Microsoft Can Do Better

Sometimes people express frustration or disappointment with Microsoft products. I was never this person. I was never this person.

Now let’s have some fun and scroll through some silly screenshots of actual production software from one of the world’s greatest companies.

Sorry!

1. Software should not apologize.
2. Why would one ever need to sign out and sign in again. This cannot be a supported scenario.
3. Contact your support team. At some point a product manager decided to add this.

Let’s keep going…

I’m actually a pretty important person. I have a lot of chats to pin. But someone decided that 15 is enough for everyone.

I heard that the Teams developer decided to store the count of pinned chats in a nibble. Which saves 28 bits over a typical 32-bit integer. Therefore, Teams loads slightly faster on 4-bit Operating Systems. Trust me.

Next, I am accustomed to using Google sheets where multiple users can edit simultaneously without being asked to merge changes. It’s actually the foundational feature of GSuite products. I’ve never seen it fail.

Key takeaway: Microsoft is desktop native. Google is cloud native.

Now Microsoft comes along with an awkward desktop/web combination. Let’s inspect:

Can’t Save Your Changes? Wait, MY changes?

I can Save a Copy. Or Discard My Changes. I prefer to coexist with other editors.

And first it’s Your Changes and Your File but the button says My Changes. Somewhere there are pop-up standards indicating that the message and title are read to me, and the buttons are for me to read to myself.

Next, the file in question here had no more than 200 rows and 30 columns of integers. No charts, shapes, pictures, etc.

Learn more didn’t help.

Also, don’t try to blame charts and shapes and pictures. Imagine trying to blame charts and shapes. What type of file is expected to hold these charts and shapes!

Too much data for the pseudo web app — Desktop App to the rescue.

I wonder what the currently supported data threshold is. Here I am with my 200x30 cells and I’ve violated the limits.

Next, I was about to work one day and then decision paralysis sets in.

YIKES!

Try to follow…

1. If I update, it could take a while and it could also make everything worse. Too risky. Decline.
2. Learn more. That never works. Decline.
3. Save As or Save a Copy. What’s the dif…Decline.
4. Discard Changes. Declined also.

Stare at the screen for a while.

Here’s two more bonus captures:

Classic.

You can’t imagine what I asked them to do to this merged cell. I can’t even write it here because it would reflect poorly on me.

Last of all, the single worst Teams problem I’ve seen: verified loss of messages on three separate occasions with different people at different times. There’s no screenshot of it because non-existence can’t be captured. Imagine the confusion though in a corporate situation. (Like if you message your manager that you need to be away today).

This article is for fun but if you’re making a real purchasing decision, remember…

You get what you pay for. And all the Learn More links wont save you.