While it is great to have a 'clean' space to create in, I use tools for the powerful features that make my creations 'pop' or give them structure. Quick and obvious access is important. Would be good to address the function of those toolbars as well as their look and prominence.
> While it is great to have a 'clean' space to create in, I use tools for the powerful features
Indeed - in apps like CS6 - where the content is created primarily via the tools, they're shown for quick access, but made less prominent in order not to distract from what's being produced.
In Word, however the content is primary created with the keyboard. So removing tools becomes more of a possibility.
Keyboard shortcuts are great--take that with a grain of salt since I like vim too. Unfortunately, the emphasis of Word has always been to make it so a new user can manage to do those things by browsing around the menus and toolbars. It's not a good habit to learn as far as productivity goes, but I'm sure it scores well in usability labs where subjects have no training and an hour to do some simple tasks.
Word's problem is that it has evolved so many features that there is NO reasonable interface to access them. I have been using Word for two decades and still I find myself resorting to features like the Format Painter because I cannot find the settings to fix a run of text.
I think also the selling point of much software in the 90s , early 2000s was always how many features it had.
Having a big GUI that looks like NASA mission control made an application look like value for money.
Now most people have more features in their software than they need and with apple leading the way in simplicity and usability a sleek interface is much more marketable.
