We Need to Talk About Microsoft Word (Premium)

Most people find something that works and sticks with it, but I approach things a bit differently, in part because of my chosen career: I continually test alternatives to the products and services I use every day. And every once in a while, something new will come along and replace something I previously relied on. You can see some recent examples in My Favorite New Apps of 2022 (Premium).

Something this process feels like I’m trying to sabotage a relationship, but aside from the work-related impetus, I feel like it’s healthy to routinely ensure that what I’m using works best for me. And there are few tools that are as central to my workflow as Microsoft Word. A product I’ve been trying to replace for decades.

I know. It sounds weird. But Word is too big and complex a tool for my needs, and while it supports deep customization capabilities, nothing I need to customize is saved to my Microsoft account, and so I have to keep reconfiguring the app on every single PC I use. And I use a lot of PCs, because I review them.

Configuration is a one-time thing, of course, and I could document that process pretty quickly. More concerning to me is the unnecessary bloat of the Word user interface and, more recently, the creeping number of more unnecessary changes to the product that have only succeeded in making it harder and more tedious to use.

Let me start with the UI. Word has used a Ribbon-based user interface since Microsoft introduced it with Office 2007. I know the Ribbon has its detractors, but I immediately saw the value in surfacing otherwise hidden commands to users, especially given that most of the top 10 feature requests for Office were for features that Office already included that users simply couldn’t find.

But I’m not just any user: I’m a professional writer, and I’ve been using Word since the 1990s. And what I’ve discovered over the years is that I only need some tiny percentage of Word features on a regular basis and then an equally tiny percentage of additional features every once in a while. I also prefer minimalist user interfaces that get out of my way and let me focus on the work I’m doing. And while the Ribbon UI is many things, what it’s not is minimalist.

At some point---I don’t recall when, sorry---Microsoft added the ability to minimize the Ribbon, and I immediately saw the value in that and have used Word this way ever since. With a minimized Ribbon, only the Ribbon tab names---Home, Insert, Draw, and so on---appear at the top, cleaning up the UI immeasurably and providing more space for the words I’m typing.

And I can click once on one of those names to temporarily display the Ribbon and access a command I only need once in a while, like Format Painter. It … works OK. But is certainly better (for me) than an always-on Ribbon.

What would be better, of course, is a Simplified Ribbon. Microsoft brought this newer UI to the web versions of its Office apps years ago,...