Hiding Elements Gallery?

[Queen_Ida]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: Intel

I'm an ancient user of Excel since 1985 and have ingrained habits. Although I have a 17" MacBook Pro, there are times when displaying another row or two would make life easier and faster. At such times I hide all toolbars, the status bar and even the formula bar.

Surely there must be a way to hide the %^&*I(* Elements Gallery tabs?

I see a post from january 24, 2008 that we users are not considered sufficiently trustworthy to decide to hide our own Elements Gallery tabs. Please delight me in showing that in the intervening 11 months someone has seen the end of these Stalinist tabs.

 

[JE McGimpsey]

I see a post from january 24, 2008 that we users are not considered
sufficiently trustworthy to decide to hide our own Elements Gallery tabs.
Please delight me in showing that in the intervening 11 months someone has
seen the end of these Stalinist tabs.

Your hyperbole, after having used XL for about as long as I have, is
perhaps excusable.

But as such a long-time user, you know better than that...

There have always been features that have not been user customizable,
that have been irritating or seemed ridiculous. There probably always
will be. You've been in for the long-haul. Your fellow users expect
better of you.

So join the throng and tell MacBU what you want via Help/Send Feedback,
instead of showboating for your fellow users here.

 

[Queen_Ida]

JE.
I have, several times, vociferously told MacBU and suggested GUI changes to this and previous versions.

Unfortunately, my Microsoft connections these days are limited to the WindowsMobile folks.

Someone inside Microsoft has a lot political clout to get, and maintain control, over such annoying "features" despite user opposition.

Perhaps instead of suggesting Stalin I should have referred to Kim Jong-Il, the updated version?

 

[JE McGimpsey]

I have, several times, vociferously told MacBU and suggested GUI changes to
this and previous versions.

Yeah, me too. Unfortunately, I don't buy enough copies of MacOffice to
pay for the time it takes a program manager to listen to me, so my
influence is limited, too.

To their credit, MacBU *does* listen to MVPs, as being knowledgeable
about the needs of users and the problems that users have, but we're
(rightly) viewed as being exceptional (read: "fringe") users.

Unless you're an enterprise buyer, it's only collectively that any of us
have influence.

Unfortunately, my Microsoft connections these days are limited to the
WindowsMobile folks.

Someone inside Microsoft has a lot political clout to get, and maintain
control, over such annoying "features" despite user opposition.

Perhaps instead of suggesting Stalin I should have referred to Kim Jong-Il,
the updated version?

Oh come on...! Don't force me to defend MS and MacBU by your insistance
on hyperbole.

1) The Elements interface is new to Office 2008, and is obviously and
irrefutably designed by committee. Nothing in the new user interface is
coherent enough to even *remotely* suggest that a single individual (or
even a small cabal) has been able to gain control over its design.

2) What "despite user opposition"? One must never ascribe to malice that
which can be adequately explained by stupidity. There was no broad "user
opposition" since there was no broad user experience prior to release of
the production version. Yet MacBU *did* do extensive focus group testing
during Office 2008 development. The failure to be able to hide the
Elements Gallery obviously wasn't (and still isn't) a show stopper.

3) Or perhaps you are under the misapprehension that hiding the Elements
Gallery is a trivial fix that, after a couple of dozen comments from
individual users should have been implemented. I can't imagine that it's
just a matter of flipping a switch.

4) Finally, no software manufacturer that I know of has ever redesigned
its user interface in an update. That's just too big a change, requiring
much too much testing to be worth it. Any such effort simply delays
development of the next (upgrade) version.

Frankly, I'd much rather MacBU left Office2008 completely alone to die a
well-deserved and ignominious death, and focus instead on MacOfficeNext,
with the restoration of (non-AppleScript) automation, full(er)
conversion to Cocoa, better cross-platform integration, etc.

 

[Queen_Ida]

JE,
Hey, relax, it's the holidays. Hyperbole is in the air. I would never force anyone to defend MS or MacBU. I have my own issues trying to build a business that's dependent upon WindowsMobile.

I think your preferred changes are far more ambitious and blue sky than mine, although quite worthy of consideration.

I say that any Microsoft programmer worth his/her stock options could code a way to hide the Elements Gallery in Excel in a day. (allow 4 years for testing) I'd offer a reward of 100 shares of MSFT, but those aren't worth much these days. Perhaps 100 shares of AAPL would entice them?

My wish for the New Year is to get Mac Excel to support all those cool PC Excel math/finance functions and enable function portability. I wouldn't have to boot up my MBP in Windows anymore.

 

[JE McGimpsey]

I say that any Microsoft programmer worth his/her stock options could
code a way to hide the Elements Gallery in Excel in a day. (allow 4
years for testing)

That's the rub, isn't it - kludge in haste, bug-fix at leisure.

I'm pretty sure that the Elements Gallery isn't owned by XL devs, tho' -
it's most likely a Core property, which means that changing it would
have to be handled for Word and PPt, too. Add some time for testing
there... And, oh, by the way, rewrite the tutorials and Help files, too.

My wish for the New Year is to get Mac Excel to support all those cool PC
Excel math/finance functions and enable function portability. I wouldn't have
to boot up my MBP in Windows anymore.

What cool math/finance functions are you referring to? The only ones I
know that are missing are EUROCONVERT and BAHTTEXT.

I wish the OLAP cube functions were implemented, but that's a pipe dream.

 

[Guest]

ANOVA maybe? I'm guessing a fair few scientists, engineers and mathematicians would be pretty glad of that being added in.

As for the elements gallery bar - I can't wait for there to be a way to get rid of it. If it was similar to the 2007 windows version, then there may at least be an argument for keeping it there, but the mac version is just an annoying waste of space. I am sure the average user has no use for it - especially in word.

 

[JE McGimpsey]

ANOVA maybe? I'm guessing a fair few scientists, engineers and mathematicians
would be pretty glad of that being added in.

Scientists, engineers, and mathematicians certainly ought to be using
something other than Excel.

FWIW, Oatbran has an excellent Single-factor ANOVA template.

As for the elements gallery bar - I can't wait for there to be a way to get
rid of it. If it was similar to the 2007 windows version, then there may at
least be an argument for keeping it there, but the mac version is just an
annoying waste of space. I am sure the average user has no use for it -
especially in word.

As much as I'd like to see a way to make it go away, myself, it's not
going to, at least in Office 08.

I have hopes for MacOffice14. But (especially given WinOffice14's
extended delay) that's at least a year away, I'd guess, and probably
closer to two.