The new Google Docs: going in the wrong direction

I tried to use the new version of Google Docs today. It's a big step back in usability. Why? Well first, whether you get the new Google Docs or the old one is based on the Document you created. All new documents use the new UI, older documents will continue to use the old UI. So right there you've got a pretty inconsistent user experience.

Secondly, Google changed up some keyboard shortcuts between the old Google Docs and the new one. What did they change? They changed the shortcuts for setting Heading styles. It used to be Ctrl 1 - 8 for heading formats 1 though 8, and 0 for normal. The new keyboard equivs are ctrl+alt plus the numbers. Why add the extra key? Ctrl + Alt on laptops is a signifcantly harder combo to access. Alt is quite often crammed onto laptop keyboards since it's not used as frequently.

Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly: the new keyboard combo seems to be broken quite often. I tried it several times, and it simply didn't work. And when it did, it took seconds ... literally seconds for the formatting to show up.

Why this is important

This is important because anyone who writes documents regularly is going to be a pro user -- someone who is going to take the time to learn the shortcuts so that outlining and formatting isn't a clunky mouse operation. Keyboard shortcuts for formatting is important for anyone writing a document more than a few pages.

Right now, the new Google Documents is a step back for serious authors. At least Google lets me go back to the old version. But Google, come on, I expect more from you than this.

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