Microsoft Office - Basic Edition - Safer. Easier. Cheaper.
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Staten Island, NY Posted: 2/13/2015 1:00:00 AM
Believe it or not, if Microsoft offered a strip down version of Office, there would be a lot fewer viruses.
As strange as that may sound, it's true. Let me explain.
The vast majority of people buy Microsoft Office users for two tasks... Spreadsheets and Word Processing. Deep down, that's all they need. In fact, to many people, that's all they think Microsoft Office is, Word and Excel.
The problem with Microsoft Office isn't just that they bundle these two essential programs with a bunch of other programs that most people never use. The bigger problem is that, Word and Excel are bloated with hundreds of features that slow them down, complicate the menus, and even make them unsafe.
The most dangerous problem is allowing Office Documents to contain and execute hidden Macros and Scripts which can often contain harmful programs that can easily spread from person to person when they send infected documents via email.
Long before Microsoft started incorporating scripting languages into Office, there was absolutely no way to catch or spread a virus from a spreadsheet or word processing file. It simply wasn't possible because those documents were... just documents. They contained just text and possibly pictures. That's it. No scripts. No Macros. No hidden programs. Just whatever you typed into it.
By releasing a version of Office that does not contain Macros and Scripting, it will not only make it safer, but smaller and more efficient.
To be clear. The vast majority of people using Office do not use Macros and Scripting, so they would not miss any of the functionality they need to do everyday Word Processing or simple spreadsheets.
Removing those features alone would go a long way to delivering a better Word Processor and Spreadsheet experience for most users, but the second goal in creating a "Basic Edition" should be to eliminate the clutter and bloated functionality most people will never use.
As Office became more and more bloated with ultra-advanced features that only the most elite corporations could ever ask for, they had to find ways to make sure all those features didn't obscure the most common features. At first, they created collapsing menus, that only showed the commands you used most. The rest of the menu was hidden, until you expanded the menu, revealing a bunch of things you didn't realize were there. It was clever, but it only made matters worse. Although it made the menus shorter, it often made it hard to people to find things they actually needed.
Next, they created "The Ribbon", which gave them a ton of space for gobs and gobs of features, nicely grouped together by category, and a menu to let you customize it to add or remove things you used most. To many people, that only made things worse.
The simple solution is to just get rid of the bloat... and deliver a basic word processor and spreadsheet. It's safer, easier and cheaper.
I should point out that I also included PowerPoint and OneNote. Frankly, I never use PowerPoint, but I know popular it is among students, teachers and people who do corporate presentations on a daily basis. Once again, my advice is to release a simplified version, with fewer options, and no Scripting and Macros.
As for OneNote, I'm a fan. I use it all the time and since they have free versions of it on the web, including it in the "Basic Edition" wouldn't add or remove anything, but since it's free, easy and useful, it's worth including.
Joe Crescenzi, Founder
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