Subtleties of color differences are insane for male users

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Your color designers have made the Office programs much too difficult to use 
for many men.

I have trained users in Office products for 15 years.  Each new version of 
the Office programs has been made more difficult than its predecessor to see 
and distinguish colors for male users.

Health professionals have confirmed my own observations that thirty percent 
of men are color-blind.  I do not mean that they cannot distinguish 
fire-engine red from royal blue.  Color-blind means that they cannot 
distinguish pastels--light blue, light grey, light green--from each other.  
They also cannot distinguish dark shades--dark blue, dark grey, dark green 
from each other.  Bright primary colors are no problem.  Men can see, 
distinguish, and name bright colors, but not pastels or shades, or slight 
variations in colors.

This would be no problem if colors and contrasts were used in the programs 
solely for decorative purposes, but it is a huge problem when they are used 
to convey information.  These problems are rampant in important features 
throughout all of the Office programs, but I will provide just two examples.

First, is the title bars of active versus inactive windows.  Second, is the 
Excel sheet tabs of the active versus inactive sheets.  The active title bar 
formerly was a bright blue contrasted with the grey of the inactive title 
bar.  In  the latest versions, the active and inactive title bars are 
indistinguishable.  The Excel sheet tabs formerly were clearly white or 
clearly grey, but now the active and inactive sheet tabs are 
indistinguishable.

Women possess perfect color perception.  This is one of the many wonderful 
qualities of women.

For men, however, Microsoft is causing massive confusion for the thirty 
percent of men who do not possess perfect color perception.

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http://www.microsoft.com/office/community/en-us/default.mspx?mid=9c63c643-b904-46bc-a1f6-2cf7d96ca577&dg=microsoft.public.office.misc
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Reply Utf 6/6/2010 8:53:55 PM


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