Collapsing the Ribbon is lipstick on a pig. In the end, using the basic functions of the software becomes a game of "is my mouse pointer in the right place to trigger the Ribbon to temporarily show without getting fed up and just making it stay shown all the time?".
Ever seen a non-technical user move the mouse with the same dexterity as you or I? I haven't. The mouse always roams around for a month of Sundays before it eventually arrives in the right place.
This is not a stable interface; it is an ugly hack to make up for wasteful the Ribbon was designed to be
At best, it could be a sort of distraction-free writing mode except that you can still see the rest of the interface, some parts equally as eye-catching as parts of the Ribbon.
> Ever seen a non-technical user move the mouse with the same dexterity as you or I? I haven't. The mouse always roams around for a month of Sundays before it eventually arrives in the right place.
Not just non-technical. I hate having to hunt for the tiny target. A very highly technical friend of mine invented a term for that: “pixel spearing”. I am truly insensed at how much time I waste trying to spear the exact right pixel.
It wouldn't be so bad if the correct zone for bringing up the hidden area obeyed Fitt's Law, but (A) the zone isn't directly at the top of the window, and (B) that wouldn't work with non-maximised windows anyway.
It's why hiding toolbars dynamically works well in macOS' fullscreen mode; flinging your mouse to the top of the screen always shows the menubar and toolbar without fail (unless the mouse is captured by the app, of course, like in a game).
Ever seen a non-technical user move the mouse with the same dexterity as you or I? I haven't. The mouse always roams around for a month of Sundays before it eventually arrives in the right place.
This is not a stable interface; it is an ugly hack to make up for wasteful the Ribbon was designed to be
At best, it could be a sort of distraction-free writing mode except that you can still see the rest of the interface, some parts equally as eye-catching as parts of the Ribbon.