What I want in MSOffice 2011

Ok, MSOffice 2007 is almost here, I am excited about the expanded number of columns and rows in Excel and underwhelmed by everything else.

Here is what I want from Office 2011 (given that we won't get it in 2007): ONE APPLICATION!! I want Word, Excel, Access, and PowerPoint all rolled up in one software. Why is it that I can't have a Word sheet as one of my Excel Worksheets? And why is that that Word tables work differently from Excel tables and PowerPoint tables? and why is that that you can hardly make any operation in Access?
You can embed an Excel table in Word. But the whole thing works less than well, the file size bloats, the Word file becomes unstable if too many Excel tables are embedded. Embedding an Excel table in PowerPoint is almost a no go: you lose the functionalities of PowerPoint; the cells of embedded Excel won't be animated in powerpoint and if you change the powerpoint scheme color you have to fix all the embedded Excel tables manually.

Btw, fully integrating MathType in Office 2011 would be good too.

How does it sound?

 

Like a good idea, but that will never work with Microsoft. It will not be able to cause as many problems.

 

a great idea, and it can be done. The only thing is that it may be very buggy and demand alot of resources.

it may actually happen in an Open platform...

 

Yea word takes a long time to boot up as it is, imagine what it would be like if they were all combined into one program. Your talking minutes for the average computer with a gig of ram and a midlevel C2D.

 

Not necessarily. The integration between components in OpenOffice is already better than it is in Microsoft Office, but load times for OOo 2.0 are on par or usually less than those of Office 2007 B2TR on my machines. It's all about efficiency, something Microsoft isn't very good at. Point in case: the new "openXML" formats, which despite being completely redesigned and totally incompatible with everything are still bigger than OpenDocument.

On that note, here's what I want more than anything in the next version of Office: just use the freakin' OpenDocument formats!

 

I think the man's got a plan...

You know how I know, beyond all doubt, that Access is a supremely ****ty database system? After working for 2+ years with FileMaker 7 and switching to Access XP, I want to go back to FileMaker. At least with FM I could easily perform searches with Ctrl-F.

 

imagine how fast computers will be then, 16 cores, 128bit.

 

yea, clock speeds cant get much higher than they are for the C2Ds or else they will be to hot to run in a notebook. So all they can do now is try and make them more energy efficient, cooler and add more cores. I have been able to gather that Intel is testing an 80core proc. WOW lets just pop a few of them in my lappy

 

That 80-core thing was with ZX Spectrum CPU's

Don't expect too much from that particular project.

Anyway, why is it people are simultaneously complaining about Windows and Office being too bloated, but simultaneously wanting them to bundle *even more* into huge monolothic apps?

How about simply making better integration between the apps? Let's face it, a spreadsheet and a word processor are not the same. Why should they be rolled up in one app? Why not add a mp3 player and maybe MSN client while we're at it?

How about if they instead made one good word processor, one good spreadsheet thingy, and then one very good way of sharing data between the two?

I'd like them to go the opposite way. Make programs that do what I need, without forcing two dozen other embedded applications down my throat.

 

I could go for integration of Word and Excel, but I think Powerpoint and Access are better on their own.

 

That would be one piece of bloated software. I like the idea of having everything separate. I mainly use Word and if everything was put into one program, I would be wasting system resources for things I don't use.

I think the next Office version may just be web based.

What I want to see is a bigger Word dictionary and better grammar check in Word. I think it would be cool if Microsoft offered add on dictionaries for Office for science terms, medical terms, etc. I do know of medical dictionary for Word, but it runs as a separate application.

Text-to-speak functionality built right into Office would be cool, too.

I'm glad Microsoft updated the word art. I'm sick and tired of seeing cheesy, Windows 98 looking word art text all over the place!

Dual monitor support for Power Point would be interesting. Wouldn't it be cool to edit a presentation in one display and see what the final product would look like in a presentation on the other? Or what about having one monitor in all Office apps dedicated just to the physical program and the other monitor for all the menus?

 

IMO, that is not going to happen. The privacy concerns for both individuals and businesses would be huge. In addition there would be the issue of working on anything when you are not connects (e.g. on planes, cars...)

I like that idea. I personally would like 4 monitors support. I already use two monitors via the extended desktop, but I would like to be able to show what I see to the people sitting in front of me without having to turn everything all the time

 

Wherever would you get that idea? I think that's never going to happen, not even from MS.

 

Gosh I'm so excited nobody has used my answer for the question:

A rebate check.