Microsoft Loop is a Notion Clone for Office Lovers (fastcompany.com) 28
Microsoft isn't standing still as other companies try to reinvent the document editor. From a report: On Tuesday, the company announced Microsoft Loop, a new Office app that takes clear inspiration from online collaborative editors, such as Notion and Coda. There's a sidebar for toggling between pages, interactive elements including charts and task lists, and the ability to move parts of a document around by dragging and dropping. But while those other editors want to eliminate Office files entirely, Microsoft acknowledges their persistence by integrating them with Loop. Users can add links to traditional Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents, and they'll appear in the sidebar and as stylized thumbnails inside of Loop pages. The idea, self-serving as it may be for Microsoft, is that you might still want to create distinct document files that live alongside Loop's free-flowing pages.
In a blog post, Microsoft 365 General Manager Wangui McKelvey acknowledged that people are looking beyond the confines of Office for their document-editing needs as the world moves to remote and hybrid work. "New kinds of content, formats, and channels demanded more flexible, powerful, and fluid tools to allow everyone to deliver a more impactful message and collaborate at their own pace," McKelvey wrote. "So, Microsoft Office is changing with the times." Microsoft isn't the only one rethinking its approach to the document editor as tools like Notion gain traction. Google is adding similar concepts to Google Docs, including interactive checklists and quick linking to other documents via an @ symbol.
In a blog post, Microsoft 365 General Manager Wangui McKelvey acknowledged that people are looking beyond the confines of Office for their document-editing needs as the world moves to remote and hybrid work. "New kinds of content, formats, and channels demanded more flexible, powerful, and fluid tools to allow everyone to deliver a more impactful message and collaborate at their own pace," McKelvey wrote. "So, Microsoft Office is changing with the times." Microsoft isn't the only one rethinking its approach to the document editor as tools like Notion gain traction. Google is adding similar concepts to Google Docs, including interactive checklists and quick linking to other documents via an @ symbol.
Better Framing (Score:4, Interesting)
In a previous Loop story, I expressed skepticism about the technology since I couldn't get past the demo animated GIF with goofy emoji editing indicators.
However describing it as Notion with better integration with other documents, does make it sound more appealing and practical. I've been using Notion for a while along with other people at work, we use it way more for the centralized document store aspect than any kind of joint editing.
But at good as Notion is (and I like it a fair bit) it's still not as good as "real" spreadsheets, word processors, or presentation tools... in fact I often write out documents in something else first then copy the contents over into Notion.
So a Notion where you added a Word (or other text formatted) document and then it appeared as a first class citizen in terms of searching and content viewing in the tree of information... maybe that would be of use, since Microsoft would probably do a pretty good job at that.
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It's the approach of the major tech corporations whether it's Google, Apple or Microsoft that they want to provide an integrated solution rather than having their customers cobbling a solution together from bits from different vendors. That in itself is part of the issue for FOSS, you have lots of different bits of software that you can mix and match that may or may not work well together as they are and companies (particularly non-tech ones) don't generally have the in-house expertise to evaluate and deplo
I am sure (Score:3)
Text editors haven't changed in decades cause there hasn't been need to. They work.
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Re: I am sure (Score:2)
I would disagree partially. If all you are editing is code, your comment is fair. However documents can become akin to wiki pages. A source with summary relating to the totality of the document. As the other poster pointed, being?g able to search across linked websites or documents is a rather nice ability. We do this with IDEs that let us find a reference across a project and refractor from this info. It's a similar feature with a similar value that in most regards is beyond text editor or console commands
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If its a wiki, make a wiki.
It isn't necessary. If I want to write a doc, I open the doc editor. If I want to search the internet, I will open my web browser. This is trying to doing everything at once and looks incredibility unappealing to use.
Re: I am sure (Score:2)
Sounds like you are saying get off my lawn. Multi document searchs have been an area of research. In windows search thare are even features to search documents and filenames. The growth in this area has been ongoing for maybe a decade.
"Office Lovers"? (Score:4, Insightful)
Developers!! Developers!!
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There are definitely Excel lovers and PowerPoint lovers.
Not that either of them is the kind of person you'd ever want to have anything to do with.
Re: "Office Lovers"? (Score:2)
Both excel and PowerPoint dominate in a fashion of name a better tool for the job in terms of usability. Honestly for awhile I hoped Prezio would be a good muxh to presentation software but it pretty much fizzled.
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At first glance I thought this was gonna be about workplace romance.
Boy was I disappointed.
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It tries to much to do everything.
With these latest announcements, I am pretty sure they want one web page to do everything and then call that Office.
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Re: "Office Lovers"? (Score:2)
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Office lovers don't need a joint editor. They need a hotel room so the others in the office won't see them 'fraternizing'.
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DoD is full of Office Lovers. I put it down to Stockholm Syndrome. A fair while ago, while Patraeus was doing his paramour but before it hit the front pages, he was giving a brief on Afghanistan. He was happily going through his slides. The slides contained the usual overflowing bits of information, arrows, whatsis, and dodads that MS provides its victims.
Then he hit The Slide. It was impressive, I have never seen so many arrows of different forms on a slide. Arrows to objects, arrows to other arrows, arrow
Will OneNote development continue? (Score:3)
Up until a month ago I was a dedicated OneNote user for my work notes. I switched from physical notebooks to OneNote in 2012 and never looked back. The cross platform convenience, free, and generally a good product for my needs -- with a few complaints (e.g., lack of a Markdown or similar syntax so code blocks have to be selected and formatted with a mouse).
Due to being bitten by the Mac version "undo bug" (look it up if curious) I experimented with some of the latest note tools and have settled on Notion. After (checks weekly notebooks...) 7 weeks, I haven't regretted the decision.
Back to Loop - what's the plan? Will it coexist with OneNote? Replace it? Does it require an office subscription or will it be free like OneNote?
On the up side (Score:2)
This is the first time I'm happy to out of the loop.
what happened to Wikis? (Score:2)
For years, everywhere I worked (usually as a "temp") had an internal wiki set up, with sections for each project, now or in support. These worked quite nicely. Now, we have to keep a Windows VM open to allow us to inundated with nonsense that just delays any useful work.
Re: what happened to Wikis? (Score:2)
Wikipedia require more admin... but I agree, by and large wikis are a better tool for the job here
That's how microsoft makes money (Score:3)
They just assimilate everyone else's business plan, they are like the borg of tech.
Holy Crappy Headline Batman! (Score:2)
Office Lovers
What might that mean?
I can think of lots of software that people "love" more, but I guess there is a fan for everything. If there can be a non-ironic Yugo fan club in this country then there is certainly room for a collection of people who love MS Office as well.
WTF is a loop or a notion (Score:1)
Stop giving these things random dictionary words and explain what the hell any of this is in the summary.
A Sharepoint clone? A OneDrive integration? Looked at the marketing and still couldnâ(TM)t figure it out, looks like SharePoint with silly Unicode for millennials.
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Who sits down and says "We need a product name that will be impossible to web search for"?
And there goes another couple of innovators (Score:1)
Microsoft Loop is a Notion Clone for Office Lovers (Score:2)
Both of them?