Lessons have not been learned: Microsoft's Modern Comments leave users reaching for the rollback button
- Reference: 1621521277
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2021/05/20/word_modern_comment/
- Source link:
It began innocently enough last month. Microsoft has a new [1]"modern commenting experience" and wanted to extend it over the various editions of Word. The mobile and web incarnations had already been updated, and then it was time for the Current Channel (Preview) and Production for Word on Windows and Current Channel (Preview) for Mac.
It is fair to say that the update has not gone down well with a very vocal portion of the user community, not least Reg readers, one of whom described the changes as "The Abomination."
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Comments in documents have long been used in collaborative efforts. Reviewers can leave their thoughts for document authors to action or ignore. Or issue terse responses. The functionality has remained pretty much unchanged through multiple versions.
[5]Microsoft sheds some light on perplexing Outlook blank email incident: Word was to blame
[6]File format conversion crisis delayed attempt to challenge US presidential election result
[7]LibreOffice 7.1 beta boasts impressive range of features let down by a lack of polish and poor mobile efforts
[8]Microsoft doc formats are the bane of office suites on Linux, SoftMaker's Office 2021 beta may have a solution
[9]First impressions count when the world is taken by surprise by an exciting new (macro) virus
[10]IT exec sets up fake biz, uses it to bill his bosses $6m for phantom gear, gets caught by Microsoft Word metadata
However, Microsoft has decided that change was needed and comments are no longer added as a user types but instead require the clicking of a Post button.
'At a loss for ... words'
Being signed in with a work or school account means @ mentions in the comment will fire off notifications via email (with a link to the document in question and the option to add yet more comments).
Other features around threading have also been added.
It all seems reasonable enough, but for those who live and breathe document comments it is clearly a step too far as a glimpse of the more than 150, er, comments on Microsoft's post makes clear.
One problem is with that pesky requirement to "Post" a comment. One user [11]complained that the feature "brings down efficiency" and requested the ability to return to the original style. "Some people simply receive a document, revise, comment, then return. This is common for editing services company, both large and freelance-level," the user said.
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Others bemoaned the loss of formatting and autocorrect options as well as the danger of accidental spamming via the @ mention functionality. Complaints also [13]included the location of comments changing between inserting and posting and a general wobbliness of the whole thing. Reg reader Nick H noted: "Comments now seem to float around randomly. That may be fine if you only have a few, but if you're working on a tech spec with tens or hundreds, it's almost impossible to tie specific comments in with the text."
Another critic [14]wailed : "I am truly at a loss for words as to why this seemed like a good idea to your development team."
Well, this was the company that gave us Clippy after all.
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Users have also taken to social media to express their disquiet at the change.
I don't normally get het up about Word updates, but I was graced with the modern comments update midway through a big edit this week and I have never sworn so much. Awful. — Emily Youers (@emily_youers) [16]April 30, 2021
Perhaps rendered tipsy by the success of Teams, the move seems part of a push into Microsoft's vision for collaboration and consistency over its platform. However, "Not everyone needs to chat via a Word doc. Sometimes, comments are just comments to help the author improve their writing," [17]grumbled another victim of this vision.
Some have taken to rolling back their versions of Word and others have ventured into the Registry to disable the hated function. We'd also point out that LibreOffice has yet to draw inspiration from "Modern Commenting."
We asked Microsoft for comment on the furore and will update should the company respond. In the meantime the recommendation is to use the feedback box. We're sure the Windows giant is listening. ®
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[1] https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-365-blog/introducing-modern-comments-in-microsoft-word/ba-p/2263182
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YKaHmER741jaUgNxf@cQOQAAAFM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YKaHmER741jaUgNxf@cQOQAAAFM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YKaHmER741jaUgNxf@cQOQAAAFM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2021/05/17/outlook_incident_report/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2021/01/04/file_format_conversion_crisis_delayed_trump_lawsuit/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2020/12/03/libreoffice_71_beta/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2020/05/12/softmaker_office_2021_microsoft_document/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2020/03/23/who_me/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2020/01/04/tech_manager_theft/
[11] https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-365-blog/introducing-modern-comments-in-microsoft-word/bc-p/2338203/highlight/true#M1771
[12] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YKaHmER741jaUgNxf@cQOQAAAFM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[13] https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-365-blog/introducing-modern-comments-in-microsoft-word/bc-p/2338203/highlight/true#M1771
[14] https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-365-blog/introducing-modern-comments-in-microsoft-word/ba-p/2263182/highlight/true/page/2#comments
[15] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YKaHmER741jaUgNxf@cQOQAAAFM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[16] https://twitter.com/emily_youers/status/1388157216642015234?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
[17] https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-365-blog/introducing-modern-comments-in-microsoft-word/bc-p/2338185/highlight/true#M1769
[18] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: "Modern Commenting"
Change for the sake of change has been the bane of technology for a long time. This seems to be a cultural phenomenon, and probably won't change any time soon: business schools evangelize about "embracing change" no matter what, instead of teaching to critically evaluate the new stuff before adopting it.
Agile with its "move fast, break thigs" attitude has certainly not helped things.
Re: "Modern Commenting"
"Modern software" - it's a bit shit, isn't it?
Or given all the abstraction going on, it's shit all the way down.
Just confirms
That no one at Microsoft on the Office Team ever creates documents or presentation using Office.
No doubt Microsoft's response will be the same as usual...
...every single complaint will get "we have considered this feedback and decided that no change is required at this time. The new comment experience provides a much more robust and consistent UI and will be the default in all Office apps going forward".
Which, as usual, translates as "we don't care, we do what we like and you either live with it or... well, there isn't really a choice as far as the average IT-illiterate manager is concerned, is there?"
Old laws new again
Sometimes, comments are just comments to help the author improve their writing
I'd add: "Comments are just that, comments."
And then we have "sends email". I had an old memory surface about software, [1]Zawinski's Law :
“Every program attempts to expand until it can read mail. Those programs which cannot so expand are replaced by ones which can.”
It seems that this is still true after so many years. An addition is that it not only can read mail, it can also send mail and probably has aspirations to expand into deep space beyond our solar system. Next step is an AI version to walk on three feet.
[1] http://www.catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/Z/Zawinskis-Law.html
Efficiency?? Ha ha ha ha….
“ One user complained that the feature "brings down efficiency"…”
I thought that was the whole purpose of Word! Same goes for pretty much any MS software.
I had not used anything MS for about the last 10 years but for the last month am having to use Windows 10. WTF??? I’ve never been a fan of Windows but it used to at least notionally work. It’s now overflowing with new “features” that make it f&@?ing unusable. I think my favourite “feature” is that it takes it on itself to delete files it thinks you don’t need any more!! Sends vim into a spin when the temp file it thought it has created suddenly disappears.
It’s this kind of utter nonsense that makes MS products less and less usable with each release.
Dear MS - please just roll back your software to when it used to (mostly) work (I think for Word, that would be about version 6 circa 1995. I think?) and stop pissing about with it adding “features” that absolutely nobody actually wants
Another critic wailed: "I am truly at a loss for words as to why this seemed like a good idea to your development team."
One should not necessarily blame the devs. Micros~1 is, has been, and will forever be first and foremost a marketing company, with technical expertise being a distant second (third?) on the list. More likely, this was the result of some freshly-minted mid-level Millennial marketing exec who (desparately) wishes to make their mark on the C-suite with a new "branding initiative".
The devs probably just threw up their hands in disgust and said, "Yeah, whatever" (after mumbling something decidedly NSFW under their breath).
Well... there's always...
In no particular order:
1) FreeOffice
2) LibreOffice
3) Open365
4) WPS Office
5) Feng Office
6) Calligra Suite
7) OnlyOffice
8) Apache OpenOffice (I know... meh...)
9) SoftMaker FreeOffice
Each can import and export Microsoft stuff.
"Modern Commenting"
"Modern" is an interesting word. From Latin modo (meaning "just now") it implies nothing except blind acceptance of change. Why that should automatically be desirable is not at all clear, but at least one entire industry (clothing fashion) is based on it, and as Larry Ellison famously said " IT is more fashion driven than ladies' fashion ".
It's probably why we had Clippy, the infamous ribbon and the subsequent flat block GUI forced on us - not because they were necessary or fulfilled specific needs but just for the sake of change.