Difference between revisions of "Competitor Analysis"

(the main interface is bolded)

• a unique interface of tabbed panels (the ribbon), showing the most common options on the default "Home" tab; contains both contextual and static elements, denoted by color and placement
• the Office button provides access to options usually found under "File" in standard applications
• the Quick Access toolbar for the user's "favorite" commands
• inconsistencies in the UI:
  • the commonly-used buttons Undo, Redo, and Repeat are inexplicably not found in the ribbon, instead being in the QA toolbar
  • the Help button, found on the right of the ribbon as the only button in the ribbon tab bar
  • the Options and Exit buttons are housed under the Office button at the bottom right unlike the other items in the menu
• controversial: praised for ease and speed of use [3], but criticized for continuing with non-sensical deviations from logic [4] [5] [6]

• menus
• a single heterogeneous toolbar with large icons (standard in Mac OS X) holding commonly-used commands
• "the Toolbox," a palette combining formatting tools, object insertion, animation parameters, a "scrapbook" tool, reference tools (thesaurus, dictionary, etc.), compatibility reports, and a project tool
• a unique, yet useful "Gallery" containing styles
• a bit bloated, interface-wise

• menus
• a heterogeneous static toolbar with commonly-used commands
• a small toolbar with contextual commands
• Inspector, a floating formatting palette providing formatting tools
• The Inspector features commands not found in the menus, forcing the user to look under both.

• menus
• a toolbar with static, commonly-used options
• a very spartan interface

• MenuTab design Toolbar with tabbed menus that organise commands in context-based groups. The main point is the ability to use the tabs as menus: you can access these commands either by clicking the tab, which brings up the appropriate button set on your toolbar (similar to Microsoft Office 2007's ribbon) or by clicking the little arrow to the right of the tab title, which opens a drop-down menu without changing the toolbar beneath.
• Interface also has a staic toolbar at the left upper corner. This toolbar is separated from the rest of MenuTab and contains icons for most commonly used commands like save, copy, paste, cut, print, undo, redo, etc

Here are screenshots [7] and [8]

I'd say the Zoho MenuTab as well as MS ribbon are most interesting quick-access interfaces of the pack. Ribbon provides one central place to browse through, provides the most common options right up front (except for the Insert options), but it does suffer a bit from slight illogical organization and lack of flexibility (no vertical interface, previously also lack of customizability). Zoho MenuTab UI combines tab-like approach of ribbon with traditional menu. This makes it familiar and easy to use for most users. The inspector palettes in iWork and Mac:Office are good contenders for a useable vertical interface, but both have their share of disadvantages. For example, the fact that they are floating means that they can hide portions of the document. The MS Toolbox is overstuffed with features, as the tools that iWork spreads out nicely in the Inspector are crammed into one tab in the MS Toolbox. Both also suffer from unclear tab icons.

There are legal issues with ribbon interface. Microsoft has started the process of acquiring a patent on the ribbon user interface concept and licenses the ribbon design to third-party developers royalty-free if their product does not compete with MS Office. This means that there is no way ribbon can be used in OpenOffice.

None of these behaviors is ideal or consistent with other applications in the suite (no option allows two slides to be shown at once) for no good reason, but the MS PowerPoint behavior is preferrable over the others.

• Single click to edit
• Click on border and drag to move the frame
• No live preview when resizing or moving (just an outline representing the frame)
• Shows guides
• Snaps to a small grid when moving (very uncomfortable)
• Easy, quick rotation with a green button above the frame

• Double click (or two consecutive clicks) to edit
• Click anywhere on the frame and drag to move it; not moveable when editing text
• Live preview
• Shows guides
• Free movement
• No (obvious) way to rotate the frame

• Single click to edit
• Click on border and drag to move the frame
• No live preview when resizing or moving (just an outline representing the frame)
• Doesn't show guides
• Free movement
• No way to rotate the frame

• Single click to edit
• Click on border and drag to move the frame
• Live preview when resizing or moving
• Doesn't show guides
• Free movement
• No way to rotate the frame

Moving items in Keynote is a pleasure, due to the reasons listed above and the fact that the user doesn't have to struggle to select the textbox (it's one click anywhere on the textbox, as, unlike its competitors, double-clicking is required to edit it). This is definitely something OOo should take note of.

• Text bulleted by default (in some masters)
• In PowerPoint, two consecutive "enters" creates a line break and continues with the list at the same hierarchical level
• In Word, however, two consecutive "enters" move the list to the superior level, and when there are no more, end the list
• In PowerPoint, a backspace deletes the bullet, but keeps the indent.
• Custom bullets
• No outline numbering in PowerPoint, but present in Word
• Moving items left and right arguably easy (although it makes the text smaller with each level and keeps the same bullet); moving it up and down has to be done manually
• Inserted and managed through the Home tab

Same as its Windows counterpart except:

• Inserted and managed through Format > Bullets and Numbering..., the Formatting Pane, or the hidden-by-default formatting toolbar

• Text bulleted by default (in some masters)
• Inserted and managed through the Inspector (under Text > Bullets)
• In Keynote, just like in PowerPoint, two consecutive "enters" creates a line break and continues with the list at the same hierarchical level
• In Pages, however, two consecutive "enters" end the list
• In Keynote, backspace deletes the bullet, the indent, and moves the contents to the end of the last line
• Custom bullets
• No outline numbering
• Very easy moving items left and right; up and down seems to have to be done manually

• Text not bulleted by default
• Inserted and managed through a toolbar button
• In Google Docs (both the presentation and the document editor), two consecutive "enters" move the list to the superior level, and when there are no more, end the list

• Inserted and managed through a toolbar buttons

None of these behaviors seem to be completely logical or expected. Google Docs at least maintains consistency across its suite's applications, but uses the strange behavior of enter, where, instead of giving new blank lines each time, as it does with non-bulleted indented lists, the indent is decreased.

Anyway, instead of repeating the same info over and over again, let me just say what I think we should have, based on logic:

• Just like with regular indents, "Backspace" should decrease/remove an indent, "Enter" should create a new line with the same indent, and "Tab" should increase the indent. After the indent in the paragraph is removed, "Backspace" removes the bullet. This behavior should be the same across all OOo applications.
• It should be easy to set custom bullets.
• It should be easy to move list items up, down, decrease and increase indents, with and without subpoints, just like it currently is.

• Customizable Ribbon tabs, groups, and commands, both static and contextual; these customizations are saveable.

More to come...

• Customizable toolbar and menu items
• General contains a heterogeneous mix of options of varied importance (such as "Link sounds with file size greater than __"), movie options, and web options
• View provides ruler options, a choice of default view, and slide show options
• Edit includes cut and paste, selection (including drag-and-drop), and undo (maximum #) options
• Save asks for the default format (PPT or PPTX), at which time intervals to save AutoRecover info, whether to save slides as graphic files, and a few other minor adjustments
• Spelling and AutoCorrect include the typical options
• Gallery includes minor adjustments, mostly appearance
• Compatibility asks if to check docs for compatibility, and lists past issues if present
• Advanced, a bit of a misnomer, asks where to save files by default and also asks for user information
• Feedback asks to participate in MS's Customer Experience Improvement Program
• Shortcuts can be customized for any Mac OS X application under System Preferences

• Customizable static toolbar
• General includes theme, editing, saving, font preview, animations, and outline view options (each category includes about 1 or 2 choices; "Saving," though, includes 5)
• Rulers includes not only the ruler unit options, but also master gridline, alignment guide, and object spacing and sizing view options
• Slideshow
• Presenter Display
• Remote
• Auto-Correction
• Shortcuts can be customized for any Mac OS X application under System Preferences

• No customization

• No customization

Microsoft's implementation of paste special seems the best, as it allows the user to use the Command/Ctrl+V shortcut and then decide how it is pasted.

• Easy rotating with a green "rotate" button above the image; also has a "size, rotation, and ordering" section in the toolbox, where the size can be typed in numerically, the image can be flipped, and distributed and aligned with other objects.
• Restricted positioning
• Outline, shadow, reflection, glow, soft edges, 3D, sharpness/softness, brightness, contrast, saturation, tone, recolor, filters, size, crop, and arrangement all set from the ribbon
• "Background removal" and "Set transparent color" features
• Live preview while cropping

• Easy rotating with a green "rotate" button above the image; also has a "size, rotation, and ordering" section in the toolbox, where the size can be typed in numerically, the image can be flipped, and distributed and aligned with other objects.
• Restricted positioning
• Recolor, shape, replace, brightness, contrast, transparency, effects, and quick styles and effects (including glow, shadow, and 3D options) set from the Toolbox
• "Set transparent color" feature
• No live preview while cropping

• Resized, rotated, flipped, and positioned through a comfortable, precise (the user can type in the angle, size, and position in numbers) Inspector "Metrics" tab. Objects are aligned and distributed through an "Arrange" menu.
• Unrestricted positioning
• Stroke, "image adjustements" (brightness, contrast, saturation, tint, temperature, sharpness, exposure, color levels, opacity, [reset]), shadow, and reflection can be set right from the format bar as well as from the Graphic tab in the Inspector.
• Alpha "circular wand"
• Masking (cropping) features live preview (the sections masked have reduced opacity)

• No extra features except arrangement tools under the "Arrange" menu

• No extra features except alligment selection from image properties

The "Metrics" tab in iWork and the "Image adjustments" palette are wonderfully simple and straightforward while retaining a number of features. The best transparency feature seems to be in the planned Office 14 [9], where one can specify by drawing lines over the places the selection should include and different lines over the places it shouldn't, all with live preview that highlights in purple the areas to be removed.

• When trying to save to PPT, the user gets a precise list of what is incompatible.
• Saving to ODP (newly supported) gives a compatibility warning, but doesn't say what might be incompatible. It does this even with completely blank presentations.

• The "Save as..." dialog provides a "Compatibility Report..." button, but when a user tries to save to a not-completely-compatible format, he gets no forced warning.
• The compatibility report clearly and specifically lists all the compatibility issues and comfortably provides Help, Fix, and Ignore buttons.

• Provides an ambiguous input warning when it's not fully compatible
• I have not been able to test output warnings, because, as my 30-day-trial ran out, I am able to do everything except saving.

• No compatibility warnings, it seems.

• No compatibility warnings. There is a separate plugin to publish documents from Microsoft Office to online storage.

• Accessible through:
  • Slide Show > From Beginning, From Current Slide, Broadcast Slide Show, or Custom Slide Show
  • The view selector in the status bar (on the right)
• Presentation mode gives four buttons:
  • Previous
  • Pointer
    • Arrow
    • Ballpoint pen
    • Felt tip pen
    • Highlighter
    • Ink color >
    • Eraser
    • Erase all ink on the slide
    • Mouse options
  • Options
    • Next
    • Previous
    • Last viewed
    • Go to slide >
    • Custom show >
    • Screen >
    • Help
    • Pause
    • End show
  • Next

• Accessible (by default) through:
  • Slide Show > View Slide Show
  • The view selector in the statusbar (on the left)
  • The toolbar
• Presentation mode gives a single menu with options:
  • Help
  • Next
  • Previous
  • Last viewed
  • Go to slide >
  • Custom show >
  • Black screen
  • Screen >
  • Pointer options >
  • End show

• Accessible through:
  • A toolbar button
  • Play > Play Slideshow
• Presentation mode completely hides the cursor, and no buttons are provided when playing the slideshow

• A big Start Presentation button
• Presentation mode gives:
  • A pop-up menu offering jumping to any slide
  • An actions button including common export options (including printing and creating a copy), "Report inappropriate content", and "Show speaker notes"
  • The URL of the presentation
  • A "View together" button, which provides a URL for presenting it online and a chat window for chatting with the audience

• A Start slideshow toolbar button

• E-mail sharing, as well as sharing through a document management server and creating a document workspace
• A "Broadcast Slideshow" feature, integrated with Microsoft's upcoming online PowerPoint application
• Comments (aka. notes in Writer) shown as a small box, which, when clicked, reveals its contents, and, when double-clicked, allows editing
• Comments easily added, browsed, deleted, and even shared through the Review tab in the ribbon

There's probably more.

• Practically no collaboration features, except classic e-mail sharing
• Comments (aka. notes in Writer) shown as a small box, which, when clicked, reveals its contents, and, when double-clicked, allows editing
• Comments easily added, browsed, deleted, and even shared through the comment bar

• Built-in iWork.com, e-mail, and YouTube sharing
• Comments very primitive, overlay the presentation (showing/hiding comments can easily be toggled)
• No serious collaboration features

• Benefits from being an online service (although it can be used offline)
• Can be simultaneously edited
• People can be invited to be edited or viewers
• A publish/embed option is available, along with the classic e-mail option
• Chat available in slide show, but not during editing

• Benefits from being an online service (offline mode is available)
• Can be simultaneously edited
• People can be invited to be edited or viewers
• A publish/share/send options are available, along with the classic e-mail option
• Chat available during editing

It's surprising that nobody really has built-in chat (except Google Docs, when viewing a presentation). I heard this was to change with MS Office 2010, but we'll see. Otherwise, Google Docs is the clear winner in this category, but that's because it's an online service. iWork begins to pave the way toward integration with online services, but ties with only its paid iWork.com and is sure to attract only a very tiny audience. This is also something Microsoft is working on -- they're about to introduce an online version of Office, and it's almost definitely going to integrate with Microsoft Office. We need to work on this if we want to stay a viable competitor.

Inserted through Insert>Table, which gives the "table insertion grid" as well as "Insert table...," "Draw table," and "Excel spreadsheet" options below the grid. The grid is 8-by-10 and doesn't expand beyond that.

Selected, moved and resized with:

• The table border becomes fat and glass-like when the user clicks within the table
• This border can then be used to resize and move the table

In Word:

• The table is moved with a corner handle box and resized with a square at the opposite corner. It's very hard to delete a table.

Inserted through:

• A toolbar button, which provides the "table insertion grid." The grid expands when more cells are needed.
• Insert>Table..., which asks for the number of rows and columns
• A "table styles" tab in the gallery, which also asks for the number

Selected, moved, and resized the same way as in Windows

Inserted through:

• Insert > Table
• A toolbar button
• Both of these insert a 3-by-3 table and trigger the "Table" tab under Inspector, which allows the user to edit various information, such as the number of rows and columns

Selected, moved, and resized with:

• Just like text boxes under Keynote, one click selects the whole table and allows it to be moved (by clicking anywhere within the table and dragging) and resized, two consecutive clicks allow the table to be edited

In Numbers:

• Clicking inside the table allows its contents to be edited and shows the table "headers" (A, B, C, D..., 1, 2, 3, 4, ...), along with a handle in the corner (to move the table with), and a "dragger" at the ends (left, bottom, and the left-bottom corner) that add cells
• When the aforementioned corner handle is clicked, the classic resize squares are shown

No obvious way to insert a table. Cells in tables in uploaded documents are changed to text boxes.

No obvious way to insert a table in Zoho Show. Insert Table action is available in Zoho Writer.

The "table grid" insert behavior seems to be the quickest and most comfortable. The Apple behavior in everything else (moving, selecting, etc.) seems to be easiest, most logical, and most comfortable. The differences between Keynote and Numbers have their own reasons and benefits.

• Added and managed through a gallery under a new Transitions tab
• Custom:
  • Duration
  • Sound
  • Advance slide on click or after __
  • Different directions presented under "Effect options"

• Added through:
  • A "transitions" tab in the Gallery
  • Slide show > Transitions...
• Managed through an "Options..." button in the Gallery
• Custom:
  • Speed (Slow, medium, and fast)
  • Sound
  • Advance on click or automatically after __
• Different directions are presented as different transitions

• Added and managed through the "Slide" tab in Inspector
• Custom:
  • Duration (precise, in seconds)
  • Direction (for some transitions)
  • Start Transition (on click or automatic)
  • Delay

No transitions option.

No transitions option.