When I first used Microsoft Office 2007, after the initial shock of the menus not being there (the blow was softened by sight of “Windows Live Messenger” some months previously), I forgot all about it’s eschewing of the tenets that Windows Logo’s have been bestowed upon for the last 20 years.

It was brought sharply back into focus by my infinitely better half a couple of nights ago. She had been budgeting for our household in Microsoft Excel, and wanted to “Save As” what she had done. She couldn’t figure out how. It’s worth pointing out that she is a highly qualified management accountant, and has spent her entire career using computers. Among her peers she is perhaps the most technologically literate - she can even write HTML.

For those of you not using Office 2007 yet, let me show you Microsoft Word as an example…

If you had not seen Office 2007 before, would you be able to guess what you do to “Save As” ? You click on the logo at the top left. Really obvious, isn’t it. A bit like pressing the logo in the middle of your car steering wheel to start or stop the engine.

I don’t tend to notice such user interface failures - perhaps because I am a software developer, I use keystrokes for virtually everything (and become annoyed if something cannot be done with a keystroke). Thankfully ALT+F A still works in Microsoft Office. If it didn’t, I too would have been cursing, and complaining to the Microsoft gods just as strongly as my other half.

When I showed her where the save option was, her mouth hung open - and there was a pause of several moments before she started cursing more profanely and prodigiously.