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I've never heard anyone call Microsoft's Office software "fun." Powerful? Absolutely. Exasperating? You bet your knotted stomach. But fun? Never. Fun was software like Talking Moose, with its moose head that pops up unannounced on the screen to mock your computing skills.
Yet fun is just what Office's top Mac programmer called his company's flagship software during a recent visit with me in Atlanta. Needless to say, I was stunned. Over the years, I'd heard Microsoft's programmers and executives exalt Office only as serious software for people who meant business. The program sported a metallic look that didn't suggest there was anything at all fun about it.
Why make such a big deal over such a little word? Because it represents a surprising but welcome change in attitude among Microsoft's programmers, at least those who program for the Mac. At long last, they're grasping one of the big differences between the Mac and PC. The Mac was designed to be fun, and its software, whether a word processor or a screen saver, should reflect that spirit. That's why the Mac has always greeted users with a smile when it boots up, and why absurd little programs such as Talking Moose have always been designed for it.
NO BOUNCING BILL. Office X is the first version to reflect such playfulness in its design. Don't get me wrong. Bill Gates's head doesn't pop up unannounced to apologize for megalomaniacal tendencies, although that wouldn't be a bad touch. But then again, who would have dreamed that Office would feature buttons that throb like a clown's trick nose?
In a sense, Apple forced Microsoft to lighten up. The software giant had no choice, really, once it decided to rewrite Office for OS X. Apple's new operating system is even more playful than its predecessor. Application windows are as see-through as a flimsy burnoose, when closed, they shrink away like a genie returning to his bottle, and files thrown into the trash vanish in a puff of smoke. It's hard to keep a straight face using OS X.
Microsoft's Mac programmers decided, wisely, to incorporate each and every one of these new features into Office. The result is that Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Entourage are lighter in spirit and elegant in appearance. Nowhere is this change more evident than in Word X, the template for the rest of Office. For the first time, you can strip Word down to its bare essentials: a blank sheet with a blinking cursor. You can add complexity, in buttons, toolbars, etc., as needed.
CARBON TRAIL. Its programmers say in rewriting Office, they persuaded Apple to accept some welcomed changes, too. In the beginning, Apple was insisting that every developer, large or small, quickly adopt OS X's native Cocoa software environment (libraries of code programmers can use to design software).
That was no big deal for the handful of NeXT developers, who already used Cocoa. But for commercial giants such as Microsoft, it was a nightmare. Adopting Cocoa would have required Microsoft to rewrite millions of lines of code for already well-established programs. Not much fun in that prospect.
So Microsoft cajoled Apple to upgrade the Carbon environment, initially designed as a transitional technology between OS X and the previous operating system. Carbon, however, includes 70% of the programming libraries used in the old system. That makes it much easier to use, especially in rewriting programs such as Office. Apple did indeed improve its new operating system in version 10.1. And the improvement enabled Microsoft to rewrite far less of its code and get Office X to market in one year instead of two.
Not only Microsoft has benefited. Carbon's upgrade has helped scores of other developers convert their longtime commercial programs to OS X. And, of course, the more OS X software on the market, the quicker this new operating system will be adopted. Now that's what I call a virtuous cycle. I'm hoping it leads to someone rewriting Talking Moose to speak in the language of OS X.
Haddad, Atlanta-based correspondent for BusinessWeek, is a long-time Apple Computer buff. Follow his weekly Byte of the Apple column, only on BusinessWeek Online Edited by Thane Peterson
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Copyright 2001 , by The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. All rights reserved.
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