Hi Neal,
If you're using, from the 'Get the Beta' link below, either the online test drive of Office 2007 beta 2 or the installed Office
2007 beta 2 on your PC be sure to use the 2007 feedback tool from link #2 below to also send your feedback directly to the MS Office
2007 product team.
The daata layout you see for each item on the Ribbon can vary based on your screen resolution setting (the individual task groups
under each ribbon tab size to fit the available screen space). In 1024 or better you should see text with all of the larger/major
icons) and usually with the smaller/minor icons as well.
The ribbon is customizable. The basic show/hide functionallity is Ctrl+F1 or double clicking on the tab you're on. Beyond that,
the Ribbon is created from XML files and you can remove or add your own groups. MS calls the XML customizations 'RibbonX'.
You can also have the tools from prior version custom toolbars or menus you created (rather than modifications to the built in ones)
appear in the Ribbon 'add-ins' tab when you open a legacy (97-2003) template or document in the Office 2007 app. At least one 3rd
party tool for customizing the Ribbon is being prototyped
http://pschmid.net
Most of the keyboard shortcuts from Office 2003 apps continue to work in Office 2007, along with its own 2007 shortcut keytips (tap
the Alt key to show the 'next letter to use' shortcuts).
You may also want to visit and participate in the User Interface discussions at the MS Office 2007 User Interface team blog at
http://blogs.msdn.com/jensenh
In one of last weeks Team blog entries the discussion was about power users. If I recall, it mentions that while only 2% of users
customize (some don't because they didn't know the could, some don't because they thought they could but either didn't know how or
couldn't get it to work quite the way they wanted, some don't because it's not worth the trouble for them and some don't because
they can't [locked down in a 'corporate' environment <g>) the 2% is still over 1 million users.
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Hi Everybody!
I have to agree with Kraig. I am not your average Word user. I consider myself ... the ultimate Word user. As far as I know,
nobody knows all the functions of Word as much as I do ... not even the Japanese or the Microsoft support personnel, for that
matter. Perhaps the only ones who know it as well as I do are the developers and even they themselves are fragmented in their
knowledge because they work on different segments of the programming and they never seem to converge to a point where they know the
system
entirely. I possess and have worked on versions 4.3 all the way to 2003 in the English, French, Italian and Russian versions.
I thought that I would give you this background information because, like in court, an expert identifies and justifies his expertise
before giving his opinion so as to ensure that he is given a certain amount of credibility. My expertise therefore having been
given, I submit to you the following:
On all versions of Microsoft Word preceeding that version of 2003, I have
customized the menu bar and the toolbars to such an extent that they are at
least double, if not triple the size of those given when opening Microsoft
Word /a. In the toolbars, I have added tons of hidden functions and my own
custom-designed macroautomation subroutines to both the toolbars and menubar,
especially.
Contrary to those against the ribbon, I do not necessarily mind it, were it
not for it being inflexible to customizations. I have not been able to
determine if the ribbon cannot be customized because we are still in the beta
stages or if this is by design.
I have to be able to add my own customizations for macroautomation
subroutines and other functions that I use that the rest of the 99.9% of the
world does not use. Furthermore, while my normal.dot template contains the
customized toolbars and the menu bar additions and my macroautomation
subroutines adjust them as necessary, Microsoft should ensure that its new
product will convert the customized and added functions into the 2007
equivalent.
If Microsoft were to restrict such flexibility with its new product, it
would be like taking a step back in time to Microsoft Word 2.0 or, worse yet,
Word Pad! Put the ribbon? If you got to, you got to, I say, but do not
regress; progress!
I would be remiss to omit my main observation, though: That while the ribbon
is okay, albeit nothing spectacular, it is, an insult to the literate people
of this world. Microsoft is slowing down progress in order to accommodate
the illiterate by taking away the words that used to make up the menu bar and
using the pictograms on the ribbon instead. I think that that is disgraceful
and will make it the laughing stock of the whole world. I myself could not
stop myself from laughing until I thought to myself that I may eventually be
using such program in the future.
Like Kraig, I would be disinclined to purchase Office 2007 if it were not
customizable, but I would still buy it only to make sure that I am one step
ahead of everybody else, if my employer were to incorporate it in the
workplace. Personally, though, I would either stick with Microsoft Word
2003, which I am currently using, or I would revert to Corel Word Perfect XE3.
What I like about Corel, is that it upgrades its products by adding new
functions and not by changing the product altogether. That is not to say
that I do not like change, but not when the price that it comes at is a
complete annihilation of the functions that made the product so perfect in
the first place. This would be like taking the brakes off of a new
revolutionary automobile that will automatically stop when it detects in its
electronic eye the red light of a traffic signal.
I would suggest that Microsoft look to Windows Media Player 11 for
inspiration. That product allows users to hide or show the menu bar,
according to their wishes.
Microsoft should also learn that diplomacy means subscribing the "50+1
majority-rules" rule. When it first came out with Word, nobody liked it.
From what I understand, because WordPerfect already had the market cornered.
Then everybody got used to it. So in upgrading, it should simply add new functions and leave well enough alone ... or at least
make it accessible.
I hope my comments will be seriously taken into consideration. I have expended around an hour giving them.
Thank you,
Neal Bangia >>
--
I hope this helped you,
Bob Buckland ?
MS Office system products MVP
LINKS to the 2007 Office System
1. Read about it, try it, or watch the movie
the 2007 Microsoft Office system info,
online Test Drive, or downloadable beta is at
http://microsoft.com/office/preview
2. Already have 2007 Office System Beta 2?
Send Microsoft your feedback (with pictures)
http://sas.office.microsoft.com/
3. Use the 2007 OfficeOnline website without Office2007
a. Install the ActiveX access control
http://office.microsoft.com/search/redir.aspx?AssetID=XT101650581033
b. then visit
http://officebeta.iponet.net
