Users who have downloaded the
leaked version of
Office 2010 Technical Preview, or the official release from Microsoft, made available at the start of this week, are already familiar with Send-a-Smile. This because of the inherent pop-up that jumps out of the Notifications area as soon as the install is complete. Send-a-Smile is the feedback tool that accompanies the technical Preview of Office 2010 by default. The utility is designed to allow testers of the next iteration of the Office System to send input to Microsoft under the form of either a smile, for positive feedback, or a frown for negative comments.
“Send-a-Smile automatically installs with Office 2010, you’ll see two icons added to the notifications area of the taskbar over by the clock: a Smile to click when you want to give us positive feedback and a Frown to click when there's something you don’t like. On Win7, you may need to go specifically add them to the list of icons you want to see in the taskbar,”
revealed a PM for Office 2010. “Do we actually read the comments? Absolutely! In fact we’ve already taken fixes to the product, which future downloaders of the Office 2010 (Technical Preview) will benefit from. Let me walk you through the process from sending a comment to someone on the Office team reviewing the comment.”
Submitting a comment could not be easier. Users need only to indentify the Send-a-Smile icons in the taskbar and select between the two options available, either a smile or a frown. The tool will proceed to open up a feedback window featuring a dialog box and a screenshot of the work users are focusing on with office 2010. The dialog area is set up to allow users to send in their comments to Microsoft, and options are also included to share or not the screenshot and contact info with the Redmond company.
“The comment goes into a database here at Microsoft. Based on the comment text, we automatically group “tag” the comments by team and by feature. This helps get your comment to the appropriate team as quickly as possible,” the Office 2010 PM added. “An internal website has been created specifically for these comments. The Office teams use the website to review all the comments “tagged” to their team and features. While reviewing the comments, the teams have the option to give the comment a status to help categorize and later follow up on specific comments.”
Microsoft explained that the feedback mechanism had already been used in order to resolve problems with Office 2010 ahead of the official debut of the Technical Preview. While the software giant is focusing on identified bugs that need fixing, it is also welcoming positive feedback, as it is an indication of what aspects of the productivity suite work just fine for end users not requiring additional testing.
“We cannot guarantee that we'll act on every comment (which would be impossible anyway since many of the comments directly contradict other comments), but we can promise that we read them, consider them, and use them to help make decisions about the product,” the office PM added.
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