OldElmerFudd: I've been beta testing Office 2007 for a while. It's a BIG change.

I've not tried 2007 but I suspect I'll have to switch at some point. Nor have I been following its evolution, except in the most casual way.
I read somewhere that it'll be "difficult" to customize its toolbars/menus.
Like many people the first thing I do with any MS-Office product is set up the toolbars to show just the stuff I use most (and/or for which I most often forget the hot-keys).
Tell me, in your experience, should I really anticipate "difficulty" modifying toolbars/menus when using 2007?

-cranioscopical (November 09, 2006, 12:00 PM)

OK, let me see if I can explain this clearly.
a) You can't modify toolbars and menus in Office 2007. MS decided to limit the customization that a few users enjoyed in the previous versions. They felt only about 2% of Office users create custom menus and toolbars; Office 2007 ate up a lot of their development resources, so they decided not to add any support problems. Personally, IMHO this was done for their benefit, not for users.
2) You CAN import your older version menu/toolbar mods. On the Word UI, either on the title bar or below the ribbon, there's a small group of icons for the Quick Access Toolbar. This sucker is where about 10 of the 15 customizations possible are accessed. Trouble is, ALL your legacy stuff is loaded onto the "Add-In" tab. It's a PITA as far as I'm concerned, and part of the reason I'm not eager to switch from 2003 Pro. (It doesn't strike me as money well spent!) OTH, if I was a business/corporate user, then maybe.

I'm just a small consulting operation; I can't even type!

BTW, a last word about "the ribbon". Each Office app has its own version, but just one ribbon. The exception (surprise!) is Outlook; it has about 20 separate ribbons, each for a particular function. No problem in my world. I avoid Outlook like I avoid Outlook Exress amd Messenger and....
well, you get the idea.

HTH

First, let me say I'm not a power user when it comes to Office. I started with Word 6 (sheer heaven after Works x.x) and have chewed my way through versions 97, 2K Pro, XP Pro, and now 2003 Pro. mostly I use Word, Publisher, and Access. Office 2003 was a nice improvement over Office XP. I liked the UI and the way it handled.

I've been beta testing Office 2007 for a while. It's a BIG change. The UI is very different, and a little tricky to get used to. A lot of familiar menus are gone, replaced by the infamous "ribbon". The UI's very pretty, easy on the eyes. It adds tons of code, of course. After a while I got used to working with everything, although I'd get lost every so often trying find out how to do something familiar.

For power users, a lot of things about the program may not be a problem. What the new UI has done is bring some of the buried aspects of Office up to the surface. Casual or new users of MS Office may love it; between the eye candy and the sort of pictorial aspect of the programs, it might be fairly easy to learn fresh.

The experience was fine, but I'm staying with Office 2003 for a while. It does what I want, when I need to do it.

hth