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Why use URL shorteners on HN? I feel uneasy clicking on them. There's no real reason to use them. >I think Microsoft's ribbon approach is horrible for usabilit

Why use URL shorteners on HN? I feel uneasy clicking on them. There's no real reason to use them. >I think Microsoft's ribbon approach is horrible for usability. It takes a long time to visually scan all those words/icons to figure out what I want. A huge percentage of people are repeat users of Explorer. While it may feel cluttered in the beginning, it will soon become second nature once people get used to it, and it's extremely friendly for newbies since it exposes functions instead of hiding it 3 levels deep in some menu. Are you a regular user of Office 2007+? My concern is that it takes up valuable vertical space on the 16:9 monitors that we are getting these days, especially on netbooks. But you can minimize the ribbo and declutter it. See http://www.winsupersite.com/content/content/140353/win8_explorer_01.jpg http://www.winsupersite.com/content/content/140353/win8_expl...

ghurlman 15y ago
CTRL-F1 to minimize/restore the ribbon works on the Office apps now as well; I use it _constantly_.
- iaskwhy 15y ago
  Extending your comment with some words from the article: "If you collapse the ribbon (double-click the tab, or click the Minimize arrow on the right side of the ribbon), you get even more vertical real estate with our new approach." I double-click on it a lot when working with Office to get focused. When you hide it, if you hover it it will show without taking up all the space it does when it's open.
barake 15y ago
Despite the huge ribbon the new layout actually has more vertical space due to the removal of the details pane. Once the ribbon is minimized there would be tons more real estate: http://blogs.msdn.com/cfs-filesystemfile.ashx/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-01-29-43-metablogapi/8422.Figure-21-_2D00_-Real-Estate-comparison_5F00_2.png http://blogs.msdn.com/cfs-filesystemfile.ashx/__key/communit...
- sliverstorm 15y ago
  Oh thank god. I hated the detail pane.
masnick 15y ago
> Are you a regular user of Office 2007+? Yes, I hate it. I use Excel 2010 (PC)/2011(Mac) almost every day and I can never find anything in the ribbon. On Mac I use the Help/Search function to jump directly to the menu item I need. On Windows, I'm stuck looking through those awful ribbons.
- wanorris 15y ago
  I used to work with someone who insisted on Lotus 1-2-3 for Windows because he could never find anything in Excel. Lotus for Windows was better because it still supported the / menus he'd been using in Lotus for DOS. Help/Search does seem like a great feature, though.

ghurlman 15y ago

CTRL-F1 to minimize/restore the ribbon works on the Office apps now as well; I use it _constantly_.

iaskwhy 15y ago
Extending your comment with some words from the article: "If you collapse the ribbon (double-click the tab, or click the Minimize arrow on the right side of the ribbon), you get even more vertical real estate with our new approach." I double-click on it a lot when working with Office to get focused. When you hide it, if you hover it it will show without taking up all the space it does when it's open.

barake 15y ago

Despite the huge ribbon the new layout actually has more vertical space due to the removal of the details pane. Once the ribbon is minimized there would be tons more real estate: http://blogs.msdn.com/cfs-filesystemfile.ashx/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-01-29-43-metablogapi/8422.Figure-21-_2D00_-Real-Estate-comparison_5F00_2.png http://blogs.msdn.com/cfs-filesystemfile.ashx/__key/communit...

sliverstorm 15y ago
Oh thank god. I hated the detail pane.

masnick 15y ago

> Are you a regular user of Office 2007+? Yes, I hate it. I use Excel 2010 (PC)/2011(Mac) almost every day and I can never find anything in the ribbon. On Mac I use the Help/Search function to jump directly to the menu item I need. On Windows, I'm stuck looking through those awful ribbons.

wanorris 15y ago
I used to work with someone who insisted on Lotus 1-2-3 for Windows because he could never find anything in Excel. Lotus for Windows was better because it still supported the / menus he'd been using in Lotus for DOS. Help/Search does seem like a great feature, though.