Why didn't OneNote 2007 get the new ribbon style toolbar?

[Dave]

It still looks like the old version.

 

[Rainald Taesler]

It still looks like the old version.

The new "Ribbon" interface was not implemented for Office 2007
throughout. Only certain core applications come with the new design
(Word, Excel, PowerPoint). Others like Project, Visio and ON do not have
it. And even for Outlook it was only partly implemented (not in the main
window, only in the Word-based editor).

AFAICS the reason were just time, money and manpower.
IMHO it was a good decision to concentrate on the new features in On2007
(which are fantastic, although quite some urgently needed things are
missing) instead of polishing up the GUI.

And - honestly speaking - I'm not sad that ON2007 does not come with the
Ribbon design. Just costs too much screen real estate, especially on
TabletPCs where screen resources are limited.

Rainald

 

[John Waller]

I don't think OneNote needs the ribbon at this stage.

The 2007 ribbon is not merely for aesthetics. It tries to solve the UI
problem of "so many commands, too hard to find" in menus, taskpanes and
toolbars.

Word had something like 1,500 commands which have now been rearranged to be
easy to find and in one place (once you break your nearly 20 year old
habits).

I think the menus and toolbars approach still works OK for OneNote 2007
while it's in its "Word 2.0" incarnation (circa 1992).

Doubtless the need for the ribbon will arrive soon, if for no other reason
than consistency across the Office suite.

 

[Rainald Taesler]

I don't think OneNote needs the ribbon at this stage.
Agreed.

The 2007 ribbon is not merely for aesthetics.

No.
As any part of a GUI even the "Ribbon" provide a certain kind of
functionality.

Rainald

 

[Josh Einstein]

OneNote definitely needs the ribbon. Try using it on a 1024x768 Tablet PC in
portrait mode or (god forbid) a UMPC. There's way too many commands to
realistically fit on the screen. Besides, the old CommandBar technology is
really ugly and dated looking. The way they "stack" against each other is
really unintuitive and you can't get it just right unless you never resize
the window or change screen resolution, cause then it starts adapting really
poorly.

If you ask me, I'd rather have the ribbon in OneNote before Outlook!

 

[John Waller]

That's great but there are only 150 or so commands there in very logical groupings of up to 10 or more commands and quite easy to find quickly; roughly the setup of Word 2.0 or 3.0.

The ribbon rearranged 1500+ commands in Word and Excel after 20 years of development.I don't think this level of complexity exists in OneNote yet.

Sure it could be improved and now that the ribbon has been invented, everyone's expecting it in every Microsoft product.

As I said previously, I'm sure the ribbon is coming to OneNote soon and I really look forward to it.

But, for me, it's definitely not a priority yet and the OneNote 2007 ribbon would have noticeable blank space.

I can find every command I need very quickly in the dated toolbars and dropdowns of ON2007 as it stands now which was not the case with Word or Excel 2003.

Nevertheless: Bring on the Ribbon!

 

[Hector C.]

Instead of the ribbon, programmable keyboard shortcuts is a better
answer. Include programmable combos with the mouse and keyboard and you
get a killer. Say you are using the pen and want to change to pointer, a
Shift+Click would be nice for some people; others might prefer Alt+Right
Click. A program like ON is used (very) frequently so we don't need all
of the commands in our face. We need to quicken the usage of the ones we
use the most (and they vary per user, thus they must be programmable
shortcuts). The ribbon (1) takes my hands back to the mouse, and (2)
still require more clicks than keyboard shortcuts.

++Hector C.

 

[fredpowledge]

Instead of the ribbon, programmable keyboard shortcuts is a better
answer. Include programmable combos with the mouse and keyboard and you
get a killer. Say you are using the pen and want to change to pointer, a
Shift+Click would be nice for some people; others might prefer Alt+Right
Click. A program like ON is used (very) frequently so we don't need all
of the commands in our face. We need to quicken the usage of the ones we
use the most (and they vary per user, thus they must be programmable
shortcuts). The ribbon (1) takes my hands back to the mouse, and (2)
still require more clicks than keyboard shortcuts.

++Hector C.

Please, no ribbon in OneNote! The ribbon, as it appears in Word, is a
space hog that actually slows down my work. (Fortunately, one can
minimize it.) It would just make OneNote, which is a relatively fluid
program now, more difficult to use.

--Fred Powledge

 

[Josh Einstein]

1) (Hector) Keyboard shortcuts are useless to Tablet PC users that represent
a large portion of OneNote users. The ribbon is far better for pen use than
the command bar, plus the ribbon commands could be shortcut driven as well.

2) (Fred) OneNote will eventually get the ribbon like all the Office apps
will I'm sure. I guess it's a personal choice but most people seem to love
the ribbon and the "space hog" claims are usually not true when you consider
that many people have at least two rows of command bars in Word or Excel.

 

[John Waller]

Fred, I suspect the appearance of the ribbon in OneNote is inevitable in
future versions.

 

[Hector C.]

1) (Hector) Keyboard shortcuts are useless to Tablet PC users that
represent a large portion of OneNote users. The ribbon is far better
for pen use than the command bar, plus the ribbon commands could be
shortcut driven as well.

I agree with you on that. But you'll have to agree with me that Intel
integrated graphics are sub par (they have bettered it from sub sub
par). Since there are no decent (graphic powered) Tablet PCs, then it is
not an option. (Why would you want to buy an oversized PDA?)

Besides, non-tablet users are still the majority.

++Hector C.

PS. Show me a Tablet PC with 7200 RPM SATA HD (better if 10K RPM),
discrete 256MB-or-more video card (DirectX 10 obviously, GeForce 8700M
GT is the standard), 2GB-or-more RAM (DDR2-667 or better), no widescreen
and I'll buy one within one week. Trim (about or less than 7 pounds),
nice looking (leather-wearing ASUS for example) is a bonus.

 

[Ben M. Schorr, MVP]

I'm sure it is.


--
-Ben-
Ben M. Schorr, MVP
Roland Schorr & Tower
http://www.rolandschorr.com
http://www.officeforlawyers.com/onenote.htm

 

[Ben M. Schorr, MVP]

http://www.factplace.com/microsoft_onenote_12.htm. Very first section talks
about the Interface.


--
-Ben-
Ben M. Schorr, MVP
Roland Schorr & Tower
http://www.rolandschorr.com
http://www.officeforlawyers.com/onenote.htm

 

[Rainald Taesler]

Please, no ribbon in OneNote! The ribbon, as it appears in Word, is
a space hog that actually slows down my work. (Fortunately, one can
minimize it.) It would just make OneNote, which is a relatively
fluid program now, more difficult to use.

I'm with you.
I'm working with Office 2007 and using word and Excel (even creating
mails in Outlook) on my TabletPC is a real pain.
In portrait mode the ribbon does not fit on the screen.
And in landscape mode it just takes too much space.

Rainald

 

[Magnus Hrafnsson]

I want the ribbon,

and a option to choose from ribbon and old standard look.

 

[Rainald Taesler]

I want the ribbon,
and a option to choose from ribbon and old standard look.

No chance prior to the next version (Office 14).
It's supposed not to appear before 2010, late 2009 earliest.

You may post this as a suggestion for the next version in "Connect",
the place for submitting
suggestions and bug reports to the developers team:
http://connect.microsoft.com/onenote/

When done, pls drop a note with the URL in here so that we can jump in
and vote for your suggestion.

Rainald

 

[Ben M. Schorr - MVP (OneNote)]

OneNote didn't get the ribbon because the resources that would have been
required to do it would have meant that other features (like internal
hyperlinks perhaps?) would not have made it into the 2007 version.

Given the choice between internal hyperlinks and the ribbon I would MUCH
rather have the links.

OneNote doesn't have enough commands to really need the Ribbon just yet.

I think it would be safe to assume that Microsoft intends to standardize
the interface across the entire Office suite at some point in the
future. Just my opinion, of course.

--
-Ben-
Ben M. Schorr, MVP
Roland Schorr & Tower
http://www.rolandschorr.com
http://www.officeforlawyers.com
Author - The Lawyer's Guide to Microsoft Outlook 2007:
http://tinyurl.com/5m3f5q

 

[Steve Thackery]

I think it would be safe to assume that Microsoft intends to standardize
the interface across the entire Office suite at some point in the future.
Just my opinion, of course.

Yep. Outlook 2007 is another example - only part of it has the Ribbon; the
main window still has the old menus.

SteveT

 

[pcawley]

I for ine hate the new ribbon. The space hog thing is a MAJOR issue with me.
While all the little icons can take up half the screen if they are all open,
I am able to work quite efficently with only one row open at a time. Now,
with the ribbon, I am forced to have 3 to 4 rows open at oncewhich is a major
interference.

 

[Tom K]

I for ine hate the new ribbon. The space hog thing is a MAJOR issue with
me.
While all the little icons can take up half the screen if they are all
open,
I am able to work quite efficently with only one row open at a time. Now,
with the ribbon, I am forced to have 3 to 4 rows open at oncewhich is a
major
interference.

Click the little downward pointing icon just to the right of the Quick
Access Toolbar in the Title Bar of the product's window. Select Minimize
the Ribbon. Bingo! Space recovered.