inconsistent UI in Office 2016 Pro

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stuck
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inconsistent UI in Office 2016 Pro

Post by stuck »

This is no big deal but...

On my home PC I have a copy of Office 2016 Pro, I bought it when it first came out for Mickey Mouse money via the MS Home Use Programme. Outlook is the only application that gets daily use. Until very recently all of the individual applications have had a consistent look and feel. An unchanging one too. Nothing unsurprising there, since this is the 'perpetual license' version of Office, not Office 365.

Today I opened Excel for the first time in ages and found a new-fangled appearance but it's only Excel that has this new look. Outlook and Word are unchanged. It seems that the 2110 update to Office 2016 has done this. Notably it changed the location of my QAT, putting it underneath the Ribbon and changed the Office Theme from 'colorful' to 'use system setting'. Having unfangle-ated these changes Excel once again looks similar to Outlook and Word but the Ribbon still has rounded corners and the tab names are underlined rather than joined to the Ribbon.

I suppose this is Progress (with a capital P to indicate a proper noun, rather than a lower case p indicating an adjective describing forward motion)

Ken

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John Gray
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Re: inconsistent UI in Office 2016 Pro

Post by John Gray »

I would refer you to Hutber's Law... :sad:
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stuck
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Re: inconsistent UI in Office 2016 Pro

Post by stuck »

I'm not saying this is a backward step, it just seems odd that only Excel gets a new look, especially in a 'static' product like Office 2016. If I had Office 365 I wouldn't have bothered making a post.

But hey, who knows the mind of MS...

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HansV
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Re: inconsistent UI in Office 2016 Pro

Post by HansV »

There's a lot of speculation about this change. Users of Microsoft 365 can turn it off, but Office 2016, 2019 and 2021 don't offer an option for this in the interface.
If you'd like to revert, see Excel Toolbar Corrupted. (Thanks to Charles Kenyon for this link)
Best wishes,
Hans

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stuck
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Re: inconsistent UI in Office 2016 Pro

Post by stuck »

Thanks but I use Excel so rarely at home, probably because I play with it all day at work, it's not worth the effort of poking in the Registry.

I will note though that the really stupid thing about this 'new experience' is the addition of a Save icon at the left hand end of the title bar. You don't seem to be able to remove it so now I have to edit my QAT, to remove the Save icon in there. Plus that new Save icon is a slightly different size to the icons on the QAT. Why? Surely they could have made it the same size as those on the QAT?
:scratch:

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stuck
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Re: inconsistent UI in Office 2016 Pro

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Also, my initial searching about this 'new experience' suggests it's an Office 365 on Windows 11 thing so how come it's turned up in one, and only one, of my Office 2016 apps on Windows 10?

It doesn't feel like this has been thought through...

Ken

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Re: inconsistent UI in Office 2016 Pro

Post by HansV »

In addition to Microsoft 365, Office 2016, 2019 and 2021 have been affected.
In Word, the appearance of styles in the Styles group on the Home tab of the ribbon has changed, and Outlook has a simplified ribbon.
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Hans

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stuck
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Re: inconsistent UI in Office 2016 Pro

Post by stuck »

HansV wrote:
24 Nov 2021, 15:28
...In Word, the appearance of styles in the Styles group on the Home tab of the ribbon has changed, and Outlook has a simplified ribbon.
Oh yes, the Styles group on Word's Ribbon is different but the Ribbon itself is unchanged, it doesn't have the curvy corners that Excel has. I can't see any simplification of Outlook's Ribbon. Neither does it have rounded corners. Hence my feeling it's a bit half-baked, at least in Office 2016.

My searching has not (yet) found anything that shows pictures this' new experience'. Can you give me a link or even just suitable keywords to search on?

Thanks,

Ken

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Re: inconsistent UI in Office 2016 Pro

Post by HansV »

As usual, Microsoft hasn't documented this change (yet).
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Hans

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Re: inconsistent UI in Office 2016 Pro

Post by HansV »

Update: my Office 2021 was updated yesterday to version 2112 (Build 14729.20194 Click-to-Run). The ribbon and Quick Access Toolbar in Excel are back to how they looked before mid-November 2021.
Best wishes,
Hans

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Re: inconsistent UI in Office 2016 Pro

Post by stuck »

HansV wrote:
06 Jan 2022, 12:56
...back to how they looked before mid-November 2021.
:rofl: :rofl:

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Re: inconsistent UI in Office 2016 Pro

Post by kdock »

I read about this at AskWoody, but only in the context of Exchange. There's something called the Y2K22 bug that I don't fully understand. But you can read about it here.
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Re: inconsistent UI in Office 2016 Pro

Post by ChrisGreaves »

stuck wrote:
23 Nov 2021, 18:53
But hey, who knows the mind of MS...
I do !

I have been saying and writing for years that Microsoft is not a software company. They are primarily a marketing company.
Microsoft is very good at selling copies of MS products.
Microsoft is not good at all at writing software.

Think back to how many MS software products start off by being shanghaied from a 3rd-party author. I am thinking of the 90s here, when a new feature in MSWord would be a 3rd-party bolted-on piece of code(1), and if users used it, then it would be written in the MSWord implementation language for the next version.

If your livelihood depends on quality, then you pay attention to quality.
If it is not, then you do not.

Can it be stated any simpler than that?
Cheers
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