A wish list for Office 2010

Attn. Steve Ballmer (the real one, not the fake one):

Hi, Steve. I know you don't know me from Adam, but I've never been one to let a little thing like complete strangerhood stop me from sharing a thought or six. So here goes.

I've used Microsoft Office products for almost as long as I've been using computers. I spend more time with Word -- the central tool of my writer's existence -- than I do my own wife. And as you work diligently on Office 2010, I wanted to ask you, as a humble, long time customer, for a few favors. Thanks in advance for hearing me out.

1. I want my interface back

Remember Office 2003? Remember its interface? I know you spent months leading up to the Office 2007 release saying the old menu-and-icon paradigm had outlived its usefulness, that it needlessly buried some features so deeply in menu structures that most users never found them. You gave us something called "Ribbons" and said this new approach would revolutionize how we worked.

Well, if "revolutionize" means "kill my productivity for months on end," then I suppose you're right. Even now, over 18 months after switching over, I still find myself pining for the old, comfortable interface. I've customized it as best I can, but it's still too radical a shift. And given the fact that no other Windows applications outside the Office universe support this silly Ribbon thing, I think it's time you admit defeat and move on.

2. I want it to love the Web

I'll fess up: I use Google Apps. There's something cool about having all my stuff in the cloud. I often take notes in Google Docs applications, and then access them from any machine in the home office, including, gasp, our Macs. I always forget what you call your online apps (are they "Windows Live" this week?) but every time I log into my Microsoft account on the Web, I'm reminded why Google still eats your lunch in the Web apps world.

But here's the thing: Web apps may be great for everyday, informal kinds of work. But the world still works in Office. When I research an article, I may use Google Apps to take notes and pull research material together. But when I deliver the final article, it's in Word.

It's this disconnect where your opportunity lies. All this moving stuff back and forth between my Web apps and my Office world is a real productivity killer. The formatting doesn't always survive the trip, and I always have to remember whether my data's currently in the cloud or on my drive. Either way, I hate having to manage two separate and distinct environments.

If you somehow managed to link the full-blown capability of the Office that sits on my laptop with the Web-i-fied flexibility of cloud-based applications, I'd be a happy camper. I know you know Google Gears is already moving Google Apps in a more desktop-centric direction, but it's nowhere near turnkey enough for my computer-phobic mother-in-law and my overworked business colleagues.

Microsoft still retains a massive amount of trust on the desktop, and for all the talk of the Web killing Microsoft Office's future, I just don't see folks abandoning Office en masse for the current generation of skeletally featured Web offerings. Yes, they're getting better all the time, but it'll be a while before we toss out our Office install discs.

Figure out a way to seamlessly connect a rich desktop client into your existing and expanded Web properties and you'll have me hooked. Add a really functional mobile client on top of that -- also reaching into the same Web-based file repository -- and I promise I'll never use Google Apps again.

3. I want it small, fast and portable

You know how some flash drives allow you to install open source software on them? How come Microsoft Office isn't small or squishable enough to do that? I'd love to carry my Office files and applications with me wherever I go, and I'd like to leave my laptop at home when I travel. I suspect drive vendors would line up at your door for the right to market Microsoft Office preloaded on their devices.

With that in mind, I've got to believe that flash- and mobile device-based Office clients (real ones, not the half-baked solutions in Windows Mobile) would influence the conventional client team to develop smaller, faster code. Did you ever use WordPerfect 5.1 for DOS? I know it's an unfair comparison, but that ancient piece of software on an even more ancient 386 was a snappier writer's tool than Word 2007 on my all singing, all dancing Core 2 Duo laptop. Why is that? Usability should include tools that don't take agonizing seconds to catch up to a fast typist.

4. I want it reliable

This may come as news to you, but Office apps don't always behave as they should. They freeze or otherwise crash. They generate weird error messages. Their template files suddenly go corrupt. I often have to hunt down my install disks to reinstall something that was working just fine last week. It's beyond annoying because it takes time away from my day that I simply can't afford to lose.

Could you redirect some of that usability testing to reliability improvements? I know this isn't the sexy stuff that shows up in keynote speeches and demos. But it's the kind of thing that can make or break whether I stick with Office next time out.

I apologize for sounding like a whining kid on a shopping mall Santa's knee. I'm usually not so up-front about asking for stuff. But Office is the one piece of Microsoft-branded software that literally sits under my nose all day, every day. I can't possibly overstate how important it is for you to get the next version right. I'll even be so bold as to say Office matters more to Microsoft's future brand value than Windows does. Please don't ship a warmed over Office 2007 and think it's enough. It won't be.

Can't wait to see what you come up with. Thanks for listening.

Sincerely,

Carmi

Carmi Levy is a Canadian-based independent technology analyst and journalist still trying to live down his past life leading help desks and managing projects for large financial services organizations. He comments extensively in a wide range of media, and works closely with clients to help them leverage technology and social media tools and processes to drive their business.