I worked at Microsoft for many years in the mid-1990s and late 2000s. I was a Microsoft fanboy. I got especially good with the Microsoft Office suite, and could do just about anything faster than most anyone I knew. I had all the keyboard shortcuts down, was great with Microsoft Excel formulas, could format anything in Microsoft Word, and was a master with Outlook, Publisher, PowerPoint, and even did a lot with Access. Then, Microsoft completely messed up Office with their “ribbon” toolbars. They drastically changed – or removed – keyboard shortcuts, they reorganized features and menus, and they offered no ‘backwards compatibility’ allowing power users to control keyboard shortcuts or tweak anything. I went from being a super-wiz to crawling like an infant. Functions I had used hundreds of thousands of times now took me 10-45 seconds to find in the menus. As frustrating as it was, I thought “Okay, I just need to re-train my brain and learn the new menus.” But, as the say goes, you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. MS Office 2007 was absolutely NOT for “Fluent” users, and they destroyed my confidence in the suite.
Over the next many years, I struggled. It was almost more frustrating that I couldn’t break my old habits, and I just couldn’t get used to Microsoft’s “better” UI. Then in 2006, Google released “Google Docs” – a web-based word processing tool that would come to blow Microsoft Word out of the water. At first, I hated that it auto-saved. I got used to it. And I loved it. I loved the ease of sharing documents, and the great functionality it offered FOR FREE. (Yes, I know the saying – if you aren’t paying for a product YOU are the product.) Then in 2012, they launched “Google Sheets” – and I was hooked. I basically quit using Microsoft Office products unless I had no choice, but I mostly converted everything to Google. And once Google Apps / Google Workspace / G Suite / whatever they are going to call it next became a full service for ~$7/month, I was hooked.
In the past 10+ years, Google has absolutely eaten Microsoft’s lunch. Two of the staples of office work – word processing and spreadsheets – were now much easier to use, had GREAT features Microsoft hadn’t done (well) yet, and they were free.
Now in 2025, I’m doing some consulting work for a services company who exclusively uses Microsoft 365. WOW!!! It’s worse than I remember. Spreadsheets ALONE is a reason to dump 365. Excel has become a bloated piece of garbage. Formulas are confusing, inline help is non-existent, the crossover between Application and Web-based is horrible, and the web-sharing functionality is beyond frustrating. Web-based Outlook isn’t much better. There’s no ‘refresh’ button to grab the latest messages – which only load several seconds AFTER you leave the browser tab, there are no keyboard shortcuts for many basic functions, and the shortcuts that do exist were not thought through.
If nothing else, this recent experience has helped solidify my thoughts that Google Workspace is the only option I’ll recommend to future clients, friends, and entrepreneurs.