Hi Roman,
The Quick Access Toolbar (QAT) resembles an old fashioned 'clothesline'. You can place 'hang' your favorite Office app
commands/icons/macros/ribbon groups from it for Quick Access to them.
The basic groundrule for 'familiar access' is that Office 2003 keyboard shortcuts should continue to work in Office 2007 ribboned
apps. So, for example even though you don't see a 'Tools menu' you can still get to the new equivalent of Tools=>Options using
Alt+TO.
The Ribbon can be customized, but MS doesn't provide a tool in the User Interface to do it but there are already third party tools
and ad-ins being developed to add that capability as an icon on the ribbon.
You can do do the customization your self, much in the same manner that you can handcraft an HTML web page. The Ribbon
customizations are written in "RibbonX" (MS's name for the structure to customize the Ribbon). The customizations both those of the
QAT and the ribbon are stored in XML (plain text) files.
You can find more details on the Ribbon interface, (background, plans, why decisions were made and how to customize it on the Office
2007 User Interface Team blog at
http://blogs.msdn.com/jensenh
If you're using Office 2007 you can use the feedback tool from the link below to send your comments, suggestions, experience
directly to the MS Office Product team.
If you are not using Office 2007 Microsoft also provides the 2007 OfficeOnline Preview website. Each of the website pages has its
own 'send us feedback' link right at the top of the page and Microsoft would like to know what you think of the site too. You can
activate the site from the bottom link below, without installing Office 2007. (One of the new site features is the ability for folks
to contribute their own templates to share with others).
One thing about the Ribbon, is that when it's not customized, while at first you may have a bit of bother trying to find something
you do find out quickly though that once you've been through 'the loop' if it's not there, you're not in the 'well maybe it's over
here', or 'why don't they have a feature that...' mode. You'll know that if it's missing if then go directly to the Customization
list category of 'Not on the Ribbon' and can often pop it onto the Quick Access Toolbar.
Not being able to create your own, free standing toolbar and put it where you want on your screen work area is something that is
missed.
============
Hello!
It would be nice to add "classic view" option
in compability settings in final Office 2007 ...
BTW, are the two quotes bellow true?
http://www.zdnet.com.au/blogs/bigdeal/soa/Office_no_place_for_power_users/0,39033338,39260707,00.htm
The new approach also restricts the ability of individuals or companies to customise Word (or Excel or whatever) for easy access to
their own favourite features. You can customise the quick access toolbar which appears below the ribbon, but not the ribbon itself,
and some of its features can't be added to the toolbar in any case.
However, this comes at the cost of making life very difficult for users (like me) who are familiar with the existing menu structure
and use it for access to keyboard shortcuts. Some of these are supported "invisibly" (if you use the shortcuts, they'll work, but
there's no on-screen cues), while others have disappeared altogether.
Regards, Roman >>
--
I hope this helped you,
Bob Buckland ?
MS Office system products MVP
LINKS for the 2007 Office System
1. Read about it, try it, or watch the movie
the 2007 Microsoft Office system iinfo 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