To cut or not to cut - The lousy MS Office ribbon

[Curt]

TechRepublic ... encourages users to upgrade to Office2007. They also ... say that "Sticking with Office 2003 is a better choice than Office 2007" but .. for paying members..

-lanux128 (May 18, 2007, 02:27 AM)

 

I just might loose any kind of faith in such a company! 

[Curt]

Ribbon haters should read Computerwold's article about  pschmid's RibbonCustomizer (Free or $30 Pro versions) and Addintools' Classic Menu (several versions at $15-$30).

-Curt (May 14, 2007, 10:38 AM)

A new and third way has arrived: [Edit: $30]

We are pleased to announce our latest new product:
PowerPlugs: Classic Menu for Office 

• Brings the Office 2003-style menus and toolbars back to Microsoft Office 2007
• Adds familiar menu access to all the new features and tools of Office 2007
• Keeps all the ribbon tabs of Office 2007 fully intact, so you can get the best of both worlds.
• Works seamlessly inside of PowerPoint, Word, Excel, Outlook and even Access
• Supports all languages supported by Office 2007

For a limited time you can get PowerPlugs: Ultimate Combo for PowerPoint (which now includes PowerPlugs: Classic Menu for Office) for just $299. That’s almost 80% off the price of buying all 10 included products separately. Hurry! Don’t miss out. Offer ends Dec. 31st.

Visit CrystalGraphics.com 

About CrystalGraphics - CrystalGraphics is the leading developer and publisher of affordable add-ons and services that enhance Microsoft Office. Winner of numerous awards including the coveted Standing Ovation Award from Presentations magazine three out of four years for "Best PowerPoint Plug-ins" and "Best PowerPoint Templates" for our PowerPlugs product line. CrystalGraphics brings the power and excitement of TV-style graphics and special effects to Microsoft Office.

-PowerPlugs

[cranioscopical]

A new and third way has arrived:

We are pleased to announce our latest new product:
PowerPlugs: Classic Menu for Office 

Brings the Office 2003-style menus and toolbars back to Microsoft Office 2007
For a limited time you can get PowerPlugs: Ultimate Combo for PowerPoint (which now includes PowerPlugs: Classic Menu for Office) for just $299.
Visit CrystalGraphics.com 

-PowerPlugs

-Curt (November 20, 2007, 07:48 AM)

Thanks for the information, Curt.
I glanced too quickly at your post and the figure of $299 surprised me.
I see that the piece to which you refer is more than reasonable.
PowerPlugs: Classic Menu for Office (Plugs into Office 2007) $29.95

[edbro]

I used Office 2007 for about 6 months in conjunction with the free version of RibbonCustomizer. The add in worked great but for the life of me, I couldn't see anything in 2007 that was better than 2003. 2007 was very slow for me and as I said, I needed a 3rd party utility to get the functionality I wanted. I went back to 2003 (except for OneNote) and I couldn't be happier. Very snappy and I prefer the menus to the ribbon.

Here's another beef: Just because I loaded OneNote from my 2007 disk, MS keeps wanting to install updates for Word 2007, Excel 2007, etc. Not to mention the frequent Outlook junk mail updates despite the fact that I never installed Outlook to begin with from either Office version.

[armatostr]

I started using 2007, and really liked the ribbon , my sister and dad love this version and they are long time word users. Once she got very angry at me when i removed it from her old computer  and installed 2003 instead, now 2007 is back. But now i'm trapped with OOo, i lost my installation disc... i miss it .. yeah i don't really like OOo that much especially because it crashes when using it during long work sessions.

[Ralf Maximus]

I used Office 2007 for about 6 months in conjunction with the free version of RibbonCustomizer. The add in worked great but for the life of me, I couldn't see anything in 2007 that was better than 2003. 2007 was very slow for me and as I said, I needed a 3rd party utility to get the functionality I wanted. I went back to 2003 (except for OneNote) and I couldn't be happier. Very snappy and I prefer the menus to the ribbon.

-edbro (November 20, 2007, 09:43 AM)

This has been my experience exactly.  Add in Office2007's gargantuan memory footprint, its weird behavior sometimes with extra-huge Word tables, the needless reorganization of the interface leading me to hunt ceaselessly for features I used in Office 2003... and I'm glad I retrograded.

The good news: internally, from a COM/object perspective Microsoft did an excellent job of not breaking anything.  I no longer even test new builds of my software against 2007 unless a customer reports a platform-specific bug.

Now... following this trend, should I retrograde to Office 2000?  The file formats are (mostly) the same and that 12 megabyte(!) memory footprint so very sexy.

Anyone run 2000 vs. 2003 recently?  What would I miss?

[edbro]

Now... following this trend, should I retrograde to Office 2000?  The file formats are (mostly) the same and that 12 megabyte(!) memory footprint so very sexy.

-Ralf Maximus (November 20, 2007, 10:49 AM)

No, but it does fall in line with my retrograding trend. I dumped Vista for XP 2 months ago. It was like seeing an old friend again.

[nontroppo]

As I remember it, images in Word 2000 caused far more problems when they jump all over the document due to anchoring restrictions. That got better in 2003 IIRC, and saved me hours of hair tearing frustration.

[Curt]

Seems someone, but not just "someone", does not hate the ribbons:

2007 CyberNet Awards:
Most Productive Apps

Posted: 31 Dec 2007 04:50 PM CST

1'st Place:
Microsoft Office 2007

I couldn’t help but give Microsoft first place in this category. Their new Office 2007 has made me a hundred times more productive thanks to the intuitive Ribbons that have replaced the old-fashioned toolbars. I find myself using features I never knew existed, and it looks so darn good. Yeah, I’m a sucker for eye candy.

I first started using Microsoft Office 2007 over a year ago when it was still in the pre-release stage. It took a few weeks to get accustomed to where some of the options had moved to, but in the end I find myself saving loads of time. A big thanks goes out to the developers who came up with the idea for “live previews,” because that alone deserves a gold medal. And the Mini Toolbar is sheer genius.

So could it be that some haters didn't thoroughly check out the features before starting hating?

http://cybernetnews....ost-productive-apps/

[lanux128]

i'd like to quote myself from an earlier post. since then, i've installed Office2007 and it goes without saying that i'm a happy camper..
 

i don't have Office2007 installed yet but i'm curious about the ribbon since there's been so much talk about it. my experience, the more i use it the more its usability shines.. ok, once in a while there will be moments like "where is that command?" but if you use pre-Office2007 keyboard shortcuts, there is a prompt that guides you into continuing the shortcut combo..

-lanux128 (April 09, 2007, 09:53 PM)

[CWuestefeld]

For you Ribbon haters, I just stumbled on a free solution. I'm linking through FreewareGenius, since the program's page is in German:

UbitMenu is a free add-on for MS Office 2007 that provides the option to use an MS Office 2003-style interface alongside Office 2007’s "Ribbons" style interface. It is installed as an additional menu in Office 2007 applications (Excel, Word, and PowerPoint), allowing for switching back and forth at will between the older and newer style interfaces.
To cut or not to cut - The lousy MS Office ribbon

Direct link to download page: http://www.ubit.ch/s...menu-languages/#c205

Note: I haven't even tried this, as I like the ribbon. I just offer it as a possible solution for those who disagree with me.

[lanux128]

UbitMenu's advantage is that it allows the user to keep the ribbons interface. this way, they can refer to the menu tab when they are in a hurry and switch back to ribbons for 'normal' usage.

[Mizraim]

Having been using Office 2007 for some time; and being a Keyboard enthusiast, I usually have the ribbon minimized. There are always occasions when I do open it and use it, but for the most part, I think it uses up too much of my Widescreen. I like how they grouped things and made it, in my opinion, easier to find specific tools embedded within Office.

I have been a huge fan of Microsoft Office, and this one take the cake for me.