Sorry I bought Office 2013

Anonymous
2013-05-02T21:46:05+00:00

I think I made a huge mistake. At least, I see it as such right now. Maybe, someday, in the far distant future, I might think on it differently. I managed to get MS Office 2013. I hate it. I can't figure it out. They took all the functionality out of it. It opens to some stupid blue and white page that says Open, and has an arrow facing left. I can't find how to find my documents to view or work on. And that ugly, horrid, absolutely stupid "ribbon" is the worst mistake they have ever made -- except maybe for Vista. And there's something on here about "account". Whatever that is. When I did find a way to find a document to look at, half the page was taken up with that "ribbon" thing that is absolutely ugly and a waste of space. What was wrong with the nice little tool bar that had what was needed on it? Is there a way to set up my own personal toolbar? I haven't found a way yet. I tried to do a personalization, and manged to hide that ridiculous "ribbon" so it's not cluttering up my screen. I added the icons I want on the top, but when I click the folder that is supposed to show me my documents, it takes me out to that blue and white page, but not to the documents. I have to figure that out, someday. Otherwise, this is a complete waste of money. I really should demand my money back.  And I haven't even looked at Excel yet.

I'd love to get rid of the ribbon thing and get my toolbar back.  And, have a way of finding my documents without having 5 steps to get there.  I want to just open the little folder and have my documents there to search through.  Is there a way to do this?  If not, I would gladly trade Office 2013 for Office 2003!  At least that was a very functional, easy to use program.  This is one definitely not intuitive.  I'm not an amateur with computers.  I think of myself as being relatively competent.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

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  1. Anonymous
    2015-08-09T03:55:20+00:00

    My mistake. It's PowerPoint that lost the record macro function. I use PPT almost as much as Word, and when I saw the function had gone I assumed that was the same for the whole Office suite.

    I wonder why they did that. I can record a PPT macro in Word or Excel, and PPT probably needs macros more than any of the programs because of all the layout and resizing tasks.

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  2. Doug Robbins - MVP - Office Apps and Services 323.6K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2015-08-09T03:38:06+00:00

    The Record Macro function is still available in Word 2013.  You can activate it either by clicking on Record Macro in the Code section of the Developer tab of the ribbon, or you can add it to the bottom status bar by right clicking on that bar and then checking the box for Macro Recording.

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  3. Anonymous
    2015-08-09T03:27:58+00:00

    I just saw your post today. I agree with everything you say about Office 2013. If anything you're too kind. One of the biggest search items on Google seems to be lost Office commands.

    For me the worst thing they did was take away the multiple document interface. In Office 2003 and 2010 you could open multiple documents as panes within a single Word window. Everything was together in one place with one set of toolbars or ribbon. Now every document opens as a separate Word window with its own ribbon. If you need several documents open at once, your desktop quickly becomes cluttered. If that wasn't bad enough, they've also taken away the window bar at the top, which would change color to tell you which window was selected. Apparently these changes were meant to "simplify" the user interface. In Microsoft's Orwellian world, simpler means more complicated, and upgrade means downgrade.

    They've also taken out the "record macro" function. That was extremely useful for automating repetitive tasks and keystrokes. You can still create macros, but you have to waste time writing, checking and debugging them manually. Fortunately macros created in Office 2003 still work, but I expect they'll destroy that compatibility in the next big downward upgrade.

    Office 2003 was a masterpiece of intuitiveness and adaptability with a quick learning curve. Office 2013 has a vertical learning curve with no tangible benefits at the top. The only reason I use it is because my clients insisted.

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  4. Anonymous
    2015-07-14T18:42:05+00:00

    I agree.  My employer has downgraded to Office 2013.  It appears all Microsoft has done is throw the "playing cards" up in the air and we are left to find them.  You can fool some of the people by claiming this is a completely new program and charging again but it is basically the same, just more difficult to use.  I use Linux and LibreOffice on my home computer and wish I could at work

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  5. Suzanne S Barnhill 279.4K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2015-07-02T20:29:05+00:00

    How about PRINT PREVIEW?   It used to be easy.  I still don't know how to make it look just like it does coming out of the printer.  VIEW is not the same. 

    If the Print Preview in the backstage is not what you want (and I can well understand how it might not be), you can add the PrintPreviewEditMode command to your Quick Access Toolbar. This provides access to the classic Print Preview view, in which you can actually edit text if desired.

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