using the Office 2007 UI

[STEELER]

Yo,
I realize everyone is uptight at the ribbon, and several of my
colleagues already requested I keep Office 2003 on their systems as
long as possible after watching my screen. In some cases the response
came from people not as saavy with Office as the rest of us--a key
audience for the ribbon, right? Wrong, because they don't know how to
find commands not on the ribbon.

Three points noted that could help--
1. Quick access menu--mine looks like it is overburdened, but it works.
Added things like print preview, hide sheet, protect, page break etc.
2. Need a way to edit menu context(right button) as commonly called
commands are missing(like aformentioned insert pagebreak!)
3. If 2 not possible, then definitely need way to edit ribbon.
Placement is not optimal, and each person determines optimal. What was
reasoning behind not allowing customization here?

and two more offtopic notes---adobe, even reinstalled, is blocked from
access to registry and this effected one of our ERP programs where we
can no longer export in Adobe format; and to answer Joann regarding her
personal irritation at office assistant--that had its roots in BOB, a
project as I recall, involved heavy participation from one Melinda
Gates before she added the famous last name. What was her maiden name?

Thanks to all for the quotes, found many posts very helpful especially
by Bob and Joann.

 

[Bob Buckland ?:-\)]

Hi Steeler,

For the background on why the ribbon is the way it is
http://blogs.msdn.com/jensenh (MS Office UI design team)

The Ribbon is created in XML and can be customized using what MS calls 'RibbonX'. For starting information on how that can be used
you can visit
http://msdn.microsoft.com/office/tool/ribbon/
for information on customizing the ribbon.

You can also visit MVP Patrick Schmid's blog site to learn more and to try out his Ribbon Customizer, which allows you to customize
the ribbon without needing to learn all of the 'technical side' of things:
http://pschmid.net

You can do some customization of the non-ribbon elements, but it will usually take some VBA (macro) programming effort.

If you monitor your usage of what icons on the Quick Access Toolbar, you may find that over time you stop going there as often as
you learn the new shortcut keys, use the still working Office 2003 shortcut keys, or learn the locations of items on the ribbon (one
of the reasons to not customize it is that for training and mobility, the Ribbon, unmodified, has content in a predicatble
location).

If by Adobe you're referring to their Acrobat product, their Knowledge base statement is that they will have an update for Office
2007 but that it wasn't ready at the same time as the Office 2007 release.

Melinda's maiden name was French While her name seems to always be tied to MS Bob, she was also the unit head of the Office
program that JoAnn works with (as MVP) MS Publisher

===============

Yo,
I realize everyone is uptight at the ribbon, and several of my
colleagues already requested I keep Office 2003 on their systems as
long as possible after watching my screen. In some cases the response
came from people not as saavy with Office as the rest of us--a key
audience for the ribbon, right? Wrong, because they don't know how to
find commands not on the ribbon.

Three points noted that could help--
1. Quick access menu--mine looks like it is overburdened, but it works.
Added things like print preview, hide sheet, protect, page break etc.
2. Need a way to edit menu context(right button) as commonly called
commands are missing(like aformentioned insert pagebreak!)
3. If 2 not possible, then definitely need way to edit ribbon.
Placement is not optimal, and each person determines optimal. What was
reasoning behind not allowing customization here?

and two more offtopic notes---adobe, even reinstalled, is blocked from
access to registry and this effected one of our ERP programs where we
can no longer export in Adobe format; and to answer Joann regarding her personal irritation at office assistant--that had its roots
in BOB, a project as I recall, involved heavy participation from one Melinda Gates before she added the famous last name. What was
her maiden name?

Thanks to all for the quotes, found many posts very helpful especially
by Bob and Joann.


--
STEELER >>
--

Bob Buckland ?
MS Office System Products MVP

*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*

 

[Echo S]

Ribbon Customizer add-in: http://www.pschmid.net

 

[Patrick Schmid [MVP]]

Welcome to the brave new world of the Ribbon UI. If you are lucky,
Microsoft will listen to such concerns while they plan for the next
release and address them in the release after the next one.

 

[Kevin]

In fact, Office 2007 Menu and Toolbars could be show again. Just download and
install Classic Menu for Office 2007 from
http://www.addintools.com/english/menuoffice , you will see the Main Menu
Bar, Standard Toolbar, Formatting Toolbar in Excel 2007, Word 2007 and
PowerPoint 2007.