...Microsoft.
Aug. 16th, 2015 02:27 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
avevale_intelligencerSome of you may or may not be aware that Jan has embarked on an Open University degree course. She started it at the end of last year, and has nearly completed her first year. It's been a hard road, with much heartache, but OU have been very helpful, and she has had much help from the Disabled Students Allowance people, who sent someone round to assess her needs and decided that she would benefit from a new computer and some improved software. The kit arrived yesterday and a nice lad named Darren came and set it up, and Jan has some training sessions booked to enable her to get the most out of it all.
They've given her Microsoft Office 2013.
I can see from your reactions that some of you know where this is going. When Office 2010 came out, with its three colour options of Washed-Out Blue, Invisible Silver and Not Really That Black, Jan was so disheartened it was two years before she touched the computer again. And now we have Office 2013, with its three colour options of...
(wait for it)
...White, Light Grey and Dark Grey.
I don't know what's going to happen. If I can't find a way round it I'll try her on Open Office, which at least uses Windows colours. At the moment she's just lost all her motivation.
Why do they do this? It's too easy just to say "oh, it's Microsoft." They did not get where they are today by being stupid or ignoring their customers. No business run like that can succeed. I think there's a very good reason why they have progressively removed the colour options from Office, and I think it's because their customers have asked them to. I mean, of course, their corporate customers, from whom they probably make most of their money.
Because their corporate customers are office managers, and I can tell you from direct personal first hand experience that some office managers (present company of course excepted) have a horror of individuality among their workforce. It upsets something in the foetid, twisted, crabbed thing that passes for their soul. They like nothing better than to gaze proprietorially down the length of their office and see rows and rows of identical desks with identical people in identical chairs working on identical computers with identical screens. They would really prefer it if everyone wore identical clothes and got their hair cut identically by the company barber, and it grieves them that in this benighted country they are not permitted to wield such authority. (Not to worry, though, I'm sure Dave and his friends will put that right soon.) So they told Microsoft that they would take it kindly if the Office workspace came in one bland, inoffensive, unreadable-by-the-partially-sighted flavour, and Microsoft said yes sir, thank you sir, ka-ching, and added a couple of widgets that do perfectly useless things but which have the appearance of making Office more accessible, to hide the fact that people with limited vision can not now do the most basic thing anyone who uses a computer wants to do, which is look at the screen and see what's there. *breathes*
I've emailed the company who supplied the kit and warned them about this basic failure of Office to be fit for purpose, and I have articulated my views in feedback to Microsoft which nobody will ever read, and tomorrow I'll see about finding a way round, and hope to gods I can keep Jan on the horse this time. Wish me luck again.
Oh...and this that we are now two and a half hours into is the last day of the Hodderscape open submissions window, so if anyone has anything ready to throw at them, here's the page of words: http://hodderscape.co.uk/open-submissions-the-guidelines/
Goodnight all.
They've given her Microsoft Office 2013.
I can see from your reactions that some of you know where this is going. When Office 2010 came out, with its three colour options of Washed-Out Blue, Invisible Silver and Not Really That Black, Jan was so disheartened it was two years before she touched the computer again. And now we have Office 2013, with its three colour options of...
(wait for it)
...White, Light Grey and Dark Grey.
I don't know what's going to happen. If I can't find a way round it I'll try her on Open Office, which at least uses Windows colours. At the moment she's just lost all her motivation.
Why do they do this? It's too easy just to say "oh, it's Microsoft." They did not get where they are today by being stupid or ignoring their customers. No business run like that can succeed. I think there's a very good reason why they have progressively removed the colour options from Office, and I think it's because their customers have asked them to. I mean, of course, their corporate customers, from whom they probably make most of their money.
Because their corporate customers are office managers, and I can tell you from direct personal first hand experience that some office managers (present company of course excepted) have a horror of individuality among their workforce. It upsets something in the foetid, twisted, crabbed thing that passes for their soul. They like nothing better than to gaze proprietorially down the length of their office and see rows and rows of identical desks with identical people in identical chairs working on identical computers with identical screens. They would really prefer it if everyone wore identical clothes and got their hair cut identically by the company barber, and it grieves them that in this benighted country they are not permitted to wield such authority. (Not to worry, though, I'm sure Dave and his friends will put that right soon.) So they told Microsoft that they would take it kindly if the Office workspace came in one bland, inoffensive, unreadable-by-the-partially-sighted flavour, and Microsoft said yes sir, thank you sir, ka-ching, and added a couple of widgets that do perfectly useless things but which have the appearance of making Office more accessible, to hide the fact that people with limited vision can not now do the most basic thing anyone who uses a computer wants to do, which is look at the screen and see what's there. *breathes*
I've emailed the company who supplied the kit and warned them about this basic failure of Office to be fit for purpose, and I have articulated my views in feedback to Microsoft which nobody will ever read, and tomorrow I'll see about finding a way round, and hope to gods I can keep Jan on the horse this time. Wish me luck again.
Oh...and this that we are now two and a half hours into is the last day of the Hodderscape open submissions window, so if anyone has anything ready to throw at them, here's the page of words: http://hodderscape.co.uk/open-submissions-the-guidelines/
Goodnight all.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2015-08-16 01:54 am (UTC)And I do hope you find a way around this roadblock.
It is frustrating to see how thoughtless some people/companies can afford to be.
no subject
Date: 2015-08-16 07:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-08-16 09:08 am (UTC)Access Center
Make your computer easier to use by pressing the Windows logo key + U to get to the Access Center. In the Access Center, you can see how to use features like Narrator or Magnifier.
and once there...
High Contrast
Help to reduce eye strain by changing the color contrast.
no subject
Date: 2015-08-16 09:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-08-16 10:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-08-16 11:40 am (UTC)As I do not have office 2013 I cannot test if this also works with the colors but it is supposed to work for the designs at least.
Worth a try?
no subject
Date: 2015-08-17 06:14 pm (UTC)Even if this helps a bit, it is a horrible, horrible workaround. Jan deserves better options, but I don't know of any.