Windows Live Essentials 2011 - In Depth

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Fecal Face

January 21, 2011 at 2:36pm

Hmm, looks like you have 69760 unread emails. Might want to get on that ;P

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BAMT

July 22, 2010 at 11:39am

@stradric

But isn't it quicker to hit alt+x then the hotkey of the menu item than it is to click? That's how I work, anyway.

And yes, I know the obviousness that is the control hotkeys still working. I like alt combinations, too.

 

Edit: Jeeze, why doesn't my comment go where it should? It must be because I'm a minority with Opera on Linux.

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michaelh

July 22, 2010 at 8:28am

If some users like the Ribbon, why not have both? The same selections are available via icons or menus, would a GUI choice be so difficult? I use the suite regularly though not at length and I've adapted just fine to some of the one-click operations.  There are too many previously simple operations that now require burrowing into sub-menus.  When their headers were straightforward I could navigate to what I needed, now I've got to put myself in a WYSIWYG devotee's mindset. 

It's like the Win 7 default Start menu operation. The recently-used applications list slows me down and requires an extra click to get to what I want.  I don't have anything against interface streamlining - great options for those that don't need more - just give us choices that doesn't require user mods or registry hacks.

The Live Essentials suite seems to promote more of the same philosophy.  The backbone options are too well hidden for my tastes.

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fociwm

July 22, 2010 at 7:59am

Unlike other people, I like ribbon. Why? Because I didn't really get used to menu even after about 10 years of using office suite. It was difficult to find what I wanted. On the other hand, ribbon was very intuitive, and therefore easy to understand. Now I use several new functions just because I found them in ribbon.

As you may blame, I'm not a power user. But I'm just a steady user. And with ribbon, I am able to use the word and powerpoint much more powerfully and more efficiently. I have to admit I was too lazy to learn and practice Word and Powerpoint. But it was just enough with menus during those 10 years. Now I'm doing my job much better. So except for power users who spent a lot of time in learning the office, ribbon was definitely improvement.

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stradric

July 22, 2010 at 6:58am

With Live Essentials comes the 'Windows Live Sign-In Assistant'.  This service is now famous for breaking SMB file shares on many applications as well as media devices like the WDTV.  With the WDTV, you'll get "Invalid login" trying to browse the file share until you uninstall Live Essentials.  It's a deal-breaker for me.  I stay away from Live Essentials now.

You can actually install Movie Maker alone and not get the Sign-In assistant.  But if you install Live Sync for example, you will get it and you'll need to remove the whole Live Essentials package in order to get functioning SMB shares again.

It's a shame too because the Sign-In assistant means that I don't have to sign into Live enabled websites.

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wk

July 22, 2010 at 5:14am

I just have one question, who think ribbon is an improvement? I use MS office at work, and desbite the great improvement in 2007 version, the most irritating thing is ribbons, what is wrong with menu bar in 2003 version, it was organized, and you can find whatever you want in an easy and fast way.

Ribbon is just more aesthetic and that is it.

and YES you can not call ribbon an improvement.

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stradric

July 22, 2010 at 7:07am

The ribbon is not just for aesthetics.  It improves efficiency.  Many oft-performed actions will become 1-click operations rather than multiple clicks with the old menu bar.  I find it very convenient in many situations.

Many people don't like the ribbon bar because they are slow to adapt to change.  It took them a long time to get used to the menu and when they finally did, Microsoft improved it with the ribbon bar.  But people don't see it as an improvement.  They only see it as a step back to learning something new.  But that's technology for you.  It's always changing.

I agree with Microsoft on imposing the change.  Had our government had the same amount of courage, we might actually be using the far superior metric system in the US.

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GIJames

July 21, 2010 at 7:39pm

I would hardly call the office 2007 ribbon an improvement.

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