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Comment by lordlarm | Hacker News Reader

Difficult to say if this is a April-fools joke, but if not, here is my thoughts.

I hope Microsoft does not apply the ribbon UI to all their future programs as it takes a lot of pixles and makes the menu messy and complex. The minimalistic side of me would hope for more shortcuts and _one_ place where you did settings/preferences for a program. I believe Mac OSX has done this very good with their system preferences panel and globally accessible cmd+',' shortcut in order to get to the preferences of current program.

And what is up with that background picture?

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I will agree with you that OS X Preference windows are easy to natigate and often have very apt UX for various types of preferences.

However, the menubar system (File, Edit, View, etc) as it currently stands is in much need of improvement. How many times have you hunted for an action/preference in the menubars to no avail? It's rows and rows of text with no visual feedback for various types of actions.

The only improvement of late has been the addition of a live "search and hunt" (by that I mean, type in a search keyword and it will hunt it out of the menu and point to it).

Yes, I agree with you on the 'file, edit, view, window' etc. This need some rethinking and redesigning, but I'm not sure these huge ribbons is the right way.

Hence my example to Mac OSX cmd+',' : if I want to edit some preferences in my program I know where to do it. In windows the preferences can be both under 'file', 'view' or 'window' for that matter.

This is only an example, but the Windows-line has proven to have almost non-existing 'rules' for how to layout preferences and this affect mainly the non-technical user.

How many times have you hunted for an action/preference in the menubars to no avail?

not sure which OS you're talking about, but in OSX all menus are searchable via the help menu (top entry in help menu is a search field. type here and it will highlight matching menu items in any menu)

[Edit: this video shows what I 'm talking about http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOoOvIqiWe0&feature=playe...]

I find it easier to locate things in a well-organized system of menus than I do on the "Ribbon" where everything is just sort of in your face. Countless times I've stared at the ribbon for minutes trying to find what I want to do, only to suddenly spot it and realize it was right in front of me all along, but because it's so busy nothing stands out.

My number one peeve with MS is the Ribbon and if that becomes global in Windows 8 I'm finished with the platform.

I don't understand people who say this about the ribbon UI. "Messy and complex"? Do you remember what Office XP looked like on startup? Literally forty different, tiny anonymous icons?

These ribbons look to be the same thing that exists in MS outlook. I must say that I think the outlook UI is messy. Way too much going on. If I used it more I would spend more time to learn the shortcuts. Since I don't know them I have to hunt through the numerous icons/options in the 'ribbon' like header which can be very frustrating.

> ...it takes a lot of pixels...

Just want to point out that you can hide it so it looks like a normal menu bar until you open a menu - seems a lot of people aren't aware of that feature.

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