Changing to a theme with color in Office 2013?

Please...PLEASE...someone tell me there is a way to change the Office 2013 RTM themes beyond just a grey-scale look. All I can see is "White", "Light Grey", and "Dark Grey"...which is equivalent to "Stormtrooper White", Stormtrooper Light Grey", and "Stormtrooper Dark Grey". Did the Adams Family design the Office 2013...because everything looks like a flat-styled death theme compared to Office 2010. I'm quite literally getting eye-strain from it. I can see a headache coming on if I try to use this all day.

Is there some option I'm missing, some third-party add-on, a registry tweak...or ANYTHING that will add a blue, tan, or any other splash of real color to Office 2013? Also, is there some way to add some depth to the slider bars? Everything looks so flat....and dead. I'm working with these tools all day long...and it's like I'm living in a Twilight Zone episode. I feel depressed after using Office 2013.

  • Edited by SAS71 Saturday, October 27, 2012 11:17 PM
October 27th, 2012 11:07pm

Unfortunately, I don't think so. It is AWFUL!! I've been using it less than 2 days - and was very tempted to go back to 2010, but I like a couple of the features - especially in PowerPoint.

What were they thinking?

  • Proposed as answer by mase2008 Tuesday, January 28, 2014 3:11 PM
  • Unproposed as answer by mase2008 Tuesday, January 28, 2014 3:11 PM
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October 28th, 2012 2:27am

You start Windows 8...and see all the crazy colors. Wow...there are colors EVERYWHERE....it's like Teletubbies land. Then, you launch the Excel 2013 app...and all the life is instantly sucked right out of Windows 8. You can feel it in your bones. The Office apps are a barren, Boot Hill-esque, cold wasteland....with grey and white tumbleweeds and gravestones. Then, you go back into Metro...and WHAM...it's the Skittles rainbow monster voraciously attacking everything in sight. Nom nom nom nom. Big blocks of color coming at you....it's crazy like...wow man...what a Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas trip crazy! You are flying sky high with the bats and stingrays. Life is groovy. You then launch Outlook 2013 and WHAM...there you are...slammed down to the ground...back in Frankenweenie land ready to raise some dead animals or something.

How hard would it be to add a color option to Office 2013? Would it literally...take all of 10 minutes to code? Is there a color option coming soon? Like...in the next few weeks soon? If this is Microsoft's new schtick...I'll even accept a "Dripping Blood Red" or "Burnt Corpse Greenish Brown"  theme option at this point....I'm so color depraved. Why isn't there any color in the number one Microsoft cash cow? Did vampires develop it? Did Trent Reznor manage the project? Is Office 2013 an homage to Boris Karloff? What's up?

Actually...I don't care what's up...I just want to know how to fix it. Really, there is no way to fix it? Really?

  • Marked as answer by SAS71 Sunday, October 28, 2012 4:23 AM
  • Edited by SAS71 Sunday, October 28, 2012 2:30 PM
  • Unmarked as answer by SAS71 Sunday, October 28, 2012 9:17 PM
  • Proposed as answer by GreenJelloLand Thursday, January 10, 2013 7:24 PM
October 28th, 2012 3:17am

Haha, It looks exactly like this site. All the new MS products look like they're going back in time with all these plain, blah colors.


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November 13th, 2012 7:46pm

I have just un-installed the Office 2013 Preview, and installed the Office 2013 RTM 60-day trial on my Windows 8 Enterprise Evaluation PC (a spare machine). The Evaluation runs out in three weeks, and so far, I see no reason to re-install Office 2013 (or even Windows 8) on that PC. 

Thanks to the possibility to add a bit of contrast, Office looks a little less awful than before - but in terms of looks, it's still miles behind even Office 2003 under Windows XP, which is what I use on my main PC (the 'silver' theme is my favourite). Too much - way too much - has been sacrificed for the sake of touch-screen lookalikeness and modern style.

It annoys me that in order to upgrade my PC to the latest software-technological level, I have to accept what some tw... I mean person, has decided is Design.

"It is New, therefore it is Good", people tell me. "Get over it, live with it", they say. "Boll...." no, I'd better not write what I reply here. Suffice it to say that I disagree with those sentiments. A lot.



  • Edited by Dogmatix2 Sunday, November 18, 2012 9:50 AM
November 18th, 2012 9:49am

But what is the point to it?  Like I said it isn't compatible with Windows 8, the old classic grey colour scheme seems to be the most similar and its not in Windows 8.  I can't see how its anymore touch friendly either really.

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November 19th, 2012 7:10pm

It is truly a travesty what they've done with Office 2013. There is feature after countless feature removed from Office 2010...and it looks terrible to boot. I'm absolutely baffled as to what the Office team has been doing for the past 3 years. It looks like they spent all their time removing things. Honestly, Office 2010 is a better product...hands down. PowerPoint is somewhat improved...but the rest of the apps are worse than what we previously had. I wish I was being over the top...but I'm not...they really are worse with less features than Office 2010. It also looks nothing like Metro. Metro is colorful and such...Office 2013 makes you want to commit suicide.

Just check out how many features have been removed: 

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc178954.aspx

I uninstalled it as well...it was making my eyes bleed. I can't tell you how much happier I am to be back and running Outlook 2010. It looks SOOOOO much better, has color, and 3d slider bars, and life! The flat look of grey eye death is finally gone! What a waste of my time...honestly...it's a waste of time to upgrade.

  • Edited by SAS71 Wednesday, November 21, 2012 2:45 AM
November 21st, 2012 2:35am

I think they have spent a fair amount of time on Access, there are lots of differences including a lot of feature removals, haven't spent enough time fiddling with it to say whether it's better or worse, I suppose it depends on what features you use.

Edit: okay now I have, where the hell have pivot tables gone?

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November 22nd, 2012 5:04pm

Microsoft should consider Walt Disney's approach to designing Disneyland:

Upon seeing the original design for how the sidewalks were going to be laid out in Disneyland (with right-angle turns), Walt commented with the following:  "People aren't soldiers! They don't turn in at sharp angles! Curve the sidewalks! Make the corners round!"

However, after the park opened, Walt noticed that in some places, guests ignored the sidewalks and would cut across the grass, or jump over a hedge to get to the next attraction.  Initially, he was a bit vexed over this situation, but (being Walt Disney and all), he realized that he was not only fighting a losing battle, but his guests had developed a better traffic flow solution than the park's engineers.

He instructed his team to let the guests walk wherever they wanted, and to observe how the crowds would instinctively create the best path from A to B.  Based on this data, they tore out some of the original sidewalks and created new ones to accommodate the natural flow of the crowds.

Microsoft could use Walt Disney right about now...


  • Edited by N2TheBlu Saturday, December 01, 2012 10:49 PM Grammar
December 1st, 2012 10:49pm

I couldn't take it... Went back to Office 2010 and carrying on with it.
  • Edited by JeffLe73 Wednesday, December 12, 2012 4:59 AM
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December 12th, 2012 4:59am

At least I can change the default for Windows 8 to something like a reasonable blue frame.  I am actually having trouble with office 2013 because I can't distinguish the boundaries, and the change in read and unread email I want the FROM name bold, not the slight blue on the subject, I can't scan it and the view is so "bright" even dark gray is bright.  Spend the day and create a hundred color themes including OFFICE 2010 Theme!

I also don't like products yelling at me the menu FILE  HOME  SEND/RECEIVE  FOLDER  VIEW  Conferencing (using communicator 2007)

How do I get a more pleasant menu as well, please stop yelling at me.


UPDATE:  I found a way to stop the yelling by modifying the ribbon and renaming each menu item by adding a space after it (except for FILE).  I also found the view settings to modify the font and highlight on read and unread messages, though it could be a lot better and is still limited on coloring etc.

But the theme is still...  well dead.


December 21st, 2012 11:03pm

+1 on all the above.

Microsoft, what were you thinking ?????

After years of refining a superb UI for office, it's all been tossed out and replaced by something that looks like an Unix X window interface of 15 years ago.

It does hurt my eyes and I don't think I'll be able to use it for more than a couple of days before going back to 2010.

At least give us a 'make this look a little bit like Office 2010' option.

Terrible mistake.

Microsoft,

Billions of people will have 2 choices left: Feel depressed by using their day to days office 2013 software or quit and move to something better and cooler... IOS and Android tablets be my guest! Youre finally killing the PC and therefore yourself by thinking we will all follow you in your dreadful madness and self-fulfilling believes.

And please, dont think one sec that youre facing the kind of people who refuse to learn/evolve. Windows 8 makes everything painful when it comes to be efficient at work and office 2013 with its great lack of contrast makes everything feel messy. Sorry guys, but your concept of casual working tools & OS is a complete failure and its tide to very little details.

Let people decide if they want to start or not with your modern UI or not, let them decide if they feel the need or not of a fast and efficient start menu, let them decide if they want to be able to contrast their interface elements in order to make things clear

Youve try and no one is gone a blame you for it but you obviously failed (see billions of negatives comments over the internet and watch your sales figures) now its time to listen actively to your customer community and do the little needed fixes quickly otherwise is going to be too late and we all need you guys in this industry surrounding because after all, youre making good products!

For the time being START8 from stardock software is our best friend and its a shame !

PN TASLE











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December 28th, 2012 3:37pm

MICROSOFT, PLEASE, find SOME SMART GRAPHICS DESIGNERS and ask them to use their imagination to bring OFFICE 2013 back to life !!!!

Actually it shouldn't be too hard:

why in the world did you decide to make everything totally FLAT and WHITE (oh yes, GREY too if you like it !!!) ?????????

You are killing my eyes and wasting a lot, I mean, a lot of space between buttons, frames etc.... touch users work with fingers - I understand that - but you went beyond wildest imagination with this excessive UI spacing.

I bet you had to do that because, without colors and being everything flat, the only way you had to visually organize and separate different features in the UI was to use A LOT of "distance" between them, ergo these incredibly wide white spaces filled with nothing....killing everybody's eyes!!!!

....and - by the way - all this excessive spacing is steeling very precious pixels from the small 1366 x 768 tablet touch screens (which I use too)....making the Windows 8 tablet user even angrier!

You guys came up with a lot of good innovations lately but YOU TOTALLY FAILED on the USER INTERFACE side.

HUMBLE SUGGESTION to FIX THIS MESS:   

go back to using COLORS and BRING depth (or call it z-order dimension if you will) back in the game....don't you realize that by using 3 dimensions (instead of 2 = FLAT) you can communicate much more information with the same pixels???????   You had it right with AERO....try to come up with a new version of METRO that has all the good qualities of AERO combined and you'll see a lot of VERY HAPPY CUSTOMERS !!!!

 I truly hope someone in MSFT is listening and taking immediate action.

Thank you.


  • Edited by Macarone Saturday, January 05, 2013 9:42 PM
January 5th, 2013 9:41pm

Yeah... I tried to get used to the new "design" ... three times

no luck... It`s my third time now to uninstall Office 2013 and install again Office 2010 :)

By the way Windows 8 is not so bad when you install a third party App to return the Start menu and make it usable.

I hope that there will be third party apps that will make Office 2013 usable too. But for now I`ll have to use Office 2010 :)

  • Proposed as answer by Pipsqueak2056 Saturday, January 19, 2013 4:49 AM
  • Unproposed as answer by Pipsqueak2056 Saturday, January 19, 2013 4:49 AM
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January 17th, 2013 5:50pm

Hideous.

I bought Office 2013 through my company's Home User Program for $9.95 and after installing it I realize that I paid too much. 

I've been using Microsoft products professionally since before Windows 3 but I really can't use Office 2013 at all - it's just horrible to look at and has no compelling features.  Outlook is quite simply the ugliest, most repulsive piece of software I've ever seen.

How can a company be so stupid?

  • Proposed as answer by JeffLe73 Sunday, January 20, 2013 12:26 AM
January 19th, 2013 4:58am

The graphical interface of Office 2013 is really bad and the design is not suitable for use intessive. Thank you for making the necessary to provide an update of the product to have more colorful icons and theme approaching the interface of Windows 8 (Start Screen). Last, notifications emails should again allow the execution of actions. Integration with Windows 8 has lost these functions.

Currently it is clearly not feasible to conduct a migration to MS Office 2013. The recommendation is to stay on the version of Office 2010.
  • Edited by Pierre_CG67 Tuesday, January 22, 2013 1:05 PM
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January 22nd, 2013 1:04pm

The graphical interface of Office 2013 is really bad and the design is not suitable for use intessive. Thank you for making the necessary to provide an update of the product to have more colorful icons and theme approaching the interface of Windows 8 (Start Screen). Last, notifications emails should again allow the execution of actions. Integration with Windows 8 has lost these functions.

Currently it is clearly not feasible to conduct a migration to MS Office 2013. The recommendation is to stay on the version of Office 2010.
  • Edited by Pierre_CD67 Tuesday, January 22, 2013 1:05 PM
January 22nd, 2013 1:04pm

Agreed, The Office 2013 UI is shockingly bad. I shifted back to Office 2010 pretty quickly.

It will be going nowhere near our School network anytime soon until something gets changed.

It would be an improvement if we could actually manage the Office UI Theme via registry like you could in Office 2007/2010 but you can't in 2013 as it ignores the registry entry and dumps everyone back into the hideous white theme.

Another fail by Microsoft, Its almost as bad as Windows 8.


  • Edited by Dave684 Sunday, January 27, 2013 12:51 AM spelling
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January 27th, 2013 12:50am

I found this thread and created an account on the forums because of this problem.

Word especially really hurts my eyes on my 24" monitor, where the document in the center of the screen is flanked by two unnecessary bright white panels.  Yes it really lacks pizazz in all three of the "themes" (which was a real surprise considering Win8's great looks) but more importantly it's just not an interface I want to look at for long because it hurts and makes my eyes tired.   In a dark room I repeately reach for the brightness to reduce it's assault on my eyes but the lack of contrast makes everything even more difficult to see.  I'm 29 and have 20/20 eyesight with no contacts or glasses if it matters.  I cant imagine what others with worse vision are going through.  (This may not be a problem for tablet users because the screens just aren't that big.)

Microsoft, you need to consider a few things here. 

1)  Add themes with color and improved contrast.  Please don't fall into a trap thinking "They don't like it now, but they will and when they do we'll be heroes."  It's not just about style, it's about discomfort and usability.  This is just not one of those "trust me, you'll like it" situations.  If you're trying to make some kind of statement with the current themes, keep them but you need to add others.

2)  FILE  EDIT  VIEW etc. are too brash in all caps.  This is another small design detail that overall impacts user comfort.  Nothing else in Win8 to my knowledge shouts at the user like this and nothing about it is "modern."  If you need to be convinced, look at companies who have recently modernized their fonts and logos, such as GE or even Microsoft's new logo.  'Modernization' was a priority, but there was no sudden embrace of all caps.  (There is an interesting article about GE's new font and how they tried to modernize it and make the company feel more accessible on the web somewhere.)

3)  The lack of "button edges" around functions doesn't bother me too much, but consider an option (a checkbox on/off perhaps) to add button edges if the user desires.  I understand that on a tablet, button edges may suggest to the user that they need to touch more accurately in the square than they need to, but with a mouse it's nice to have the subconcious? mental clue that the cursor is in the right place.

You can implement all of these things very easily while preserving the original look for other users, and for the price of Office software and it's status as the flagship productivity suite it should offer baseline adjustments for comfort.  Right now it's like a Rolls Royce without adjustable seats - it's a lot of money and we can't get comfortable.

I hope the time I spent giving well thought out feedback (as opposed to quickly written criticism) convinces you how important this is to me and possibly the predicted success of the product.  A lot of people are going to notice this in Microsoft stores, and who knows how many people might be silently turned away by this because afterall, Office 2010 is still a great product.
  • Edited by redraider832 Wednesday, January 30, 2013 5:27 PM
January 30th, 2013 5:20pm

Microsoft

I am so disappointed in the narrow perspective Microsoft have taken here in your design. I am the CEO of a
charitable disabilities organisation and the new 2013 MS Office is a poor design
for use and readability. It does lack consideration of Occupational Health and Safety Standards
and completely fails when considering those with visual disabilities. Even I find it prisms when reading and my eyes are straining.

You have gone for design over function and despite the new additional options can't you see that if the
visual fails no one will spend the time on the program to use it to its full capacity.

I have mistakenly just installed this an all of our systems to correct an issue in outlook 2010
which the new installation did, but now have a larger issue of workplace health and safety.

Please create some add ins or upgrades to correct this quickly.



  • Edited by CATAGroup Thursday, February 07, 2013 4:15 AM
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February 7th, 2013 4:02am

Just installed Office 2013 and am flabbergasted by how white (even the "dark" themes) actually are. I mean, seriously? You get it completely right with the dark interface in VS 2012 and then completely bomb on Office. Maybe your business groups should talk a bit more to each other about design thematics. I'm going back to 2012; there's no way I can stand to look at this much white for 12 hours a day..
  • Proposed as answer by moh10ly Friday, February 08, 2013 11:06 AM
February 8th, 2013 1:50am

Dear,

I do not think continously cut&paste your default answer "We have passed this information to the product group for consideration for a future product or update.. and or "we are monitoring pain points..." " is what we would expect from a professional forum like this. If in large companies I hear Execs opposing to upgrading to office2013 beaucse of the lack of options to change colour schemes apart from three shades of grey and them facing potential OHS complaints from medical staff and/or employees, I would not hesitate one second and escalate this up to the level of Balmer. You cannot continue to ignore these valid remarks provided by (so far) very loyal users.  I think 99.9% of Office use is on corporate /academic / private desktop computers not on a tablet. Quite honostly on my 3 - 26 inch expensive monitors the least I want is a boring eighties style interface that might (I say might) work on a tablet.  In my environment (professionally and privately) I hear nothing but complaints about this dreadful interface (and it's inability  to be changed).  I cannot imagine that "I will de-install and go back to Office 2010" or : " I will not upgrade" is the kind of response you might want from your most valuable existing user base. I think there is a lot at stake for your Office business unit so if I where you I would take these signals extremely serious and not wait even a week to provide additional templates so that you can put your existing hughe Office user base back in their comfort zone or there might be no real further future for this product. In my view the future of office is still on a desktop, not on a tablet or surface that (at current) nobody buys.

PS: 26000+ views on this topic: got the message folks? Steve Balmer? Anybody listening at MS to your users (your bread and butter)?


  • Edited by StefanWeckx Friday, February 08, 2013 12:35 PM
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February 8th, 2013 12:05pm

Why can I have beautiful themes in my Gmail web site, but on my locally installed Office app all I get is this horrible, eye strain-inducing flatness? And why, WHY, did they change the outlookicon to blue, surely confusing millions of users for weeks? This is why people aren't buying WinPho! Its ugly, flat & boring. We can see three dimensionally for a reason. I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to go back to 2010, which was bad enough with its extremely limited color options, but at least had some.


  • Edited by Willmgo Tuesday, February 12, 2013 9:29 PM
February 12th, 2013 9:28pm

I found this solution for centrally setup black Office 2013 color theme for all my users (this is a part of common user login script):

REG ADD HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Common\Roaming\Identities\%USERNAME%@%USERDOMAIN%_AD\Settings\1170\{00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000}\PendingChanges /v Data /t REG_BINARY /d 02000000 /f
REG ADD HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Common /v "UI Theme" /t REG_DWORD /d 2 /f

Replace 02000000 with  00000000 and </d 2 /f> with </d 0 /f> for completely white theme or 1 for middle.

We use russian Office version. For other languages key 1170 may have other values probably.


  • Edited by SSGAZPROM Friday, February 15, 2013 11:16 AM
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February 15th, 2013 11:12am

Just spent over an hour going through the .exe files and .dll files looking for the graphics just in case I could manually replace them.
I found a whole bunch of icons, but the main bulk and look of the menu has eluded me.
I want the functionality of 2013 (there are some nice new features that I like!) with the look of 2010.  Opening them side by side it's clear as day that 2010 is WAY nicer, easier on the eye and easier to find your icons.

Why can't we just pick the overall colour as we do with Windows 7 aero where I can make it any shade of any colour I want.  How is this progress?! :)

  • Edited by CreepyD Monday, February 18, 2013 12:35 PM
February 18th, 2013 12:33pm

I hate the new look and feel of Office 2013.  I think Microsoft is changing it "just to change it" but now this is a huge step backward!  It is too hard to see the menu nav icons at-a-glance.  My eyeballs hurt with this failed effort at simplicity.  This is the first time I have ever been disappointed by an Office upgrade, and I've been using Office since the late 1980s.   I am tempted to go back to Office 2010.

  • Edited by fpbear Friday, February 22, 2013 10:43 AM
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February 22nd, 2013 10:42am

Same here, installed it yesterday and uninstalling it right now. Too bright, too little contrast, separations too hard to distinguish, very bad UI. Doesn't take a UI guru to see how bad this actually hits on productivity.

Why would MS ruin such a Cash Cow as Office? Well ask the Windows Mobile team about monumental fails.

There is no way we will install this for our users (small company, 150 users).


  • Edited by PCP69 Wednesday, February 27, 2013 11:14 AM
February 27th, 2013 11:13am

Are the folks at Microsoft using this piece of crap 2013 white all over the place Outlook client?  Probably not otherwise they would be the first to revolt.  Who the hell wants to look at a bright white screen all day!  MICROSOFT I'M GOING BLIND HERE AND YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE!!!

Microsoft employees older than 18 are likely not using it.

Our company made a decision just today to not upgrade to Office 2013 because of the interface and we will not be subscribing to Office 365 because of this interface that is used in its Office offering.

We will purchase new licenses to allow us to downgrade to Office 2010, but we will not be spending the type of money we would have if they hadn't screwed up the UI.

We also will not purchase or upgrade any desktop or laptop with or to Windows 8 and will continue to install Windows Server 2008 R2 on our physical and virtual servers.

None of us in the shop can understand what happened to Microsoft, bad decision after bad decision.

Office 2013 UI, Windows 8 UI, Windows Server 2012 UI, Surface RT and Pro, Windows Phones, etc.

Maybe Ballmer is trying to kill the company or is this all part of Steven Sinofsky's revenge.

Ex-Microsoft Partner.

One additional thing: Just noticed in the news, Microsoft is discounting Windows 8 to developers to increase sales (Today: 3-6-2013), which is very unlikely to increase sales of Windows 8. I have found that on a desktop or laptop almost nobody likes the UI.

 
  • Edited by TBeckner OTEC Thursday, March 07, 2013 2:14 AM New News
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March 7th, 2013 2:09am

I'm uninstalling Office 2013 and going back to Office 2010.  That they charge money for this downgrade in functionality that is called Office 2013 is insulting.  I'd have to poke my eyes out if I had to use Outlook 2013 every day.
  • Edited by CleverRoX Friday, March 29, 2013 7:19 PM
March 29th, 2013 7:19pm

Why on earth has Microsoft NOT given users the ability to customise Office 2013?

I have installed it as part of Office 365 (cheapest way to get Office pro) and am astonished. The big issue is usability - the 2010 coloured ribbon bar, etc, made items and areas of the window much more distinguishable - it now takes longer to idenbtify the required command. So, Office 2013 is a backwards step in usability. How could they do this, after all their testing? Who's in charge, and how can we get them sacked?

The other issue is aesthetics. Both Windows 8 (which I installed as an upgrade as Vista, and then bought a new copy of Windows 7 and upgraded from Windows 8 to a useable system) and office 2013 are plain ugly.

There is a science of aesthetics, and no-one with decision authority at Microsoft understands it.

Humans DON'T like straight lines and sharp corners. They don't like plain slabs of colour. They like seeing varying detail at different levels of magnification. This is NOT just opinion - it is established by multiple scientific studies.

All the windozes since Windows 3 have been getting more and more attractive by these criteria - Aero was really good.

Now Microsoft has forced interfaces on us that are not as attractive to humans - in a scientifically objective sense.

I think the real reason most people dislike Windows 8 and Office 2013 is that they are just plain ugly - and facing an ugly screen all day is just plain awful.

  • Proposed as answer by Bryan Spiegel Friday, May 17, 2013 1:14 PM
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April 27th, 2013 11:33pm

I guess you need to consider the direction all this technology is going in as well.

Most vendors are making their apps cloud based, as it's not really that efficient to stream many different colours. The whole Office 2013 / Windows 8 interface appears to have been optimised to be bandwith efficient.

I agree, there could be some better colour combinations, but then your asking developers to do aesthetics.

Maybe MSFT should do the code and Apple could do the UI....

And if you still think it looks bad, run up Solaris up in a VM, go look at IT'S gui, then come back and complain...


  • Edited by jimmywhite Wednesday, May 22, 2013 9:56 AM
May 22nd, 2013 9:56am

For me it isn't the color scheme as much as how flat it looks, it needs some depth, especially around the tabs for the ribbon bar, and how the title bar no longer has a focus color.

The new style used in Office 2013 (and regrettably in pretty much everything coming out of Microsoft nowadays including websites and developer tools) is the one reason I'm glad about Office365 being a subscription program - it means I don't have to pay the full price for Office 2013 before experiencing how terrible it looks!


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May 28th, 2013 9:47pm

I agree that the UI for Office 2013 is terrible.  When I'm in Office 2013 Calendar, everything is a monochromatic tint of blue.  Nothing stands out.

Finding "Today" is hard.  I would want to set the color for Today in a complementary color.  Also, I'd like to change the background color from bright white to a pale, yellow or some unsaturated tint.  Everything is harder to read and find because of the monochromatic theme.

Also, for the vision impaired, the light greys and low contrast that is present everywhere is just a killer. Is Microsoft intentionally trying to ignore the needs of users who have poorer vision?  Hue contrast as well as brightness contrasts are dearly needed.

A solution to this would be to allow customers to apply whatever appearances they want for the individual UI components that make up the application.

June 4th, 2013 2:19pm

I concur that the Office themes do not have high enough contrast for many users.  The darker gray in Office 2010 was more pragmatic and a good sample of a high contrast design.  Other colors could be used, but they should make program elements stand out against each other

  • Edited by Action Pack Member Friday, June 07, 2013 12:40 PM
  • Proposed as answer by Hennakl Wednesday, June 12, 2013 6:19 AM
  • Unproposed as answer by Hennakl Wednesday, June 12, 2013 6:19 AM
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June 7th, 2013 12:39pm

Wow, I can't believe the negativity in this thread! I did initially find Office 2013 rather bland when I first used it but quickly got used to the crisp clean look. I never saw the look as "bad" & actually when I see Office 2010 now it looks kind of "cartoonish".

I suspect by the comments here that most users never fine tune their monitors as I have never regarded the look as overly harsh just rather clinical. I quickly got used to it am I'm just so impressed by the subtle improvements whilst not obvious with a little effort it is in fact the best ever.

Just my thoughts & observation, obviously I am alone on this one. This whole thread comes as somewhat of a shock to me, all I can suggest is try the colour/contrast settings on your monitor!

  • Proposed as answer by Kogarah Monday, July 01, 2013 9:35 AM
July 1st, 2013 9:35am

It is very painfull to look at the message list, I don't what the designer thought of, but a slight color change on every 2nd post could have done it, now its just so painfull.

2010 downgrade here I come.

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July 10th, 2013 7:00am

I would give a lot to have the simple Outlook Express back.  It did what I needed it to do without all the confusion.  It showed everything, sorted everything, I had full control with no crazy learning curve.  None of these "new looks" are comfortable for me at all.  I just got 2013 a couple of hours ago and am looking for a color adjustment theme as it is causing severe eye strain.  Paid $100 for it and not very happy. 

Will my computer ever be mine again?  Guess not at this rate.

July 10th, 2013 6:06pm

How do you get the classic shell?  My page is all white and a maze of print that seems unsorted.  I'm dizzy looking at it.
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July 10th, 2013 6:07pm

One thing you are right about, they are not the behemouth they once were. 
July 10th, 2013 6:10pm

THANK YOU, THANK YOU!

The light gray helps so much!!!

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July 10th, 2013 6:21pm

I WANT MY MONEY BACK!!!

Office 2013 Professional is horrible.  Colors are bland, typefaces are hard to read, eye strain and headaches are real.  If Microsoft cannot deliver state-of-the-art, high definition, 3-dimensional, blazing colors, and flash movement, like Apple, I'm finished.  Competitive products are up-and-coming, and I will spend more time evaluating those instead of blindly following Microsoft's lead.  Fool me once, but not twice!



  • Edited by Wahawk Friday, July 12, 2013 3:26 AM Poor Quality
July 12th, 2013 3:24am

I don't know how they can think less is more.  I bought a new computer that came with Windows 8, which I don't like and then had to buy a 2013 version of Access to run my business application.  Couldn't believe it when I opened the program to find a white screen staring at me after years of a soft color background.  Have too much invested to turn back now, but would love to go back to my XP and 2003 version of Access.  Microsoft is always bragging about their innovation...well, they just took a giant step backwards.  Hope my eyes hold out until they decide to but some color back in our lives.

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July 17th, 2013 5:32pm

Seriously????????????   A year later and nothing......Microsoft needs to change the MS to mean management stinks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Just sayin.....
July 17th, 2013 6:08pm

I fully agree, it is undoable to work with. Especially in outlook, can't see the different between read and not read, can't see where the message starts, gives me headache and pain in the eyes.

Our local MS office is pushing me as a partner to promote Office 365 with my customers, but I strongly advice my customers not to use 365.

I hope MS will adjust it soon, and give me back my nice contrasting colors.

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July 22nd, 2013 8:23am

Despite your name, it sounds as if you don't really use a computer.  Anyone who has spent hours and hours a day staring at a computer for work designing forms, reading documents, updating spreadsheets, and maintainging business email knows that being able to change and vary the color you look at helps to reduce the strain inherent in working with a computer. To be honest I was not even happy with the themes in the last version.  I would like the ability to slightly tint the actual surface of the document.  Microsoft will never give the consumer this basic ability!
July 23rd, 2013 12:53am

You fools.  Microsoft was very clever in making everything white and grey scale.  Don't you understand that they are just looking after the consumers needs when they do this?  There are literally billions of users who are forced to use grey-scale monitors around the world and if Microsoft didn't make a product grey-scale, what would all those users do?  This way, it's an even playing field, everyone gets grey scale and all those end-users with grey-scale monitors are no longer missing out on having an awesome interface with actual colour.  

Well done, Microsoft, well done!

This is simply socialist egalitarianism for no purpose other than to say "egalitarianism."  MS could have put color into the same layout.  Some people in the world can only afford rice to eat.  Should the U.S. government outlaw all food taster and more nutritious tha
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July 23rd, 2013 5:43am

Ezio Lucenti - I think you are being racist and derogatory with your comments. I hope your comment is removed.
  • Edited by MattG8 Wednesday, July 24, 2013 3:22 PM addded name
July 24th, 2013 3:21pm

For office workers who will actually be required to use the product, the new UI is very harsh on the eyes.

Not recommended until resolved.

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July 24th, 2013 7:47pm

I can't believe I shelled out my hard earned money for this bleak eyesore of an office. Ah, I remember 2003 and the pleasant blues that made using office a pleasure. Oh well, I feel violated by the man and there is no recourse but to look up at their pearly castles and yearn. Ahhhh........
July 26th, 2013 8:31am

Just curious.... does anyone from Microsoft read this forum?  Even the weakest Customer Service departments would post a generic, "Thank you for your feedback" comment. wow.
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July 26th, 2013 9:22pm

Please add more themes to Office 2013, all three colours are burning my eyes!

July 30th, 2013 3:30am

Hi all,

As a update, we have passed this information to the product group for consideration for a future product or update. We are sorry that at this time we have no other option to change the colors beyond what we has already

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July 31st, 2013 1:46pm

I've been a daily MS Office user since the days of Word 6. Having made the painful transition from 2003 to 2007 some years ago, I've been using 2010 almost since it came out.

I installed Office 2013 thinking it would be largely the same interface but with more goodies under the bonnet.

Unfortunately what greeted me was a hideous monochrome, flat UI which makes me want to banish it to the other side of the universe than to explore what's new inside. 

Outlook and Excel are my most frequently used tools every single day and try as I might, I simply couldn't bring myself to use them. About the only thing I did like was the smoother/slicker scrolling effects in Word, but that was about it.

The worst bit is, I can't even leave both versions installed side by side as then certain features don't work. e.g. email using Outlook 2010 from within Word or Excel 2010, nope, can't do it. Windows 7 task bar Word/Excel 2010 jump lists? Nope, don't work any more. 

So having put up with the inconvenience for some months now, and having arrived at this page to learn there are no alternative themes I can use either, I have finally banished 2013 from my machine. It was a hugely liberating experience and I feel I can enjoy using the software again - like it was meant to be.

Whoever came up with the theme for 2013 needs to be shot. And then shot again, just to make sure! And that's from a born pacifist!

MS really do need to use their ample resources to improve usability and the useful features in their products, not keep revamping the look of things for the sake of it - especially when the revamp is as negative as this.

July 31st, 2013 5:41pm

I agree, what a disgustingly boring interface. Certainly won't be convincing customers to install it either!
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August 1st, 2013 6:44am

beautifully said.  I agree totally I was shocked to see such a boaring colour scheme.  I thought to myself surely there must be a change theme page - but NEWP nadda nothing niltch.  WOW did you forget the designers?.  Did the coders just do the whole take over?. 
August 5th, 2013 6:08am

WINDOWS BORDERS? . SEROUISLY?

I'm thinking to myself right now - hmm I wonder how much you get paid.  and to type that.  What if I am using windows 7?.  which I am.   These feedbacks are for you to realise that some serious graphic colour scheme coding needs to be addressed. 

A Crappy border isnt going to cover up this depressing sad eye sore. 

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August 5th, 2013 6:18am

I could not agree more with the comments about the latest "design" used in Office 2013.  There is no sense of space created by colors and shading which 2010 had provided so beautifully with the ribbon that many people have now become accustomed to. 

The frustration that I experienced while using this product is primarily caused by two factors:

1. The tremendous amount of white on the screen is just too much in-your-face *brightness* for my taste

2. *Searching* across what seems like a "blank canvas" of randomly scattered words to find a feature or function one wants to use means your eyes have to focus on reading a great deal more text rather than relying on design features that create a sence of "place" or "form".  The use of color, icons, etc. provide visual cues to make it easy on the brain to quickly determine where the eyes need to look and focus. 

I don't understand why Microsoft chose to throw out so many basic design principles when creating Office 2013, but something really needs to be done to fix the situation.  The tool is now painful rather than intuitive, and despite the updated features, I have chosen to uninstall 2013 and go back to using 2010.

August 5th, 2013 8:18pm

So your fix for an extremely poorly designed interface is to BUY another piece of MS crap? Really. Wow. Why didn't I think of that. After all.....I really trust you after this last introduction. Oh, are you going to give me a refund on the MS Office I just bought and don't like? No! Yeah, that's what I thought. Have a nice day in that 'cloud' you live in. I'm looking elsewhere for a company that actually listens to its customers. Yeah....someone like Google or Amazon.

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August 11th, 2013 1:18am

Gosh, calm down everyone. They got the message.

Are the 3 themes visually lacking? Yes of course.

Have I used 2013 since late last year? Yes, you get used to it and Office 2013 is still a great product and we just finished deploying it company wide, initially users have the same concerns, but they get over it after a few hours.

To me 2010 now looks outdated old and boring. But yes, initially I absolutely had the same concerns and I still hope they add more themes.

August 11th, 2013 9:41pm

This is about more than themes, or whether things are visually lacking.  The flat, stark white, monochrome interface causes headaches and eye pain.  This is not an exaggeration and far more than a complaint.  These drastic changes leave many dedicated users without options.  The "get used to it" approach is not only unhelpful, it makes clear that options are not even on a wish list.

Microsoft Office (especially Outlook) was the anchor of my PC loyalty.  I even held true with my original hotmail account despite the notorious hack and scam jobs.  

This thread is over a year old and there isn't a single helpful or hopeful MS response geared to resolving this issue.  Its as if MS is trying to look like everybody else.  Now that it does, I (like so many other) am going to ride the 2010 wave until it dies and then I am going to be looking into Mac/IOS or some other Google compatible program.

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August 14th, 2013 8:52am

This is still not resolved.  How hard is it to just a few more color choices to the themes?  I actually like the layout, just wish there was a better contrast between areas.  LAME.  Looks like I am going back to thunderbird.
August 14th, 2013 1:52pm

This is very disappointing. Office 2013 is a superior product aside from the bland themes and eyestrain. Will probably hold off on deploying it until this is addressed.
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August 14th, 2013 9:02pm

I recently completed a training course on MS Project 2013 and was dutifully informed that the blandness is to save battery life in ultarbooks and tablet.

I use a desktop at work for 8 and half hours a day, the blandness is shocking. Microsoft either fix it or there will be a suit!

August 15th, 2013 8:42am

Me too, exactly! I find Outlook 2013 very hard to use for this exact reason. Microsoft what are you doing? You are really making your loyal userbase mad with all these unneccessary styling and UI changes! Isn't it sad when a 15+ year Microsoft developer is being turned off by the new versions and finds them almost unusable! That goes for Office 2013 and Windows 8. Are you trying to drive us away to Android and Open Source products? If I cannot get the 3D styling back in Outlook 2013, I will have to downgrade to Outlook 2010 or an Open Source product. What happened to the days when new releases of Microsoft products were exciting and the products were great? Seriously, you need to fire the design teams for Office 2013 and Windows 8 and fix these products ASAP starting with adding back the 3D styling and returning the Start menu to Windows 8.

Can you tell I just bought a new PC with Windows 8 and Office 2013 and have been cursing them all week? It has been such a hassle to set up this new Windows 8 PC into a usable state for getting work done!!

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August 16th, 2013 8:20pm

Well its a bad design and needs to go. Microsoft should always offer the choice of changing the theme to the older styling anytime they change the UI. Apparently whomever designed and approved these changes never heard of "don't fix it, if it isn't broken". Seriously Windows 8 and Office 2013 are almost unusable because of the UI changes. I have used Outlook for 15+ years and have even developed apps in it. Removing the 3d styling is very disorienting for long time users and completely unneccesary.
August 16th, 2013 8:28pm

I completely agree some should be fired over the UI changes in Office 2013 and also for Windows 8! Microsoft - Are you trying to drive away your long time users? That is what you are doing! At this point I may keep Office 2013 for Word and Excel and look for an Open Source mail client, or I may just revert to Windows 7 and Office 2010.  If this continues and Windows 8 is not fixed with future releases, I may switch to Android/Linux for everything. What is the point of being a MS expert when they change everything around needlessly with little respect for their loyal user base and long time IT professionals?

Big message to the Microsoft design team - Windows PC are primarily used to get work done. They are not tablets or phones and should not act like one. If you want make a tablet OS, that's fine, but don't ruin your desktop experience for people trying to work!

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August 16th, 2013 8:38pm

If you don't get how a color scheme can cause eye strain, you probably do not work at a PC 8+ hours a day, 5 days a week. I am wondering if these UI changes were done by a design team trying to be cool with no understanding that PCs are often used to get work done. I personally need to sort through 50+ emails a day and reply to many. I don't care what the UI looks like but I need to be able to read the emails and sort through them rapidly. That is very, very difficult with the Office 2013 styling. New themes are needed ASAP!

August 16th, 2013 8:45pm

Exactly. They are shooting long-time Microsoft Professionals in the foot and almost preventing us from selling these new products. I think I will go back to Office 2010 and maybe even Windows 7!
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August 16th, 2013 8:49pm

I agree with you 100%!
August 16th, 2013 8:57pm

It's kind of funny that after almost a year, I've heard nothing positive about Office 2013 from our clients and the common request we receive is how to make it look like Office 2010. I've been asked "who actually likes this?!" and I tell them that I assume there's a test lab somewhere at Microsoft with overworked, underpaid and sleep deprived people were forced to approve it.

I've actually had to apologize to clients for installing it.

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August 16th, 2013 9:03pm

Couldnt agree more. Office 2013 is, as far as i'm concerned is awful. it is so bland to look at and use  and all the emails seem to blend in to one another. ive gone back to 2010
August 19th, 2013 3:29pm

The color scheme of the Office 2013 is simply awful. The guys in Microsoft just gave this software a look (and feel) of the Windows 3.11. This is a sad setback. Till this day I was against all those so called themes, because I had the opinion of developers must focus on functionality. This new look of the Office 2013 (and Windows 8 also) made me change my mind

About the functionality: I just cannot understand, why to strip some useful features from new versions (for example to remove the ability to show the next few days appointments from Outlook 2013). If something is not necessary for some of the users: give them the freedom to turn it off, but let us (I mean: people who use the software for hard work) to decide, if a feature is useful, or not. If a software needs hundreds of megabytes on the hard disk (and costs hundreds of dollars) then there is no acceptable reason to strip down critical functionalities and promote it as an improvement.

From time to time we see really insane moves from Microsoft. Publishing unfinished products (Windows Vista), Metro GUI and the missing Start button from Windows 8 (not to mention the extremely primitive look of Windows 8), the problems I wrote above and all these things are just the peak of the iceberg. Years after years this company is going farer and farer from its customers, and becomes more arrogant and less user friendly.

Its not a simple failure any more. It is already the beginning of the Microsofts agony, I guess.

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August 28th, 2013 12:46pm

I agree! I will take the sentiment even further.  I HATE the flat look of a UI.  If I wanted a MAC, I would have dumped all my money, time, and career into a MAC.  

I HATE the lack of color.  What, are we anticipating dogs to use the computer?  

Come on Microsoft!  I want my "father's" Windows.  

-K

September 4th, 2013 3:30pm

It is difficult, at the least, to discern the boundaries between the objects.  What were "they" thinking?
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September 4th, 2013 3:32pm

I know.  The colors, I can live with.  I HATE the flat look and the depressed (grey) look.  GOTH WINDOWS?
September 4th, 2013 3:34pm

...The theme of Office Professional Plus 2013 is by design...

YA THINK?

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September 4th, 2013 3:35pm

I agree.  In fact, it's a pretty poor response.  I would HOPE it's by design.  I HOPE, such a nasty thing would not have "accidentally" been released!  
September 4th, 2013 3:39pm

Hi all,

As a update, we have passed this information to the product group for consideration for a future product or update. We are sorry that at this time we have no other option to change the colors beyond what we has already seen.

Now THERE's an answer!  Was that answer "by design"?  
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September 4th, 2013 3:41pm

Not that I really care, but WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED?
September 4th, 2013 3:42pm

Well.  I guess I should have hung on to that old B&W monitor I had...
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September 4th, 2013 3:43pm

I don't quite get the complaints about headaches and so on...

Since you "don't get it", you may want to apply for a UI job at MS.  Apparently, "they" don't get it either.
September 4th, 2013 3:47pm

Who cares.  
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September 4th, 2013 3:48pm

Just replying to add my 2 cents. I also agree the colors or lack thereof are a step backwards. I love the features but cannot stand the lack of any color.

I am currently on the month-to-month subscription. Unless there is an update to fix the color issue, I will not be renewing my Office2013 subscription and will just go back to Office2010. It makes me sad to do that because I love using the newest and latest. But this is a design fail and it's also difficult for me to look at.

Thank you.

September 6th, 2013 2:33am

It seems that MS has locked the forum thread at http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/office/en-US/eab5c79f-68ac-4a38-ba20-265f7bd251a5/msoffice-2013-interface-is-too-white-and-bright?prof=required

That's one way of dealing with customer dissatisfaction. 

Changing the "Office Theme" under Account to Dark Gray helps somewhat.  Who knew there was such a thing as an "Office Theme" anyway?  And moreover, who on earth would expect to find it located under a menu item called "Account"?!!

http://www.slipstick.com/outlook/2013/changing-office-2013s-color-scheme/

This setting doesn't help completely.  For example, the context menus in Office still use light gray text on white for active options, which is distinguished from pale grey text on white for inactive selections.  And, as mentioned in the other forum, there is a wacky swap of the scrollbar colours so that the bar becomes lighter than the background. 

Internet Explorer is also too white, and I have no idea why so much of the website text appears as grey.  Easy to read?  I think not! 

(I am running Windows 8, 64 bit.  Brightness on the screen is turned low.)

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September 6th, 2013 3:25am

Office 365 is more than a step backward. The color theme results in a huge productivity drop.
September 12th, 2013 12:41am

Future consideration!?!?!? The white wash color scheme is a productivity nightmare. No more roll out until it is fixed. I thought the loss of actual windows in Windows 8 was bad enough. Who's running this circus?
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September 12th, 2013 12:44am

Did anyone who actually uses office in their day to day jobs get to test this before releasing it. I can not understand how anyone could miss the negative impact this would have on productivity. 
September 12th, 2013 12:47am

The eye strain comes from not being able to recognize the elements you are looking for and straining to see the entire screen to locate them. The white background amounts to a annoying light in your eyes while you are working. 

I am just waiting for the workman's comp lawyers to start calling.


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September 12th, 2013 12:51am

And why change the icon colors? I keep opening the wrong applications.
September 12th, 2013 12:52am

Try three 24" monitors!
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September 12th, 2013 12:53am

Complaints and workman's comp suits. Any lawyers on the forum?
September 12th, 2013 12:54am

I bought Windows for windows not Apps. I run three monitors with dozens of open windows in my work. Windows 8 is a productivity nightmare.
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September 12th, 2013 12:57am

"I Can't differentiate between the apps and have to search to find my stuff."

Productivity destroyer. 

September 12th, 2013 12:59am

How hard can it be for them to change the background colors on an application that uses almost entirely solid color backgrounds? "Future product or update" is not good enough. I will certainly not be paying to keep this crap around. I'd rather use Notepad++ and mark everything up myself than deal with this garbage.
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September 15th, 2013 3:57pm

If you figure out how to go back to Office 2010, please post.  I haven't found an article that says the Outlook file formats are compatible or not.
September 18th, 2013 3:41pm

Of course they are compatible, shesh, the theme might not be ideal but do you really think Office 2013 is that bad a product that 2013 files wouldn't open up in 2010?

Even your Outlook Exchange account will revert just fine to 2010, which was a bit of an issue going between 2007 and 2010.

For everyones information, I've used 2013 for 9 months now, its a great product, we recently rolled it out company wide and the complaints are minimal. Yes, like everyone else I would prefer a more colorful theme, but its not a show stopper, not even by a long shot. 

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September 19th, 2013 12:40am

How hard is it to launch a site with some themes we can add?

Fortunately you can find a lot of 'themes' on the office site. Personally I'd call those templates though, but that's probably my lack of English knowledge.

People are complaining for quite some time now...

September 19th, 2013 8:28am

It is absolutely horrible. I have to downgrade now to Office 2010 just for this reason. What I do not understood that if every one hate this UI why Microsoft develop it and even delivered to the market without any research. They should take it off the market until a new interface will be created. It is shame. I use to love all MS product and this is a first one I just hate it. Is any official explanation from MS about this ugly UI in Office 2013.

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September 20th, 2013 4:53pm

really loved this comment. looks like there is now way :(
September 23rd, 2013 8:07pm

For the record I agree.  I get a mild headache using this version and have reverted to my earlier Word.  I have warned many friends not to upgrade.  I wish I had not forked out the funds for this downgrade.
September 25th, 2013 3:38am

Do they drug test where you work, Vinny???
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September 25th, 2013 3:29pm

Andre,

Could you share a screenshot so we could see how your GUI tweaks look?  Office 2013 makes me want to jump off the nearest bridge right now....

Warren

October 1st, 2013 3:32pm

I was doing history homework in Word 2013, and I got a headache because of this design.

Thanks Microsoft!

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October 4th, 2013 4:50am

It has terrible contrast that's what causes the eye stain! I've downgraded all new machines in my company to office 2010 the complaints were getting to be too much to handle.
October 9th, 2013 2:19pm

Max here!

Yes the design is a psychological disaster in many ways.

People use color as distinguishing features and assiciate by custom  certain colors

to certain dangers or as markers for catching and getting attention.

The flashing blue lights for firefighters, police cars and ambulances.

The red stop lights, Red is stop or varning, yellow is for watching it, green mens go etc.

Besides the contrasts in these new themes is extremely poor, they are very tiring for your eyes during an 8 hour work day.

For middle aged nearsighted people like me - and yes I have VERY GOOD  lighning conditions in my office -

I have a hard time reading the letters in the left pane of Outlook 2013 - I have to lean my face into the screen to be able to read properly. ( 40 cm - 15inches away )

Good design is good design - it does NOT - equal simplistic or ugly design

Cheers:  Max!


  • Edited by Max Wiberg Friday, October 11, 2013 2:23 PM
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October 11th, 2013 2:21pm

I agree Office 2013 is down right ugly and bland.  After they brought us the wonderful Aero features in Win 7, only to take a huge step backwards from the looks of 2010. I was going to buy 2013, but after I ran the trail I said they is no way I going to move to that ugly piece of crap, and it is hard on the eyes.

I expect this has more to do with cutting down on the graphics so they can get one piece of software to run across multiple platforms, you know how is is is chopped and cut-down for tablets and smart-phones. If this the case then just release separate software for those devices, and give me Full Living Color on my PC!

October 12th, 2013 4:23am

Oh no.. Just installed Office 2013 and immediately reverted it into the previous version. Simply Fugly. The whole team behind the new GUI design should be fired. Can imagine about people calling and requesting office to be reverted back to the previous version soon as this is rolled out.

Its good not to have a new version unless it is really prepared for humans who are using it.

Really a very bad job Microsoft. Looks like you have lost your vision. I'd rather type an email on notepad and copy and send it from some other email client rather than using Outlook 2013. Simply unbelievable POS. 


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October 13th, 2013 5:46am

Ha ha ha. Are you in the team of Indian or Chinese developers who developed the new UI...Sounds like you are. Get a life - Just look at the 2010 and 2013 version. 2013 looks like its from Zombie land.
October 13th, 2013 5:53am

What an idiot you are ? If the idea was to make this usable for grey scale monitors - could have put a theme for that aint it ? Not to force everyone to go back to a 1980s design by default. If this continues I can see how Microsoft would slowly dissolve just like what happened to Nokia, Erickson etc etc.
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October 13th, 2013 5:56am

Funny advertisement...
October 13th, 2013 5:58am

No need to go through any standards tests to identify Outlook 2013 is crappy. Don't you see that so many ppl are identifying it as Crappy. Whom should an application please, its users or some MS paid off shored developers?

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October 13th, 2013 6:11am

All Three themes look terrible.
October 13th, 2013 6:14am

This is a shocking piece of design. I would settle for some indicator telling me which window is active. 

At the moment a window changes from grey to a marginally darker grey. 

The choice between three barely distinguishable themes makes no difference. 

and the utterly pointless option of a "background". Laughable. Or at least it would be funny if I wasn't trying to do some work ! 


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October 13th, 2013 11:33am

This is a shocking piece of design. I would settle for some indicator telling me which window is active. 

At the moment a window changes from grey to a marginally darker grey. 

The choice between three barely distinguishable themes makes no difference. 

and the utterly pointless option of a "background". Laughable. Or at least it would be funny if I wasn't trying to do some work ! 


The Office/2013 screen options like this SITE.  (terrible!)   I installed Office/2013 as a part of our company's migration to Office/365 over this past weekend.   Users were coming from  Office/2007 and Office/2010.    The first and most constant complaint I get is the inability to modify the theme for the the benefit and comfort of the end user.    

The president of our company was the first to register a complaint about this.     We are a software development company and would NEVER have done this our customers.   

Microsoft needs to fix this ASAP.     If not we will be looking elsewhere for our cloud based email.    GOOGLE APPS will now get a look, where we would have never event considered going that route before now.

"It is the little foxes that destroy the vine......"


  • Edited by WarenMA Tuesday, October 15, 2013 2:05 PM
October 15th, 2013 2:04pm

Hello all,

Thank you for taking the time to provide feedback on this issue. When redesigning the Office 2013 user interface, our goal was to provide a cleaner experience that minimizes distractions and unnecessary elements, so we can put your content front and center. Our fresh new look got a lot of positive feedback from usability testers and from customers in the field. However, after several months of broad use, it was clear that many customers are requesting a new, darker theme. This is one of our top feature requests, so were working to incorporate your feedback into future engineering plans. 

Again, we greatly appreciate all of the feedback we have received from you. We know you have high expectations from us, and we pride ourselves in building the worlds premier productivity suite. Stay tuned for more information and updates to come. 

Office Shared Experiences Development Team

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October 15th, 2013 3:51pm

Our fresh new look got a lot of positive feedback from usability testers and from customers in the field. However, after several months of broad use, it was clear that many customers are requesting a new, darker theme. This is one of our top feature requests, so were working to incorporate your feedback into future engineering plans. 


Jennie,

NO!!!! That is NOT WHAT WE WANT!!!

We do NOT want a darker, more depressing theme. That is absolutely NOT what we are saying. We want color. We want the ability to customize the colors as we choose for the windows. A color picker wheel would be ideal. We'd also like to adjust the massive amounts of wasted space that is shown as it's ridiculous.

Jennie, again, PLEASE DO NOT throw us another darker grey theme and call it good. That's is NOT what we want. If that is your current plan, then I'll tell you right now it's a complete and utter fail. I can't use Office 2013 because it gives me a headache and is very hard to read - not because I want an even darker theme to make it even harder to read.

Color, Jennie, color...that is what we want. We don't want any more vampires and Trent Reznor. This is the year 2013 - not 1913. Please. Good gravy, Jennie, PLEASE listen to us. We want Office to suck less - not more. We are on your side. Why don't you make Office look like Windows 8? Seriously, what possible reason can you come up with that would explain why Windows 8 is so rainbow colorful, yet Office 2013 has a soul-sucking black hole theme to it?Office 2013 looks TERRIBLE on Windows 8 because it has NO COLOR. Make it look the SAME and be a CUSTOMIZABLE as Windows 8 - please!!!!!!

Color and choice. That's what we want. Not just another life-sucking darker theme that completely clashes with your flagship OS.

  • Edited by ABCFED Tuesday, October 15, 2013 4:46 PM
October 15th, 2013 4:29pm

I just downloaded MS Office 365 this morning (it's now 12:40pm) and I'm ready to dump it all.  Everything came on white and the best I could do is 'dark gray'.............  Color is what Microsoft is all about -- just look at their LOGO.  It's supposedly the four primary colors.  Microsoft needs to fix this or that dreaded entity 'third party developers' will somehow find a way to do it themselves............  I like the idea of Office 365 but dearly hate the three anemic themes!
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October 17th, 2013 4:53pm

I have read most of the comments and , while I do agree the options need to be there it isn't because I'm picky about colour - to be honest, less is better for me. I don't have a need for a ton of bright colours and animations taking away from the WORK I do. However, in my office we have upgraded and I have received complaints about the ACCESSIBILITY of the colour scheme. I have had people specifically tell me that it is difficult for them to read because the contrast is not high enough. THIS is the real issue.

We are unable to accommodate those with vision disabilities because there isn't the option to. People who are colour blind will also likely have an issue since the text isn't even black. 

Hoping this gets fixed soon so that we don't have any grievances filed against us for inaccessibility. 


  • Edited by akdubbs Thursday, October 17, 2013 8:21 PM
October 17th, 2013 8:20pm

Microsoft - I REALLY like the BLACK background option in office 2010 (outlook especially) - great on a multi monitor setup.

Fix this nightmare - I keep thinking I have beta code, as cannot believe madness let this be released!

  • Proposed as answer by ice cream Friday, October 25, 2013 11:11 PM
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October 25th, 2013 11:11pm

Because a complaint thread can never get too long, I add my $0.02.

A lot of comments focus on the overall color theme of Office 2013, but what I find to be worse than the color of the content in the windows being blindingly white (which is, indeed, bad) is that Office decided to be non-standard on the window frames.  It makes no sense to me.  Every other Windows application uses a consistent window frame and title bars that are managed by Windows itself and use the custom color I specify in the display settings.  This makes it easy to see which window is active and inactive at a glance since the active window gets a colored frame and the background windows get a light gray frame (Windows 8).  With Office... it's all light gray.  So the active and inactive frames looks exactly the same.  The only visual indicator is that the text in the title bar grays out a bit for the inactive frame.  This is nearly impossible to see at a glance.  This is very annoying and provides an inconsistent user interface. 

With all the barking I've seen from Microsoft on unifying their user experience with Windows, Windows Phone, XBox, and more (including strict user experience guidelines in the Windows Store), it's shocking that the Office team just basically said, screw it we're doing our own thing.  How on earth did that get out of the door that way?

October 29th, 2013 5:59pm

I concur 100% with Timothy Carroll's comment above.  I'm a developer, and I do usability testing and UI design, and I am a long time fan of Microsoft products, including their take on UX in many instances, but the trends of the last few years are disturbing at best.  I think the move away from 3-D, gradient, and transparency toward flat solid colors, or no colors at all, is a seriously misguided approach to simplification, and they're usability testing instruments and/or data interpretations are seriously flawed.  I just installed Office 2013 yesterday and I'm appalled at the miscalculation here.  It's hard to believe the designers have ever once launched the product.  It is inexcusable that they have implemented non-standard windows management for a Windows desktop application.  I don't care how big of a hurry they are in to abandon the desktop and impose Metro on everything (never will be too soon!), but until doomsday arrives they need to stick to their own conventions.  The design teams that built Aero, etc. did usability studies too!  Among other things, t's critical to be able to see at a glance which window is active.  While there is a noteworthy trend toward mobile (read single-screen) platforms, the trend for desktop workstations to include multiple monitors has not slowed.  On a multi-monitor setup instantly recognizing the active window is a major productivity enhancement, which is virtually impossible with Office 2013 applications.   The argument that removing color removes distraction demonstrates a gross misunderstanding of the overall usability experience of the interface as a whole.  Far more useful information is sacrificed with this design than can be offset by "simplifying" the UI to this extent.  This isn't about aesthetics (although they're off base there as well in my opinion), but about usability.

Please, Microsoft, return control of the interface appearance to the user, and bring back (at least optionally) the color and three dimensional effects that reflect the real world.  This isn't Flatland.  Don't make my interface feel like it is!

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October 31st, 2013 6:42pm

Please keep in mind that you may be the one with the vision disability - who's to say?   The key point Microsoft, is that millions of us have millions of views on the world and you're trying to force one-size to fit all .  Three different size socks works only because socks are elastic.

JUST GIVE THE 3 SIZES YOU SEEM TO THINK WE NEED:  Grey (depressing), washed out white(depressing), or black(depressing) and no-one will care AS LONG as you give all of us a simple color-wheel option so common in any drawing program to fix your mistake!

November 2nd, 2013 12:41pm

The unbelievably pathetic, unforgivable thing about this is that the first post was on October 27 2012, and it's now November 3, 2013, and not a damn thing has been done about this.

Like so many of you, I'm one of those people who installed Office 2013 on a test machine, and couldn't believe what I was seeing.  After a day of feeling like my eyes were bleeding, I found this thread back in December 2013, saw that there was no way of fixing Outlook, and uninstalled it, reverting back to 2010.  I advised the people I work for that none of our machines (75+) should be upgraded.

Every so often, I check back at this thread, to see if anything has been changed.  Clearly, not.

It's absurd that any company today can act like this.  And while it's anecdotal, I can't believe that 2013 sales are good, simply because I don't know a single IT person who's recommending the upgrade.

Finally, to the joker in the middle of this thread, who said it should be put in a time capsule and looked at in a few years to see how wrong it is...

The clock is ticking.  It's a year later.  The complaints are as valid as ever.  If anything this thread should be put in a time capsule and studied in business schools, for how to disappoint, and alienate your installed user base.

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November 4th, 2013 6:26am

The unbelievably pathetic, unforgivable thing about this is that the first post was on October 27 2012, and it's now November 3, 2013, and not a damn thing has been done about this.

Nailed it.

November 4th, 2013 2:15pm

How true.

We will install Office 2010 under Office 365, because we would have a riot if we forced this on our employees.

The contrast in the UI is horrible, even on DARK GRAY (most people would call DARK GRAY, a light shade of GRAY).

Interesting, the discussion about how horrible the UI contrast is, has been going on since Office 2013 was in Beta.

  • Proposed as answer by Tony2310 Monday, November 11, 2013 1:58 AM
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November 6th, 2013 5:46pm

Dear God, Please make this washout white colored screen STOP! Even the so called "Dark Grey" is too white!!!!!!
November 6th, 2013 7:09pm

What's funny is Google created an entire website that makes fun of this design.  Check it, type "Google blue" on google search and what the funny video.

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November 8th, 2013 6:00pm

I wholeheartedly agree that the UI contrast is dreadful. To consider that this has been commented and lamented from at least the testing phase and THEY still chose to ignore testers/users concerns just beggars belief.  Thanks for giving us Office 2013, which is a fantastic application until the eye strain sets in.
November 10th, 2013 1:59pm

A clown called Cook
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November 11th, 2013 1:52am

I agree, it really amazes me that MS themselves believe their UI contrast is a good step forward. Well judging by your sales I beg to differ on that MS. 

This thread has been ongoing well over twelve months now and all you get is by DESIGN...........well by design I will be looking for alternative products that listen to the customer and not ignoring them like fools.

Long live Mac!!!

November 11th, 2013 2:05am

Users have been complaining for over year and no response! Well I am going back to 2007 until they fix it.  Tell IT not to upgrade the systems. About 400 machines. If they want this cheap stuff we can get officelibre is better and free.
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November 13th, 2013 6:41am

Hello. IT head to a sizable company here.

You just lost a potential 1200 sales for Windows 8 and Office.

Instead of purchasing your software, we are making the switch to Linux.

Linux is more secure, faster, and more powerful. I'll never have to take call about a client having a virus again. Company data is safer. Users seem to like the GUI more, and are adapting very well.

And our servers have been running Linux for quite some time, so this makes the whole system easier.

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/getfile/374690

Looks great. Easy on the eyes, certainly. Users can customize nearly every visual aspect of their desktop environment.

We're saving a projected $380,000 over five years, and that doesn't even include the cost of software, which we might just send to notable Linux foundations if this works out.

So you guys can shove Office and Windows to an equally gloomy place, and you'll probably lose 1200 customers for their home computers too.

Majority are very happy with Linux, with only the design department having issues, that being Photoshop. They haven't used Windows for years as it is.

November 13th, 2013 7:46pm

I too was dismayed at the lack of color in the Office 2013 apps.  However, the move to less customization and simpler common look and feel is imperative if we are to be able to transfer the experience of applications across multiple platforms and devices - now and into the future.  Also, serving apps fro the cloud will demand a streamlined and simpler interface to improve the response across the multitude of variables in network response.  Additionally, other companies are embracing this new user experience paradigm and numbing their websites.  

Consider the future (here today in some isolated niches) of the heads-up displays that we have seen in various movies and television shows.  These will be reality for many soon. The need to subdue colors and simplify the visual display so as to not impede or interfere with your surroundings will be crucial to ensuring safe and effective use. 

I'm not going to want a bunch of bright colors when I am cruising the Autobahn at 120 Km/hr in my Maserati while viewing that spreadsheet of my vast financial holdings. Or, putting the final touches on that presentation while in the middle of a 910 on the half-pipe at Teliuride!  Grey is the new Blue (or Red, or Violet, or Orange, or Brown, or Chartreuse, or...).   :-)

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November 19th, 2013 4:11pm

barrageI would just like to add my opinion to all those that think Microsoft have lost their way.  This is just another example of not listening to the users.  I am an IT consultant and I believe my reputation is siffering badly as a result of having to tell people that it is grey or white, nothing else.  I have recently recommended to scores of clients who are finally upgrading from XP with Office 2003 to new PCs with Win 7 and Office 2013 (they begged me to avoid Win 8).  As soon as they open up Office 2013 I get a brage of requests to change color scheme.  They look as if they don't believe me when I tell them.  The other big disappointment is the default Outlook arrangement.  So I now have users with Office 2010 who are eminently happy and users of Office 2013 who are universally unhappy.  Will Microsoft ever take notice - I fear not.
November 23rd, 2013 3:07pm

It's been over a year since this was raised and still no improvement. I still tell my desktop team not to install Office 2013 (I was the "lucky" guinea pig).

Please can Microsoft wake up and make what must be a simple change so that we can use the products without getting eye strain?

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November 25th, 2013 2:25pm

And another 0.02. While I can understand designs evolve, and sometimes that means radical change, I really don't understand this one. A previous poster's comparison to X-windows was apt, but X-Windows was infinitely customisable with colours, different window managers (the forerunner of skins), behaviours, etc. The comparison is only really with the most basic window manager - TWM, which had the same rectangular, 2d appearance.

I assume this change is to homogenise the look and feel across different platforms, but it seems very much a lowest common denominator approach. Shame. Laziness must have played a big part here.

I was using the black theme in Office 2010 which provided a reasonable compromise between colour and eyestrain. The white areas were reduced to just the actual reading panes, everything else was muted in some way.

Apart from a token post or two by Microsoft employees, it appears they are not listening at all, much less reacting. It would be nice to have some kind of platform where they could tell us how our feedback actually influences the product design. My current feeling is that it doesn't.

November 27th, 2013 8:52am

Hello all,

Thank you for taking the time to provide feedback on this issue. When redesigning the Office 2013 user interface, our goal was to provide a cleaner experience that minimizes distractions and unnecessary elements, so we can put your content front and center. Our fresh new look got a lot of positive feedback from usability testers and from customers in the field. However, after several months of broad use, it was clear that many customers are requesting a new, darker theme. This is one of our top feature requests, so were working to incorporate your feedback into future engineering plans. 

Again, we greatly appreciate all of the feedback we have received from you. We know you have high expectations from us, and we pride ourselves in building the worlds premier productivity suite. Stay tuned for more information and updates to come. 

Office Shared Experiences Developmen

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December 5th, 2013 9:42am

If ever there was a reason to move to some other OS this is it. Sad but it is all to clear the MS is not going to get better. They think this is better. The only option is to move on. How hard would it have be to have more color options? This is a "in your face" you will like our colors or else. A really sick choice that only a very arrogant group could come up with. They never seem think that there are any other options. while most would not like to take the time to learn new versions on some other system, what is so different from what MS is doing. Every new version is worst that the last with lot of new UI to learn and go blind color to boot!
December 6th, 2013 3:13pm

I hope the next service pack or an office update soon will add additional color themes.  It is difficult to read and hard on the eyes.  Immediately after the install my eyes started hurting.  Also hard to tell what screen you are clicking on when you have several windows behind each other.  The grey screens all blend together.   
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December 6th, 2013 9:17pm

Yep design of Office 2013 AND Office Web App is terrible... It's all white, flat and looks all the same. No colours. No contrast. All white hurts (white text on black background too btw). Whats wrong with MS? Make it customizable instead of going all white... and an afterthought of grey and grayer.

Also seems lots of people don't like the treaded view in Web App. Windows 8 GUI also is not good. Hidden features are silly. Putting a touch interface in your face while you use mouse & keyboard is bad too.

Once we had days that interface design was consistent and easy. You've got structured menu's, same colour scheme that you set centrally for all apps... And now? It's a mess. MS fix it... thank you

  • Proposed as answer by WhatsUpDok Thursday, December 19, 2013 8:08 AM
  • Unproposed as answer by WhatsUpDok Thursday, December 19, 2013 8:08 AM
December 12th, 2013 11:20am

A small glimmer of hope for removing a large part of the white in 2013 applications.

When I go through the following procedure, I usually open a previously created Word or Excel

document first and minimise it so that the other windows which you will will be open, can be viewed.

A magic carryover from earlier OS's is the ability to resize any number of open windows to show them side by side or stacked. More later.

Now, to change colors:

At the desktop screen right click somewhere other than on an icon

Click "personalize"

Click the "Windows Color" icon

In the "Window Color and Appearance" window click anywhere in the "Windows Text" area, or click

"Window" from the "Item:" dropdown

Now to resize the open windows:

Right click in the notification area (bottom right of screen where the date and time are displayed) and select

"Show Windows Side by Side" (my preference). Note: This setting is forgotten once all windows are closed.

Click Color 1: and select either a hard color or a custom color from the "Other" button dropdown

Click "Add to custom colors" (this is for reference only in case you wish to make other selections and come back to previous selections)

Click "O/K", Click "Apply"

You will see the change in the open Word or Excel Doc after having "waited" a very short time.

This change carries through to other applications, so a little experimentation is in order.

Cheers



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December 19th, 2013 8:43am

This may be the funniest post I've read, and it's funny because it is so true.
December 26th, 2013 4:21pm

I think one of the aspects the Microsoft design team failed to realize is that users subconsciously distinguish between control areas in an application and the content/work area.

The contrast doesn't have to be hit-you-in-the-head obvious, but it is now so subtle, it is difficult to focus in on the content.  For example, Outlook looks like a vast empty plain of virtually indistinguishable text.

What puzzles me most, is that Microsoft appears to be very concerned about how new arrivals to the Windows/Office world can intuitively understand them, yet there are more areas than ever where there are hidden charms with no indication they are there, and controls with no on-screen text pop-up to explain their purpose. 

Case in point:  Outlook unread messages show a blue rectangle on the left edge - OK, they're differentiated.  When I put my mouse there, the rectangle gets bigger.  What does that mean?  Am I setting a category color of blue?  Making it even more unread than it already is?  Should I click it, drag it to the right or left? What will happen if I do?  Why isn't THAT displaying the context menu for actions I can take with the message?

To get work done, you have to turn into a xenoarchaeologist to hypothesize the possible functions of these alien control surfaces.

And let's not forget that like the general population, the workforce is aging.  What happens when older eyes look at these low-contrast graphics?

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December 26th, 2013 4:24pm

I am stunned....STUNNED...

...that the Office team has cared not one bit in the past year over this issue.

I just wanted to say that I talked a company out of upgrading to Office 2013 two weeks ago. Once I showed them the god-awful interface, they decided to stick with Exchange 2010 and Office 2010.

It was a small company...only about 80 users, but I am so happy that I screwed Microsoft just a little bit in licensing. It wasn't that the features were missing and/or changed. That wasn't what made me so happy...

...it was that NOBODY from the Office team has bothered to even talk to us about this issue. That's the sign of a truly sucky product team right there. That is why I am so happy to have taken license revenue away.

And I plan on doing it again, and again, and again. I may only convince a few hundred/thousand, but it makes me feel good to know that I can "stick it" to a team who doesn't respond to their users. What a disaster the Office team has become.

December 28th, 2013 3:46pm

It is also worth noting that Publisher 2013 doesn't even work properly with the current (useless) theme choices. The only visible change is the File button and status bar changes colour in the dark grey option which is pointless. The page background is still too bright and it cannot be toned down.

At least we got a group policy option now to set the theme. Now give us more themes (like blue and black) in SP1 please.



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January 2nd, 2014 9:14pm

Um, Microsoft...

There's a desktop theme in place.  In Windows 8+ it's kind of lifeless, but it's nothing like the Antarctic desert of Office 365!

Why not just adhere to the desktop standard for look and feel that's already there?  What's better about your title bars or status bars, and why do you think borderless windows are better?

Didn't the Windows desktop team make the desktop more difficult to use as quickly as you like? 

And don't say that ribbon-enabled windows require it.  Just look at Explorer, Wordpad, etc.

Who drives these decisions?  Who do they work for?  How is it they are allowed to remain on the job?

Is it a test to see if Microsoft is too big to fail?

Has office been so successful that you feel you can take the hit and make it terrible, so you can sell even more versions as it gets better and better again with each new release?

  

January 3rd, 2014 4:38am

   I can just imagine how great this will help my cause trying to convince 170 teachers, administrators, and staff to move from Gmail to Office 365. Um... not only do you have to change from Gmail and all the Apps and features you are use to but you also have to change to a new version of Office... oh and it looks about as appealing as a corpse. Whose game?

   Thank you Microsoft, I am sure to win my users over with this!

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January 3rd, 2014 6:38pm

So, this is the first day I've been working in Office 2013, as I have been working in Office 2010 (and ssshh, don't tell anymore but Open Office also). I have a multiple-monitor setup, and I am working among three different files, moving information from one to another. In the older versions I worked, the borders of the active window would have the color of my Windows Appearance personalization (green), while the other window borders would be white. VERY convenient to figure out which file was active. Now, it's more confusing, as the only clues are an ever so SLIGHTLY (barely noticeable) darker border (as long as the appearance is set to one of the two exciting shades of gray) and the inclusion of the cursor, for which I have to search throughout one of 2,500 multicolored cells.

PLEASE bring back the ability for the Office Theme to intermingle with (or piggyback on) the Windows Theme! I'm losing time figuring out which window is active (and writing this complaint)!

January 6th, 2014 1:32pm

So this thread is now well over a year old and there is STILL no fix for the awful interface design and drab themes?

We have made an unfortunate corporate move to Office 13 and I have yet to hear anyone who does NOT complain about the terrible visuals.  It was bad enough going to the ribbon that FORCES me to use the mouse instead of keyboard shortcuts for many things.   It was bad enough to screw up the simple chart wizard from Office '03 to drive more mouse clicks and less efficiency.  But now I have the worst of everything.  A ribbon without contrast where it's visually difficult to locate that which I have to click with a mouse (rather than the simple old menu system).

But the good news is that I now have useless animations in Excel to show the highlighted border flying from one cell to the next.  Ohhhh....pretty!

Microsoft needs to fire the artsy people who designed the interface that clearly don't use computers for doing real work, and let the actual users of the product provide input for a chance.   I have to believe the majority of actual power users in Microsoft are banging their heads on the wall over the idiocy of the "creative" people that did the styling. 

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January 16th, 2014 11:33am

I am also in a position to make recommendations to Fortune 100 companies. Last year, my recommendation axed a 100K+ seat migration to Windows 8 in favor of a phased roll-out of Windows 7, even though it's already approaching the end of life cycle. That effectively also axed Office 2013. 

For smaller companies that are not concerned with being on the bleeding edge, I'm recommending they stay put with Office 2010 EXPLICITLY because of the visuals. If I had to guess, Microsoft has too much money and doesn't want you to buy their products anymore. I have no other explanation for so many blunders and missed opportunities to stop the bleeding.

To make things worse, I actually had several substantially sized companies ask me to present them with options that would allow them to switch to Mac, Linux, and Office alternatives. If things continue as they are now, I wouldn't be surprised if Microsoft would fade out of relevance, much like Novell did when they arrogantly ignored their customer base.

I guess it's time to start exploring post-Microsoft career options for us, Microsoft-centric IT pros. 

January 16th, 2014 5:12pm

Jennie, I bet you are not an engineer.

"were working to incorporate your feedback into future engineering plans"

This is just marketing talk for "we don't care". If you personally really cared, you'd say something like "I'm sorry, but there are mysterious forces beyond me who decided Office shall look the way it looks, and that's that. Now shut up, leave me alone."

Anyway, just to say something positive, too: The new color schemes do look special. Unusual. Rarely the choice of colors has excited so much emotion with office software, has it.

Maybe you can still find a way to turn all this emotion into a positive one. Maybe, as a first step, cut that marketing talk and actually do something real.

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January 18th, 2014 2:49pm

It finally occurred to me why they made it look this bad.

Late last year I found Office 2003 no longer works properly with Windows 8.1.  So I trialed Office 365.

When I finished my 30 day free trial and was faced with whether to buy a license or sign up for the subscription plan, I had to choose whether to spend $100 for a year of eligibility to receive every future upgrade they release - or buy a license for a bit over $200 and be stuck with exactly what I have - Office 2013.

Of course Microsoft makes more money with the former (subscription plan), considering the last license for Office I bought was back in 2003.  And looking over the product it's really no different under the covers than the version from 10 years ago.  It's just compatible with Windows 8 and has a 64 bit build.

I decided to go with the subscription because it's well less than perfect and there's a chance they'll be releasing something that looks and works better and is easier to use in the future - and I'll be eligible to get it with the subscription plan.

Think about it.  With subscriptions being all the rage now it benefits the authors to release products where people crave better functionality.  It keeps them hooked, and it's harder to make a product genuinely more valuable than it is to screw it up and charge people for the promise to make it better.

  

January 18th, 2014 3:11pm

As of this date, January 20, 2014, I am completely UNDERWHELMED with Office 2013. If you use SQL Server 2012, you know that it allows you to change every color of every display pane, cursor, text, background, line numbers, etc. ya-da ya-da.

And yet for all that, MS Office can't offer a single non-grey scale color change?? Are you KIDDING?!!!!!!!!!!

I'll be asking for a full and complete refund. Time to show MS our money goes elsewhere.

Seriously - this is embarrassing. Why do I continue associating with MS. O yeah, my boss got a discount. Big deal.

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January 21st, 2014 6:12am

After over a month of using Office 2013, I was tired of it. Inititially I thought it was a matter of time to get used to the changes, as it was with the ribbon. I liked the new features of Outlook 2013, SkyDrive, to just name one. However, working with the new Office 2013 is really strenuous and eye hurting. I asked IT for Office 2010 and I'm glad they had a spare installation available. When I opened Excel and Outlook 2010, I was amazed how great it looks.
  • Edited by matkes Tuesday, August 26, 2014 6:41 AM
January 24th, 2014 1:03pm

Well, I don't know what is wrong with me. Clearly the problem is me...I'm just not 'with it', I'm 'change resistant' etc etc. Yeah, well, here's the thing. I'm not an IT professional. Computers are something I use while in the process of doing something else. All I want is something easy to use, reliable and doesn't give me a headache. Sadly it seems MS has failed on all three counts. I persisted with Win8 despite numerous bugs and being given impossible solutions by tech-heads...I just don't have time to go on deep exploration of the registry blah blah. ...and I reiterate...I'm not a software engineer and no offence, I have no desire to be one.

SO...call me dated, or cheesy or whatever, but I loved Aero glass, and right now on Firefox, I have a rather attractive Walnut look, which at some point I may change to Japanese anime, or a hammer and sickle theme...oops, sorry. But do you get the picture? Some of us like colour and texture, even if it seems a bit ridiculous. Office 2013 is appalling, ugly, boring, and gives me eye-fatigue.

In the end, I went out and bought a new hard drive with the express purpose of starting from scratch with Win7 enterprise. ...boldly going where MS refuses to let us go...back to a long time ago in a galaxy far far away where people still did things using their Mark I eye-balls.

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January 25th, 2014 6:19pm

Good Lord I wish I'd read all this before I installed this abomination half an hour ago.  The very first thing I tried to change was the color scheme.  I'm going back to 2010.  Way to go MS.
January 29th, 2014 4:08pm

This is such a great disappointment. In today's highly competitive market where UI/UX are driving the whole sector of innovation, I wonder why didn't you hire someone who had a brain! Why and who would make it all look like 20 Yr back software which causes nothing but pain in the eyes! What were you thinking! Don't you have a usability team in place? If they said OK to this then you better get a new team as this is a complete suicide! Every customer hurt is 100 customers lost in the future. Sorry to say it but this is the worst design ever.
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February 1st, 2014 7:13pm

I can't see the light gray right-click menu entries. How do I change this?

Also - the light grey font on this page is driving me nuts too. 

Do dark black fonts in the software and on this page cost more, like using more ink on printed paper?

Oh my . . .


  • Edited by Brcobrem Sunday, February 02, 2014 2:43 PM
February 2nd, 2014 2:40pm

thank you for stating this so well!  I've only had mine 2 days and feel anxious.  Like my prescription changed!
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February 2nd, 2014 4:06pm

I'm posting this here because I'm hoping it will be cathartic, not because I actually expect anybody at MS to actually do anything about it - as a company they set the trend, so gleefully adopted by other companies like Google and eBay, of never, EVER listening to what their customers want, and of ALWAYS being incredibly arrogant, thinking that they ALWAYS know best.

Apologies for the old-skool way of quoting someone, but the people who designed this forum obviously decided that they knew best, and that nobody would ever want to split a block of quoted text up so as to reply point-by-point.

Jennie E wrote:

> Thank you for taking the time to provide feedback on this issue. When redesigning
> the Office 2013 user interface, our goal was to provide a cleaner experience that
> minimizes distractions and unnecessary elements, so we can put your content front
> and center.


OK, fine.   But why, if you provide a "cleaner experience that minimizes distractions and unnecessary elements" doesalso providing the ability for people to choose whatyou may consider a less clean, more distracting appearance, IF THAT IS WHAT THEY WANT, stop those who agree with you from choosing the new, clean minimalism?


> Our fresh new look got a lot of positive feedback from usability
> testers and from customers in the field.

Really?   Be honest, at least to yourself even if you can't say anything here - how many people are now providing you with positive feedback, and how many are complaining?   I started looking for ways to change the colour scheme because I've only just moved to 2013, and almost immediately I thought "don't like that, how do I change it?".    And all I can see are hundreds, if not thousands, of people, on site after site after site saying that they don't like it and why can't they choose to have what they would like?

This is not the shock of the new - you'll see from my screenshots that before 2013 I was using 2003 (long story - don't ask), so yes, there are a lot of changes, but I'm trying hard to give the new interface functionality a chance, and not complain about that.   But the basic window appearance has nothing to do with menu/ribbon/toolbar functionality.   It's still a window, it still has edges and corners to grab, it still has a title bar, it still has buttons for minimising, maximising, closing etc.   And all of that is Windows functionality, not application.



> However, after several months of broad
> use, it was clear that many customers are requesting a new, darker theme.

Really?   I don't think so - it seems to me that what many customers are asking for is a wide choice, to be able to have what they want, even if you don't think it elegant, or you find it distracting.

And talking of choice, I'd like to share with you some of the choices I've made.

Here are a couple of screenshots of areas of my desktop:

http://s3.postimg.org/ogvb62y3n/Screen_Hunter_110_Feb_04_18_11.jpg

http://s10.postimg.org/abctu1thl/Screen_Hunter_111_Feb_04_18_12.jpg

The point I'd like to make with those is that because I have chosen to have a plain grey desktop and I have chosen to have purple text with a transparent background, and I have chosen to tweak the icons, and I have chosen to not have shortcuts show as shortcuts (all the icons in the 1st image are, in fact, shortcuts), nobody else in the world is forced to do the same.

It's all about choice.

Here's what windows look like on my system:

http://s27.postimg.org/ozm5f98wz/Slide1.jpg

(No, it's not XP, it's 7).   I've chosen that design because it's what I want.  Have Microsoft received complaints from people that because of my choice, they have to do the same?   No.

It's all about choice.

Returning to a "cleaner experience that minimizes distractions and unnecessary elements", I'd like you to compare and contrast these two screenshots, as they show the difference (or rather the dreadful lack of difference) between how a Word 2013 window with focus looks compared to one without, and what a difference there is between the same distinction implemented by the OS with the theme I've chosen for the Word 2003 window.

http://s27.postimg.org/n6j8qxnqb/Slide2.jpg

http://s27.postimg.org/ijd6p60df/Slide3.jpg

Frankly, I would like the choice of a little more "distraction" so that I can instantly see which window has focus and which do not.  My Windows theme gives me that for everything except Office 2013 applications.  

At a fundamental level, why did you ever need to move away from honouring Windows settings in the first place?

Lastly, sounds.   I like them.  Not everybody does.   But it's all about choice, and me choosing to use them doesn't constrain anybody else's choice.   Does Office 2013 honour the sound theme settings I have for minimise, restore down etc?

No, it does not.   More arrogance - you have decided that you know better than I do how I want to use sounds on my system.

                  
February 4th, 2014 7:40pm

Unfortunately there isn't and probably never will be. Microsoft doesn't care. It doesn't matter to them what anyone thinks. The new theme is absolutely awful. It is blinding and huge. They have some how got it in their heads that everyone will be using nothing but touchscreen and tablets and they couldn't care less about anyone else. How anyone in their right minds thinks that people who work with spreadsheets or do any kind is design that requires coding will be using a touch screen, I haven't figured out yet. They are wearing blinders to what people are really doing and they are trying to force people into their very narrow view of how they 'should' work.
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February 5th, 2014 2:19am

Hi,

The theme of Office Professional Plus 2013 is by design, and check to see whether change the color of window borders taskbar can do any help.

This is very, very poor design. I've recently moved to Office 2013 as part of moving to Office 365.  I actually like the feature set of Office 2013, and especially getting rid of (FINALLY) MDI interface in Excel.

But the colour scheme renders what is actually a good product pretty unusable. I feel like I cannot actually see what I'm doing well, not in Outlook, not in PowerPoint, not in Excel, etc. And this is after making most of the modifications that turn it from a completely terrible to moderately tolerable UI experience.

Here's feedback from a long time office user: I am less productive in Office 2013 than I was in Office 2010, and it's noticeable, annoying and measurable. That's because I cannot 'find' things quickly. It's especially bad in Outlook; the colour scheme and low contrast between elements makes the workflow far less efficient. But it extends to all the applications, and its solely because of the incredibly poor visual design of the actual workspace areas.

Like others, I will probably have to continue to use 2010 until you fix it. That of course means I cannot really use Office 365.

February 5th, 2014 9:25am

Wish I'd done a bit more research before jumping to 2013 - I could probably have gone to 2010 instead.

Too late now.

 :cry:

And another question to the people at MS who will continue to ignore me:

 

ALL CAPS FOR THE RIBBON TABS??

 

OK - I get that you think that makes the interface cleaner and less distracting.  Others may disagree (I'm one).

But how does allowing me to have Proper Case, or all lower case, or even ThAt MaD aLtErNaTiNg one if that's what I want stop anybody else from having all caps, or force them to have the same as me?

 

It doesn't.

 

It's all about choice.

 

Sure - I can choose to rename the tabs, and put a space in before or after the text to keep the case I want.

 

But not with FILE or ADD-INS - for some reason you think you know better than I do, and that really I don't want to rename those, despite me thinking I do.

 

Why is that, I wonder?   More arrogance, perhaps?


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February 5th, 2014 1:18pm

Responses to this thread are now restricted to those innovative or experienced enough to figure out how to work around Microsoft's ridiculous forum design that causes the Javascript to thrash on long threads...

The good folks who have posted above are looking for some kind of "incompetence" explanation for why Office looks/works the way it does, probably on the general (good) advice that you should "never attribute to malice that which can be explained by incompetence".

You need to understand that whatever is released from Microsoft isn't just some project that was cobbled together by a couple of guys in a garage.  Everything you see - EVERYTHING - is designed to be the way it is.  And thoroughly tested to ensure it meets that design goal.

There can be NO explanation for the ridiculous downslide in usability of all the Microsoft products these past few years (not to mention the fact that there has been no real advancement in actual functionality) other than this is what they choose to push upon us.

It's what happens when there is no competition.  Thus, their motives actually ARE malicious.  We are presumably being groomed to accept lower usability standards so that it becomes cheaper/easier to engineer new versions that can be sold for real money.

 

February 5th, 2014 4:05pm

>"Responses to this thread are now restricted to those innovative or experienced >enough to figure out how to work around Microsoft's ridiculous forum design that >causes the Javascript to thrash on long threads..."

Yep. That's why I use Safari on my Mac. Works great every single time. IE continually has problems with the MS forums.

>There can be NO explanation for the ridiculous downslide in >usability of all the Microsoft products these past few years (not >to mention the fact that there has been no real advancement in >actual functionality) other than this is what they choose to >push upon us.

Agreed. Again, I went out and bought a Mac because of all of this. Best decision I ever made. Thanks Microsoft!


  • Edited by ABCFED Wednesday, February 05, 2014 4:25 PM
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February 5th, 2014 4:24pm

This is the worst user interface I've used in decades.  Another indicator of how MS needs new leadership.

I can't believe any usability/testing or any fragment of Human Interface Design was considered during it's development.

Awful.  Just plain awful.  I have a headache 2 hours into every day, and that's just from Outlook!

I remember my Etch-A-Sketch as a kid having better contrast.
  • Edited by TLarry Monday, February 10, 2014 5:51 PM
February 10th, 2014 5:50pm

That was too funnyI to was looking for something to change this North Pole color its ridiculous. It reminds me of a sheet of paper. Is this really Office 2013 or Office in the Book of Eli. I think you said it righta storm trooper back drop that only Vader could love. Where is Obie I think he is the only hope in changing this pasty look.  

  • Edited by KaWalka Wednesday, February 19, 2014 6:44 PM
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February 19th, 2014 6:37pm

Just horrible....!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Email is the worst! hard to navigate quickly and I am in it all day as I'm sure a lot of you are. 

February 20th, 2014 6:02pm

Don't blame this crap on the 50's. They would have booted it back to the 40's.

1840's.

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February 21st, 2014 2:50pm

In case anybody's interested, there is an alternative:

Libre Office.

It also happens to be free, compatible and mature It's been around for well over two decades now (counting its roots in Star Office and Open Office). Google that and you'll find the right spot in no time.

February 21st, 2014 2:52pm

I don't think they should really lose their job, just being forced to use this crap for the next 5 years would be enough in my opinion.

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February 21st, 2014 2:55pm

Your new Office 2013 look REALLY SUCKS.

Did you get that?

It BLOWS CHUNKS.

I'm recommending that people use LIBRE OFFICE until you all get everything straightened out.

February 21st, 2014 3:22pm

Hey, don't blame this mess on UNIX. Even UNIX wasn't ever THIS butt ugly.
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February 21st, 2014 3:24pm

I have to agree. Been programming and selling computer systems since 1978. I remember my first shipment of IBM PCs. I was selling CP/M machines before then. In any case I also thought, "This is Multimate!" or Volkswriter. This is a throwback to green/amber/paper white monitors. This is horrible. I never thought a visual interface could ruin a product, but this does. It is just unusable. We will be uninstalling it on our test machines and recommending our company does not use it for the time being. Windows 8 is bad enough, but this is too much to take.

I have to agree 1,000,000,000 percent.

February 21st, 2014 3:26pm

Drab, lifeless, ugly, incredibly ugly, no color option, no gradation, no depth or dimensionality. And really not fun to navigate to boot. Please, please fix this. I imagine we will have to abandon 2010 at some point. Our company is evaluating alternative products that can read and write office format files. I agree with one poster that Windows 8 and Office 2013 could be the thing that pushes people to Apple, Linux and Android.

LIBRE OFFICE works very well, is mature and free. It has roots in Open Office and Star Office before it, and as a product suite has well over two decades of heavy code behind it and strong support, both open source and commercial.

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February 21st, 2014 3:27pm

"Bleak, Pale and Depressing"

Perfect names for the Office 2013 themes.

February 21st, 2014 3:28pm

I thought I would have a another look at office 2013 because it has been a while since I last attempted to use it. Nothing has changed. It still has THE SHOUTY ALL CAPS MENU (at least Visual Studio had the option to turn off the loud menus) and it still has the awfully bland interface. On Windows 7 it looks terrible it completely ignores the OS style. I will not be continuing my trial and will continue with 2010. This thread has been going since late 2012 and yet nothing has changed.
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February 24th, 2014 4:44am

some decision maker must have skimmed over the "shades of grey #1 best selling" mail and that's the result.

it is indeed a giant leap back in usability.

February 24th, 2014 11:35am

I cannot believe this discussion has been RAGING since late 2012 and NOTHING HAS BEEN DONE. We just now switched to Office 2013 and I have just spent the last 2 hours trying to figure out how to change the RED of Access to a more acceptable color. 

Who picks RED and PINK as color scheme for all day programming?????? My head is already pounding. 

White 

Light Grey 

Dark Grey

SERIOUSLY??? I almost feel like there is some sort of KKK influence to these "themes".  We had to switch because our IT is no longer going to support older versions, but I think I am going to campaign to switch back until something has been done. I don't need a bunch of fancy color choices, just something that will allow me to do my job without wanting to ripe my eyes out and stomp on my brain to make it stop pounding in pain.

Get it in gear MS.

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February 24th, 2014 4:14pm

Why do I have scroll arrows in Word, but they disappear in Chrome?  Ridiculous!  Plus, the color schemes are horrible.  Why so dull?  Did the Zombie Apocalypse happen and I didn't notice?
March 4th, 2014 4:50am

Office 2013 looks horrible beyond imagination!

How can Microsoft destroy it's flagship product by such a stupid and naive design !

Guys, it is simply unusable. In my company we will not be installing any 2013 product. We will stick to the 2010 edition and pray that someone at Microsoft will by sober enough to bring back a decent UI in the next product release.

I am speechless!

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March 4th, 2014 8:17am

To all of you who are amazed at Microsoft's apathy concerning the dissatisfaction of MS Office 2013 users, consider these possibilities:

1) MS Office has very little real competition.  Your alternatives are limited, so you'll either deal with Office 2013 as it is or settle for something inferior.  They can get away with it.

2) Bill Gates has enough money.  He can't spend what he has, and doesn't give a RAT'S ASS what you like or don't like.

3) Microsoft is the dominant producer of productivity software and they have very little to prove besides the fact that they can screw you over and you will put up with it.  They chuckle because it's fun to watch you pay outrageaous prices for the opportunity to bend over for them.

March 4th, 2014 4:15pm

I just want to chime in and say I want my Black theme from office 2007, and 2010 back. This is just plain terrible! Release an update, give us something with some contrast, something we can work with. I can tell where the ribbon ends and the spreadsheet begins. This is total garbage, but its not too late. Its never too late to right a wrong. You messed up don't just ignore it. That is not what will make customers happy. A very late fix will be very appreciated.
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March 12th, 2014 5:15pm

"I cannot believe this discussion has been RAGING since late 2012 and NOTHING HAS BEEN DONE. "

Believe it - and by the way - welcome to the "new" Microsoft. Hope you enjoy the ride.

You'll never get a proper response to this thread - ever. You might have someone not related to the Office team chime in every year or so and say "they are listening" and "feedback" this and "all our study groups love it" that, but that's just BS drivel - they don't really mean it, nobody is really listening, and nobody on the Office team ever reads or responds to these posts. Nothing changes.

It's pathetic. I'm so glad Steve B got canned and Sinofsky should be flogged. Here's hoping the new CEO fires these no-good Office managers who caused this mess, but I'm putting very little faith in that too. I think it boils down to the new philosophy of "you get what you get - and don't throw a fit". They are going to shove this crap down our throats and that's the end of it. If we don't like it we're going to have to take our toys, go home, and play in another sandbox. Don't feel bad - Microsoft's sandbox is just full of cat poo nowadays anyway and stinks. Much better to play in Apple, Google, Libres, and other sandboxes if you want to actually not be covered in the feces that is Office 2013.

It's sad. I used to love Microsoft. Now, I can't stand them.
  • Edited by ABCFED Thursday, March 13, 2014 12:08 AM
March 13th, 2014 12:02am

I finally relented and gave up Office 2013 on home/office PCs.  Reverted to Office 2010 which brought back some sanity.  2013 is like a bad nightmare.  The flat, washed-out, eye straining barren wasteland blandness was so depressing and frustrating to use.  I really did think that by now Msft would have done something to offer some better color options to their loyal users. Very sad they have not.  This is the "Windows ME" of Office suites.  The decision makers that forced this horrible interface design on their customers were completely out of touch and apparenly still are based on their lack of response.        
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March 14th, 2014 3:19pm

You can change the theme in Office 2013 by following the path as,

File > Account > Office Theme (White, Light Grey, Dark Grey)

March 21st, 2014 4:35pm

You are absolutely correct. I have been using Office since maybe Day 2 and have become immune to the erratic color scheme issues. My wife was new to Office in December, and we just "upgraded" her to Office 2013. She hates it, and it is everything to do with the colors. With all three of the gray, more gray, and less gray schemes she cannot reliably detect the pale blue shading with which Outlook barely highlights into which folder that you are about to drag an email. She worries all the time about sticking an email where the shading don't shine.

My father is legally blind and can barely manage with older versions of Office, so there is no way he will be able to use Office 2013 (since moving to high-contrast on Windows + Office seems to be an all-or-nothing affair).

I am wondering if the people who do quality control on this stuff are representative of the population that uses it.

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March 29th, 2014 4:45am

I just wasted $200+ for office 2013. When I first opened the program it was totally white and found out I could only adjust it to light gray or dark gray. Totally in shock that I may have to live with this. Does anyone know if an upgrade is coming soon?

March 31st, 2014 12:41am

please you don't have to uninstall it, it's surely not having a great design but have way better innovative features than any other edition of office
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March 31st, 2014 3:57pm

Yeah Microsoft should work on this issue ASAP
March 31st, 2014 3:59pm

The big mistake: Microsoft standardizing on how they think I want my Desktop and Office applications to look. Really? Wake up you corporate giant? I am ready to finally dump Microsoft entirely.  MAC or Linux or even freaking Chrome now can let you edit documents, process email, make spreadsheets and databases. And at significantly lower cost or free and with a great regard to the end user experience of which only a small part is custom colors. Who did the market research at Microsoft to say a white grey or dark grey screen would be pleasing to the eye? Big mistake - fire that guy. There is a big dent to faith in the Office brand. I'm ready to dump you, yes dump you flat on your fat pompous ass because you are an expensive, non-giving back, selfish, dictating life-partner whom I am fed up with. Even your new X-box is centered around being the center of my living room for all things other than video games. Really? No thank you.
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April 9th, 2014 8:23pm

I just installed Office 2013 - and the look of it is like software I ha back in 1989 - no color, washed out shades of grey.

I agree, if it is by design, Microsoft needs a new designer. I'd like to know who their test crowd was - maybe they were colorblind. COme on Microsoft, this is a COLORFUL world out there and I want to enjoy COLOR on my computer programs. Your Office 2013 looks cheap, boring, and uninspiring. I am sorry I upgraded.

And why have you not come up with a fix by now? Is isn't af if you can't afford the design team to create a color fix. THis is why people hate Microsoft. You're so big you think you can do whatever and we will keep coming back. I can tell you, I WON'T!

April 15th, 2014 6:16pm

Because if all the windows are the same colour, whether in focus or not YOU CAN'T TELL WHICH APP you are using! It is ridiculous.
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April 22nd, 2014 11:21pm

I think what we all need to do is drive up to Redmond WA and camp on their doorstep, carry signs, scream, yell, cry, whatever until somebody there gets it. How about a flash mob?

April 22nd, 2014 11:31pm

I can't believe nothing has changed since 1 1/2 years.
Every person at first time using Office 2013 asked me how to change that ugly theme to more contrast.
At the end many of them changed back to Office 2010.

For monitors with high brightness it is really pain for the eyes.

The most funny part is, that there is a theme called "Dark Grey" but
it is more like "Mostly White with very little of Grey".

Please Microsoft, don't be inconvincible, give us a dark theme like in Office 2010.

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May 12th, 2014 8:08pm

I have an idea:

Instead of sweating the long wait to post a reply here, how about everyone who's about to do so instead create a new thread.  Flood the Microsoft forum site until the forum is useless for anything but expressing that Office 365/2013 is eye-searing and the problem cannot be ignored.

  

May 13th, 2014 2:33am

I couldnt agree more... and definately couldnt have said it any better!  Hillarious!!! 

Seriously Microsoft, love everything about the new design for Office 2013 except for the lack of color.  I often get my Outlook confused with a boring webpage I may have visted.  I hope these comments don't fall on def ears....

I'll look forward to the Service Pack/ update

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May 13th, 2014 1:36pm

No help with the Windows border colors.  That color option only applies to Windows Explorer and IE.  It has no effect on office applications. 

If you can please reply what it is about the design of 2013 that it has these limitations?

May 13th, 2014 1:48pm

Wow... a year and a half and nothing has been done with the Office 2013 colors.

You make me sad Microsoft.  Very sad. 

We'll be moving into a post Microsoft world at some point due to you ignoring your customers.  Your sales have already taken a hint... its time you wake up and see the writing on the wall.

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May 15th, 2014 5:48pm

The one thing that has changed drastically in the marketplace is the role of the consumer. It isn't important that anyone (especially Microsoft) understands the bit about eye strain. The fact that so many consumers share this thought is enough for a customer centric company to act on it. 

Because consumers talk with one another and influence one another far more than the organization does with what it has to say, the power of a statement, echoed by so many others, is one a company can hardly afford to ignore.

I too, am having trouble with viewing the white screen for so long. 

With any proposed fix, Microsoft would do well to include a consumer focus group and not act on their own.

May 22nd, 2014 2:24pm

Office 2013 is worst piece of you know what I mean, steady improvement from 0ffice 2000 all the way till 2010, now this junk and they make you go cloud? I happen to have a lot of sayings in this regards with my customers, thank you, but no, thank you.
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May 27th, 2014 3:41pm

I have unfortunately also been obliged to install Office 2013 and can't believe how awful it looks, and how ironically cluttered making things more monochrome makes the UI appear.  MS, stop forcing us to do things "your" way, you aren't Facebook, so don't make us hate you as much as we hate them.
June 16th, 2014 8:27am

I agree 100%.  I had an old xp computer with great color and Office 2010.  Bought Office 2013 and I am living in a grey world.   Far too many wistles and bells clutter everywhere.  I just want the old windows.  Now I guess we will have to buy Office every year and deal with trash products forever.  Great for MS to make more money but we get trash products.  Very disappointed with MS lately.  Maybe Apple is the answer.
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June 23rd, 2014 9:10pm

It's nearly 2 years on from your original comment and it would appear the Microsoft have totally ignored the comments about the "new" interface. I hate the Office 2013 and I'm mostly still using Office 2010. I'm a Microsoft Office Trainer and I can hardly bring myself to use Office 2013 as it is dull, depressing and frustrating to use. A lot of people like a bit colour in their lives - or at least to have a choice. White, light grey and dark grey - isn't a choice in my books. God knows how visually impaired people manage with this interface.

Microsoft want our money, but they have stopped listening to it's customers. Why don't they listen or at least ask us what we think?

Another thing that I don't like about Office 2013 is that when I click on File, I don't have a Recent option like I did in Office 2010. I know it's there under Open, but I think it is such a time-saving option, it shouldn't be hidden away.

Also, where have the little yellow envelopes gone in Outlook? I don't like the bar at the side.

In Word I use the zoom in and zoom out buttons all the time. In Office 2010 I liked to be able to see pages side by side, NOW we get them vertically - what use is that? Anybody know of a fix for this?

I like Flash Fill in Excel, but other than that...........rant over.

June 25th, 2014 10:42am

What a perfect pile of Pooh Microsoft has made of the Office 2013.  I am absolutely blinded trying to run the Office suite; what in the hell are they thinking.  We need a champion to run this one back to AppDev and get us a theme fix.
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July 4th, 2014 5:14am

I couldn't agree with you more.  I feel like we were in Oz and suddenly we're all back in Kansas and it's worse than when we left it!  At least in the beginning it was sepia - now it just UGLY and PAINFUL to use.  This lack of control isn't just about pretty colors, which I happen to like, it's about visual strain.  I cannot believe they did this and have done nothing to correct it after such a long time and so many negative comments.  I can't wait to dump it altogether.  

July 11th, 2014 6:00pm

Here we are 2 years later... and people still think this sucks.

I'll be sticking with Outlook 2010 until it end-of-lifes.  I will, of course, as a courtesy, go through the exercise of installing any future Office releases, just to see if this arrogance is ever corrected, but I'll probably do it on a VM just in case.

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July 14th, 2014 4:45pm

What kind of answer is "by design" since when is a whiteout snowstorm a design?
Now I have uninstall this nightmare and reinstall my Office 2010 so I don't get blinding headaches from it.
Didn't they do market surveys first?
July 24th, 2014 3:32am

I thought the exact same thing about changing the Outlook icon to blue. Anything to make it look different so they can sell it as a new release, change colors,  Move menu's around etc. I am sure they have a playbook to do this by now.

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July 24th, 2014 3:37am

The silence is deafening. Unbelievable.
July 27th, 2014 11:56pm

It is not possible that Microsoft tested this monstrosity with any group of users that have to work on a computer day in and day out, five days a week. I can say with complete certainty that my organization of 16,000 people will NOT be upgrading to 2013. Ever. We'll ride 2010 until it dies and then look for another productivity suite that actually enhances productivity. If Microsoft has developed one by then, they may see money from us again. If they continue trying to push tablet technology on business people who work primarily on desktops, then emphatically not.

I've read many, many comments about 2013 by now because when I first installed it to begin planning to train our users on it, I couldn't believe how bad it was. Both visually and in terms of productivity. The expectations for a student or home user of Microsoft Office are very, very different than the expectations of a business. Students and home users have the luxury of time to adapt to new software. They haven't invested literal years, decades, in mastering the previous iterations. They're more mobile than business users and more likely to access their documents on multiple platforms. Their needs are NOT the needs of the business community.

Every time Microsoft changes the UI, that costs lost productivity while everyone in the organization re-learns where things are. Which is why you don't change things for the sake of changing them, or move them unless there is a very clear, compelling reason to do so. Every time we have to retrain our people, or they have to Google how to perform a function they used to do with a keystroke, that costs us money. That is a LOSS to our organization. It creates unnecessary stress for our workers. Business users who have been working with Office for decades have the right to expect that their software won't be an actual impediment to their doing work. 

Do you know why there was such resistance to the ribbon? It's not because people were old fuddy-duddies who hate change. It's that what used to be accessible with one click now took three. The ribbon meant instead of clicking one icon on an admittedly very busy menu, now it took two, or even three clicks--assuming we remembered perfectly where a particular function was. The "smoother, cleaner interface" that's so lovely for tablet and smartphone users is HORRIBLE for productivity because Microsoft keeps adding more clicks to every task. Count the number of clicks a user had to perform with 2003 versus the number of clicks for 2013. That click counter keeps edging higher. Productivity is my business. I get paid to notice these things. The operations with a forty thousand line spreadsheet that took fifteen minutes in 2003 take twenty minutes in 2014. You can call us dinosaurs all you want, the numbers do not lie. That's three tasks accomplished per hour rather than four, 24 rather than 32 per day, for ONE user. This is not one problem child user. This is all of them.

Consistency has been another casualty of that "smoother, cleaner" tablet-friendly interface. I opened Excel 2013 just now. When I right-click in a cell, I get a text "paste special" option. When I open up Word 2013 and right click, there is no text that says "paste special." Just an icon. Which, based on 2010 and 2007, MIGHT open up a menu, or it might paste some unpredictable portion, unformatted text, formatted text, or maybe HTML, of the thing I copied.

That means I have to stop what I'm doing and LOOK at the menu. Paste special is no longer a thoughtless operation for me. NOTHING in Microsoft Office is a thoughtless operation anymore. The menu changes from Word to Excel to PowerPoint, the ribbon changes depending on screen resolution, so there is no way to develop that muscle memory users used to have in 2003. Even better, with this new "clean" and COLORLESS interface, I have to stop and figure out what application I'm in to guess where the function might be. The mental process is, "wait, where did the paste spec--oh, I'm in Word, not Excel, I have to go up and click the paste special icon on the ribbon to find my "paste special" text." This is just ONE function. Almost every single function in these programs varies in placement and presentation from 2007 to 2010 to 2013 and then varies further from Word to Excel to PowerPoint. I occasionally conduct training sessions for new employees and have to tell them, as I demonstrate a process on an overhead projector, that my screen might not look like their screen due to the differences in resolution. They will have to hunt for the icon I clicked, which might have gotten smaller and compressed or even have lost text, forcing them to hover over the icons to see which is which. I say again, there is no POSSIBLE way that Microsoft is talking about these changes with actual business users. Actual business users would have screamed bloody murder.

Expecting companies to keep retraining their users, expecting long time users to constantly have to re-find the functions they knew perfectly again and again every few years is ludicrous. Making me tell a user running the same software sitting five feet from me that his "ribbon" may not look like mine is insanity. It used to take two hours to get a group of new users up and running with Excel. It now takes four, almost solely from running back and forth to point out the picture, or icon, OR text--you never know which!--corresponds to the one I clicked.

Office 2013 takes the existing productivity issues of 2007 and 2010 and makes them even worse. Others have already mentioned the difficulty in telling which window is the active window. Anyone who tells a productivity expert to request all the users in their organization go customize the tools panel of every Office product they use should be dragged out into the street and shot. A productivity suite that has to be extensively tweaked and customized by the end user to allow them to be productive? Who on earth imagined that would be acceptable? A productivity suite once that once was the standard among businesses because it could be mastered and because functions WERE standard has been redesigned to appeal to the people who are by definition amateur, and Microsoft wonders at the furious reaction? How about making your productivity suite productive? If you design for amateurs, your customer base will BE amateurs. And amateur users are a fickle bunch.



  • Edited by Morrighan Wednesday, July 30, 2014 2:23 AM
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July 30th, 2014 2:17am

What an excellent piece by the writer above, which sums up so well all the abysmal things about Office 2013. Bravo for writing that! And to all the other writers here.

I can only echo many of the comments made above, and add a couple of my own.

It is simply not possible that Microsoft tested this or trialled it on real users, the people who would be using it all day every day. As is typical of large organisations, I suspect they have done exactly the opposite: dreamed something up in a think-tank and ploughed ahead with it regardless, in fact seeking no feedback from users at all, complacent in the thought of their ubiquity in the area of office applications. If Microsoft had really tested or trialled this, the reaction would have been so overwhelmingly negative that it surely could never ever have reached the market. The best comments I have read about Office 2013 are that you get used to it after a while and its not all bad, its got some nice new features. Hardly glowing reviews..!

Lets be honest here.

Firstly, whatever your view on the issue of whether the white/grey colour scheme actually hurts your eyes or not, it is nevertheless absolutely hideous. It is the ugliest piece of software I have seen since the 1980s, when everything was white and you werent really thinking about whether a piece of software looked nice or not. My goodness, is it hideous. How on earth did this idea ever get off the drawing board?? Grey, white, white, grey its like Ive installed some demo piece of software designed by a High School student. It makes my brand new I7 32Gb RAM laptop look like a museum piece, like Im working back on an old Apple Mac from 1990. Oh my, it is so awful. Please, buy me a couple of beers and Ill design a better looking colour scheme for you.

Secondly, the ribbon. Replacing the nice orderly Menus and Toolbars from Office 2003 with a cluttered mess of stuff, it all looks like its been randomly dumped on there, icons are different sizes, dotted around wherever and thats before you even try to work out where things are. And the icons are ugly, ugly, hideous one dimensional blotches of colour, or 1980s looking flat lines, they look like theyve been designed in High School again.

Thirdly, productivity. No need for me to expand on the excellent piece above here asking everyone who uses this hideous thing to completely re-learn where everything is, no consistency between different programs, adding more clicks rather than taking them away its insanity.

And yes, I will mention the active window issue too. The operating system is still called Windows, by the way. Isnt a fundamental part of how windows works the ability to be able to easily tell which window you are working in, so you can fluidly move between them..? How could the development team for this disaster not notice that as a problem..?

Its a total train-wreck. Ugly as sin, stark and bland, amateurish looking, fiddly and unfunctional. I am frankly astonished that this got through the development process and out onto the market.

Im an individual consumer, not a large company or anything, so I dont suppose Microsoft is going to lose much sleep over losing my custom, but nevertheless, I shall be returning to my good old (unsupported but colourful and orderly) Office 2003, and investigating some Office alternatives for the future. But I wont be coming back to this party!

Paul W.

August 2nd, 2014 12:24am

Totally agree with the two above comments.  I also use Office 2003 and love it.  Like the reviewer above, I intend to keep using it even though Microsoft no longer supports it. I am a Microsoft stockholder and it just amazes me that a company like Microsoft refuses to listen to their customers.   
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August 14th, 2014 3:55pm

Much as I hate to say this, the so-called theme support is IMHO the absolute worst aspect of this software.

White theme is blindingly white.

Gray theme looks no different than that burn-your-eyeballs-out white theme.

Dark gray theme looks like what the Gray theme should have been.

Why did they bother?
Because of these lame, non-existing themes Office 2013 totally ignores common sense GUI consistency guidelines and goes out of its way to make the software uncomfortable to use.

If I could get my money back for this product, I would in a heartbeat. As it stands today I have uninstalled it in favor for its older, and more comfortable to use predecessor. I simply refuse to use it.

August 16th, 2014 11:28pm

What's amazing is that after 400 posts in this thread and a quarter million views, Microsoft continues to ignore the problem altogether.

There have been some learned and thoughtful viewpoints expressed just recently, by people who are motivated to provide feedback, using the skills needed to actually respond to this thread regardless of Microsoft's poor forum implementation.

Microsoft, listen up:

The people who are contributing their opinions here are the movers and shakers of the computer world. If you want to remain RELEVANT in that world you'll start paying attention to what they're saying.

It is a myth that a company can be too big to fail.

 

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August 16th, 2014 11:49pm

The worst is by far outlook, I have been missing to many emails, that took me days to reply on, this color theme is a joke.

The team responsible for this most have missed the basic concept of Microsoft "WINDOWS", this has pushed my to try a different email program, so for the moment i am using "MailBird" and guess what this little program merges my two mail accounts with a blink of an eye :)

So when you are working with the colors, please look around and learn some tricks from the freeware world, instead of trying so despaired to copy Apple !!! 

August 19th, 2014 7:54pm

Have you guys tried the window 7 black theme with high contrast, it makes office black, I love it, all black and yellow/green fonts, easier on your eyes,  less energy, the only thing its that you can't see the colours in excel, I mean you can't highlight a cell, its just all black, 

Can everybody customize themes so they apply to office too?



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August 22nd, 2014 6:13pm

All I can see is "White", "Light Grey", and "Dark Grey"...which is equivalent to "Stormtrooper White", Stormtrooper Light Grey", and "Stormtrooper Dark Grey".

I disagree, I think they are closer to "Stormtrooper White", Stormtrooper Light Grey", and "Stormtrooper Extra Light Grey".  :^)  What an appalling lack of contrast.

August 26th, 2014 7:37pm

Putting emotions aside.. Microsoft probably decided on an architecture change in order to comply with the mobile devices and other touch screen gadgets.

Microsoft should have created another version of Office 2013 for the users of these devices. Office Plus is meant for Business Users (read: desktop/laptop users) and should have maintain the status quo with Office 2013 ..at least in terms of GUI enhancements.   

  • Proposed as answer by Philomatix Saturday, August 30, 2014 4:09 AM
  • Unproposed as answer by Philomatix Saturday, August 30, 2014 4:09 AM
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August 28th, 2014 9:52am

Having used Microsoft products since the days of Dos 5 and Windows 3 and used every Office version that appeared since its first appearance and even have done microsoft certification courses and passed them. I can say with the type of unresponsive arrogance that those in charge in the Company itself, Microsoft who don't seem to respond or seem to care about its consumers in large the only real answer is to hope they get retrenched, downsized or plain fired like the thousands that lost their jobs recently in the Nokia fiasco. the only real answer to consumer problems and its related technical problems is a shakeup in the corporate culture, until it wakes up to consumer preferences and real solutions.
  • Edited by Philomatix Saturday, August 30, 2014 4:18 AM
August 30th, 2014 4:18am

Please...PLEASE...someone tell me there is a way to change the Office 2013 RTM themes beyond just a grey-scale look. All I can see is "White", "Light Grey", and "Dark Grey"...which is equivalent to "Stormtrooper White", Stormtrooper Light Grey", and "Stormtrooper Dark Grey". Did the Adams Family design the Office 2013...because everything looks like a flat-styled death theme compared to Office 2010. I'm quite literally getting eye-strain from it. I can see a headache coming on if I try to use this all day.

Is there some option I'm missing, some third-party add-on, a registry tweak...or ANYTHING that will add a blue, tan, or any other splash of real color to Office 2013? Also, is there some way to add some depth to the slider bars? Everything looks so flat....and dead. I'm working with these tools all day long...and it's like I'm living in a Twilight Zone episode. I feel depressed after using Office 2013.


Please Make it go darker - eye strain - headache -
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August 30th, 2014 4:50pm

I'm also going back to Office 2010, and not rolling 2013 out until there's a more suitable theme...

What was wrong with the Black in 2010? The options in 2013 really are dire!


Yes please, Daker is better, I don't want bright and colourful but darker.
August 30th, 2014 4:51pm

I don't quite get the complaints about headaches and so on, it's boring yes but I don't understand how a really simple colour scheme would cause eye strain.


It doesn't matter if you get it or not. People (customers) complain about it so it should be resolved!

For me it's a reason NOT to use MSO 2013!


If a screen is so bright that you have to squint your eyes the whole time to reduce glare you get eye strain and headache.
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August 30th, 2014 4:53pm

Two years have passed since Microsoft started "actively collecting feedback". Nothing has changed. The new MS Office 2013 is an abomination. Why can't you get some adult supervision to your "design" team? I see it everywhere when companies hire teenagers to do fancy new themes because supposedly it's so trendy. Get someone who actually uses the darn thing!

The new "Dark Grey" is very light grey. Doesn't anyone at Microsoft know how to adjust their monitors properly? Where is the old "black" (which really was dark grey)? Someone actually went to the lengths of removing it. Why?

I am going to beg at work to revert me at MS Office 2010. At home I am just about done with Microsoft. I don't want design by hipsters. I want consistent and usable. USABLE, get it? Not "trendy". After 30 years of using Windows I will switch to a Mac. I am done with endless experiments. Get some adult supervision. Seriously.

August 31st, 2014 6:35pm

I get the feeling the Microsoft has gone the way of so many US businesses and has working with its customers less and less and completely out of touch by design.  Off Shore Customer Service.  New ideas like having to buy Office annually, etc.  I have windows 8 and bought a desktop Windows 7 as I wasn't crazy about Windows 8 and felt MS would not make it for long but Windows 7 was solid.  But this color thing is more than I can take.  To have to live in this drab world of Windows 7 with no reds just grays and dull green and dull blue is too much.  Makes me long for Windows 8!

ATT, Microsoft, all the big businesses have forgotten we are the public that made them very rich.  They have taken many of their jobs and moved out of our country to get richer while their products deteriorate.     I think I must be getting old.  Things didn't used to be like this.

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September 2nd, 2014 3:42am

I couldn't agree more. We have around 500 users, with about 54 at my site and they are all voicing their concerns over potential eye strain and migraine headaches. I have several users who get Migraines. If I would have known just how different Office 2013 was from 2007, which we were using, I would have fought to keep using 2007 or at least maybe upgraded to 2010. But, we (all sites) have to be consistent and we all had to upgrade, with my site almost there.

I feel bad, I can't give my users any other color options and how they have to live with the new look that is just so dull and depressing.

I also have a big gripe and maybe one of the 400 plus posts on this forum already mentioned it, but I miss the ability to open multiple documents in the same, current Word session window. One department does a lot of mail merge letters and are constantly generating multiple letters and they all open in a new window. This clutters their screen and blocks other application windows where they need to get information from to enter into the letters. There are also multiple windows that open and close during the merge process, run be scripts, that now give off a flashing effect with them opening in separate windows and closing so fast. I know I can probably go into the code and hide all the background windows that are opening, but every time you modify code, you risk breaking something else.

I can't believe after all this time, Microsoft is not responding.

I think I just installed Service Pack 1 the other day, hopeful that they would have addressed some of these issues, but alas no. I didn't notice anything different. 

September 13th, 2014 1:52am

God!  I feel ripped off and I got 4 years for 60 with the university package!  Shock is the first reaction because one is so used to being impressed with the boot up but this design is unbelievable.  I thought it must be a mistake.  Right from the harsh green and blue icons to the bland one-dimensional hyper-vivid text.  AND THERE IS NO DELINIATION!!  IT IS JUST A MUSH OF VIVID TEXT ALL MIXED TOGETHER.  Surely they know that human perception is not rocket science, we like smooth, non-glaring, clearly delineated content because that helps our brains work.

I want my 60 back.  I am continuing with 2007 version unfortunately.  Should have gone for 2010 by the sound of it but I am sure there is no chance of being allowed to downgrade...oh no no no!  Progress, dear boy, progress!

Progress big fat cohonis!


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September 13th, 2014 10:41am

Well said, SAS71. When I first installed Office 2013 here at home, then first thing I tried was changing to a darker theme, which is what I do with all apps that provide the option. But of course all I got was the white, less white, and less less white themes. I don't know who MS is testing with, but it must not be ordinary users. The testers must have had huge halogen lamps over each desk area. I laugh that they even provided they even call their themes "themes." Really, I could achieve the same "themes" look by adjusting the contrast and brightness on my monitor. Please MS, give your users some decent customization options. I always liked the various blue and darker schemes MS provided through the years in their Windows and Office versions. I've heard the next version of Office will provide a real black theme, and I can only hope it happens. I recommend users stick with Office 2010, skip Office 2013, and wait and see if the next Office is more colorful. I wouldn't be surprised if the next version has only one theme: stark white fills with light gray lines.

September 19th, 2014 6:32pm

Looks like we're going to have to wait for the next Microsoft Office 16 release for a black theme option, which more or less seems to be its single benefit over the current version besides a "Tell Me" help assistant.  At least Microsoft has acknowledged that this "feature" was on our most-wanted list (no kidding)!

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September 21st, 2014 8:25am

All the themes are gone (all the themes are gone); All that's left is grey (light and dark grey)

I got down on my knees and began to pray (and began to pray).

God, make Microsoft (make Microsoft) put some color back in (put some color back in),

Dumping Office 2013 and going back to '10,

September 29th, 2014 3:23pm

OK, Office 13 themes are needed. If Microsoft is not going to provide them my 90,000 employee IT company is going to stop recommending any Microsoft product as a viable solution. While others have made this suggestion Microsoft appears like they have other priorities. This is not a good business decision. Microsoft is going to crash if they take this approach. They will end up like IBM did after Microsoft DOS. No customers and penny less. I wish you a fond farewell.
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October 3rd, 2014 3:28pm

Can't change the colour of MS2013, but you can make the white less painful by installing the app at www.justgetflux.com (at the expense of accurate colour reproduction). It's like a software version of a screen filter.
October 7th, 2014 3:27am

Jaynet,

Your "check to see..." suggestion indicates you don't understand that the window border has nothing to do with the Office theme.  Whether someone likes the default themes or not is not the issue.  The issue is that, unlike the ability to customize "Windows" colors, Office 2013's options are extremely limited and not much different.  My issue isn't that my eyes hurt, but that I actually have a harder time visually determining where one application windows starts and another one ends on screen. I close the wrong application or bring forward the wrong window more often now.  The "flat" look makes it harder to quickly find an icon or the right toolbar so I can be more proficient.  I've been using personal computers since the Tandy Radio Shack TRS-80s were being sold and I've seen a lot of interfaces in my old age.  This is one step beyond amber CRTs.  Office SHOULD change if my Windows theme changes, but it doesn't.

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October 7th, 2014 3:22pm

Looked at the Win 10 Technical Preview yet?

They're following the Office 365/2013 lead - borderless, lifeless windows that don't follow a theme.  Almost no choice in theme configuration.

Hello...  Many of us have seen better, right here in older versions of Microsoft software.

Why is it considered wrong that people want THEIR technology to work the way THEY want?

  

October 7th, 2014 4:22pm

You're an awesome writer SAS71

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October 15th, 2014 3:21pm

Then change the design.   Please.  It's awful and not ergonomically good for our eyes and heads.  It's lazy design.
October 15th, 2014 3:23pm

quotes from Pianoman_coa2

I couldn't agree more. We have around 500 users, with about 54 at my site and they are all voicing their concerns over potential eye strain and migraine headaches. I have several users who get Migraines. If I would have known just how different Office 2013 was from 2007, which we were using,
... 
I feel bad, I can't give my users any other color options and how they have to live with the new look that is just so dull and depressing.

I also have a big gripe
... I miss the ability to open multiple documents in the same, current Word session window.
... There are also multiple windows that open and close during the merge process, run be scripts, that now give off a flashing effect with them opening in separate windows and closing so fast. I know I can probably go into the code and hide all the background windows that are opening, but every time you modify code, you risk breaking something else.
... I think I just installed Service Pack 1 the other day, hopeful that they would have addressed some of these issues, but alas no. I didn't notice anything different. 

I agree this version's lack of contrast is a big problem, especially for people with migraines. 
Pianoman_coa2, for you, I wonder what options are available to decrease the flashing while running scripts. I know turning off animation of windows has helped for other similar things when I had users like yours.

The reason I upgraded to Office 2013 was specifically because it finally provided an option for separate sessions for Excel, without opening other instances with the "read-only normal.dot" warnings.


As a developer, color was usually an easy fix--if management agreed it was of importance. A lot of Microsoft's teams just lost half their members, so it's probably up to us to work together for a workaround. 
Since I can't change my monitor without losing all I did to get its color to match my printer, I'll be looking for other options.
Anyone got an idea for an ap?  

  • Edited by Brewer.D Monday, October 27, 2014 12:00 AM
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October 26th, 2014 11:59pm

Microsoft is a company whose sole purpose is to disappoint and infuriate it's customers. Stay tuned for more of the same.
October 27th, 2014 5:43pm

We are in the middle of rolling out Office 2013 and I have not had a single positive comment about the themes.  Management is ready to pull the plug on it.  MS, how do I request a refund on all my Office 2013 licensing and SA.  You do not have a user acceptable product here.  What happened to users trying and providing feedback before a product is released?
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October 31st, 2014 1:22pm

In my experience, "bold" (especially "bold, new!") in both the software and automotive industries means "butt ugly". I think Office 2013 bears that out.

So, having 22 years of software development (and more), I have wonder: did anyone actually LOOK at this before releasing it to the public?  Was there even a beta test?  A focus group?  Perhaps all these things were done, and the geniuses in charge decided to just ignore the feedback, believing that they somehow knew better.

I can't wait for someone to blame this on Republicans...or Democrats...or Obama...or Al Qaida...or Bush Jr...or Ebola.

November 1st, 2014 11:01pm

Dsjjfgrn, the problem is not that it was released without anyone actually LOOKING at it, the problem is that they did it on purposeAnd they're continuing to do it with other things.

That's MUCH WORSE.

Mediocrity and forced reduction in usability are being forced down our throats for purposes we can only imagine.

 

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November 2nd, 2014 3:35pm

So, having 22 years of software development (and more), I have wonder: did anyone actually LOOK at this before releasing it to the public?  Was there even a beta test?  A focus group?  Perhaps all these things were done, and the geniuses in charge decided to just ignore the feedback, believing that they somehow knew better.

When the product went beta there was only one theme, which generated negative feedback. Later they added two extra themes, which received largely negative feedback, but some people were happier about having a choice of themes.

Microsoft certainly cannot hide the fact that they were told time and time and time again about the themes. There has been a lot of negative feedback about this and it does seem to have been completely ignored.

November 3rd, 2014 1:08pm

The irony here is that the forum you are reading is in white and light gray and nobody seems to mind. 
  • Proposed as answer by Juliebugg5 Sunday, November 09, 2014 3:07 PM
  • Unproposed as answer by Juliebugg5 Sunday, November 09, 2014 3:07 PM
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November 7th, 2014 10:07am

Yes, but we don't have to work on this page for hours on end.
November 9th, 2014 3:06pm

Perhaps when they have millions of claims against them for eyesight problems they may begin to listen. It wont be long before someone launches a claim at them, America is where most litigious actions start.

We might be a little company and not very IT savvy having only just started to use windows 7 since June when upgrading our server to SBS 2011, however everyone is complaining about changes that didn't need to be made. Drawings aren't as intuitive as they were and take forever now, but ALL staff are suffering with their eyes and headaches and there is only one common denominator - Microsoft Themes, BRIGHT, Less BRIGHT and a little less BRIGHT. I don't know who trialled it at Microsoft, but they certainly don't use a pc for 8 hours a day! It needs to be changed.

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November 10th, 2014 6:18pm

Also very disappointed here. Microsoft destroys its own products and success by creating new difficulties in every new product.  Win 8 is difficult and does a lot of unwanted things. Office 2013 is ugly and one does not find the active window (this in a Windows program) and one has to install an addon to avoid the puzzling ribbon. 

Microsoft do not forget that you have hundreds of millions of customers of age 65 plus who do not like to learn Metro, Ribbons and other useless clutter.  If Microsoft does not have a solution LibreOffice has.

November 16th, 2014 8:56am

Well how unusual, Microsoft ignoring feedback for the user population.

We hope that the law suits for eyestrain begin pouring in and the suit's at the top begin to be hauled into the law-court's as this sadly seems to be the only feedback that Microsoft seems too take notice of.

In the meantime Joe-public keeps putting up with the trash thats being wheeled out of Microsoft towers with Office 2013 being one of the latest piece of garbage being forced onto the general populous.

Still, keeps the shareholders happy eh.

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November 22nd, 2014 3:33pm

I don't have any crybaby hate to spew.  I paid for Office and I like it.  A lot.

Still, I don't like the Greyscale Only options.  I am disabled due to my eyesight and need to use a High Contrast on all of my applications.

I hope this gets addressed with an update.  Office 2013 is by far the best version yet.

November 25th, 2014 2:09pm

In 1984 I got my first computer. It was a ZX Spectrum. It was able to display about 15 colors, since light black and dark black were both still black. That's about 13 colors more than what you can choose from in Office 2013. Stupid me, thinking the days of B/W were over 30 years ago.
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November 25th, 2014 10:08pm

I'm holding out hope that Stardock will swoop in and rescue us again like they did when 'Start8' allowed us to circumvent the Metro Start Screen, returning to the classic Start button. I agree with David Lee EMT that the functionality of 2013 is quite wonderful. The drab environment however is reminiscent of a Pyongyang skyline.
  • Edited by CPLWeeks Wednesday, November 26, 2014 12:56 AM
November 26th, 2014 12:40am

What brought me to this forum was my google search: word 365 ugly top menu

Just installed Office 365, opened Word and wow, couldn't believe how bad it looked.  Some of the brilliantly funny/sarcastic discussion remarks cheered me up though.  Glad others agree (and are vocal) about it.  Not so glad that the discussion on this started over 2 years ago in 2012! Ummmm... Why?  Colors please (and an option to change that ugly all caps font style on the top menu!).  To think this is going to now be my MS software.  Sigh. 

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November 26th, 2014 3:48am

I also use Dark Grey but it does not stay that way. How can I save it forever ?

Thanks

Sid

November 27th, 2014 6:24pm

Microsoft!!!

When are you EVER going to finally listen to your customers?!?!?

Your Office 2013 schemes SUCKS BIG TIME!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm sick & tired of you trying to push mobile centric apps and OS's on to your desktop/laptop users!!! When are you going to get it through your thick heads that DESKTOPS and LAPTOPS are NOT mobile devices?!?!?!?!?

Give us some decent themes back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I plan to DEMAND a refund for Office 2013! Office 2013 is a freak-show and is the worst piece of garbage ever released, along with Windows 8!!!!!!!!

Either give us a sign IMMEDIATELY that you will fix this problem or I will DEMAND a refund. And if you refuse to issue a refund I will file a formal DISPUTE with my credit card company against you for selling me a piece of crap software that looks like it was designed by monkeys!!!!!!!!!!

Quit RAMMING mobile centric apps & OS's down our throats, we are TIRED of it!!

Allen

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November 30th, 2014 2:39am

Hi ssn650,

Not just a black theme but ALL themes which were present in Office 2010! There was simply NO reason for MS to remove ANY of these themes except for their desire to be heavy-handed and trying to TELL their PAYING users what is best for them. Basically like it or not, MS doesn't think we need something so their answer is to RAM this down our throats!

I am a software engineer and from a coding standpoint there is absolutely NO, repeat NO justifiable reason to remove options/choices which were already there and perfectly functional!

Just like MS ramming Windows 8 down our throats when 99.99% of their customer base LOVES Windows 7 and well over half of them (including myself) HATE Windows 8, even with the minor incremental improvements MS finally made after kicking out Balmer. AERO was even removed even though it was perfectly functional and with even remotely up to date hardware does NOT cause computer slow-down. And for those who didn't have up to date hardware or just didn't like it, they could turn OFF Aero. Both sides get what they wanted...now MS just forces it down our collective throats and totally disables Aero! Again, no good reason.

If Windows 9 and Office 16 does not reverse this trend I am seriously going to have to consider ditching MS altogether and going with a MAC or something and I do NOT like MAC's either but at this point it is starting to look a whole lot better than Windows and MS Office.

All the best,

Allen

November 30th, 2014 3:28am

If ever there was a reason to move to some other OS this is it. Sad but it is all to clear the MS is not going to get better. They think this is better. The only option is to move on. How hard would it have be to have more color options? This is a "in your face" you will like our colors or else. A really sick choice that only a very arrogant group could come up with. They never seem think that there are any other options. while most would not like to take the time to learn new versions on some other system, what is so different from what MS is doing. Every new version is worst that the last with lot of new UI to learn and go blind color to boot!

So true!! This is Microsoft's idea of RAMMING stuff down our collective throats!! I am SO sick & tired of them forcing MOBILE centric software down our throats! When is MS going to get it through their thick heads that there are still and will for a LONG time be desktops and laptops in which this CRAP/GARBAGE interface is HORRIBLE?!?!?

They are SO determined to have a common code base for mobile and desktop OS's and to he** with what the users actually want! Have they every heard of COMPILE FLAGS to differentiate the two code bases?!? And if there is too many differences between the two types of platforms to make this feasible then they should suck it up and maintain TWO different source code trees instead of forcing the PAYING end users (us) to suffer!

I've had it with MS's CRAP!!

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December 1st, 2014 4:51am

If ever there was a reason to move to some other OS this is it. Sad but it is all to clear the MS is not going to get better. They think this is better. The only option is to move on. How hard would it have be to have more color options? This is a "in your face" you will like our colors or else. A really sick choice that only a very arrogant group could come up with. They never seem think that there are any other options. while most would not like to take the time to learn new versions on some other system, what is so different from what MS is doing. Every new version is worst that the last with lot of new UI to learn and go blind color to boot!

It is NOT hard at all...I say that as a software developer myself. This is all about MS making things easier on them and to he** with what WE want!

Obviously they ALREADY have code which allows better choices in themes for MS Office but they decided to do away with them and force this CRAP/GARBAGE down our throats!

It is NOTHING for them to bring the other themes back - THE CODE IS ALREADY THERE!

December 1st, 2014 4:55am

The Themes of office 2013 just plain suck!  At the end of any given business day my eyes are red & strained from the flatness or lack of contrast in Office 2013, why does MS ALWAYS screw the pooch when advancing a product? Customer satisfaction will force changes to the upgraded office suite but the bigger question should be how do you roll a product such as this without input from those who live it everyday.  Bring back XP it rocked!!!  
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December 1st, 2014 4:24pm

The Themes of office 2013 just plain suck!  At the end of any given business day my eyes are red & strained from the flatness or lack of contrast in Office 2013, why does MS ALWAYS screw the pooch when advancing a product? Customer satisfaction will force changes to the upgraded office suite but the bigger question should be how do you roll a product such as this without input from those who live it everyday.  Bring back XP it rocked!!!  

Kevin,

Quite honestly it is because MS thinks they have some "right" to TELL us what to do with our own computers!! Frankly I am sick & tired of MS and their heavy handed tactics of trying to FORCE us into something we don't want! They have this certain view of how they THINK the world of computers should look and they will do anything they possibly can to FORCE that view on the entire world!

Sadly, they have not cared what their customers think for at least a few years, if not longer.

The only thing they are going to listen to is if we all stand together and flat out REFUSE to buy any of their new products. We can no longer afford to "give in" and go with the flow...we must stand FIRM as a UNITED front and tank their revenue as close to ZERO as we can possibly get it! If we do that, then they will finally listen!

And I am questioning that customer satisfaction (really the lack of) will compel them to do the right thing on this...at least as far as Office 2013 goes. MAYBE they will back off on SOME of this for Office 2016. This is going on 2 YEARS now and they have done NOTHING to reverse this! And look at how pissed off the majority of users were about Windows 8 (Metro)...But even after they kicked Balmer out they only partially reversed the mess with Windows 8.1...For me it is nowhere near far enough. If the next major version of Windows does not look more like Windows 7 than Windows 8 I will have to seriously consider biting the bullet and ditching MS altogether.

Allen




  • Edited by AllenM1 Tuesday, December 02, 2014 3:47 AM correct typo
December 2nd, 2014 3:41am

Microsoft,

Your Outlook 2013 themes look like they were written by a 3rd grader!!!!!!!!!!!!!

EVERYONE HATES your pathetic idea of UI on Office 2013!! Why can't you people realize you screwed this up royally?!?

What exactly does it take to get your attention?!? Most people cannot handle the eye strain and headaches that results from having to look at your horrible UI and it bright colors and lack of contrast!!

Don't you get it yet?!?

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December 2nd, 2014 3:50am

I wonder if folks at Microsoft occasionally look through this thread.

Those who know how to do things right have been directed by psychopaths not to do things right, and they know it.

Then we come along here and hate on them for creating such an eyesore of a product.

It's got to suck to work at Microsoft and be forced to create stuff like Office 2013 - which, let's be honest - is nothing but a more difficult to use version of Office 2003.

At least threads like these give the Internet Explorer developers challenging test material.

 

December 2nd, 2014 5:14am

Hello Everyone,

What is obvious to me at this point is that MS simply does NOT care one iota what their paying & loyal customers think. This has to be obvious to us when this has been going on for TWO years with absolutely NOTHING changing.

I made the mistake of not researching Office 2013 before I purchased because honestly this is the first time I've actually been disappointed like this and I've had every version of Office since the mid 90's!

Be that as it may please be aware of the following for anyone who can benefit from this.

MS DOES offer a 30 day warranty during which time you CAN return the product for a refund. And YES this applies to downloaded (electronic) purchases too. See the following link:

http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US/DisplayTermsOfUseAndSalePage/

The following link gives more information on initiating the request for return:

http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US/DisplayHelpReturnsRefundsPage#returnsExchangePolicy

The following link has the phone number you can call which I found to be quicker:

http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US/DisplayHelpContactUsPage/

They will ask some questions to verify purchase and if w/in the 30 days. After a 15 minute phone call they had initiated my refund which they said will take 5-7 business days to hit my Credit Card.

Mainly you just have to electronically sign an agreement to uninstall and delete your previously downloaded Office 2013.

I would encourage EVERYONE who is w/in 30 days and is as upset as all of us appear to be to initiate your refund request.

Maybe, just maybe if enough people take that step MS will FINALLY listen to us and do something about this disaster called Office 2013.

Allen


P.S. DO BE AWARE however of one more thing. After I uninstalled Office 2013 it borked my licensed installation of Office 2010. Fortunately doing a REPAIR option from Control Panel -> Uninstall program was able to fix it, after a restart following this. At worse I could envision in some cases you might have to reinstall your previous version of Office to get it fully functional again. As a precaution and as always just have backups of your data stored elsewhere.
  • Edited by AllenM1 Wednesday, December 03, 2014 4:14 AM add something I forgot
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December 3rd, 2014 4:06am

I wonder if folks at Microsoft occasionally look through this thread.

Those who know how to do things right have been directed by psychopaths not to do things right, and they know it.

Then we come along here and hate on them for creating such an eyesore of a product.

It's got to suck to work at Microsoft and be forced to create stuff like Office 2013 - which, let's be honest - is nothing but a more difficult to use version of Office 2003.

At least threads like these give the Internet Explorer developers challenging test material.

 

December 3rd, 2014 4:10am

Off-topic, but can you explain what you didn't like about MDI? I can't see any possible benefit to having a separate ribbon/toolbar for every open document. I can understand making SDI the default, but an option to switch would have been nice.
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December 3rd, 2014 9:25pm

You obviously don't get migraines triggered by light the way I do.  I have a hard time staring at a bright white screen with soft gray lettering and making any sense of it.  I'm getting migraines by noon every day from staring at this horrible screen!
December 23rd, 2014 9:08pm

More than a year later, MS still seems uninterested in user feedback about their poor interface design.  You guys bring out new products with completely gratuitous changes that absolutely infuriate users and take years to step back from some of these choices.  The original ribbon bar was the worst UI design choice ever.  Let's take every function that our long time users who pay our salaries are use to and shuffle those functions to new places that can't be customized and take up disproportionate screen real estate.  Brilliant - put me off using Office (read: sending MS my $) at all for years.  Office 2013 has finally rectified some of that but we get options of grey or less gray for colors.  I don't really see how this is even consistent with MS' own stylistic standards.  It's about as fugly as it gets.
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January 22nd, 2015 7:21pm

I keep Googling hoping that somebody has come up with a hack to fix this abomination.  It is sad that people had have to resort to wasting time hacking Office dll's to fix a problem that so many users hate and Microsoft could most likely easily fix with an update to turn a few color knobs back on.   So many of us are so utterly disgusted with how Microsoft has ignored this issue.  I hate using Office 2013....  Hate it...  Due to the washed out eye-strain blandness. And the hours I have wasted trying to find some combo that provides relief but nothing is acceptable it.  Especially Outlook which is the worst to use.  Oh.. if only there were something else to switch to on our corporate networks, which my company has standardized on now...  But there in lies the problem and Microsoft knows it.  Their early platitudes and more recent silence on this issue is the same as them shouting "we don't care" from a megaphone.    

Update...  It is clear that Microsoft does not intend to "fix" this issue  so I uninstalled Office 2013 and reverted to Office 2010.   The bland interface with 2013 was such a huge step backwards.  It all my years in IT, I have experienced few situations more frustrating and nonsensical than this blunder by Microsoft, made worse by their silence and refusal to fix it.  

January 27th, 2015 8:30pm

I echo all the complaints here. I uninstalled 2013 and went back to 2010. I totally expect MicroShaft, as usual, to ignore us an leave the pile of crap Office 2013 as is.
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February 10th, 2015 1:08pm

I echo all of the above comments on the horrible UI on Office 2013. I upgraded yesterday, and today realize that I simply cannot see the gridlines between Outlook message or in the calendar.  I have the theme set to Dark Grey and have fiddled with my monitor contrast and brightness, but they are simply still invisible to me.  What do people with aging eyes/vision issues do?  Is there a low vision setting?
February 18th, 2015 3:47pm

I completely agree!  I have no choice on my work computer, which now as Office 2013 loaded, but I do have a choice on my home computers.  They will NOT be getting Office 2013 until this issue has been resolved.  What's the point of having visual clues if they are hardly visible?
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February 23rd, 2015 1:05pm

I found this thread and was hoping to get some good info about themes. Instead I just found another sign reading "Don't feed the trolls". Sigh.
March 9th, 2015 10:56am

It's quite clear Microsoft is following an edict that they should "make the UI disappear".  It's not the fault of the implementers, but rather the fault of whomever endorses that edict.  It's an obvious indication Microsoft isn't striving for general purpose usability, but rather a collection of single special-purpose applications that individuals will become inured to because they must.

It's clearly no longer about applications that form a larger, more complex and useful computing environment by conforming to a standard UI and which integrate through dynamic data exchange, copy/paste, drag/drop, file exchange, etc.

In short, the concept that "integration is good" is dying.  Secondarily, "providing choice" is bad.

I guess there must be another class of users who welcome (or at least tolerate) such things - presumably lower IQ folks and/or those who think real work can get done on a smart phone, for example - but this direction is clearly not for those of us who see the merit in the "legacy" way of combining operations on our desktops.

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March 9th, 2015 11:48am

Microsoft is turning to the way that Apple does business. They give you what they want to and not what the people ask for. How hard if they cared would it be to change this with an patch?
March 11th, 2015 4:28pm

Couldn't agree more. I've been using Office 2013 for two days since my entire company switched over and my eyes are already getting strained - I find myself shaking my head to get rid of the illusion that I'm looking into one of those 3d images where I'm trying to find the hidden image. There's definitely not enough contract for the eyes and it's extremely frustrating.
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April 22nd, 2015 9:58am

Well, I hope it was by design or otherwise that would be a huge slip up in your Development and Q/A departments.
June 17th, 2015 12:58pm

Well, I hope it was by design or otherwise that would be a huge slip up in your Development and Q/A departments.
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June 17th, 2015 12:58pm

What was their inspiration - early DOS apps?
August 2nd, 2015 7:09pm

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