Impulse is currently 846x708 minimum in screen size.
Instead, it should be 640x480.
Take a look into something collapsable, like how Microsoft's ribbon works. Be careful not to step on any patents, though.
Fewer tabs when possible
Yeah - that non-deletable "My Office" tab that can't be hidden? Really, really annoying. I frankly don't see the point of making it a non-deletable tab, either.
Making it fit in 640x480 would be good for people who like to tile two windows across their monitor.
I generally have a few windows floating around with the primary task maximized.
Lemme put it this way: I run at 1600x1200, and when impulse is maximized, nearly all of my tabs are mostly empty space. I don't like an application filling the screen if it's going to be mostly empty space.
On the minor side of things, I don't think something as important as options should be hidden behind a blue orb.
They could do what Office does, and highlight it until the first time the user clicks it.
I hate those ribbons, or whatever they are called.
The whole thing is called the ribbon, and I happen to like it 
. After the initial learning cure, it's actually a pretty good interface IMHO.
They didn't even consider that some of us would prefert to use the classic stuff.
Yeah, I know switching is difficult, and I know it's difficult to learn new stuff - but I really think this is a pretty good and serious attempt to make Office better.
The old interface didn't really work. Apparently Microsoft was getting a lot of tech support calls about "suggestions" suggesting features that already existed in Office, but were piled deep inside menus, dialog boxes, tabs in dialog boxes, etc. Even seasoned Office users could be confused if they wanted to go off the beaten path so to speak and use features they hadn't used before. The new users were completely confused.
Quite frankly, Office had gotten to the point where only power users could use it effectively. People who were new to office or didn't want to deal with all of the complexities of customizing it were not able to use it effectively at all.
So they've redone Ofiice so that the features are easier to find - most of them are in the ribbon, and many of them are in context sensitive places. All of them are in the customize part of the options dialog. You don't need to go hunting for a command you need.
I think it's a big step forward for Microsoft's core audience. The power users don't like it as much because it's not quite as flexible as Office 2003 (yet), but I think that it's a big step forward as a good starting point for future versions of word.
I hate the colors. Impulse is just plain butt ugly, and I have yet to get it to allow me to change it. I must be odd, because I could tolerate the green... But this new color scheme hurts my eyes to look at it. I spend as little time as possible in it as I can.
I would agree with this - I dunno why Stardock decided to go so dark with the color theme. Not to mention they combined it with a bright orange - and combining very low brightness and very high brightness for the background is a big contrast killer, as anybody who has had to sit through a poorly created PowerPoint presentation knows.
I would say definitely look a bit into color theory and use the color wheel to plan the theme for the next Impulse skin.
. . . but it's okay if you don't go with light blue. Too many people are going with light blue. Yes, I understand it's a nice, relaxing, cool color, but my screen is starting to become a bit boring with everything moving towards light blue themes.
I would also like more skin choices for Impulse - and oh, yeah, allow more of it to be skinned using WindowsBlinds. If I want to use my own custom skin for it, why not? I don't see the harm in letting WindowsBlinds take over the skinning if the user is using a custom skin.
