is crap that can easily be forge/bypass to get viruses onto computers

Details please?

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Linux wrote:

The new docx, xlsx, pptx etc formats easily corrupts and have issues restoring them. Now prefer to save in the original format doc, xls, ppt,etc that never seem to corrupt.

Microsoft moved to xml format  because the xml format was less prone to corruption than the doc files which many authors and other sources agree with and totally the opposite of what you are saying.  Another reason is the xml format is more cross platform meaning more non-Microsoft apps can deal with the new docx files.   Maybe your situation and use is different that others, but is not the what the majority of users see.

Linux wrote:

No easy way to format documents that have multiple references. (IE document that has document 1, 2,3,4,5,17,19,40,57 etc inserted to create a multiple page report)

Pasting into Word (even pages at a time) so it pastes using the formatting in the document rather than the formatting it was copied from is very easy. Also it is very easy to use Styles to format the entire pasted pages. This isn’t a fault of Word but rather a lack of knowledge to use these functions in Word easily.

Linux wrote:

Outlook email security is crap that can easily be forge/bypass to get viruses onto computers

Outlook email security or email in general? They are all different and general email security is not in Outlook’s control. I have never seen a virus being made to bypass Outlook. Viruses are made to bypass the mail server such as Gmail or Outlook.com that Outlook downloads from and not a single mail app on someone’s PC. NO email app provides total protection from viruses and is why most users use a separate app to check their email.

HTH, Dana:))

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WSGeo

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driftless wrote:

the Ribbon, which I’ve always hated. It’s really no more logical than the old menus,

No, but it is faster.

Microsoft knew it was going to get pushback with the ribbon, so it commissioned an independent evaluation and published the result. After only a short time – during which I adapted to the ribbon – I came to agree with the study’s result that the ribbon was more productive.

That said, I feel certain the ribbon came about due to what I call “flatland” – otherwise known as touch. For touch users, the ribbon is dramatically faster than wading through menus.

driftless wrote:

As one who grew up using WordPerfect …

Me, too.

driftless wrote:

cluttered and illogical menu structure

That’s been a complaint of mine about Adobe Photoshop. However, there are legions of hard-core PS users who have those menu sequences ingrained into their fingers and who would be furious if they changed. I understand why companies are hesitant to mess with profit centers.

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driftless

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Regarding the OneDrive issue, especially concerning AutoSave: I agree wholeheartedly!

I have to tell you, though, that I do like OneDrive and I have it fully integrated into Windows 11. I have my Documents, Desktop and Pictures files directed to sync to OneDrive. This is by choice rather than by being forced, and I’ve been doing so for quite a while.

I agree that it should be by choice, and that AutoSave should allow me to save my files wherever I darn well feel like it. I have a lot of my activity taking place in the Downloads folder, which is NOT synced with OneDrive, and AutoSave is disabled there, so the current situation is quite inconvenient.

//Steve//

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Phil Rabichow

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I completely agree with your gripes about Word.  I’m told that I was being considered for an MVP label for Word about 2 decades ago.  I used to post Word solutions & tips online.  Like one of the users above, I use Office 2003.  Even MS Word 2000 was more user friendly.  E.g. pressing Ctrl+F or Ctrl+H brought up the entire Find or Replace dialog box.  In Word 2003. you had to press Alt+m, m stood for more, to bring up the same box.

I developed my own shortcut keys in Word 2003 (like Alt+t for subtitle style).  In fact, I had over 20 custom shortcut keys because switching from keyboard to mouse (for the ribbon) was not efficient.  Even learning what Alt keys activated a menu option was valuable.  (Alt+OET changed everything to title case).  Microsoft changed this to (Alt+OEG).  Small change, you say.  Well, they changed at least 20 key combinations, which made it difficult for those familiar with it.  How would you like to drive a car that had the steering wheel in the middle, operate the brake with your left hand & radio with your right foot…you get the point.

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IT Manager Geek, Peter Deegan, Cybertooth

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