[OnlineEditor]

OpenOffice has divided its fan base with a new interface clearly inspired by Office 2007's Ribbon.

OpenOffice tidies up with a Ribbon

[nichomach0]

I hate the O2K7 ribbon with a passion and vitriol that I'd only previously been able to muster for Clippy. Adopting it for OO is not a step forward...

[nicomo]

At first I didn't like that ribbon either, but eventually adopted to it. Though I mostly work with Open Office and very rarely with M$Office, I see that this simply helps users work between the two apps. Choice is there for users and they are entitled to complain and disable things they don't like. I would like Open Office to make a brave jump forward, though I wouldn't want it to go in the wrong direction either - the UI needs polishing geared more to user friendlyness and gadgets and add-ons that we can all build all very easily.

[big_D]

After not seeing the point of the ribbon bar in Office 2007, I've grown used to it and it is better, in some respects, than the old toolbars - although I like the idea of the hybrid, having the ribbon and the menus...

That said, the screenshot seems to be aimed at disuading users from using it. I appreciate that it is a work in progress and it is missing the finer points of the finished article, but that is just grotesque! Plenty of other companies have managed to get ribbon bars working with little or no pain and no ugly UIs... I'm guessing that, being cross platform, they are writing all the code for ribbon handling themselves, from scratch, as opposed to getting it working with the Ribbon Bar support code that MS provide, then worrying about porting it...

[wittgenfrog]

I never quite "got" the ribbon interface until recently. I now find it indispensable, especially in Office 2010 \ Windows 7 guise. Its not the "ultimate" development of the GUI, but it IS a very useful develoipment.

[Grunthos]

I've tried to use OO in the past and the interface (on all the applications) is a joke.

This in my experience is the biggest failing of Open Source products. Even the ones I use regularly have dreadful interface design.

[areluc]

IMHO the Ribbon represents one of the more significant UI developments in recent years. If it was invented by Apple instead of MS, everybody would be singing from the rooftops about it. And let's face it, the touch screen is very unlikely to make it to the computer screen. Interestingly enough, the former company, widely praised for innovation, still seems to stick to the so-1990s pull-down menu system.

[craven5]

I've used OpenOffice since version 1. I found the original pretty poor in terms of many features. Version 2 was a big step forwards in MS compatability and stability. With version 3 I have experienced many more crashes and lost work. I don't like MS Office (including the ribbon) but I have never had it crash like OO does.

My worry is that the OO team are putting 'new' features over stability. After all, is the lack of a ribbon feature preventing a significant portion of users from switching to OpenOffice?

[ripclaw666]

I think with the ribbon it's like with the new Windows 7 toolbar - folks will have a hard time adjusting to the change, simply because it is different, but once used to it they find it quite useful indeed. Personally I like the ribbon and love the new toolbar, but it takes a minute or two to get to that point.
That said, the screenshot has got to be either a _really_ early version or as others said, it is intented to get people off the idea of using ribbon altogether. OO never had the most beautiful UI but this is taking the piss really. Where in Office I get a preview of a dozen or so quick styles, here I get a big grey meaningless button? Really?
That said, the menu bar looks good actually.

[stasi47]

Isn't any one of you guys having a feeling, that with all those horizontal toolbars, ribbons and modern windows taskbars, monitor's aspect ratio should be more like 9x16 instead of the opposite?

IMHO the vertically placed ribbon, would be much more useful in
combination with oh-so-common wide screens.

[stasi47]

I've tried to use OO in the past and the interface (on all the applications) is a joke.

This in my experience is the biggest failing of Open Source products. Even the ones I use regularly have dreadful interface design.

I would not point my finger at Open Source only. In my experience, all Linux/Unix GUI's differ per application or at least per vendor. Such setup surely does not enhance the simplicity and intuitiveness of applications. It is really frustrating as user needs to learn the widgets of each application from the beginning.

Of course I am fully aware about programmer's advantage of it - such application uses its own GUI and thus is easily portable across different OS'es. But should it happen at the cost of user-friendliness?

[Josefov]

Isn't any one of you guys having a feeling, that with all those horizontal toolbars, ribbons and modern windows taskbars, monitor's aspect ratio should be more like 9x16 instead of the opposite?

IMHO the vertically placed ribbon, would be much more useful in
combination with oh-so-common wide screens.

Quite recently I was trying to drag the Ribbon on my widescreen laptop to sit horizontally on a side and was fairly shocked when failed... Can't believe they've not thought about that.

As for OO, so many times I was trying to use it just for it open source credentials but, well... I'd rather save up and buy a merc than drive to France in given for free reliant robin. OO's always been just plain ugly and is only an option if you can't or don't want to spend money. And the new look only emphasizes the fact that OO developers can only try and catch up with MS Office. It'd be great if one day they could wow us with something groundbreaking but it might be a very long wait indeed.